i'n dyledwyr; ac nac arwain ni i brofedigaeth eithr gwared ni rbag drag: canys eiddot ti yw'r deyrnas, a'r gallu, a'r gogoniant, yn eos eofoedd. Amen.

CITIES, TOWNS, FORTS, AND OTHER

EDIFICES, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE.

Wales contains no cities or towns that are remarkable either for populoufnefs or magnificence. Beaumaris is the chief town of Anglefey, and has a harbour for fhips. Brecknock trades in clothing. Cardigan is a large populous town, and lies in the neighbourhood of lead and filver mines. Caermarthen has a large bridge, and is governed by a mayor, two sheriffs, and aldermen, who wear fcarlet gowns, and other enfigns of ftate. Pembroke is well inhabited by gentlemen and tradefmen; and part of the country is fo fertile and pleafant, that it is called Little England. The other towns of Wales have nothing particular. It is, however, to be obferved, that Wales, in ancient times, was a far more populous and wealthy country than it is at prefent; and though it contains no regular fortifications, yet many of its old caftles are fo ftrongly built, and fo well fituated, that they might be turned into ftrong forts at a small expense: witness the vigorous defence which many of them made in the civil wars between Charles I. and his parliament.

ANTIQUITIES AND CURIOSITIES, Wales abounds in remains of NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL. Santiquity. Several of its caftles are ftupendously large; and in fome, the remains of Roman architecture are plainly difcernible. The architecture of others is doubtful; and fome appear to be partly British and partly Roman. In Brecknockfhire are fome rude fculptures, upon a ftone fix feet high, called the Maiden-ftone; but the remains of the Druidical inftitutions, and places of worship, are chiefly difcernible in the Ile of Anglefey, the ancient Mona, mentioned by Tacitus, who defcribes it as being the chief feminary of the Druidical rites and religion. Cherphilly-caftle in Glamorganfhire is faid to have been the largest in Great Britain, excepting Windfor; and the remains of it fhow it to have been a most beautiful fabric. One half of a round tower has fallen quite down, but the other overhangs its bafis more than nine feet, and is as great a curiofity as the leaning tower of Pifa in Italy.

Among the natural curiofities of this country, are the following: At afmall village called Newton, in Glamorganfhire, is a remarkable spring nigh the fea, which ebbs and flows contrary to the tide. In Merionethfhire is Kader Idris, a mountain remarkable for its height, which affords variety of Alpine plants. In Flintshire is a famous well, known by the name of St. Wenefred's well, at which, according to the legendary tales of the common people, miraculous cures have been performed. The fpring boils with vaft impetuofity out of a rock, and is formed into a beautiful polygonal well, covered with a rich arch, fupported by pillars, and the roof is most exquifitely carved in ftone. Over the (pring is alfo a chapel, a neat piece of Gothic architecture, but in a very ruinous ftate. King James II. paid a vifit to the well of St. Wenefred in 1686, and was rewarded for his picty by a prefent which was made him of the very fhift in which his great grandmother, Mary Stuart, loft her head. The fpring is fuppofed to be one of the fineft in the British do

The Isle of Anglefey, which is the most western county of North Wales, is fur rannded on all fides by the Irifh Sea, except on the fouth-eaft, where it is divided from Britain by a narrow frait, called Meneu, which in fome places may be passed on foot at low water. The illand is about 24 miles long, and 18 broad, and contains 74 paribes It was the ancient fest of the British Druids.

minions; and by two different trials and calculations lately made, is found to throw out about twenty-one tons of water in a minute. It never freezes, or scarcely varies in the quantity of water either in dry or rainy feafons; but in confequence of the latter it affumes a wheyish tinge. The fmall town adjoining to the well is known by the name of Holywell. In Caernarvonshire is the high mountain of Penmanmawr, across the edge of which the public road lies, and occafions no fmall terror to many travellers; from one hand the impending rocks feem every minute ready to crush them to pieces; and the great precipice below, which hangs over the fea, is fo hideous, and (till very lately, when a wall was raised on the fide of the road) full of danger, that one falfe step was of difmal confequence. Snowdon hill has been found, by triangular measurement, to be 1240 yards in perpendicular height.

There are a great number of pleafing profpects and picturesque views in Wales: and this country is highly worthy the attention of the curious traveller.

COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.] The Welch are on a footing, as to their commerce and manufactures, with many of the western and northern counties of England. Their trade is moftly inland, or with England, into which they import numbers of black cattle. Milford haven, which is reckoned the fineft in Europe, lies in Pembrokeshire; but the Welch have hitherto reaped no great benefit from it, though of late confiderable fums have been granted by parliament for its fortification. The making it the principal harbour in the kingdom would meet with great oppofition in parliament from the numerous Cornish and Weft-country members, the benefit of whofe eftates must be greatly leffened by the difufe of Plymouth and Portsmouth, and other harbours. The town of Pembroke employs near 200 merchant fhips, and its inhabitants carry on an extenfive trade. In Brecknockshire are several woollen manufactures; and Wales in general carries on a great coal trade with England and Ireland.

CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT.] Wales was united and incorporated with England, in the 27th of Henry VIII.; when, by act of parliament, the government of it was modelled according to the English form; all laws, cuftoms, and tenures, contrary to thofe of England, being abrogated, and the inhabitants admitted to a participation of all the English liberties and privileges, particularly that of fending members to parliament, viz. a knight for every fhire, and a burgess for every fhiretown, except Merioneth. By the 34th and 35th of the fame reign, there were ordained four feveral circuits for the administration of justice in the faid fhires, each of which was to include three fhires; fo that the chief-juftice of Chefter has under his jurifdiction the three several shires of Flint, Denbigh, and Montgomery. The fhires of Caernarvon, Merioneth, and Anglefey, are under the justices of North Wales. Thofe of Caermarthen, Pembrokeshire, and Cardigan, have alfo their juftices; as have likewife thofe of Radnor, Brecknock, and Glamorgan. By the 18th of queen Elizabeth, one other juftice-affiftant was ordained to the former juftices; fo that now every one of the faid four circuits has two juftices, viz. one chief-juftice, and a fecond juftice-affiftant.

REVENUES.] As to the revenues, the crown has a certain though fmall property in the product of the filver and lead mines; but it is faid that the revenue accruing, to the prince of Wales, from his principality, does not exceed 7 or 8oool, a year.

ARMS.] The arms of the prince of Wales differ from thofe of Eng

of oftrich feathers, was occafioned by a trophy of that kind, which Edward the Black Prince took from the king of Bohemia, when he was killed at the battle of Poitiers, and the motto is Ich dien, I ferve. St. David, commonly called St. Taffy, is the tutelar faint of the Welch; and his badge is a leek, which is worn on his day, the 1ft of March. HISTORY.] The ancient hiftory of Wales is uncertain, on accor of the number of petty princes who governed it. That they were fovereign and independent, appears from the English hiftory. It was formerly inhabited by three different tribes of Britons; the Silures, the Dimetæ, and the Ordovices. Thefe people were never entirely fubdued by the Romans, though part of their country, as appears from the ruins of caftles, was bridled by garrifons. The Saxons, as has been al ready obferved, conquered the counties of Monmouth and Hereford, but they never penetrated farther, and the Welch remained an inde pendent people, governed by their own princes and their own laws. About the year 870, Roderic, king of Wales, divided his dominions among his three fons; and the names of thefe divifions were, Dimetia, or South Wales; Povefia,/ or Powis land; and Venedotia, or North Wales. This divifion gave a mortal blow to the independency of Wales. About the year 1112, Henry I. of England planted a colony of Flemings on the frontiers of Wales, to ferve as a barrier to England. The Welch made many brave attempts to maintain their liberties against the Norman kings of England. In 1237, the crown of England was first fupplied with a pretext for the future conqueft of Wales; their old and infirm prince Llewellin, in order to be fafe from the perfecutions of his undutiful fon Gryffyn, having put himself under the protection of Henry III. to whom he did homage.

But no capitulation could fatisfy the ambition of Edward I. who refolved to annex Wales to the crown of England; and Llewellin, prince of Wales, difdaining the fubjection to which old Llewellin had fubmitted, Edward raifed an army at a prodigious expenfe, with which he penetrated as far as Flint, and, taking poffeffion of the Ifle of Anglesey, drove the Welch to the mountains of Snowdon, and obliged them to fubmit to pay a tribute. The Welch, however, made feveral efforts under young Llewellin; but, at last, in 1282, he was killed in battle. He was fucceeded by his brother David, the laft independent prince of Wales, who, falling into Edward's hands through treachery, was by him moft barbarously and unjustly hanged; and Edward, from that time, pretended that Wales was annexed to his crown of England. It was about this time, probably, that Edward perpetrated the inhuman maffacre of the Welch bards. Perceiving that this cruelty was not fufficient to complete his conqueft, he fent his queen, in the year 1284, to be delivered in Caernarvon caftle, that the Welch, having a prince born among themfelves, might the more readily recognife his authority. This prince was the unhappy Edward II.; and from him the title of prince of Wales has always fince defcended to the eldest fons of the English kings. The hiftory of Wales and England becomes now the fame. It is proper, however, to obferve, that the kings of England have always found it their intereft to foothe the Welch with particular marks of their regard. Their eldest fons not only held their titular dignity, but actually kept a court at Ludlow; and a regular council, with a prendent was named by the crown, for the administration of all the affairs of the principality. This was thought fo neceffary a piece of policy, that when Henry VIII. had no fon, his daughter Mary was created princes of Wales.

ISLE OF MAN.

