marriage, for she quits the privileges or rights of her own family, and acquires those of her husband, as approved of and established by the law, and is no more to re-assume the privileges or rights of her own family, and the law will not revoke what is done once with knowledge of the consequence (or knowingly). 2. One who, possessing hereditary land, and having gone to, and returned from, a foreign country, and recovered his land, goes determinately a second time to a foreign country. Such a person ought not in justice to return; and, if he does, his inheritance is not to be restored to him. The lord of the soil is to keep it in his charge till he learns to whom of the family it ought to go, and then give it to him. 3. An adopted son, whether received or rejected by the clan. By an adopted son is to be understood the son of another man, or a man's own son not born in wedlock, whom the adopter takes, according to law, into his clan, that he may be heir to the adopter.

But

248. There are three courts of country and law, distinct in jurisdiction and in form as to those who constitute a court*: one in Powys; one at Carleon on Usk, which is that of Glamorgan and Deheubarth, (the southern division); and one in Gwynedd. there is, moreover, one original consociate court, which is paramount over the three countries, viz. the general session of country and district, which determines by suffrage, in which alone laws can be enacted in Wales; that is to say, neither one nor other of those countries has a lawfully adjudged right to enact a law, unless in common consent with the others.

According to the custom of Powys, the court consists of a mayor, chancellor, one judge, who is judge of the district, a clergyman, to write the pleas, and an apparitor; nor has it had any other officers by custom from beyond memory, or the tradition of the country, in Powys.

The court of country and law in Gwynedd is thus constituted: viz. of the lord of the commot, unless the prince himself be present, the mayor, chancellor, judge of the district, the clergyman of Clynawg, or of Bangor, or of Penmôn, to write the pleas, and an apparitor.

The court of South Wales (Deheubarth), commonly called the court of Caerleon on Uske, consists of the prince, or king, or, in his stead, when he is absent, of the lord of the hundred, or commot; the mayor, chancellor, the man of learning of the court, to write the pleas and records, an apparitor, and a number of assessors, who give verdictt. In the southern division, Glanmorgan and Gwent, every legal head of family, possessing land, may be an assessor.

and hence it has been applied to a stroller, or vagabond. The passage, however, in which the word occurs above, may be rendered, literally, "The three wanderings which have no return," which is synonymous with the expression adopted by the Translator.-ED. TR.

The Welsh words are parth gorddawd ac ansawdd gwyr llys a'i swyddwyr.-

ED. TR.

The translation here ought to be" of assessors or judges," brawdwyr neu ynaid.-ED. TR.

The number of assessors may be from seven to fourteen, one-andtwenty, or forty-nine; and their decision is called the verdict of the court.

In Powys and Gwynedd there is but one judge of the district: in the southern division, which comprehends Cardigan, Dyved (Pembrokeshire), Glamorgan, and Gwent (Monmouthshire), there is, by privilege, a number of assessors, in right of land and family, and no assessor or judge of district; and the assessors are appointed by silent vote of the elders and chief of clan. Moreover, it is said that these three may form a court in South Wales; viz. the king, or, in his stead, the lord of the commot, a chancellor, who is a learned man, and a number of assessors, one or other of the assessors acting as apparitor in the court, or it may be done by the chancellor himself*.

SO END THE TRIADS OF DYVNWAL MOELMud†.

* According to the Law Triads, the Aberfraw, Dinevwr, and Mathraval. Leges Wallica," p. 417.-ED. TR.

three supreme courts in Wales were those of See Arch. of Wales, vol. iii. p. 335, and

+ A doubt was expressed, in the first of these notes, as to the propriety of ascribing these Triads to Dyvnwal Moelmud. But this was merely meant in allusion to their present form, which, there is abundance of internal evidence to prove, must have been the work of a much later period. The fundamental principles, however, on which these interesting documents are founded, may reasonably be presumed to have been borrowed from the more ancient code of the celebrated legislator above mentioned, and of whose existence, some ages before the Christian era, the earliest Welsh annals speak in positive terms. Nor can it be deemed extraordinary, that his precepts should have descended to our times, when we reflect upon the peculiar advantages afforded, in this respect, by the Bardic or Druidical Institution, one of whose elementary maxims it was to preserve, by means of oral tradition, the memory of every thing that was worthy of being recorded.-ED. TR.

