earl of March, to hold to himself and his heirs on the fervice of a knight's fee*. His fon was attainted. of high treafon, but afterwards, on the reverfal of the attainder, it was restored to the family in the perfon of his grandfon. By the marriage of Anne, the fifter to the laft earl of March, with Richard Plantagenet, earl of Cambridge, this, and fome other Welsh castles, became the property of the house of York, and thence defcended to the crown t.

These are all the memoranda of any importance that I have been able to collect refpecting this fortrefs.

How it first took the name of Dolforwyn, or The Meadow of the Virgin, cannot now be ascertained. Circumstances would, however, induce one to fufpect, that it had fome allufion to the ftory of Habren, or Abren, the daughter of Locrine, fon of Brutus, the first king of Britain, by Effyllt, a daughter of the king of Germany, whom he had taken captive in his wars against the Huns. Previously to the taking of this female he had efpcused Gwendolen, a daughter of Corineus, one of the heroes who had

Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 5. and i. 142. Stowe's Annals, 200. A knight's fee was defined to be fuch an inheritance, as would maintain a knight with convenient retinue for a year: in the time of Henry III., this was cftimated at the trifling fum of fifteen pounds. By a ftatute paffed in the reign of Ed ward II., it was raised to twenty, and afterwards to forty pounds. Sir Edward Coke fays, that a knight's fee contained twelve plowlands, or fix hundred and eighty acres.

Dugdale's Baronage, i. 148.

entered

entered the island along with Brutus from Troy. The chieftain fearing that Locrine's reported attachment to Effyllt might break off the intended mars riage with his daughter, threatened with his army to compel the fulfilment of his promise. Locrine, thus circumftanced, was under the neceffity of concealing Effyllt in a cavern, declaring that fhe had left the kingdom, and, greatly against his inclination, was married to Gwendolen. On the death of Corineus, which appears to have taken place but a short time after the nuptials, he immediately divorced Gwendolen, and acknowledged Effyllt to be his queen. When he died, Gwendolen affumed the government, and fhe revenged herself for the injuries fhe had fuftained, by causing Effyllt and her daughter Abren to be caft into the river. From this circumstance, the old writers fay, the stream affumed the name of Abren; which afterwards, by a flight alteration, became Sabrina, and then Severn*.

Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure,

Whilome she was the daughter of Locrine,

* This event is faid to have taken place above 1090 years before the birth of Chrift. The moft ancient account of it extant is found in Tyfilio's Hiftory of Britain from the fettlement of the Trojan colony to the reign of Cadwaladr, the laft king of the Britons. This work is intitled Brut y Brenhinoedd; it was written about the year 60, and is the fame that Geoffry of Monmouth afterwards published, but with innumerable alterations, in Latin. See alfo Matt. Weftm. p. 20. Speed's Maps, ch. x. fol. 115., and Whitelock's Memorials from Brutus, p. 2.

That

That had the fceptre from his father Brute.
The guiltlefs damfel flying the mad pursuit
Of her enraged ftepdame, Gwendolen,
Commended her fair innocence to the flood,

That stayed her flight with his crofs-flowing courfe,
The water nymphs, that in the bottom play'd,
Held up their pearled wrifts, and took her in,
Bearing her ftraight to aged Nereus' hall;
Who, piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head,
And gave her to his daughters to embathe
In nectar'd leaves, ftrow'd with asphodel;
And through the porch and inlet of each fenfe,
Dropt in ambrofial oils, till the reviv'd
And underwent a quick immortal change-
Made goddess of the river: fhe ftill retains
Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve
Vifits the herds along the twilight meadows,
Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs
That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,
Which the with precious viol'd liquors heals;
For which the fhepherds at their festivals
Carol her goodnefs loud in ruftic lay,

And throw fweet garland wreaths into her stream,
Of panfies, pinks, and gaudy dafodils.
And as the old fwain faid, fhe can unlock

The clafping charm, and thaw the numbing spell,
If fhe be right invoked in warbled fong;
For maidenhood fhe loves, and will be swift
To aid a virgin, fuch as was herself,

CHA P. IX.

NEWTOWN TO MONTGOMERY.

View near Abermule.

-

Montgomery. Church. -Hiftory of the Town.-Montgomery Caffle. — Sketch of its Hiftory. — Rural Scene.-Leland's Defcription of the Town.-The Cucking Stool, formerly in ufe here.-Memoranda of Lord Herbert of Chirbury.

FROM Newtown I had a fine cultivated country all the way to Montgomery. The infant Severn accompanies the road nearly half the way, in fome places approaching, and in others bending from it, and hidden by intervening trees and hedges.

The few houses at Abermule, The Conflux of the River Mule, about five miles from Newtown, were delightfully fituated on the bank of the Severn, furrounded by hills, and decorated by woods, in all the luxuriance of foliage. From hence the road gently afcends, and from the eminence a view fo extensive and beautiful burfts on the fight, as to defy the utmost expreffion of the pencil to reprefent it. A vale in high cultivation is feen to extend for several miles, the Severn appearing in different parts from among the trees and meadows: The whole scene was bounded by diftant hills. The descent continues ftill beautiful; and, near the town of Montgomery,

the

the fine ruins of its caftle formed a very interefting addition to the prospect.-The road is so much elevated immediately above the town, as to afford the traveller a bird's eye view into almost every ftreet.

MONTGOMERY,

From the neatnefs of its houfes, feemed to me to be inhabited principally by perfons of small fortune, who had fettled here to lead a life of retirement. It is clean, and well built; and feems capable of affording the comforts and conveniences, without any of the buftle and noife of a large town. All the adjacent country is decorated with the most lively and luxuriant scenery.

The church is an elegant cruciform structure, dedicated to St. Nicholas, and contains an ancient monument, to the memory of Richard Herbert, efq. the father of the very celebrated lord Herbert of Chirbury, and his lady. The two figures are recumbent, under what has once been a magnificent and much ornamented canopy. In an adjacent cor. ner of the church, I obferved a large collection of legs, arms, heads, and trunks of other monumental figures, but all of them so much shattered, that Į could make nothing out of them. On the gravestones in the church-yard I remarked more epitaphs than I had usually seen together before. Among such a number, many were of course ridiculous.