in derogation of their high birth and extraction; which disgrace, observes the Welsh Prince, their parents would not have undergone for three hundred pounds Sterling! He complains, also, that the said constable, a despot worthy enough in his way, had twice unjustly imprisoned sixty of his men, extorting from each ten shillings for his liberation.

It will be naturally supposed, that, situated as Oswestry was, it was exposed to numerous disasters. In 1216, King John ordered it to be plundered and destroyed, because its inhabitants had refused to interfere in his dispute with the Barons. It experienced a similar fate in the reign of Henry III., during an incursion of the Welsh. In the beginning of the 15th century, it was again burnt and plundered by some of Owain Glyndwr's followers; and since that period, it has suffered dreadfully from three extensive conflagrations. In 1542, two long streets were consumed: two years after, there was a fire even more destructive than this; and in 1567, two hundred houses were burnt to the ground in only two hours-namely, between two and four in the morning. Considering the tumultuous state of this part of the country, it is but fair to infer that these latter calamities were the premeditated work of some of the Welsh freebooters.

There are few places thus more interesting, in a retrospective point of view, than the town of Oswestry. The associations connected with it are, it is true, deeply imbued with blood and slaughter; but its history would afford a faithful portrait horrid and sanguinary though it beof the state of Wales before its Union with England. Even its very name arose from the ashes of a slaughtered prince. In the year 642, a battle was fought near the town, (then called Maeserfield,) by Oswald, the brave and generous King of Northumberland, and Penda, the fero

The foundation of the Marches of Wales is an interesting point in the history of the Welsh, especially where we take into consideration the natural result of such a creation, and the politic motives which first gave origin to it. When William the Norman had subdued the Saxons, he was desirous of extending his power to the more remote and inaccessible parts of the island. Wales, therefore, became an object of attainment to the Conqueror, and he gave, accordingly, to several of the Norman lords, as much land on the borders of Wales as they could "win from the Welshmen;" thereby providing_for the majority of his followers a tolerable portion of territory and power; and, by a master-stroke in policy, opposing to the Welsh a barrier not easily broken. His successors followed his example; and the lands thus granted were called Lordships, or Baronies' Marches, and were holden

in capite of the King of England, as of the crown immediate, by serving the sovereign in his wars with a certain number of men. The lords were also bound to garrison their castles with sufficient men and mu nition," for the keeping of the King's enemies in subjection."

That the Lords Marchers might better govern the people within their respective baronies, they were endowed with such prerogative and authority as were most fit for the quiet and effectual government of the country, To this end, a kind of palatine court was established in each lordship, with full power to administer justice, and to execute its decrees in the ter ritories dependent upon it. But they did not hold this authority under any grant from the crown; it was only for the present connived at by the prince, and arose, as a wise measure, out of their peculiar situations. "No record," says our authority, "is to be found in the Tower of London, or elsewhere, of any grant to be a Lordship Marcher in Wales. The King's writs, out of the Courts at Westminster, did not run into Wales, excepting Pembrokeshire, which was counted part of England, and called Little England, beyond Wales. Nor were there any sheriffs to execute such writs: but the lords did execute laws themselves over the people which they subdued, which the King permitted for a time.

"No charters of these liberties could conveniently be granted, for three reasons :-

"1. The kings of England did not know beforehand what lands a lord should conquer, or whether he should conquer any; and therefore could not grant any liberties within a certain precinct or territory.

"2. The lords, after their conquest of any country, were not over hasty to purchase any charter; be cause they were not sure but that those lands might be restored, by composition between the kings of England and the princes of Wales, as they sometimes were; or they might

But although the Lords Marchers possessed no royal charter, they had full license to exercise their own free will and power over their vassals, and those whom they had conquered. They used, of course, the laws of England, in cases where it was necessary; and the King being supreme lord, reference was made to the English courts of law whenever their own jurisdiction failed. It appears, however, that they suffered the ancient tenants to retain some of the old Welsh laws; such as the use of gavel-kind, for parting lands equally among brothers, and the passing of lands by surrender in court." And for this," says the manuscript already cited, "in many lordships there was a Welsh court for the Welshmen, called Welchrie, and another for the English, called Englishrie." In some lordships the lands were divided by gavel-kind, but passed by feoffments, from whence comes "English honure, and Welsh dole. And the lords had the wardship of all the brethren, as if they had been sisters.” Thus were the Lords Marchers vested with the most arbitrary authority: the power of life and death was placed in their hands, and they were neither sparing nor merciful in the exercise of their powerful prerogative.

