The Carmarthen Weekly Reporter

Th« AiiCicul City of I'uruiarllseu.' j following pap".=-r on • The- Ancient City i c. La;m;;rthen," Vas read by Mr William Wcidc.i- Emrys. House, Carmarthen, at the mex- .;?g d the Eugiiih. Congregational Cuxitl, ell ixGiKlny evening, the 21th Nrv.vr.it Cur readers will find i: a very ;1d interesting composition, and one crcdit to Mr Water's historical Ir'k-gr. The subject is sack an interest- ing one. ithar wic have- decided to publish the paper in its entirety. We arc all famiiiar with the expressions The old town of Carmarthen." The ancient Borough of Carm-ir-Lhcn. But are these correct expressions ? Is the Borough an ancient one ? and is the town an old town ? I answer, yes, without doubt, to bora question?. Becau.se, to prove the origin of the borough as a corporate body is a very simple matter, whilst to, prove the antiquity of the town is simpler still—its existence must go back beyond that period. How old, then, is this town wheije we live in ? Is it COO years old Ye,.c;. Is it a thousand yen: s old ? Yes again, and you may safely double that number of years. We shall now try to go back, step by step, event after event, possessing reliable proofs to test the age of the town. The first step backwards shall be to the cariy part of the 18th Century—say about 1720—nearly 200 years ago. At this time, a man hailing from Shrewsbury arrived in Carmarthen, and immediately introduced a business which till then. was quite unknown to the inhabitants. I have reason to believe that- this .stranger succeeded in his ira(c here. His name was Isaac Carter, and he was the first printer in Wales. Competition soon became ketsn even in those days, because shortly after the arrival of Carter, several other printing cfficevs appeared in the town. As a lysult, books in abundance were. issued from the various printing presses, so that. Carmarthen soon became a very important centre for literature, mostly religious, for the Principality of Wales. I am not. wrong when I say that, from the first appearance of Isaac Carter to the end of the century, the town of Carmarthen produced nearly twice as many books as all the other towns of Wales put together- Its productions in- cluded bibles, testaments, commentaries, theological works, hymn books, grammars and dictionaries as well as a larger number of various smaller works of a religious character generally; so that Wales, during that period was more indebted to Carmarthen for expel- ling the gloom of ignorance and superstition which prevailed than to any other town within its. borders. Who can estimate the amount of moral and spiritual good produced by the Carmarthen press from the days of its first printer Isaac Carer, to the present day ? Too great, I fear, for an estimate. Therefore, what a formidable rival to the pulpit has- the printing press become. I wonder whether the press some day will supersede the pulpit. Another step backwards to the year 1623. In this year an infant boy was born in the town of Carmarthen. In collirse, of time the infant grew to boyhood and manhood. He entered college, was ordained deacon and priest of the Church of England, and subse- quently had a living in a Welsh rural parish Church. In a few year- for well-known reasons, lie left the Established Church, and becamle a staunch Nonconformist. He preached incessantly throughout this county, published several important books, and estab- lished no less than L eight Congregation,"] Churches*. He was net only a good and pious minister, but an excellent organiser in the cause of Nonconformity. This hard worker was the Apostle of Carmarthen- shire"—Stf»rihen Hughes, of Mydrim. For all his labours, for his untiring efforts in the cause of religion—what a reward did he receive Stephen Hughes was put in Car- marthjero Gaol, and there kept for some time! Surely, another saint to consecrate a cell in that c'd Castle Gaol! We shall again take another step back- ware's, until we are some- 300 years from the present time. An English gentleman made hi* appearance in the neighbourhood cf Car- marthen. I sometimes think that this gentleman did not always possess a bright and cheerful countenance as he walked .or rode through, the s.t.reets of Carmarthen, and on his journeyings to and from his country