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of which are visible above a quarter of a mile distant to the w.N.W., on the brow of the hill above the house formerly called “the Black Cock,” near to which the stone described in the following extract from the History of Brecknockshire was found.

In detailing the direction of the Via Julia Montana Mr. Jones, the author of the History says:

“It proceeded from Trecastle along what is since called the Admiral's road to Llys Brychan, near Llangadoc in Caermarthenshire; whilst others introduce this road into Llywel at Rhydybriw, then through Trecastle across the mountain by a little public house, called the Black Cock, so to Llandovery; on which line, though I have frequently travelled it some years ago, I never could discover the least trace of an ancient road or causeway.

“The reasons which have induced antiquaries to think the Roman road took this direction, are the finding a supposed Miliary on the mountain, and the situation of the camp or station at Llanfairarybryn, near Llandovery. I will say a few words as to both,

“The stone referred to by Mr. Strange, and engraved from his drawing in the Archæologia, vol. iv., is said to have been dug up on the top of Trecastle mountain, by the turnpike road near a public house called the Heath Cock, which stone, he was informed, had been since removed to Llandílo Fawr in Caermarthenshire. The inscription as given (if I recollect rightly) in Gough's Camden, is, 'IMPERATORI NOSTRO MARCO CASSIANO PostUMO PIO FELICI Aug:' for the deciphering of which characters, the fortunate discoverer, whenever his name is made public, deserves not only the thanks, but almost the adoration, of the antiquary, for it appears to me, that as copied by the above editor, and from him engraved for this work, they may mean anything the reader pleases. It was removed, it seems, in 1767, at the expense of a Mr. Latham, a supervisor of excise, who had a fondness for antiquities, to Llandilo-fawr in Caermarthenshire, where it was lately seen by Sir Richard Hoare, but so mutilated or effaced by time and the elements that only the words 'Imp' and 'CASSIANO' are now legible: the fact therefore of such a stone having been formerly seen on Trecastle hill I do not mean to deny; I only beg leave to observe, that even if it was placed on the old road side, there is nothing like conclusive evidence that it must have been a Miliary.

“With respect to the anonymous Roman station at Llanfair

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arybryn to which the road is supposed to lead, I have only to say, that after a minute survey of the ground whereon the encampment is supposed to have been formed, I do not discover the smallest vestiges of the labour of man.'

Thus far from Mr. Theophilus Jones,—and as the stone is, I believe, still preserved in the wall of Dynevor Park, it would be well if some competent person were to examine it carefully, with the view of deciphering the inscription; and I can only further observe that these positive assertions of Mr. Jones', contradicted as they are by such plain evidences of existing remains of the Romans both on Trecastle mountain and at Llanfairarybryn, prove him to have been in this, as in some other instances, a careless observer, or that he was blinded by prejudice in favour of a theory of the existence of a Roman station at Llys Brychan, not taking into consideration that from near Trecastle two Roman roads branched off, one direct to Llandovery, and the other through Talsarn, in Llanddeusant, towards Llangadoc and the Garn Goch.

From a comparison of the areas of various Roman stations and encampments in Wales, it will be seen that the one on Trecastle mountain, here described, is scarcely inferior in extent even to the area inclosed within the walls of the Roman city of Isca Silurum,—the celebrated “Caerlleon ar Wysc,”--the size of which is 1,600 by 1,500 Roman feet; its breadth being precisely the length

of this camp.

Caerwent, or Venta Silurum, is the next in magnitude to Caerlleon, and is only two yards in circuit more than the camp on Trecastle mountain, a difference scarcely perceptible, and easily accounted for by the dimensions of Caerwent being perhaps inaccurately given by Mr. Coxe, in his Tour in Monmouthshire.

The size of the Gaer, or Bannium, near Brecon, as given by Mr. Theophilus Jones, is 624 by 426 feet, not half that of Venta Silurum, or of the camp I am now attempting to describe.

- History of Brecknockshire, vol. ii. p. 667.

The inner lines of the camp at the said Roman station at Llanfairarybryn, are nearly the same size as those of Bannium, besides which it had, however, outer lines considerably more extensive, that are in some places still visible.