THE TOPOGRAPHY

OF

MEIRION*.

THE name of this county was, originally, only applied to the Cantrev, divided into the two comots of Tal-y-Bont and Ystum Anner, being a district comprehended between the rivers Dyvi and Maw. But, when Wales came under the jurisdiction of the crown of England, Ardudwy, Mawddwy, Penllyn, and Edeyrnion, were added to the former place, to constitute the present county, which the natives indifferently call by the names of Meirion and the plural Meirionydd; and from the latter is derived the English appellation of Merionethshire.

Upon the authority of our ancient documents, the origin of the name of Meirion is traced to a chieftain so called, a descendant of Cunedda Wledig, who had the two districts above-mentioned assigned to him, when he and his brothers obtained lands in Wales, where the family had sought for refuge, after Cunedda, its head, had lost his territory in the north of England, owing to the ascendancy of the Saxon power there, at the close of the fifth century. Some old MSS. make Meirion to be the son of Tibion ab Cunedda; but, in " Bonedd y Saint," (The Genealogy of the Saints,) he is called the son of Owain Danwyn ab Einion Yrth ab Cuneddat.

The Society is indebted to a distinguished Welsh scholar (W. OWEN PUGHE, Esq. D.C.L.) for this topographical sketch of the county of Merioneth, which has the merit of having been drawn from that personal observation and those other authentic sources, which make its general accuracy unquestionable. In this respect, therefore, it cannot fail to be received as a valuable accession to the local history of the Principality. Should any historical or other remarks, of a particular nature, suggest themselves in connexion with any of the places mentioned in this "TOPOGRAPHY," we shall subjoin them by way of note.-ED. TR.

↑ Arch. of Wales, vol. ii. p. 47. [See, also, the CAMBRO-BRITON, vol. iii. p. 337. According to this authority Meirion was buried in Cantrev Meirion.-ED. TR.

The county is divided into six comots, which are subdivided into thirty-five parishes, wherein are six market-towns. Harlech is nominally the county town; but, owing to its inconvenient situation and its poverty for accommodation, the assizes are held alternately at Dolgellau and Bala, which are the only towns of importance in the county. The population, according to the census of 1811, amounted to 30,924*.

Precipitous mountains and narrow vallies form the general face of the country; and among the principal mountains are the following:-Cader Idris, Difwys, Y Vànog Vawr, Y Vànog Vach, Moel Orthrwm, Buddygre, Aren Mawddwy, Aren Penllyn, Arenig, Llywllach, Moelvre, and part of Berwyn.

There are twenty-four lakes and pools in this county namely, Llyn Tegid, Llyn Creini, Llyn Mynyllod, Llyn Arenig, Llyn Tryweryn, Llyn Cwm Bychan, Llyn Conglawg, Llyn Serw, Llyn Elidyr, Llyn Cwm Mynach, Llyn Hoewal, Llyn-y-Brithdir, Llyn Tecwyn, Llyn-y-Morwynion, Dulyn, Bodlyn, Llyn Urddyn, Llyn Geirw, Llyn-y-Gader, Llyn Creigenan, Llyn Cau, Llyn Mwyngil, Llyn Tri Graienyn.

The principal rivers are the Dyvi, Dysyni, Maw, Mawddach, Diwlais, Dyvrdwy, Tryweryn, Alwen, Ysgethin, Artro, and the Milwyn. There are several other rivers, or mountain streams: among the largest are the Llyveni, Corus, Gwynion, Mawddwy, Dyfrydan, Cain, Hengwm, Nantcoll, Gornant, Cravnant, Dwy Vawr, Dwy Vach, Meloch, Llyw, and Aran. Of these the fol lowing have aberst, or effluxes, immediately into the sea-the Dyvi, Dysyni, Maw, Hengwm, Ysgethin, Artro, and the Milwyn, at the estuary of Traeth Bach. The abers of the Dyvi, Dysyni, Maw, Artro, and Milwyn are ports and creeks for shipping, the chief of which is Abermaw, having a custom-house, with a jurisdiction over the others.

The general form of Merionethshire is a triangle, with its base to the west, being the shore of Cardigan-bay: its north side is bounded by parts of the counties of Caernarvon and Denbigh; and the counties of Cardigan and Montgomery are on the south side.

