corroded state of the iron and the position in which the iron objects were found on the true floor of the huts-they were bound to admit that those "finds" belonged to a period when iron was used, viz., the Iron Age. Then, again, Mr. Owen complained that they laid too much stress on the very minute particles of Roman pottery which they found at Tre'r Ceiri. The fact was, they did not lay any very great stress upon that, and if their report conveyed that impression then it should be amended-to that extent, at any rate. They had evidence sufficient for their purpose in the fibula, and in the curious melon-shaped porcellanous beads of Egyptian make, which were characteristic of the Early Roman period. Mr. Owen had also referred to the stone implements which they found at Tre'r Ceiri. They found rubbers (or pounders) and pebbles, also an implement which they considered to have been used as a strike-a-light, as well as sling-stones. Similar stone implements had been found in all the hill-forts that they had been exploring of the same Iron period-the same Late Celtic period; and they knew that stone extended down into the Metal Age in the same way that bronze extended down to the Iron Age. It was a mistake, therefore, for Mr. Owen to assume that they laid so much stress on the minute particles of pottery which they found in the course of their explorations. They took the objects as a whole, and said that they belonged to the first century of our era. These relics, he might add, had been seen by several distinguished antiquaries, and they had confirmed Mr. Baring Gould and himself in the conclusions they had drawn. Concluding, Mr. Burnard gave some valuable advice as to the course to be followed when the explorations were resumed next year.

Mr. Romilly Allen said he had always taken a great interest in the great prehistoric fortress of Tre'r Ceiri, and he had for many years, in season and out of season, urged on the committee the advisability of excavating the cyttiau. He thought they had made themselves appear ridiculous in the past, in climbing the hills to see these forts, and coming down again without adding to their previous knowledge of the place: when, by raising a small fund, they opened up the possibility of solving the problems which these hill-forts presented in a short time. In this case some ten days had been devoted to the problem of Tre'r Ceiri, and he thought, despite Mr. Owen, it had been solved. He happened to write to Mr. Baring Gould before the work of exploration began, and offered to bet him his bottom dollar that Tre'r Ceiri would be found to belong to the Late Celtic or Early Iron Age, and the "finds" enumerated in the report now showed that he was right. Referring to the "finds," the speaker reminded the meeting that iron bill-hooks, which he said were characteristic of the Later Celtic period, had been found at the Oppidum at Hunsbury, near Northampton, at the Glastonbury lakevillage, and elsewhere; that blue beads were believed to have been manufactured in Egypt and imported into Britain about the

beginning of the Christian era; and that pendants with the wheel and three curved spokes, like the three legs of the Isle of Man, had been found in association with Late Celtic objects in Berkshire, Kingsholm, near Gloucester, and other places. The bringing down the date of the erection of Tre'r Ceiri to so late a period suggestedobserved Mr. Romilly Allen, in conclusion-some interesting problems as to whether it was intended as a defence against the Romans. At any rate, a work of this magnitude could only have been put up to oppose a well-organised and powerful foe; and it was highly inprobable that such a foe could have existed either in the Bronze or the Stone Age.

The Rev. D. Lewis said he did not believe that Tre'r Ceiri was ever a habitation of permanent or even temporary abode. He thought the place was erected for pastoral purposes, and for nothing else.

Mr. Pepyat Evans asked whether it could really be argued that the "finds" in a hut could be held to prove the date of the hut in the same way that the "find" of an urn proved the date of burial. It seemed to be clear that, however early the huts might have been constructed, they might have been occupied by Late Celts in the Early Roman period.

The question raised by the last speaker was not answered, and the discussion closed.

With these discussions, conducted in scholarly fashion, and an excellent report by the Secretary (the Rev. Canon Trevor Owen) and Chairman, of the status of the Association, the meeting was brought to a close, with a well-deserved expression of thanks to the local committee and secretaries (Messrs. T. E. Morris aud C. E. Breese) for their efforts to make the Fifty Seventh Annual Meeting a success. Altogether, the Portmadoc meeting proved to be one of the most, if it was not quite the most, successful ever held in connection with the Association, much of the credit for this being due to the two local secretaries just mentioned; while the hospitality accorded to the members during their brief stay, as our readers will have observed, was unbounded.