THE Mona mentioned by Tacitus was not this island, but the Ifle of Anglesey. Some think it takes its name from the Saxon word Mang (or among,) becaufe, lying in St. George's Channel, it is almoft at an equal distance from the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland; but Mona feems to have been a generical name with the ancients for any detached ifland. Its length from north to fouth is rather more than thirty miles, its breadth from eight to fifteen; and the latitude of the middle of the island is fifty-four degrees fixteen minutes north. It is faid that on a clear day three Britannic kingdoms may be seen from this ifland. The air here is wholefome, and the climate, only making an allowance for the fituation, pretty much the fame as that in the north of England, from which it does not differ much in other respects. The hilly parts are barren, and the campaign fruitful in wheat, barley, oats, rye, flax, hemp, roots, and pulfe. The ridge of mountains, which, as it were, divide the island, both protects and fertilifes the valleys, where there is good pafturage. The better fort of inhabitants have good fizeable horses, and a small kind, which is swift and hardy; nor are they troubled with any noxious animals. The coafts abound with fea fowl; and the puffins, which breed in rabbit holes, are almost lumps of fat, and esteemed very delicious. It is faid that this island abounds with iron, lead, and copper mines, though unwrought; as are the quarries of marble, flate, and stone.

The file of Man contains feventeen parishes, and four towns on the fea coafts. Caftle-town is the metropolis of the island, and the feat of its government; Peele of late years begins to flourish; Douglas has the best market and beft trade in the island, and the richest and most populous town, on account of its excellent harbour, and its fine mole, extending into the fea. It contains about 900 houses, and is a neat pleasant town, the buildings lofty, but the ftreets narrow and close. Ramfey has likewife a confiderable commerce, on account of its spacious bay, in which ships may ride fafe from all winds, excepting the northeaft. The reader, by throwing his eyes on the map, may fee how conveniently this island is fituated for being the ftorehouse of smugglers, which it was till within these few years, to the inexpreffible prejudice of his Majefty's revenue; and this neceffarily leads us to touch upon the hiftory of the island.

During the time of the Scandinavian rovers on the feas, who have been before mentioned, this island was their rendez-vous, and their chief force was here collected; from whence they annoyed the Hebrides, Great Britain, and Ireland. The kings of Man are often mentioned in hiftory; and though we have no regular account of their fucceffion, and know but few of their names, yet they undoubtedly were for fome ages mafters of those feas. About the year 1263, Alexander II. king of Scotland, a fpirited prince, having defeated the Danes, laid claim to the fuperiority of Man, and obliged Owen or John, its king, to acknowledge him as lord paramount. It feems to have continued tributary to the kings of Scotland, till it was reduced by Edward I.; and the kings of England, from that time, exercifed the fuperiority over the island; though we find it ftill poffeffed by the pofterity of its Danish princes,

and bestowed it on his favourite, Montague, earl of Salisbury. His family honours and eftate being forfeited, Henry IV. bestowed Man, and the patronage of the bishoprick, firft upon the Northumberland family, and, that being forfeited, upon fir John Stanley, whofe pofterity, the earls of Derby, enjoyed it, till, by failure of heirs male, it devolved upon the duke of Athol, who married the fifter of the laft lord Derby. Reafons of ftate rendered it neceffary for the crown of Great Britain to purchase the customs of the island from the Athol family; and the bargain was completed by 70,000l. being paid to the duke in 1765. The duke, however, retains his territorial property in the ifland, though the form of its government is altered; and the king has now the fame rights, powers, and prerogatives, as the duke formerly enjoyed. The inhabitants alfo retain many of their ancient conftitutions and cufloms.

The established religion in Man is that of the church of England. The bishop of Sodor and Man enjoys all the fpiritual rights and preeminences of the other bishops, but does not fit in the British houfe of peers his fee never having been erected into an English barony. One of the most excellent prelates who ever adorned the epifcopal character, was Dr. Thomas Willon, bishop of Man, who pretided over the diocefe upward of fifty-feven years, and died in the year 1755, aged ninetythree. He was eminently distinguished for the piety and the exemplarinefs of his life, his benevolence and hofpitality, and his unremitting attention to the happiness of the people entrusted to his care. He encouraged agriculture, eftablished fchools for the inftruction of the children of the inhabitants of the ifland, tranflated fome of his devotional pieces into the Manks' language, to render them more generally useful to them, and founded parochial libraries in every parish in his diocefe. Some of his notions refpecting government and church difcipline were not of the moft liberal kind: but his failings were fo few, and his virtues fo numerous and confpicuous, that he was a great bleffing to the Isle of Man, and an ornament to human nature. Cardinal Fleury had fo much veneration for his character, that, out of regard to him, he obtained an order from the court of France, that no privateer of that nation fhould ravage the Isle of Man.

The ecclefiaftical government is well maintained in this island, and the livings are comfortable. The language, which is called the Manks, and is fpoken by the common people, is radically Erfe, or Irish, but with a mixture of other languages. The New Teftament and the Common prayer book have been tranflated into the Manks' language. The natives, who amount to about 30,coo, are inoffenfive, charitable, and hofpitable. The better fort live in tone houfes, and the poorer in thatched; and their ordinary bread is made of oatmeal. Their products for exportation confift of wool, hides, and tallow; which they, exchange with foreign fhipping for commodities they may have occafion for from other parts. Before the fouth promontory of Man is a little island, called the Calf of Man: it is about three miles in circuit, and feparated from Man by a channel about two furlongs broad.

This land affords fome curiofities which may amufe an antiquary. They confit chiefly of Runic fepulchral infcriptions and monuments, of ancient brafs daggers, and other weapons of that metal, and partly of pure gold, which are fometimes dug up, and feem to indicate the fplendor of its ancient poffeffors.