Peytyn gwin, except that, notwithstanding the crime he had committed, the authority of the house of Lancaster was sufficient to protect him for a short time in Breconshire, while he raised a body of men for the service of his sovereign, when he embarked with him in 1415, in his expedition to France; and here such a blaze of glory bursts around him, as he resigns his boisterous existence, that the English historians are dazzled with its lustre, and the Welsh have agreed to wink at his vices. Sir Walter Raleigh has an eulogium upon his bravery and exploits in the field of Agincourt, in which he prefers his greatness of soul to that of Mago, and compares him to Hannibal, while his countrymen, in consideration of this day's good services, have unanimously determined to forget his treachery towards Glyndwr,, and to pardon the murder of Richard Fawr. His reply to the king on reviewing the French army, his courage and gallantry in the battle, in which he is said to have saved the king's life by the loss of his own, his son-in-law's and his kinsman's death, are so well known, that it would be superfluous to repeat them. Hugh Thomas says he was knighted for his exploits after the battle, but that he soon died of his wounds: the general opinion is, that he died during the heat of the action, and that the king knighted him as he was expiring in the field*. His two companions in glory and in death, were Roger Vaughan of Bredwardine in Herefordshire, and Walter Lloyd (more correctly Watkin Llwyd, of Brecknock, by which the lordship or territory, and not the town, is meant. Sir Roger Vaughan had married Gwladis, the only daughter of Sir David Gam, by whom he had eight children, one of whom, Sir Roger Vaughan of Tretower, the third son, though very young, was, I am inclined to think, in this battle, not only because be alone, of all the children, received the honour of knighthood, but his connexions in life show him to have associated with the heroes of Agincourt, for he married for his second wife Margaret, daughter of James Lord Audley, slain at Bioreheath in 1458, who was certainly in this expedition: the grandfather of this Margaret, Dugdale tells us in his baronage, was associated, in 5th Henry the IVth, for one year with Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in the defence of the castle, town, and lordship of Brecon against Glyndwr, having one hundred men at arms and three hundred archers on horseback assigned him for that service, the men at arms being each paid twelve pence a day, and the archers sixpence t." Vol. II. p. 161.

"* I was in hopes to have given the public a print of Sir David Gam, from a picture which the tradition of the family pronounced to be his portrait; but, unfortunately, it turns out to be a portrait of Sir John Games, the sixth in descent from him.

"John, Lord Audley, had the castle of Llandovery assigned to him for the same purpose, in the preceding year, as will be seen by reference to my first volume. It is difficult to comprehend why there should be the inequality above stated in the pay of the soldiers, and why the foot should have a larger remuneration than the horse.

Whether Henry the Fifth rewarded the family of Sir David Gam with something more substantial than his title, which fled almost as soon as it was conferred, does not appear: it is however probable that the king did not forget his obligations to his gallant subject and defender, and that he either granted his descendants territorial possessions, or bestowed a sum of money upon them adequate to their wants; for. they are immediately seen rising in importance, increasing in opulence and numbers, for several succeeding centuries; but the anecdotes preserved of them will with greater propriety be introduced in the several parishes where the principal branches settled after their dispersion from the Peytyns, which continued in the descendants of Gwilyn, a younger brother of Sir David, for some generations. Evan, the great grandson of this Gwilyn, is described to have been of Peytyn gwin, and is said, together with William Poweldew of Castlemadoc, to be the only persons resident in Breconshire in the latter end of the fifteenth century, who were possessed of lands to the value of one hundred pounds per annum.' P. 157-162.

