Carmarthen (Caer-Fyrddin) - From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849)
CARMARTHEN (CAER-FYRDDIN), an inland port, a borough, market-town, and parish, the head of a union, and a county of itself, locally in the hundreds of Elvet and Derllys, county of Carmarthen, in South Wales, 216 miles (W. by N.) from London, on the road to Milford Haven; containing, in 1849, above 11,000 inhabitants. This place is allowed by all writers to be of very remote antiquity, though they materially differ in assigning its origin. According to some it was the capital of a principal division of the island, called by the Britons Dyved, and by the Romans Dimetia; by others its origin is attributed to Maximus, a Roman general, who, having espoused Helena, daughter of Euddav, Duke of Cornwall, is said to have built Carmarthen, Cardigan, and Haverfordwest. From the concurrent testimony of all antiquaries, it appears to have been the Maridunum of Ptolemy, and the Muridunum of Antoninus, one of the principal stations in the country of the Dimetæ, situated on the Via Julia, a great Roman road, which formed the chief line of communication between this remote part of Britain and the more eastern portions of the island. This road, in its course westward through the present county of Monmouth, divided into two branches, which reunited here. From Maridunum the Via Julia was continued to the furthest extremity of the present county of Pembroke; and another road, also branching from the station, extended northward to Loventium, in the present county of Cardigan. The Roman station is supposed to have occupied the site upon which the castle was subsequently erected; and this opinion is greatly strengthened not only by the natural advantages of the situation, and its peculiar fitness for the site of a Roman camp, but also by existing vestiges of ramparts and earthworks inclosing a quadrilateral area, and the discovery of Roman coins, chiefly of the Lower Empire, and of other Roman relics, among which is one supposed to have been an altar, now preserved in the garden of the vicarage-house.
After the departure of the Romans from Britain, that portion of Dimetia which constitutes the present county of Carmarthen, became part of the principality of Caredigion; and the princes of that territory, who assumed a kind of superiority over the petty sovereigns of South Wales, selected Maridunum as the principal seat of their government, and consequently made it the metropolis of South Wales. Its modern name of Carmarthen, or Caer Fyrddin, as it is called by the Welsh (by a change of the convertible consonants fand m, common in their language), implies "a military station fortified with walls," and perfectly agrees with the description given by Giraldus Cambrensis, who calls it "urbs antiqua coctilibus muris." Its history, for nearly four centuries, is involved in obscurity; nor does any mention of it worthy of notice occur till the year 877, when, on the division of the kingdom of Wales among the three sons of Roderic the Great, the seat of government of the Princes of South Wales, which had heretofore been fixed at Carmarthen, was transferred to Dynevor. This latter was a place strongly fortified both by nature and art, and consequently more suited to the character of the times than the princes' ancient residence, which, according to the Welsh annals, had been repeatedly assailed during the continued struggles among the native chieftains for the sovereignty of South Wales, and which probably at one period was in the possession of the Saxons, who made frequent incursions into this part of the principality. In the year 1021, Hywel and Meredydd, two Welsh chieftains, aspiring to the sovereignty of South Wales, which they intended to divide between them, obtained the assistance of Eulaf, or Aulaf, with a large army of Irish and Scots, and landing on the coast of Pembroke, advanced to Carmarthen. Here they were encountered by Llewelyn, the reigning prince, and his brother Conan, who defeated them in a severe engagement, in which Llewelyn was slain. In 1038, Howel, Prince of South Wales, in the fourth attempt which he made to recover his dominions from the usurpation of Grufydd ab Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, advanced to a place called Pen Cader, about eleven miles to the north of Carmarthen, bringing his wife with him, to share in the victory that he anticipated. But his army was entirely defeated by Grufydd; and Howel himself narrowly escaped, leaving his wife a captive to the conqueror.