79

Reviews and Notices of Books.

CARDIFF RECORDS: BEING MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF THE COUNTY BOROUGH FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES. Edited by JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS, Archivist to the Corporation of Cardiff. Vol. iv. Cardiff: Published by order of the Corporation, and sold by Henry Sotheran and Co., 140, Strand, W.C.; and 37, Piccadilly, W., London. 1903.

WHEN Mr. Matthews concluded vol. iii of the Record Series with "Ecclesiastical Memorial Inscriptions" of Cardiff, most of his readers imagined that his work was accomplished, but here we have vol. iv, as rotund and rubicund as any of its predecessors.

Cardiff has, indeed, been swept pretty clean, but there are still some records of the County Borough to be found elsewhere, and out of them vol. iv has been mostly constructed.

Our Archivist overhauled Llanover to good purpose. Sixty-five years ago, the late Lady Llanover was leading spirit of a society who called themselves Cymreig y ddion y Fenni, or the Abergavenny Cambricists. They did some excellent work, and then went the way of small associations. Lady Llanover appears to have been their residuary legatee, and so became possessed of their MSS. Most of them are in the handwriting of Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), though some are original, dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, collected by the old antiquary. This collection was stowed away, in what our Archivist describes as a coffin, and pretty well lost sight of until Lady Llanover's death, when her daughter, the Hon. Mrs. Herbert, called in Mr. Matthews to examine them. They were in a very bad state-so bad, indeed, that in a short time damp and mildew would have reduced them to powder. Mrs. Herbert took proper measures to secure their safety, and the collection is now becoming known to the Welsh literary world. From these Llanover papers Mr. Matthews culls two versions of "The Winning of Glamorgan by the Norman Knights," by Sir Edward Mansel, of Margam, 1591. Chapter II consists of "Further Gleanings from the Record Office;" and among these. gatherings will be found the best grain in the harvest.

Llewelyn Bren, a Glamorgan chieftain, considering himself aggrieved, raised a rebellion about 1314; but, finding his men outnumbered, yielded himself to the Earl of Hereford and Lord Mortimer of Wigmore, on condition that he was pardoned. Llewelyn was sent to Edward II, and the King forgave him; but when he returned to Wales, notwithstanding the royal pardon, Sir Hugh Despencer "took the said Llewelyn, and led him to Cardiff, where he caused the said Llewelyn to be drawn, headed, and

quartered, to the discredit of the King and of the said Earl of Hereford and Lord Mortimer; yea, and contrary to the laws and dignity of the imperial crown" (Hollinshed, p. 562, vol. ii, Ed. 1807).

The pardon granted by Edward seems to have been conditional, for though the rebel's life was spared by the King, his goods seem to have been forfeited to the Crown; for, after Llewelyn's murder, we find the King dealing with the goods "which were of Llewelyn Bren and the other felons."

The inventories of these chattels, Mr. Matthews has copied from the Miscellanea of the Exchequer, II (D), ii; the document is in Old French, and translates as follows:

:

"Be it remembered of the goods of Llewelyn Bren, found in the Treasury of Llandaff, which William de Montagu hath delivered unto Master Payne Turberville by this Indenture. That is to say, 1 cuirass, 1 riding coat, 1 pair of cushions, 1 collar of slashed linen, 5 brazen pots, 2 brazen pails, 1 basin, 1 old breast-plate of iron, 3 Welsh chairs, 1 coffer for charters, 2 muniments, 1 Roman de la Rose,' 3 Welsh books, 4 other books, 10 gold rings, 1 golden clasp, 1 silver clasp. Item, delivered by the hand of David ap Grono: 7 haubergeons, 1 iron covering, 1 target, 1 pair of metal gauntlets, 1 pair of cushions, 2 lavers, 2 brazen candlesticks, 8 Evesham headpieces, 1 piece of buckram, 1 coat-of-arms of buckram, 1 bright red riding coat, 1 cuirass not perfect, 2 table-cloths, 1 old seal, 1 rayed serge, 8 silver spoons."