residence. It does not require a great streteh of imagination to siee him often with a dejected, melancholy. sad countenance. Little wonder for this he came here when the country generally was in an unsettled turbulent state. He did not know how soon a storm of fanatical persecution might break over his head. By this time ycu have ha dan inkling as to who this stranger was. He was Dr Robert Ferrar, Bishop of St. David's, who resided in Abergwili. and who, seven years later, suffered martyrdom within the prescints of Carmarthen Castle. But WHO WAS BISHOP FERRAR ? So much has been printed and spoken about this bishop during the past few days, that I shall only give a very detailed of him. Robert Ferrar was a native of Halifax, a town in Yorkshire, and early in life was re- ceived into the Augustinian order of monks. He studied both at Cambridge and Oxford, afterwards becoming a prior (or head monk) of No-tell Monastery in Yorkshire. So at that timb, just before the Reformation, Ferrar was a Roman Catholic At the dis- solution. of the monasteries (1536 to 1640) Ferra-r became a Protestant—no doubt a thorough and conscicnticus Protestant. In 1.j4.J he wac made chaplain to Archbishop Craumier, and soon afterwards, following the exam-pie of his water, he took to himself a wife. At such a very unsettled time, this step, to say the least, wa.s a hazardous one remembering that the Papists, should they come into authority, would make Ferrar a "marked man." He was a priest, and had ventured to marry, contrary to th? tenets of Rome. Ferrar was also chaplain to the Duke of Somerset, the Protector, through the influ- ence of whom, and that of the preceding bishop, Robert Ferrar was appointed Bishop < of St. David's. He was consecrated in London, on December 9th, 1548. We will now fellow the bishop down to Wales. It is said that he found his diocese generally in a state of disorder; and here I cannot do. better than quote the words of the historian Froude, who says of Ferrar and his diocese— He was a man of large humanity, justice, and uprightness—neither conspicuous as a theologian nor prominent as a preacher, but remarkable chiefly for good sense and a kindly imaginative tenderness. He had found his diocese infected with the general disorders of the timies. The chapter were in- dulging themselves to the utmost in ques- tionable pleasures. The Church patronage was made the prey of a nest of cathedral lawyers." The bishop's first task was to endervour to right the wrong, and to bring matters into some kind of order, which required a firm, steady hand. He rebuked the. register of t h", dio^e- George Constantine, tor theft and waste he deprived the cathedral pre- centor (Thomas Young) of his office fa. great immorality; and made other changes. So Ferrar was a Reformer in lr.crc senses than-one. As a result of his tfieri 3 to reform his diocese, the registrar in com- pany with other disreputable persons, brought no less than 76 different charges against the bishop, which were sent up to in authority. We must bear in mind that a tthis time, in the latter part of the reign of young King Edward VI., the Papists were fait gaining ground, so that Ferrar had little hope of receiving justice in connection with the accusation brought against him. He was taken to London to answer the 76 charges referred to. And how vague and trivial were the majority of them Here, for example, are a few His conversation was not of godliness, but of wcrdly things, such as baking, brew- ing. ploughing," and so forth. To show his folly in riding, he used Scotch trappings for his horse, and earned a small staff three- quarters of a yard in length. When his child was being baptised, lie ventured to name it Samuel," and procured two godfathers and two godmothers, contrary to canon law, thus making the child a, monster and himself a laughing-stock. The bishop ws.s aJso accused of whistling to his son, and the child actu- ally recognised his father's whistle when only three years old. Another accusa,ti~n against him was his partiality to the Welsh people. It should be metnioned here, that Ferrar had rreatly offended the Catholic dignitaries in three things. In the first place, he was once sent by Ilenry VIII. cn an errand to induce James V. of Scotland to assist iu the work of