- 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.
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