There are two rivers of this name,
Gwendraeth fawr, and Gwendraeth fychan, the great and the little
Gwendraeth, of which Leland thus speaks: "Vendraeth Vawr and
Vendraith Vehan risith both in Eskenning commote: the lesse an
eight milys of from Kydwelli, the other about a ten, and hath but a
little nesche of sand betwixt the places wher thei go into the se,
about a mile beneth the towne of Kidwely."
{95} Cydweli was probably so called from cyd, a junction, and wyl,
a flow, or gushing out, being situated near the junction of the
rivers Gwendraeth fawr and fychan; but Leland gives its name a very
singular derivation, and worthy of our credulous and superstitious
author Giraldus. "Kidwely, otherwise Cathweli, i.e. Catti lectus,
quia Cattus olim solebat ibi lectum in quercu facere: - There is a
little towne now but newly made betwene Vendraith Vawr and Vendraith
Vehan. Vendraith Vawr is half a mile of." - Leland, Itin. tom. v.
p. 22.
{96} The scene of the battle fought between Gwenllian and Maurice
de Londres is to this day called Maes Gwenllian, the plain or field
of Gwenllian; and there is a tower in the castle of Cydweli still
called Tyr Gwenllian. [Maes Gwenllian is now a small farm, one of
whose fields is said to have been the scene of the battle.]
{97} The castle of Talachar is now better known by the name of
Llaugharne.
{98} Much has been said and written by ancient authors respecting
the derivation of the name of this city, which is generally allowed
to be the Muridunum, or Maridunum, mentioned in the Roman
itineraries. Some derive it from Caer and Merddyn, that is, the
city of the prophet Merddyn; and others from Mur and Murddyn, which
in the British language signify a wall. There can, however, be
little doubt that it is derived simply from the Roman name
Muridunum. The county gaol occupies the site of the old castle, a
few fragments of which are seen intermixed with the houses of the
town.
{99} Dinevor, the great castle, from dinas, a castle, and vawr,
great, was in ancient times a royal residence of the princes of
South Wales. In the year 876, Roderic the Great, having divided the
principalities of North and South Wales, and Powys land, amongst his
three sons, built for each of them a palace. The sovereignty of
South Wales, with the castle of Dinevor, fell to the lot of Cadell.
[The ruins of Dinevor Castle still crown the summit of the hill
which overshadows the town of Llandilo, 12 miles from Carmarthen.]
{100} There is a spring very near the north side of Dinevor park
wall, which bears the name of Nant-y-rhibo, or the bewitched brook,
which may, perhaps, be the one here alluded to by Giraldus.
{101} Pencadair is a small village situated to the north of
Carmarthen.
{102} Alba Domus was called in Welsh Ty Gwyn ar Daf, or the White
House on the river Taf. In the history of the primitive British
church, Ty Gwyn, or white house, is used in a sense equivalent to a
charter-house. The White House College, or Bangor y Ty Gwyn, is
pretended to have been founded about 480, by Paul Hen, or Paulius, a
saint of the congregation of Illtyd. From this origin, the
celebrated Cistercian monastery is said to have derived its
establishment. Powel, in his chronicle, says, "For the first abbey
or frier house that we read of in Wales, sith the destruction of the
noble house of Bangor, which savoured not of Romish dregges, was the
Tuy Gwyn, built the yeare 1146, and after they swarmed like bees
through all the countrie." (Powel, p. 254.) - Authors differ with
respect to the founder of this abbey; some have attributed it to
Rhys ap Tewdwr, prince of South Wales; and others to Bernard, bishop
of Saint David's, who died about the year 1148. The latter account
is corroborated by the following passage in Wharton's Anglia Sacra:
"Anno 1143 ducti sunt monachi ordinis Cisterciensis qui modo sunt
apud Albam Landam, in West Walliam, per Bernardum episcopum."
Leland, in his Collectanea, says, "Whitland, abbat. Cistert.,
Rhesus filius Theodori princeps Suth Walliae primus fundator;" and
in his Itinerary, mentions it as a convent of Bernardynes, "which
yet stondeth."
{103} Saint Clears is a long, straggling village, at the junction
of the river Cathgenny with the Taf. Immediately on the banks of
the former, and not far from its junction with the latter, stood the
castle, of which not one stone is left; but the artificial tumulus
on which the citadel was placed, and other broken ground, mark its
ancient site.
{104} Lanwadein, now called Lawhaden, is a small village about four
miles from Narberth, on the banks of the river Cleddeu.
{105} Daugleddeu, so called from Dau, two, and Cled, or Cleddau, a
sword. The rivers Cledheu have their source in the Prescelly
mountain, unite their streams below Haverfordwest, and run into
Milford Haven, which in Welsh is called Aberdaugleddau, or the
confluence of the two rivers Cledheu.
{106} Haverford, now called Haverfordwest, is a considerable town
on the river Cledheu, with an ancient castle, three churches, and
some monastic remains. The old castle (now used as the county
gaol), from its size and commanding situation, adds greatly to the
picturesque appearance of this town. [The old castle is no longer
used as a gaol.]
{107} The province of Rhos, in which the town of Haverfordwest is
situated, was peopled by a colony of Flemings during the reign of
king Henry I.
{108} St. Caradoc was born of a good family in Brecknockshire, and
after a liberal education at home, attached himself to the court of
Rhys Prince of South Wales, whom he served a long time with
diligence and fidelity.
![The Itinerary Of Archbishop Baldwin Through Wales By Giraldus Cambrensis
- [The ferry is no more.
The river is crossed by a fine railway bridge.]
{94} Wendraeth, or Gwen-draeth, from - Page 47](../images/travel.jpg)