throwing off the Pope's authority. Then he had married a wife, which was shocking to a Roman Catholic. He had also dared to alter the cathedral arrangements. Add to these the fact that he was once the head of a Roman Catholic Priory—now a Protestant Bishop It required but liv Ie effort on the part. of his enemies to bring him low. He was taken from Abeigwili to Lon- don. tried before the stern. Popish Gardiner, fou;nd guilt r as a. heretic, and ¡Oiut into prison This appears to have taken place in 1554— the year before his death. Ferrar, thus, was Bishop of St. David's for about six years only. Was there, a glimmer of hope that Ferrar wmJld be released from prison ? Let us for a moment see how matters stood at this time. Gardiner was in rowi-sr. and he had resolved to extirpate heresy—which means the Pratetsa«nts: Catholic Queen Mary was en the throne; the Pole's authority was about to be restored in England and Wales; the ancient laws permitting the burning of heretics were revived Henry Morgan (a Papist) was now Bishop of St David's, and in a London prison. Not a glimmter of hope, for the imprisoned Ferrar. Ealy in January, 1555-the second of Queen Mary's reign—Parliament passed the Act of Repeal, by which the Papal authority was fully restored as it stood in the first years of Henry VIII. Now the storm broke in all its severity. The wrath and fury of the Papists were aroused, and the extermina tion of all Protestants in the land was deter- mined upon. The first five victims were Hooper. Bishop of Gloucester, the three Pro- testant preachers, Rogers, Saunders, and Taylor, and Bishop Ferrar. The first four were burned forthwith in London, but Forra,r sent down to Camarthen to be tried a second time for heresy before Bishop Morgan Arriving here, the High Sheriff of Car- marthenshire for that year (Dr Griffith Leyshon) handie dover the custody of Ferrar a Henry Morgan, his successor, in St. Peters Church. It is probable that the. trial of Ferrar took place in the Bishop's Court, in St. Peter's Church—the south-east corner of the e:difiof. Foxe. in his Book of Martvrs, says He (Ferrar) was brought six times I before Honry Morgan, bishop of St. David's, who endeavoured to persuade him to re- nounce his faith, which he energeticallv re- fused to do and the. Bishop in his bad temper, pronounced him an cxcommunicated heretic, and handed him over to the civil power." And now CQines one of the saddest and me.-t remarkable scenes ever witnessed in the old town of Carmarthen. Dr Leyshon, the county high sheriff, who lived in the Priory, makes his arrangements for an execution. It must take placie -iibliel.v in the town. He meets with some difficultieshe cannot put the bishop to death in any part belonging to the Borough, for Henry VIII. had granted a charter in May, 1546, eight years previously, which thus stated: — No justice or sheriff can enter or send into the Borough a deputy, to execute any office there: the power of doing so belongs to the Borough authorities." The execution of Ferrar, consequently. •ad to take place within the pre-scints of the CpsJlo, which then formed part of the parish of Newchurch. The stake was fixed near the Market Cross, -ob,bly a few yards behind •"he snot where Nott's statue stands now. On the 301 h of March, a, grim procession might bo F-oon proceeding through the prison norch by the Buffalo Inn. the officials lead- ing Ferrar in surplice to the stake. He was chained to the stone in readiness for the fiery martyrdom. It is stated that at this parti- cular moment Ferrar asked permission to neak before being put to death; but the High Sheriff, beirw a Pa"i.<t. refused to him his request. It is further said that soon iftcr. Dr Leyson himself died; and when e attempted to speak before, dying, he could net. Thi" fagots were soon lit, and the fierce flames in a short time transformed the martyr's body to. a, ghastly, charred frame, vbir-h. however, stood erect even after the -pitit had taken its heavenward flight. Thus ^a-secV away another withn-ess to' Thie Tru'h." as we Protestants understand the word. The chief object, no doubt, in executing the bishop in his own diociese. as was the course taken with other bishops, wa.s, to strike terror into the hearts of all Protes- tants throughout the country. But the