In order not to detain the meeting, I will give the dimensions of only one other camp in Wales—that of the Roman station of Heriri Mons, or Tomen y Múr, in North Wales, which I measured at the time our Association held its meeting at Dolgelly, in 1850. Its size is not one third as large as the camp on Trecastle mountain, being only 500 by 343 feet.

From the above comparison, and from its admirable military position, this camp on Trecastle mountain, would appear to be of greater importance than either Bannium, Llanfairarybryn, or Heriri Mons. It must however be considered only as a temporary camp, wherein the whole legion and its auxiliaries lived in tents in summer, and not as a permanent station; as not any pieces of Roman bricks or pottery have been found within the enclosures.5

It is needless to speculate upon what may yet come to light through the assiduity of future explorers; but I trust that at some period the Cambrian Archæological Association will hold its anniversary meeting at Llandovery, from whence its members can easily make an excursion to this camp, as well as to the Druidical circles, which are distant therefrom only about five miles. Indeed, the whole of the mountain requires a close survey, as it abounds with cairns, of which some are of considerable dimensions; and the largest, about ninety feet in circumference, was opened about thirty years ago by the late Mr. John Holford, of Cilgwyn, who discovered

5 A Roman coin of silver was found some years ago, at Maesgwyn farm, not two miles from the above camp, in removing a hedge on the upper part of the land. It is supposed to have been coined about A.D. 236. The inscription thereon is :

IMP MAXIMINVS PIVS AVG. =PROVIDENTIA AVG. This coin is now in the possession of Mrs. Llewelyn, of Maesgwyn.

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therein two urns or vases of burnt clay unglazed, containing calcined_human bones,-probably the remains of some valiant British chiefs who had ineffectually opposed the invasion of their country by the Romans. The following are from sketches of these urns which I took the day after they were discovered ; they were one foot high and ten inches diameter; the small vessel in the centre was, I believe, found in another cairn which was opened by Mr. Holford.

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Should the Association hold one of its anniversary meetings at Llandovery, it will have also an opportunity of exploring the remains of the aforesaid adjacent Roman station and town at Llanfairarybryn, which was the centre of four, if not five, Roman roads, the traces of some of which are still distinctly visible. Several other camps, Roman and British, are in the immediate neighbourhood, affording evidences of the struggles of a brave and resolute people, who preferred death itself to the loss of their birthright, their freedom and their country.

There are also a few Meini Hirion; and on Ynysy-bordau, near the town, there is an old Gadlys, or Bord Gron, a circular area 198 feet diameter, with a deep fosse, and an outer circle,--the remains of the Norman castle at Llandovery,—the British Castell Meurig at Llangadoc,-the Garn Goch, three miles further on,-and the old Abbey at Talley, about twelve miles distant, together with the Roman mines and galleries at the Ogofau near Caio, would also prove interesting, as none

ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. V.

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of these objects of antiquarian curiosity have yet been fully explored, or adequately described.

The circumstance of the imperfect examinations made by the historian of Brecknockshire, before alluded to, will serve to teach us all a lesson,-not to place implicit faith in all the personal observations and researches of our county historians, much as we are indebted to them for their very important and self-denying labours; but imbued with ardent zeal, and untiring industry, and a close and unprejudiced eye, to examine each locality ourselves, and then to register the results of our observations in the pages of the Archeologia Cambrensis; where they will be open to discussion and correction, and where perchance they may become of great value to future historians, when the present remains of antiquity have disappeared before the levelling hands of the agriculturist and the civil engineer, or the still slower but more certain and extensive devastations of the hand of time.

WILLIAM REES. Llandovery, Sept. 13, 1853.

THE PHYSIC OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Two or three years ago, I was told by a respectable farmer in Pembrokeshire that a “big book, all written, and not a word of it printed,” had formerly been preserved in his house, and was still in the possession of his brother. When it came into the hands of his family, he was unable to say. Knowing that Bishop Richard Davies,—who has been sufficiently lauded as a translator of the Bible into Welsh, and not sufficiently blamed as a scandalous dilapidator of his episcopal revenues,-had taken away some of the early records of St. David's Cathedral, I entertained faint hopes that those valuable documents had found their way into private hands in the neighbourhood. Accordingly I made inquiries, and the present owner of the book sent me “a brick out of the

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