Besides, there were 4 bulls, 322 cows, 42 oxen, 4 female plough cattle, 153 steers, 2 heifers, 70 yearlings, 35 mares, 6 foals, 244 sheep, 77 lambs, 188 goats, 114 swine.

These lists give us a very good idea of what sort of life a Welsh nobleman led in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. He read French, Welsh, and some other language. He wore a bright red riding-coat, with a slashed linen collar, gold rings galore, and gold and silver buckles. His dinner-table was covered with a cloth, and he had a supply of silver spoons.

What would they fetch to-day in a London auction-room?

In the "Star Chamber Proceedings," Bundle 32, No. 23, we find an interesting story.

"One August day, when Henry VIII was King, George ap Morgan, Rosser Kemeys, and Thomas Lewis, gentlemen all, clad in coats of defence, skulls of steel, and sleeves of mail, with bows and arrows, glaives, bills, and other weapons defensible, in riotous manner resorted to the town of Caerdiffe, in South Wales.

"Now John Wattys, of Landaffe, came to the same town, and had knowledge of the lying of the said George in the said town, which of shorte tyme before had or taken upp a spanyell of the same Watts, who then and there demaunded of the same George the delyveraunce of the saide spanyell, who denyed him the same, and forth with he with others made assault and affray upon said Watts, insomuch that they put said Watts to flyght, and the

said George, Rosser and Lewes pursued, and 'ffoyned' him with their daggers, and slew the same Watts, and thereupon fled, and ' denied not the same.

"Then the bailiffs of the same town, 'beyng Ingnorant & nat lerned in the lawes,' swore a jury to view the body of the same Wattes, whereon were sundry of the allies and kinsmen of George, Rosser, and Thomas, who for affeccyonacy hasse not founde the trouthe therof,' with the result that these misdoers have not been punished, but they were let out on bail £100 to appear on a day prefixed."

"On the day George and the other riotous persons came to the town gates of Cardiff there were more than one hundred, of whom fifty were bowmen, all in manner of war arrayed. And George would not make answer without these armed men were allowed to acompany him, and the officers having good respect unto the weal of the King and town would not permit the same; so George went home again and made default, whereby he forfeited to the King £100. So Katherine, daughter of David, and wife of the late John Watts, the poor oratrix, is without her remedy, and prays that the Earl of Worcester, High Officer there commanding, may be instructed to issue a writ 'De melius inquirendo' to the Bailiffs of Caerdiff, that they may impanel a new jury of the best Aldermen and Burgesses of the town, for them to inquire of the said murder."

Of five hundred and forty-nine papers in this volume no less than three hundred and seventy-five are taken up with extracts from the Corporation books. If there were any old Minute Books they have been lost, and those quoted do not reach back two hundred years. Probably these eighteenth and nineteenth century proceedings may interest a few Cardiffians, but to the general reader they are dreary in the extreme: mostly petty disbursements, resembling the churchwardens' accounts of country villages. One of the best bits of reading in this volume will be found in our Archivist's Preface: "Cardiff, indeed, is as cosmopolitan as any meeting-place of the nations. Specimens of the aboriginal Welsh-speaking Cardiffian may still be met with here and there, and there has, of course, been a large influx into the town from this and the adjacent counties; but commonest is the immigrant from Gloucestershire and Somersetshire, it is said-especially the latter. The English spoken at Cardiff by the average passer-by no longer betrays any suspicion of Welsh accent, but smacks strongly of the West Saxon spoken on the opposite Severn shore, which bids fair to form the basis for a new dialect for this town and district. In one walk from the Hayes bridge to the pier head, it is easy to hear a dozen languages, to say nothing of dialects. All the principal European nationalities are represented among the well-established merchants and tradesmen of the town and port. A Cardiff-born Polish noble carries on the business of a watchmaker; an Austrian of aristocratic lineage keeps a small public-house; and a Welshman, who descends from two of the most ancient families in Glamorgan, works as a mastermason. Never was such a confusion of races and conditions. At 6TH SER., VOL. IV.

6