No Lord Marcher was without a castle, and a sufficient garrison, to suppress such of the Welsh as should annoy the King's subjects, and therefore all castles had towns close to them, inhabited by English. And by 4 Henry IV. c. 32, it was enact ed, that castles and walled towns in Wales should be possessed by va liant Englishmen, strangers to the seigniories. The charters of those

towns gave great liberty to the English; but no Welshman might be a burgess, or purchase any land therein. It was also enacted, that no Welshman should have any castle or fortress, "saving such as was in the time of Edward the First, except bishops and temporal lords." The more to encourage the English to conquer Wales, the kings of England created them peers of the realm, by the name of Lords Baron of those places which they conquered. Their number was formerly twenty-one, but they are now reduced to only one, namely, Abergavenny. The others lost their name and place, by coming either to the crown, or to lords who had other places and titles. The castles in Wales were about one hundred and forty-three.

In consequence, therefore, of this policy, a large extent of territory, which had formerly belonged to the Welsh, now became annexed to England; and we have seen that no means were left unadopted to secure the territories thus obtained to the English crown, or its satellites.

At the conquest of Wales, by Ed ward the First, the power of the Lords Marchers was somewhat restricted; and in the reign of Edward the Fourth, the government of the Marches was vested in a Lord President, and a Council, consisting of the Chief Justice of Chester, and the three other judges of Wales. In cases of extreme importance and emergency, other persons were appointed to decide the question. The Lords Marchers, however, and all their despotism, were abolished by the union statute of Henry the Eighth, and their territories became annexed partly to England, and part ly to Wales; the President and Council were, nevertheless, allowed to hold their offices as before, and their general court was holden at Ludlow. But in 1689, and not till then, their power ceased altogether, and the Marches, with the other parts of the Principality, participated in the government and jurisdiction of England.

Harlech Castle.

One of the principal lions in Merionethshire is the old and ruinous Castle of Harlech, which is situated on a lofty rock, jutting into the beau tiful but dangerous Bay of Cardigan, and at the extremity of one of the most miserable hamlets in the united kingdom. But a journey thither from Barmouth, or Dolgelley, (to which the traveller may return the same day,) will amply repay the toil of travelling through a part of the coun try where Nature has been wonderfully assiduous to place every mechanical obstacle in the wanderer's way. The road from Dolgelley to Barmouth (a distance of ten miles) is good enough, but beyond the lat ter, a person must not yet expect to find any of the salutary effects of the improving system of reform of our worthy friend, James Loudon MacAdam, whose innovations, we are happy to find, are extending rapidly through the kingdom, having already penetrated as far as that large mass of Raither's cement and castiron pillars, called the Quadrant, in Regent Street.

But the traveller should really visit Harlech, as the castle is one of the most entire in North Wales; and, next to that of Caernarvon, certainly the most interesting in an his torical point of view. It was here that the beautiful Bronwen, or the White-necked, resided. She was sister to Bran the Blessed, King of Britain, and father of Caractacus; and tradition reports, that having married an Irish prince, named Matholwch, she quitted the cloud-capt mountains of her native isle, to reside in the domains of her husband. Here she experienced strife and illusage, instead of good-will, peace, and affection; and so she left Green Erin in disdain, and sought once more her native land. But her happiness was gone for ever; and gazing day by day towards the country she had left, she pined and pined away, till the grave closed at last over the sorrows of her wounded affections *.

The castle, however, now called Twr Bronwen, or Bronwen's Tower, a name which it retained for many succeeding generations. It subsequently became the residence of a renowned warrior prince, called Collwyn ab Tango, one of the fifteen tribes of North Wales, and Lord of Evionydd, Ardudwy, and part of Llyn. From him the castle got the name of Caer Collwyn, or Collwyn's Fortress; and the remains of the old square tower in which he dwelt are still visible, among the more recent structure of the rest of the building.

The present castle is the work of Edward the First, and is a noble square building, with a round tower at each corner, and one on each side of the entrance, with elegant turrets issuing out of the great rounders, like those of his other castles of Conway and Caernarvon. It was completed before the year 1283, for we find that a hundred pounds was the annual salary of Hugh de Wlonkestow the constable *; but it was afterwards reduced; for it appears that the annual-fee was only twenty-six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence; and, in some accounts, fifty pounds, which probably included also the captaincy of the town. The whole garrison, at the same time, consisted of only twenty soldiers, whose annual pay amounted to a hundred and forty pounds. The present constable is our excellent and most worthy friend, Sir Robert Vaughan, whose salary is fifty pounds a-year, payable out of the revenues of North Wales.