ebjc'it was not attained. The people pretes- red against first cruelties, and for a short rime after the burning of Ferrar there was a lull in the storm, when court, and bishops, equally guilty, blamed one another. But i.t scon broke out again with double fury. so that before, the. end of this vea.r (1555) no less than 67 persons were burnt at the stake. Small wonder that the reigning monarch has been styled "Bloody Queen Mary." What about this tumultuous and persecu- ting period in our history ? Shall we wholly condemn the Catholic and justify the Pro- testant P Hardly fair. What each did when ;n power was in the name of religion. We I11wt not deal rashl.y and unjustly wih them ■ad we must not forget that they lived in "the days of old the years cf ancient times." Both parties dominated and persecuted, and both parties, acted according to the spirit and tendency of the period. The mystery is solved when we say that the one thing lack- ing was toleration. The spirit of toleration was not then understood. For manv years, both struggjjrd for the supremacy but—Pro- trstanism at 1 act triumphed, and with what results wie all know. Centuries of quietude Followed. Protestantism has cast aside the rack, the and the gallows as instru- ments of 'persecut ion ■ it has brought in its trhl toleration, freedom of conscience and worship, civil and religious libe-rty. May the day never dawn whes this country shall lose 'ts Protestant ascendancy. 350 veers have: away since the mar- tyrdom of Brhop of Ferrar, and no indi- cr collective effort has been made in 11 a _nimartnen to ercou any kjnd of memorial 4'> rpvpetuate this event, This wcrk hrrs been left to- a -eung ladv of the towna member of one of the Free Cliurchcs-who •?s caused to be. erected,, at her sole fX- "PnIe. a bronze tablet in Nott square. The tablet is a. suitable one, and suitably in- scribed. The inscription reads as fellows: — "Th e noble anmy of martyrs praise thee. Near thi" spot suffcrel for the truth Saturday March 30. 1555, Dr. Robert Ferrar, Bishop of St. David's. "We shall bv God's grace such a candle li1 England as shall never bo putt out." With this Scripture quotation oa each side: "Be them faithful unto death, and I will ive t-lice a. crown cf life." In closing my account of Bishop Ferrar, I 1 wiil mention one local tradition. I give it as it has been hc.ncicd down (so' I am told) from father to sen, age after age, to the prc-sert, time. To my knowledge, the incident has j never appeared in print. Until very recently an old thatched cottage', with remarkably thick walls, stood in the village of Ti e- vaughan Hill, nf.arlv 11. anile from town. It Yr EX"N"" (tn Englr h The j A Tradition has io that the high sheriff had .seme difficulty in procuring an executioner for Bishi.e Ferrar, whoso t-ark would be to arrange the fagots around the stake possibly io rprinkle them with rcme inflamable liquid, and to apply the torch when ordered to do A person was at last found, to whom a cottage aaid an aerei of ground was promised fer doing the work. The executioner in tlue tisne received his reward, and dwelt in the cottage already mentioned, '.rrrcuncled bv an acre cf ound After the lapse of many years it was noticed by prssers-by on the old parish road (the turnpike road was not made then) that the cottage showed no signs of life. Some curious per-ons trocscd over, entered the house, and t-Vric found the lifeless body of !J1 old in deepest poverty, ccvcred with filth and vermin! We must now proceed with further proofs of the of the town. I will now bring forward two or three witnesses. I call my paper "The Ancient City of Carmarthen." Th-rsie are not. my words: the town was FO described seven centuries ago. A notable person named Giraldus de Bp.rri travelled then through Waks, and, writing his account •n 1201-5, describes Carmarthen as "an encient city (m?rk, not town) situated on the banks cf the noble, river Tywy, surrounded bv woods, and riastures and was strongly en- closed with walls. <J That is the first witness. From time to time. important charters wore granted to the town and borough; each of these documents borjei the signature of the reisriiing monarch. The charters, which were, several in number, granted nrivilesrjcs to the town, which other towns did not possess. By