"

Under Llanganey we notice a curious example of the risk incurred by those who quote from secondary authorities, as from the original writers; and Mr. Jones must in this instance plead guilty of violating his own precept*. The passage as it stands is as follows:

"Near this spot is Ffynon Genau, or the well of Saint Cenau, formerly celebrated for its medical virtues, as most of the saints' wells have been; but though this good lady's piety and chastity may have gained her the approbation of her country and the veneration of posterity; though this well, at her intercessions, may have produced health to the sick; and, above all, though she may have inflexibly adhered to her vow of her perpetual virginity, it should seem that she occasionally interfered a little too fa far in the domestic concerns of the marriage state, apparently from waggery or envy; for we learn from Carew's Survey of Cornwall, that Saint Cenau, or, as he writes it, Saint Keyne's well, then had this remarkable effect, that if a new married couple, or one of them, approached, the first who drank of the water obtained the command of the house for life. This author relates, in indifferent verse, a very humorous story about the well: a stranger being asked by a clown if he knew the effects of the water, replied in the negative; being informed, of them, and finding lobbinol was married,

*I have adopted in my progress one rule, which I will venture to recommend to all who, like myself, are infected with the cacoethes scribendi; this rule is, never to quote from a quotation, extract, or copy, when access can be had to the original.' Pref. Vol. I p. viii.

"You drank of the well I warrant betimes?

He to the countryman said,

But the countryman smil'd as the stranger spoke,
And sheepishly shook his head.

I hasten'd as soon as the wedding was done,

And left my wife in the porch,

But i' faith she had been wiser than me,

For she took a bottle to church."

Now, instead of extracting from Carew, our author has In reality been quoting from the poet Southey: the original passage is given in these words.

"Next, I will relate you another of the Cornish natural wonders, viz. St. Kayne's well: but lest you make a wonder first at the Saint, before you take notice of the Well, you must understand, that this was not Kayne the man-queller, but one of a gentler spirit, and milder sex; to wit, a woman. He who caused the spring to be pictured, added this rhyme for an exposition:

In name, in shape, in quality,
This well is very quaint;

The name, to lot of KAYNE befell,
No over-holy saint.

The shape, four trees of divers kinde,
Withy, oke, elme, and ash,
Make with their roots an arched roofe,
Whose floore this spring doth wash.

The quality that man or wife,

Whose chance or choice attaines,
First of this sacred streame to drink

Thereby the mastry gaines."

Survey of Corn. p. 129, 30. Edit. 1602. In the account of Ystradfellte are the following particulars of one of the popular superstitions of this country.

I am almost inclined to think that the wildness of character and peculiarity of feature of the scenery of this country have in some degree affected the opinions of the inhabitants, and have contributed to preserve among them a greater number of the legends of antiquity, and a stronger faith in old tales about ghosts and hobgoblins, than in any other part of the country. The cry of the Cwm Anwn, or dogs of Anwn, for instance, is as familiar to the ears of the inhabitants of Ystradfellte and Pontneathvaugben, as the watchman's rattle in the purlieus of Covent-garden. I recollect conversing lately upon this subject with an intelligent young man, who has had a better education than is given to the genera ity of persons in this country, who is in the prime of manhood and in the fullness of his intellects, and who with great gravity requested to know my opinion as to these Cwn Anwn, and observing that I smiled Ah, Sir! (says he) I thought as little as you do of them a week ago, but two nights back I heard them, standing where I now

do, as clearly as I just now heard you speak, and during that night died Such a one. There was now an end of the controversy; not only the existence of these aërial beings, but even the very errand on which they came was established; yet, still being somewhat infected with the scepticism of the day, I ventured to suggest that these dogs might have been part of some 'squire's pack, hunting, as is frequently the case, especially upon light nights; Oh Lord, Sir, (he replied,) their cry was nothing like that of the hounds of this world, but like the short quick notes of young gee e!!! As I am not to doubt this man's veracity, I conclude that the noise proceeded from the nocturnal flight of some birds; and when I state that this conversation was in the latter end of August or beginning of September, the naturalist may perhaps be enabled to form a guess as to their species."

P. 647.

In the parish of St. David is Brecon gaol, which was visited by Mr. Neild, in 1804, and is described from his Letters in the Gentleman's Magazine of that year. On that description, and on the remarks accompanying it, Mr. Jones makes the underwritten excellent observations.