The Myvyrian Archæology frequently notices, during the eleventh century, a fortress at Rhŷd-yGors, on the bank of the river Towy, about half a mile below the town, where a road was discovered some years since, leading directly to the river, on the opposite bank of which are the remains of a circular camp, evidently designed to protect the ford, or pass. It is not known at what time, or by whom, the castle of Carmarthen was originally built: the first notice of it occurs about the year 1116, when Grufydd ab Rhŷs ab Tewdwr, a native prince of South Wales, whom Henry I. had dispossessed of his hereditary dominions, and who had passed the greater part of his minority in Ireland, after carrying on a desultory warfare against the Norman invaders of his territory, resolved to make a more powerful effort for the recovery of his right. With this view he attacked the castle of Carmarthen, which, from the strength of the fortifications and the number of the garrison, resisted all his attempts. But Grufydd, having received a considerable accession of forces, and obtained possession of the surrounding country, aware of the importance of that fortress in the hands of his enemies, renewed his efforts, and advanced again to besiege it. In the meantime the Normans, foreseeing the danger, and conscious of their own insufficiency for its defence, invited to their aid the Welsh chieftains that had become vassals to the English monarch, each of whom, in succession, they appointed to defend it for fourteen days; and Owain ab Caradoc, who was among the first to obey the summons, took upon himself the command of the garrison. Grufydd, having learned the state of the fortifications, advanced with great secrecy, and ordering his men, upon the first assault, to raise the shout of victory, the garrison was thrown into confusion, and Owain ab Caradoc, being deserted by his men, was killed upon the ramparts. The castle was taken and dismantled, and Grufydd, having plundered and afterwards demolished the town, retired laden with booty to his retreat in the forest of Ystrad-Tywi. The town and castle were subsequently restored by the Normans, and remained, for short periods, in the alternate possession of these invaders and the Welsh, by each of whom they suffered severely. In 1137 the castle was destroyed by Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, and again by his sons in 1143. In the next year, Gilbert, Earl of Clare, having recovered a considerable portion of the territory of which he had been deprived by Grufydd, rebuilt the castle, and garrisoned it with Normans, who were immediately attacked by Cadell, son of Grufydd ab Rhŷs, to whom it was surrendered, on condition that the lives of the garrison should be spared. The victorious chieftain repaired and strengthened the fortifications, and for some time retained possession of Carmarthen, from which place he made repeated incursions into the territories of the Norman settlers in that part of the country.
The castle, which appears to have been an object of continual attack during the hostilities that prevailed between the English and the Welsh, being in the early part of the reign of Henry II. in the hands of the English, was assailed in 1159 by Rhŷs ab Grufydd, Prince of South Wales, and eldest brother of Cadell. He was ultimately compelled, however, to raise the siege, in consequence of the powerful succours thrown into it by the Earls of Bristol and Clare, whom King Henry had sent to its relief, and of the presence of the English monarch's Welsh allies, Cadwaladr, Cynan, and Hywel, sons of Owain Gwynedd, with their forces. The king, in 1163, received at Pen Cader the submission of Rhŷs, who there did him homage, and gave hostages for his future good behaviour. Notwithstanding this, in 1195, during the absence of Richard I. in Palestine, that turbulent prince again laid siege to the castle, which, after a feeble resistance, he took and demolished, afterwards laying waste the adjacent country. In 1212, Rhŷs Vychan, a powerful chieftain, and one of the sons of Rhŷs ab Grufydd, fighting against his nephews Rhŷs and Owain, who were in alliance with King John of England, was taken prisoner, and confined in this town, but was soon after released, on giving hostages to that monarch for his future good conduct.
In 1215, Llewelyn ab lorwerth, Prince of North Wales, in an expedition against the foreign settlers in this part of the principality, invested the castle of Carmarthen, which he took and dismantled, after a siege of five days; but on doing homage to Henry III. at Gloucester, in 1218, he promised to restore it and others to the English, together with all the dependent territory. In the following year, however, instead of performing his promise, he repaired the fortifications; and placing in the castle a strong garrison of his own forces, kept possession of it till the year 1223, when the Earl of Pembroke captured it after an obstinate defence, and put the garrison to the sword. Llewelyn, apprised of this event, sent his son Grufydd, with an army of 9000 men, to give battle to the earl; and Grufydd, advancing to Carmarthen from Kidwelly, drew up his forces on the opposite side of the river Towy. The earl crossing the river to meet him, a sanguinary battle ensued, which terminated doubtfully, darkness alone parting the combatants, who remained in sight of each other for several days, on the opposite sides of the river; but, owing to a scarcity of provisions, Grufydd was eventually compelled to withdraw his forces, and retire into North Wales.