The following is a list of the castles, and other ancient structures and monuments in the county. The castles of Harlech, Murcastell, Corndochan, and Buri; the stone rampart of Craig-y-Ddinas; the circular earth-work of Dinas Corddyn, Llys Bradwent, Y

According to the census taken last year (1821) it had increased to 34,121.ED. TR.

† Aber implies, in the Welsh tongue, the efflux of one river into another, generally of a smaller into a greater, or of a greater into the sea. Hence it has formed part of the names of several ports in Wales, and even in Scotland, as Aberdeen, Abernethy, and others. For some remarks on the presumed etymology of aber see the CAMBRO. BRITON, vol. iii. p. 420.-ED. TR.

The ruins of Llys Bradwen are in the township of Cregenan, in the hundred of Taly-Bont. The house was, during the seventh century, the residence of Ednywain ab Bradwen, Lord of Meirion, and one of the Fifteen Tribes of North Wales. The groundplot of the ruins presents the vestige of an oblong building terminating in one of a circular form; and around the principal structure are traces of others of various shapes

Vaner, Tomen-y-Bala, Bedd Gwrthmwl in Briavel, Maen Twrog, Llech Goronw in Blaen Cynval, the Cromlech at Bron-y-Voel, another near Llan Ddwywe, called Coeten Arthurt; an obelisk at Caer Elwan; three or four similar stones standing near the church of Llanbedr; Fedogaid-y-Widdon on the side of Moelvre; Carneddi Hengwm‡, and the two embankments of Sarn-y-Bwch and Sarn Padrig.

A particular Description of the Comots separately.

1.-YSTUM ANNER.

THIS district takes its name from the most southern of the two ridges of Cader Idris, to the westward, and which ridge is imagined to bear the form of a heifer couchant; for the meaning of the name is heifer-form.

The parishes of Ystum Anner are Tywyn, Penal, Llan Mihangel Pennant, and Tal-y-Llyn.

TYWYN.

Tywyn is a small market-town, which is resorted to for bathing in the sea, and in a mineral well close by the town. The church is dedicated to St. Cadvan, an Armorican, the son of Eneas Lydewig, by Gwen Teirbron, his mother, the daughter of Emyr Llydaw.

and dimensions. These remains, altogether, measure nearly thirty yards square: the walls are rude and uncemented. For farther particulars relating to Llys Bradwen, and the family that anciently possessed it, see the CAMBRIAN REGISTER, Vol. i. p. 153, and the CAMBRO-BRITON, vol. ii. p. 118.-ED. TR.

*For some account of Y Vaner, called also Cymmer Abbey, see the first volume of the CAMBRO-BRITON, p. 306. It is situate near the village of Llanelltyd, by the confluence of two streams, from which it takes the name of Cymmer. It is said to have been founded by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth about the year 1200.-ED. TR.

+ Literally, Arthur's Quoit-a cromlech near Llanddwywau, having the print of a large hand ingeniously cut on it, as if sunk in from the weight occasioned by holding it. It is a large flat stone somewhat of an oval form, about ten feet long, and, in the widest part, nearly seven broad, two feet thick at one end, and not more than an inch at the other. It stands upon three rude stone pillars, each about half-a-yard broad--ED. TR.

+ Carneddi Hengwm, the Stone-heaps of Hengwm, appear to be some of those ancient remains, the true purpose of which has not been satisfactorily ascertained. Mr. E. Llwyd, as well as Mr. Owen in his Dictionary, consider them to have served, before the introduction of Christianity, as sepulchral monuments of persons of distinction, and that afterwards they were appropriated to malefactors. And, in illustration of this latter opinion, Mr. Llwyd alludes to a similar custom being prevalent amongst the ancient Romans, as appears from the following anonymous epigram on a notorious robber:

Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Balista sepultus ;

Nocte, die, tutum carpe, viator, iter.

The size, however, of many of these carneddi (take, for instance, those on Pumlumon) seems to militate against this hypothesis; and the question must now remain, in all probability, without a solution. Dr. Davies translates the word merely by agger and cumulus lupidum. The Welsh carn and carnedd are obviously to be identi fied with the Irish and Scotch cairns.-ED. TR.