In the wars between the rival houses of York and Lancaster,

-when here a white,

valour as his goodly personage and great stature. He was besieged here by William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, who is said to have slain with his own hand, at one table, no less a number than one hundred and forty individuals. This heroic nobleman, after a march through the heart of the British Alps, attended with incredible and incalculable difficulties and dangers, at length invested himself of a fortress till that time deemed impregnable. Pembroke committed the direction of the siege to his brother, Sir Richard, a hero equal in bulk and prowess to the English commander. Sir Richard, in consequence, sent a summons of surrender; but Dafydd stoutly answered it, by saying, "that he had kept a castle in France so long that all the old women in Wales talked of him; and that he would now keep this Welsh fortress so long that all the old women in France should talk of him ;" and it was not till famine had subdued the energies of his little band that he did surrender, and even then he obtained terms of the most honourable nature. It appears that these terms were settled by Sir Richard Herbert, who engaged to save Dafydd's life, and that of his brave followers, by interceding with his cruel master, Edward the Fourth. The King at first refused his request; but Sir Richard, with all the sturdy bluntness of a soldier, told him that he had pledged his honour for the safety of the Welsh captain, and that therefore his life was sacred. At the same time, he freely told his Highness, that his own head was at the King's disposal, and that it might be taken instead of the Welsh chieftain's; but if his

fragrance

Madden'd all the land,

Harlech castle was possessed by Dafydd ab Jevan ab Tinion, a strong friend of the house of Lancaster, and distinguished as much by his

his intercession, he would most assuredly replace Dafydd in the castle, and the King might send whom he pleased to take him out again. This prevailed; but Sir Richard received no other reward for his service t.

Aytoffe's Welsh Chronicle, 92.

Harlech castle also afforded an asylum to Margaret of Anjou, who fled to it in 1460, after the unfortunate battle of Northampton. She first retreated to Coventry, and from thence to this fortress; after a short stay here, she went to Scotland, and collecting her friends in the north, poured all her vengeance on her great enemy, the Duke of York, at the battle of Wakefield. In the civil wars of the Commonwealth, it experienced some few vicissitudes. It was well defended by a Major Hugh Pennant, till he was deserted by his men. It was finally taken in March 1647 by General Mytton, when a Mr William Owen was governor, and the garrison consisted of only twenty-eight men. It had the honour of surrendering on articles, and of being the last fortress in North Wales which held out for the King. It is also said to have been the last in England and Wales which held out for the House of Lancaster.

Such is Harlech castle, a fortress which was constructed with every assistance from nature for its impregnability. On one side of it was the sea; on the other a prodigious fosse, cut with vast labour, in the hard and solid rock;-and although centuries have passed by since it was originally erected, its massive architecture has, for the most part, withstood the effects of time; and it presents, even now, a grand, and powerful, and stupendous monument of the English conqueror's policy and power.

Ascent of Cader Idris.

In a former paper, we gave a topographical and traditional account of Cader Idris. The following brief narrative of an excursion to the summit of the mountain is from the same source as that which supplied our ramble on Towyn-the journal, namely, of a friend.

"The party intending to ascend Cader comprised only the junior part of the family,-including the young ladies, an English gentleman of the name of Harper, and myself; and, when the day destined for our jaunt arrived, we left Garthynghared, eight in number, at nine A. M., -the ladies on horseback, and the

gentlemen on foot, accoutred in light fustian jackets, straw hats, and stout shoes. It was a lovely morning as we traversed the dark heather hills which rise behind the comfortable mansion from which we set out; not a cloud was there to dim the azure of the heavens, and the morning sun shone bright on the green valleys beneath us.

"The distance from Garthynghared to Cader Idris is nearly ten miles, through tracts as rugged and desolate as the scenery by which they are encompassed is bold and romantic. Persons unaccustomed to such wild scenes, would be astonished to see with what facility and adroitness the Welsh horses climb the highest ascents; and they would be equally amazed at the fortitude and dexterity of the mountain-nymphs who guide them. For my part, I was not a little surprised to find that our fair companions had been carried by their ponies to the very summit of Cader Idris. I believe the young mountaineers anticipated much entertainment from the adventures of Mr Harper and myself, whom they considered, in every sense of the term, legitimate subjects of the kingdom of Cockaigne, and consequently little accustomed to scale precipices and ford bogs; and, in good truth, they were not greatly disappointed. Our frequent and loud lamentations of the ruggedness of the road, the oppressive heat of the day, and the toilsome length of our walk, certainly displayed our tourist qualifica tions in no very favourable light, and continually provoked the merriment of our more nimble and hardy companions. But the first five or six miles were by far the best and easiest; the nearer we approached the mountain, the more rough, rugged, and difficult became the path; and by the time we arrived at the base of Cader, and prepared to ascend, I looked forward to many a dire mishap before we gained the summit of the gloomy crags which beetled high in the heavens above us. Disencumbering ourselves of our jackets, Mr Harper and I followed Mr Edward Owen, (his brother having undertaken to escort the ladies by a smoother, though longer path,) up the side of the mountain,-briskly, ins