the.m Carmarthen governed itself by means of a mayor, burgees, recorder, bailiffs, town clerk, and so 011. In the charter glv0,n bv ITenrv II.. the town is called "The old "itv cf Ksyrmerd-n." and in the charter of 1685, it is called The very ancient and populous borough." These witnesses, were I T to my pa,pe,r here, arc sufficient proofs of the antiquity of this town (or rather, the city). A word or two more about the charters— the first and the last of thjem. The main privilege granted to the burgesses in 1199, by King John (700 years1 ago) was "that the burgesses of Carmarthen should, for four years, have full liberty throughout, the whole realm, except London." This was. an impcr- tant privilege in those far-off days. The burgesses were allowed to travel anywhere 'hroughouii England and Wales, but could net enter London. The last charter "ranted was by Georgfe III., 140 years ago. So im- oortarit did the inhabitants consider this one that they went out in procession to meet the orach conveving the document, from London. Thfgi Procession, is described in these- words —"The inhabitants of the County Borough went in great pcmp to meet their charter, in coaches and chariots, and near a, 1.000 horses, and men on foot innumerable. Fifty two white flags, with three ravens drawn c,n each of them, carrying 13. sprig of laurel in their beaks, signifying loyalty and good news Trie. charter was- delivered- to Albert Da vies, Esq.. at .the town end of Abergwili Bridge. gentlemen and tradesmen dined on an ox that had been roasted whok near the conduit in Lammas street. There were orand fireworks (in the evening by the Tcwn Hall." What a jolly day that must have been for Carmarthen THE MONASTERIES. A few words next concerning these insti- tutions. We know that, two monasteries ex- isted in Carmarthen, but we-have. very little account of either; their early history is hidden in the dim mists of the past. Both inhabited by monks. One, the Grey Friars, in Lammas street, or rather on the 'n:t we now call Friars Park. In the rei n ef Honry VIII., the Friary was dissolved, and the property sold to one Thomas Lloyd, oh and subsequently it was purcha.sed by Sir Richard Vaughan, and remained in that family for a considerable period, until the property was willed to the Camohells, Lords of Cawdor, in whose possession it now re- mains. There are some incidents of interest con- nected with this old establishment. Within its walls were laid to rest the remains of Edmund Tudor, the first Earl cf Richmond, who was father of Henry VII.. and grand- Cat,her-of Henry VIII. This took nl.3.ce in November, 1456. We must not forget that this person- (thcl Duke, of Richmond) was a Welsh gent'Oman. Here also were buried Syr Rys 2b Thomas, an ancestor of the pre. ent ,ynevrr family, and Lady Rh"s, There. was n.one greater in his time in South Wales than Syr Rhys ab Thomas. He was statesman and warrior. At the battle of Bos- worth, in 1483. he had an army of Welshmen and it was his arm, that determined the fortunes of the day. when lie, slew, with, his own battle-axe, the unfortunate reigning Monarch. Richard III. Immedja.t.e after thie slaying cf King Richard, the crown wa.s placed 011 the head of Henry VII., whe e father (the Duke of Richmond), as already stated', was a Welshman. The other monastery was a. Priory, stand- ing en the flat below the Old Priory Arch, and on the bank of the river. Nothing is known concerning its foundation, beyond that it was dedicated to St. John t.he Evan- gelist., and erected to contain six black canons. The main building, which does not appear to be a large one. stood ait the lower end of a walled square, according to Speed's map. The Priory was burnt down in 1436, in the reign of Henry II. Some persons of note were buncd here also. In the year 1089 Cadifor Fawr, Princie of Dyfed. was buried here. A noted WcJ-h bartl, Tudur Aled, who was a Black Friar, was oJsO' interred in the Priory. And here died, in 1504, John Morgan., Bishop of St. David's. In the reign of Henry II., the Church of St. Peter, with all charelsi belonging to it, were nivon by charter to this Priory. Have you ever thought about the number of religious buildings in this town, say about .