English: Identifier: annalsantiquitie01nich

Title: Annals and antiquities of the counties and county families of Wales; containing a record of all ranks of the gentry ... with many ancient pedigrees and memorials of old and extinct families Year: 1872 (1870s) Authors: Nicholas, Thomas, 1820-1879 Subjects: Publisher: London, Longmans, Green, Reader Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center Digitizing Sponsor: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

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Text Appearing Before Image: be compared to that which Shakspere ascribes to the ghost of Robertof Normandy,— I could a tale unfold, whose lightest wordsWould harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,And each particular hair to stand on end,Like quills upon the fretful porcupine. ANTIOUITIES : LLANSTEPHAN CASTLE. 251 It could tell of many an innocent victim pining to death in its dungeons ; of mailed antlstalwart warriors, by adverse fortune prisoners of war, cut down by the avenging sword ; otescalading and hurling from the ramparts down the steep into the flood; of conflagration andoverthrow, wild confusion, frantic terror, cries and wailings ; of the earth sodden with inter-mingled blood of Welshmen, Flemings, French and English, Irish and Scotch, and of court-yard and pleasaunce, ditch and rampart, and the bed of the chafing Gwendraeth filled withthe dead bodies of men. A few notices only are given in the old chronicles. Of the attempt of the brave but

Text Appearing After Image: Llanstephan Castle. Oh, sadly shines the morning sunOn leaguered castle wall,When bastion, tower, and battlementSeem noddine: to their fall.—Scott. rash Gwenllian, a.d. 1136, to put a stop to the Normans setriement in this locality, noticehas already been taken at p. 234. The Aniiaks Cambrice record that in the year given for the founding of this fortress,Cydweli was devastated by the French; and under 1153 inform us that Cadell, son of Gruftydd,destroyed Cedweli; but as no specific reference is made to the castle, the desolatingincursion may only have visited the town and district. Under 1214 it is said that Rhys apGruftydd, with the help of Maelgwyn (cum auxilio Mailgoni), conquered Cedweli andKernawallan, turning thence in great force to Gower, where he consumed the land by fire,secured booty, burned and demolished castles, not without detriment to human beings,—a sagacious remark which it was scarcely necessary to make. Then we are told that,A.D. 1231, Llewelyn, prince of Nort

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