whole country of Hy-Many, in the present counties of Galway and Roscommon, was in the actual possession of the Firbolgs when, about that time, it was forcibly wrested from them by Maine Mor. There is a curious account of this conquest in the Life of St. Greallan, an abstract from which is published in the "Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many."

99 1

But there can, I think, be no question but that the subjugated Firbolgs elsewhere had assisted in the formation of the religion, customs and political constitution of their conquerors. If we find in West Wales and in Brecknockshire remains of stone forts precisely similar, if not identical, in character with those attributed to the Firbolgs in Ireland, and these are traditionally associated with the Gwyddel invasions of Wales, we may suppose that the Irish Milesians, fused with the subjugated Firbolgs, had learned from them to construct these forts.

We cannot be sure all this is matter of conjecture. And so it must remain till systematic exploration in Ireland, in Wales, in Cornwall, and in Scotland, has told us more of the builders. That the Irish invaders and conquerors in Britain did erect forts there we know from a passage in the Glossary of Cormac, who died in 903. He says, speaking of the period circ. 350-380, "At this time the power of the Gadhaels was great over the Britons. They had divided Albion among them into farms, and each of them had a neighbour and friend among the people"; and he goes on to say that they established fortresses throughout the land, and founded one at Glastonbury. "One of those divisions of land is Dun MacLiathan in the country

Irish Archæological Society, 1843.

of the Britons of Cornwall." I will now mention some of the peculiarities of these stone caers.

That of Tre'rceiri I have not seen, but I have gone over the wonderful Carn Gôch in Carmarthenshire, and I have closely studied both St. David's Head and Tregarn.

I have already alluded to the obstacles in the Irish duns and Welsh cliff castles. Mr. Christison describes very similar obstacles of planted stones at Cademuir fort, in Peebleshire, and Dreva in the same county.

Another method of forming obstacles was by spreading sheets of loose stones below the fort walls. These are artificially laid in several Scottish examples. At Whit Tor on Dartmoor, such a "clatter" of stones exists, mostly natural, but in part artificial. At Carn Gôch, the sides of the hill top are strewn with broken masses of stone, to all appearance purposely placed there, but having bare turf leading to the entrances, which entrances are otherwise defended. A second feature is the wall containing in it circular chambers, usually grouped in threes. This is said to occur at Tre'rceiri. But they are found likewise in Cornwall and Devon. I confess myself to doubt their being structural, at all events at Carn Gôch, and in the Devon and Cornwall examples close examination shows them to have been made by masons in search of big stones or by men digging out foxes.

At Carn Gôch is a huge cairn occupying the highest point within the enclosure. At Tregarn are three. These cairns are almost certainly not erected over the dead, and are in all probability stores of stone to be employed as projectiles, or for the repair of the wall.

1 Three Irish Glossaries. Lond. 1862. MacLiathan took its name from the Hy Liathan, who occupied the territory afterwards forming the Barony of Barrymore in Cork. This gives us an indication of the region whence some of the Gywddel invaders came. Mommsen, in his edition of Nennius, says that MacLiathan was in South Wales.

At Whit Tor on Dartmoor there is a similar walled camp, and an outcrop of trap-rock has been utilised to build about it a huge cairn. But in the centre of the cairn is a round patch of turf or moss on the rock. This cairn has been thoroughly explored, and showed conclusively that it was not erected over the dead.

It has been noticed by me that in our Dartmoor, and in the Cornish instances of caerau of stone, there is often a chamber or hut-circle outside. And in the admirably preserved Fort of the Wolves, West of Dingle, in Kerry, there is actually such a chamber perfect in the thickness of the wall opening outside. It was probably a warder's box, but that the warder should be thus left outside is strange. In an ancient tale in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, a MS. of the eleventh century, is mention of a watchman thus keeping guard outside, when a giant approaches and throws the watchman over the wall into the enclosure.

A good many chieftains in Ireland gave up their cashels or duns to the saints, and these converted them, without difficulty, into monasteries. Bede describes the cashel of St. Cuthbert at Lindisfarn thus:-" He had there, built for himself, with the assistance of the brethren, a small dwelling with a trench about it, and the necessary cells, and an oratory where he had served God in solitude many years; the mound that encompassed his habitation being very high, he could see from thence nothing but heaven, to which he ardently aspired.' And again, "It was built of sods and stones so large that four men could hardly lift them, and it was nearly circular, and the wall inside was higher than outside."

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The Irish ecclesiastical cashels were always as nearly as might be 140 feet in diameter, in accordance with the

1 Hist. Eccl., cxxviii.

2 Vit. S. Cuthberti, c. xix.

measurement said to have been adopted by St. Patrick for the monasteries built under his direction at Ferta.

According to Miss Stokes, it is always easy for an experienced eye to distinguish between the ecclesiastical and the military cashels in Ireland.

Whether, in Wales, there were any conversions of stone forts into monastic settlements I do not know. In Cornwall there must have been something of this sort. St. Denys is a church planted in the midst of a dinas. When the church was re-consecrated by one of the mediæval bishops of Exeter, he dedicated it to St. Denys, through misconception of the original name, Landinas. At Hellborough, a stone caer near Camelford, is' a chapel to St. Itha, the Bridget of Munster, on a cairn in the midst; and St. Petrock's at Lydford is in the midst also of a strongly fortified cliff castle.

In Wales, the stone hut circles are attributed by tradition to the Irish Gwyddels. May not the stone fortresses there be also due to them? They occur in those parts of North and South Wales that were overrun by the Irish. It is greatly to be desired that Tre'rceiri, Carn Ingli, and Carn Gôch, at least, should be thoroughly explored, to settle the many questions that are asked concerning these castles. But, unfortunately, the digging out of a camp is a peculiarly costly work; and for such undertakings money is not readily forthcoming. Nevertheless, it is to be hoped, that some day pick and shovel will force from them their story.

EARLY SOCIAL LIFE IN WALES.1

BY

DAVID BRYNMÔR JONES, Q.C., M.P.

SUCH exaggerated notions have prevailed as to the antiquity of the Cymric race that it is necessary to make an observation as to the use of the word "early" in the title I have given to this paper. The period in my view covered by that term is the time that elapsed from the first emerging of our race as a separate nation or state after the departure of the Romans, to the Norman conquest or a little later. I say the emerging of our race as a separate nation because the tribes which joined together under Cunedda and his successors to resist the Teutonic invaders had been for many years under the rule of the Roman Empire. Each of them had had of course its own history, though very little is known about that of any of them. So far as I can find out no one of the tribes in the island called themselves Cymry. The word "Cymro" means compatriot, and only came into use after the legions had departed, and the island was left to defend itself as best it could. It looks as if it was employed to designate the Celtic tribes and kindreds who acknowledged Cunedda as their leader after he had conquered North Wales. If this be so, the Cymric kingdom is not very ancient, and it was only in the fifth century that the Cymry began to regard

Read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, at 20 Hanover Square, on Thursday, the 23rd of February, 1899; Chairman, Sir John T. D. Llewelyn, Bart., M.P.