From this period the castle appears to have appertained for a considerable time to the English crown. The Earl of Pembroke, in 1233, having quarrelled with Henry III., and being joined by Owain ab Grufydd, Rhŷs Vychan, and Maelgwyn ab Maelgwyn, laid siege to the fortress; but it held out for three months, and the garrison being relieved by a reinforcement of troops, and a supply of provisions by sea, the confederates were compelled to raise the siege. In 1256, Henry sent a large army by sea to this place, for the protection of his vassals in South Wales, who were frequently attacked by the native chieftains. After the entire subjugation of the principality by Edward I., Carmarthen was constituted the metropolis of the district to which it gives name, and which was first formed into a county by that monarch, who established in it his courts of chancery and exchequer, and the great sessions for South Wales. In the reign of Henry IV., Owain Glyndwr, having obtained the assistance of an army of 12,000 men from France, under the command of the Marshal de Montmorency, and being joined by several of the Welsh chieftains, advanced from Milford to Carmarthen, in 1405, and laid siege to the castle. This, together with several other fortresses in the neighbourhood, was soon surrendered to him; but, upon the subsequent defeat of his foreign auxiliaries, the principal men of the county abandoned his cause and returned to their allegiance to King Henry. About the year 1450, a grand Eisteddvod, or congress of the Welsh bards, was held in the town, against which the synod of the primitive bards of Glamorgan strongly protested, as tending to subvert the ancient institutions of their order.
Soon after the debarkation of the forces of the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII., at Milford Haven, a division of his army passed through this town, under the conduct of the celebrated Rhŷs ab Thomas, who rejoined the young prince at Shrewsbury, with a powerful body of Welsh adherents whom he had collected in his march. In the persecutions on account of religious tenets during the reign of Mary, Dr. Ferrars, Bishop of St. David's, was accused of heresy, and condemned to be burnt at the stake, which sentence was carried into execution at the Cross here, on the 30th of March, 1555. Carmarthen was visited by the plague in 1604, and again in 1606, when the pestilence raged with such fatality that the sessions were held this year at Golden Grove, to avoid the contagion, which re-appeared in the town in 1651. During the great civil war of the seventeenth century, the castle, which had been garrisoned for the king, was taken by Colonel Laugharne, who afterwards, abandoning the cause of the parliament, withdrew the garrison to Pembroke Castle, where, being joined by Colonel Poyer, who had also come over to the royal cause, he made a memorable stand against the authority of that assembly. In 1648, Carmarthen Castle reverted to the parliament, and was ordered by Cromwell to be dismantled; in which state it remained, part of the keep only being used as a common gaol, till 1787, when the principal part of it was incorporated with the new county gaol, completed in 1792.