"Mr. Neild, in his report of his visit to Brecon gaol, 1804*,, describes it in general terms (or at least he is liable to be so understood) as the habit in Breconshire to half starve, half clothe, and double iron female convicts; and in his subsequent visit in 1306 he proceeds to stigmatise the gaoler, then in his grave, with the epithets of a man conversant in scenes of misery and seemingly steeled to every tender sensation.'

"He will permit me to state the facts and circumstances which made it necessary to put irons on the women he saw in this gaol; for I am persuaded that it is unnecessary I should controvert the charge of habitual cruelty which his assertions may seem to impute to this country; one of the viragoes, whose sufferings he so pathetically deplores, was a woman of great bodily strength, desperate in her determinations, old in iniquity, and who had been convicted of house breaking, accompanied with very aggravated cir cumstances. A day or two before Mr. Neild's visit, this amazon, assisted by another female prisoner, whom she contrived to corrupt, effected the escape of a male convict and a deserter, as Mr. Neild has stated; she also threatened to set fire to the prison and to murder the gaoler. It was not without some difficulty and caution she was restrained, nor were the irons which shocked his humanity put upon her legs with unresisting submission; I am well assured that it was necessary to call in the aid of more than one person to effect the operation; in this state however he saw her and her assistant, half naked, as he says, that is, without shoes or stockings, and as negligent of her dress as she was of her character. The moment she and her accomplice expressed their contrition and promised to desist from their desperate designs, the irons of both

«* Gentleman's Mag. 1804. p. 101.

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women were removed by this man of steel. Poor Watkins! thou hast ere this appeared before the throne of him to whom all hearts are open, and if the want of humanity with which thou hast been stigmatised was thy only crime, without seeking to fathom the secrets or decrees of that dread tribunal, I hope it is not presumption to pronounce thee happy. I appeal confidently to all who knew him, to all those prisoners who have ever been in his custody (not excepting those of the fair sex, whose cause Mr. Neild has espoused), to give their testimony upon this part of his character; assured that at the result will be the unanimous confirmation of my opinion, that there never was a man in his office, and of course conversant in scenes of misery, more humane than the late Walter Watkins. He was not dismissed as Dr. Lettsom observes, he died keeper of the gaol; and I have reason to know his dissolution was hastened by his wounded feelings upon receiving a reprimand for an irregularity, incurred partly in consequence of his humanity and kind treatment of his prisoners.

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What then shall we say of the correctness of those reports? but even if they were more accurate, I object to the mode in which they acquire or convey information; it is the very charlatanism of hectic humanity, dispersed through nearly the same medium as quack medicines; with this difference, that though neither the advertisement or the prescription is from interested motives, but intended for the good of the patients, the doses are administered by those who are ignorant of the constitution, and consequently not so well qualified to remedy the diseases which may exist as the regular physicians, who alone ought to be apprised, and upon whose general skill and attention I cannot without pain hear any reflexion or imputation attempted to be thrown. And what after all are the general objections to our prisons? the want of mops, pails, brooms, towels, baths, &c.; to which Mr. Neild has lately added the want of a little money to carry the prisoners home when they or discharged. I shall by no means be surprised are acquitted to hear shortly a proposal to furnish every person with a small sum when he gets into gaol to enable him to live with greater comfort under a dry roof. I applaud cleanliness, in which respect the county gaol of Brecon is certainly improved since the appointment of the present keeper; but when Mr. Neild talks of damp walls, confined rooms, bad lights, &c. &c., let him visit the cottage of the honest industrious labourer, with nine or ten young children in one small apartment, into which the rain pours and adds diseases to poverty, and here let him feel for and attend to the distresses of the unoffending; not that I mean to insinuate that the prisoner should be forgotten or oppressed, but let the care of our gaols be exclusively consigned to the magistrates, those constitutional guardians whom the law authorises to superintend them; let it be the general aim of the friends of humanity to ameliorate the condition of the honest labouring poor, and if their efforts be attended with success, our prisons will become less necessary."