-)00 years ago. There were probably stand- ing here no less, than 10 places of worship- churches: and chapels (not, Nonconformist chapels of course but oha.pels-of-ea.se). Some- one, perhaps will doubt uH., Suppose I try to prove it. 1. The Priory Church, in Priory street. 2. St. Peter's ulurch- 3. Prince Edward's Chapel, in Nott Square 4. The Chapel of the Castle. 5. St. Mary's Church behind Town Hall. 6. St. John's Chapel (Capel Ifan). 7. St. Catherine's Church, to the west of the resent Cattle lvxarket. 8. The Church of the Grey Friars in Lammas-street. 9. fat. Barbaras Church, on the Alltycnap read. 10. Lianilwch Cnurch. xnese were all within the Borough. Each oi Uio euihces, ci course, Had one or more oeli.s. 11 all Li-le. bells were ringing at the same time on Sundays, tnose uays must have uccirt very lively ones here, and Carmarthen must nave been then, like Moscow ait presenb a very city oi beiis. A word or two here about THE FIRST ALDERMEN. Tiie office of alderman dates from the year (some uu years ago), when the town was divided into lour wards, as they are at present. For what, purposes were these aldermen, created, and what, were their lunctious '( 'lhey were lour in number—one lor each ward. (W e have SJX aldermen 111 our presest Town Council). Each ward was governed by an alderman, who was appoin- ted tor life, provided he continued to reside in the town. They were preservers' of the peace, or a kind of special chief constables. Twice each year they were to see that every inhabitant possssed a hatchet, a billhook, or some such instrument, in readiness to keep the peace; and the aldermen w,ere to nnt in prucn ad persons net possessed of these arms. They wfcre also to see tha.t the streets I were kept. cl,,?,ii cf stones, timber lime, dirt, or dunghills • and to punish those inhabitants who did not sweep the streets in front of their housies twice a week. Here we 8ue that inhabitants generally were the scavengers in, those days. It thus appears til-cut the ancient alderman was a busy officer the town. Circumstances have; so altered, i that the office of a present day aJdeiman is' [1, sinecure. Now for a word or two about OLD AND NEW CARMARTHEN. ) In tee olden times, til*, portion of the town to the east of the Castle was called Old Carmarthen, whilst that to the west, the iii'.wer part, wa.s styled New Carmarthen. The two parrs of t o town, in n, civil sense, were quite disconn.c2.cd foe ecntmi e. IInry VIII., in 1546, gransetl a ehertc to New Carmarthen. In the reign cf Gc-011^ in., however, the two* were in dc by ihe.rtcr into c,nr, borough. This the' charter which the inhabitants went to meet in procession to Abergwili Bridge. ST. PETER S CHCRCH. I do not think that :W,-r.;1C will deny the fact that, of 8)1 the religious edifices in Car- marthen, St. Peter's Church i, the oldest. Its associations appear go back as far as the 5th ccntury. I do not, ineen the -resent building cn its -recon,t site. I am now speak ij of St. Peter's Chr-r< h. \Ve have, it on good authoiii v that Merlin's mother in the fifeh .rentury. was. a nun of the "Church of St. Poller in Carmarthen." Whether that, church stood on the site of the present one, or whether the refcriernce is to a, church de- dicated to St. Peter in a, nunnery, I cannot tell. But here we have mention of a nun Yn eglwys Beder, yn Nghaer Fyrddyn." One authority for this is Geoffry of Mon- mouth. It is certain, however, that St. Peter'^ Church, as we know it, existed pre- vious to the year 1,100. because soon after that "ear the iNorman King, Henry I. han- ded over this church to an abbey founded by his father, William the Conqueror. The building was originally in the, form of D. cross; but at, the suppression of the two monasteries, it was enlarged by adding the south wall, which gave another aisle. The object of extension is plain—Divine Service was discontinued in some of the churches and chapels, the monks who usually officia- ted having left t.he town. Now for a, few disconnected facts relating to St. Peter's Church. Nearly 300 years ago the officiating clergy ma n at St. Peters re- ceived annually, as a stipend the sum of- £ 7. About 200 years ago, the sexton of St. Peter's was a/ripointeel by the Mayor and t,b Corp oration. The churchwardens, of St. Peters, in 1712, were ordered by the Town Council to impose a, rate on the inhabitants