The town is beautifully situated on the northwestern bank of the navigable river Tywi, or Towy, about nine miles from its influx into that portion of the Bristol Channel called Carmarthen bay, on a moderate eminence, which commands some of the finest views in the Vale of Towy, and imparts to the town a striking and picturesque appearance. It is above a mile in length, about half a mile in breadth, and consists of several streets, the two principal meeting near its centre, where originally stood the High Cross, the site of which was afterwards occupied by the fish and butter markets. These have been lately pulled down, and on the site will be raised a monument to the late Major-General Sir William Nott, G. C. B., consisting of a bronze statue, executed by Mr. Edward Davies, a native of the county, and placed on a granite pedestal. Carmarthen bridge is a stone structure of seven arches, surmounted with an iron balustrade. The principal streets contain a large proportion of good houses, and many excellent shops, and in the minor streets are several houses of respectable character. Considerable improvement has been effected of late years by modernising old buildings, and erecting new ones, in a style of comfort and taste suited to modern times: among the latter are Picton-terrace, at the west end of the town, and Waterloo-place to the north. The principal streets are paved, and lighted with gas, first introduced here in 1821; and the inhabitants are amply supplied with excellent water, conveyed from springs in the neighbourhood into public conduits in various parts of the town, by iron pipes laid down at the expense of the corporation, in 1804. At the western end of the town, near the entrance from Pembrokeshire, formerly stood a column, erected by public subscription, at an expense of £3000, to the memory of Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Picton, G. C. B., who represented the borough in parliament, and who was slain at Waterloo. It consisted of a pedestal and column, sixty-four feet in height, supporting a colossal statue of the general, nine feet and a half in height, habited in the Roman costume, and having a sword in the left hand. The pedestal on which the figure stood displayed a tasteful arrangement of shields and halberts, and at the angles of the platform were mortars mounted on carriages. On one side of the pedestal of the column was an inscription, recording in the English language the various exploits of the general during his military career, and on the opposite side was a literal translation of it into the Welsh language: the other two faces were respectively occupied with representations in altorelievo of the storming of Badajos and the battle of Waterloo, in both of which he particularly distinguished himself. The ornamental parts of the column were finely executed by F. H. Bailey, R.A., but the composition of which they were formed did not withstand the influence of the weather. This monument, having fallen into dilapidation, was taken down in the year 1846, and in its place was erected a plain obelisk, wholly devoid of architectural pretensions, and far inferior as a work of art to its predecessor. At the angles of the base are four pieces of ordnance, presented by Government. The whole was completed in the winter of 1848-49. The environs of the town are adorned with neat villas, some pleasingly varied and attractive scenery, and several mansions, among the latter of which are those of Ystrad, Rhydygors, Aberguilly, and Stirling Park. The ground is but thinly wooded; but the inequality of the surface, to a great extent, compensates for this defect, supplying several interesting views, especially one of the town, strikingly beautiful, embracing its castle and bridge, the vessels in the river, and the bold and diversified hills, by which it is terminated.
The Cambrian Society in Dyved, for the preservation of the remains of ancient British literature, and for the encouragement of the national music of the harp, established here in the year 1818, under the patronage of the late Dr. Burgess, Bishop of St. David's, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, is at present nearly extinct; and the Cymreigyddion Society, for the encouragement of Welsh poetry, by the distribution of medals and premiums, is also in a declining state. A literary and scientific institution was established in the year 1846. Concerts and balls are occasionally held at the principal inns. Races used to take place annually in September, for two days, but latterly they have been discontinued, and steeplechases substituted for them; the race-course was about four miles distant from the town, higher up the vale. During the races, balls took place alternately at the two principal inns.
The port carries on a small foreign, and a very considerable coasting trade, now fast increasing. The principal exports are, British timber, bark, marble, slate, bricks, lead-ore, leather, manufactured goods, grain, butter, and eggs; and the principal imports are, foreign timber, pitch, rosin, tallow, coal, culm, malt, and manufactured goods for the supply of the town and neighbourhood. Towards the close of the year 1830, a weekly communication was established between Bristol and Carmarthen, by the Frolic steampacket, which was unhappily lost off the Nass sands, in its voyage from Tenby to Bristol, in March 1831, when all on board perished. At present, three steam-packets are employed, the Talbot, the Phoenix, and the Torridge, keeping up a regular communication between the two places. There are also vessels called Bristol traders, which sail alternately every week. With that city, which is regarded as the emporium of South Wales, Carmarthen carries on a very extensive trade, obtaining from it large quantities of goods of various descriptions, with which it furnishes a populous district entirely dependent on it for supplies. The quay, which at spring tides is accessible to ships of 300 tons' burthen, extends for several hundred yards along the northwestern bank of the river, and is commodious. The great South Wales railway will pass by Carmarthen, crossing the river below the present bridge. The Towy is celebrated for its salmon and sewin fisheries, in which numbers of the poorer inhabitants employ themselves. Some large tin-works are carried on; about 100 persons are emplo |
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