for re-casting a bell wheh had beien cracked. A great deal more relating to this inter- esting church might, be added but I will mention only onjei more incident. At one period it was the custom for young -cople, who had been ignited in matrimony, to sit in 1 St. Peter's Church in order to receive donations from their friends. This seemed like the very neeent bidding or neithior." The worshippers, however, appear to have objected to the '"acticjet at last, as, they were discouraged from attending divine service and such a, grievance did the practice become that, it wa,s ordered that after Christmas, 1583 (about 400 ye,3.r sago), no persons should be married in tho said church, or in any cthHr church or chapel, should be permitted to receive within the chancel of the said Church any public or open offerings. My task to-night is to show the antiquity of the town. We have already gone back some 900 years, and at, the next step we shall find Carmarthen a. "royal city." Yes, it was a metropolis, and is supnosied to have been a.s such for some centuries previously. The seat of the government of South Wales >W"S nere. i oo^ governing princes resided in trJe Castle, which was often attacked, and around which many a sanguinary battle va,s fought,. The, Welsh ^rinces ultimately re- moved their court to Dvnevor Castle, Llan- dilo, as a> place of greater safety. We are now back beyond a 1,000 yea a-, p.e town is growing aged. In thus looking backwards to past events, and in trying to picture in meditation the ever-changing con- dition, of its dwelleis, it is not to be won- dered at, perhaps, if thosre of us who arc natives of the place, reel a, kind of :nbrcd affection for the old town—a feeling which cannot well be expressed in words. The strangier comes the stranger goes he knows nought of this feeling. Insignificant as some may consider it. tho^e of us who have been born and reared in it., yet love it. Some- times; during moments cf leisure, we 1 lose our eyes, anel reproduce to our imaginative view, some of the scenes which ve know were witnessed in thie town many rentarvs ago. We have seen princes and princeses P'C-i a.m on Initin its .struts. We have seen King Edward 1. and his Quit-e,n on a virit. here, and sleeping in the royal appartments within the Castle. We hav/e had glimir^os of the Black Prince when paying three visits to Carmarthen in different yea.rs, he also sleeping within the Castle wall* 4^1,. "L'O.}. "&1.- bisaops, ancient knights, and noblemen have Ween seen here from time to time. We have seen William the Conqueror, with his retinu/e and Oliver Cromwell at the head of his Ironsides, passing through the town. And mere-onr personal associations are closely connected with past -ears. It was here where our fathers and mothers lived, and toiled, and struggled. Thev have passed a.way, and their graves are dotted here and there throughout the. borough. We cannot but. cherish tenderlest affection for the old town. Strange to say. from about, the year 876. when the Welsh princes removed their govern mont from Carmarthen to Dynevor Castle, to the birth of Merlin, and the departure of the Romans early in .the 5t.h century, tho history of the town is very meagre indeed. About the only information we possess is, that the kings of Dyfed reigned here, a.nd probablv lived in Carmarthen. We are now naturally led 'o ask— WHO WAS MERLIN ? We must here cleiarl yunderstand that there are two Merlins-—the Merlin of history and (the Merlin of legend. The mythical Merlin discovered two dragons beneath the Jakfei the red and the white. The two dragons fought fiercely with each other but the red dragon was the victor; and t,hi, red dragcii is e,ne, of the Welsh national embllems of today, and has been as such for many centuries. This mythical being also, once upon a tirnlo, in company with bards and fairies, went to sea. in. a ship of glass, on,d was never heard of again. The historic Merlin, with whom we have to deal was the son of a nun, who lived in Carmarthen and she-was the daughter of the king of Dyfed. If one asks, Was Merl n a man of note ? I reply. Yes. a remarkably noted man for that dark period. I father thac Merlin was a. shrewd man—a person >yno kept his eyes wide open through life he was a man of strong common sense—a man with a. keen observance^—a man. who diligenitly enquired about the "why a.nd the wherefore" of all things around him. And this way Merlin became a. sage in his day. We are further told that he was a. noted mathematician, a builder, and that he it was who superintended the. erecting of Stone- henge on Salisbury Plain. He was also a. Welsh bard, and we have fragments of his poetry handed down to us. But, please notioe—Merlin was not. a, prophet bard (in the sense of predicting future, events). Thlere are many prophetic predictions in Welsh attributed to Merlin which arte not his—such as the following predicting the sinking of Carma rthen Caerfyrddin, cei oer fore, Daia.r a'th lwne, daw dw'r i'th 11e. which, rendered in English, would be some- what, as follows "Carmarthen, thou shall see a dreadful morning: the earth shall swallow thee, and the water shall take, thy pla.de." The last of the following four lines is in- tended to foretell the advient of the, mail coach and railway station to Carmarthen from Cardiganshire — Fe ddaw y Hew i'r Mw- thig yn gwisgo arfau Cent. A'r hebog hwnw yntau yn rowndio Castoll Gwent Fe ddaw y milgi a'r llwynog i Aberhonddu fawr, Fe dda,w y gat.h a'r wenci ar hyel glan Tywi i lawr." This means that, tho cat and the weazol will travel along the banks of the Towy." Which a.nimal represents the coach, and which the train, you please take your choice. A mom cut,' thought, however, will convince anyone that it would be just as reasonable to attribute, these rhythms. to one of the Pharaohs or to Adam as to attribute them to Merlin. They are the work of some modern wag—possibly that roguish individual who added the long tail to the name Llan- fair-pwll-gwyn-gyll—the w -,r which hr.o sc much amueied cur English friends. Is the town of Carmarthen named after Merlin, and was he the founder ? I think not, and shall give you my reasons for so saying. In the first place, we have it tha.t the town is mentioned under two names same centuries.' before- Merlin was born. In British-Welsh it. was Kaer Merdin in Latin (so called by the Roman;), Maridunum-. It does not rtequiro a very keen observer to see that the two wo-rds are identical. Drop the Kaer (which moans, a. fort, cr fortress), and you aave ivlerdin in Welsh, and Maridun in Latin Mere!in—Maridun The um in the Latin is only a substantive termination. Another reason: Merlin's original name was Anhap v Llcian," which translated, is' The Misfortune; of the Nun," but he; was subsequently named "Merdin," after his native town. The present-day "illvrcidiii" seem". to be a. corruption of the original Merdin." Although we have travelled backwards for a long distance—some. 1.500 years—we have not yet. finished w. h the age of the town. The Romans reached Carmarthen about the year 52 A.D., and a, few years later estab- lished a, military station here, making Car- marthen their headquarters,. No cne need doubt the stay of the Romans in the town, as Roman coins and Roman earthen ware, have frem time to' time been, discovered here, About the year 70 it is supposed that the Remans were constructing their causeways i or roads in theel parts, and that two cf them entered Carmarthen—onie through Ppn- sarn from Loughor, Neath, and Cardiff, and the other into Priory street, from the clirec- tion of Llandilo. I may mention here that the word "sarn," is the Welsh fo,r the Roman road; and wherever this word occurs in pi ace-names, we may be sure that one of these old roads formerly rasssd close bv. We have Penysarn, Ta.lyss.rn, Sarnau and so on. Is it possible to furnish any record as to the condition or standing of the town at this remote perind ? I think it K In giving an account, of t-lic, 33 principal cities cf ancient Britain, an early writer (suppose.-] to be either Nennius cr Giklas) says' that ? Kair Mferdin flavrisihes IS the. ninth. We therefore assume that about the time the ) Saviour lived 011 earth, this town of ours stood as the ninth in importance among the early British cities. Ladies and Gentlemen,—I have en- deavoured, to the best of any ability, to trace the history of our town as far back as I car I am unable to go farther; and I can only add that its history as a, fortress or a.s a city, beyond this period, is hidden in the impenetrable mists and gloom of Time.