following instances of their recurrence in the county of Wexford may be worth notice:-Henry Lome, Nicholas White, and Adam Cadwelly, (Cadly in Tenby, in 1420,) with others of Pembrokeshire descent, were jurors in Wexford, anno 1307, in the inquisition on the lands of Joan, Countess of Pembroke—as were three men of the name of Peers, with Robert Elyot-on the death of her son, the famous Aymer de Valence. Bernard Mey of New Ross, with Thomas Carew and William Traherne, of Carlow, were jurors after the death of Roger Bygod, Earl of Norfolk. Sayse, a surname in Tenby in 1405, signifies the Sassenach, a soubriquet given to many Anglicised Celtic Welsh by their countrymen, and afterwards converted into a surname, which has been modernized into Seix in Ireland, where some of this name were falconers to the Earls of Kildare, and others gentlemen in the household service of the Earls of Ormond. The sex of the mason appears to be the modern type of the short sais, or short sword, whence the Saxons are said to derive their designation. The following names of apparent Flemish extraction appear in a roll of Wexfordshire men who were summoned on military service in 1345, to oppose O'Brien, when Edward the Third had drawn away many of the Anglo-Irish chivalry to the war in France. The italicised surnames appear also on the Tenby list. Bartholomew More, Walter May, Nicholas Bataille, Geoffrey Max, Nicholas Joce, Richard Martell, John Wykyn, Maurice Holle, Thomas Syggyn, Adam Collyn, Bernan Farwill, Gilbert Rowe, and Adam Uthebot.

The Celtic annalists of Ireland, the "Four Masters," notice the first invasion of their country incidentally, under the year 1169, observing that "the fleet of the Flemings came from England in the army of MacMurchadha, to contest the kingdom of Leinster for him : they were seventy heroes dressed in coats of mail." This tradition of the extraction of the earliest swarm of invaders would seem to imply that the majority of them, at least, were from the Low Country colonists, of whom

the working and humble bees remained in Wales.
Having trespassed last year on your pages with a lengthy
notice of the connexion between Welsh and Irish families,
I hardly like to suggest the insertion of the following
letter, read by the Earl of Cawdor at your meeting in
1851, and already printed in Sir Henry Ellis' Letters:-

R. Gruffithe to Cardinal Wolsey, in 1523 or 1524.

Pleasit to it youre moost noble Grace, my dutie of moost
humble recommendacions hadde unto your Grace as apper-
teynyth, sygnyfyinge unto the same your moost noble Grace,
that there is so gret aboundance of Irisshemen latelye comyn
within these xij monethes into Pembrokeshire, the Lordeship of
Haverforde West, & so alongest the Sea Syde to Saynt Dauydes,
and within the townes of Haverforde West, Pembroke, &
Tenbye, suche that be comyn theder before & inhabited there,
that by estymacion do amounte at the leste to the nombre of
twentye thousande persons & above, of all maner & sorte; & the
mooste part of the same Raskells be out of the domynyons of
the Kings Rebell therle of Desmonde, & very fewe of theyme
out of the Englisshe pale of Irelande. And the King's towne of
Tenbye is almost cleane Irisshe, as well the hedde men & ruelers
as the comyns of the said Towne; and of their highe & presump-
tuouse myndes doo dissobey all maner the Kings Processe that
comythe to theyme out of the King's Exchequyer of Pembroke,
supposyng that their Charter will bere theym therin, wher of
niethr thair Charter is no thyng like so large of liberties as they
do clayme it to be. And one of theym, caulled Girmyn Gruffith,
born under the domynyon of the said Erle, is nowe owner of
two great Shypps well appoynted with ordinaunces; and it is
dailye proved by experyence that fewe or none of Englysshemen
or Welshemen can or be receyvyd amongs theym to anye
service or wages.
And the last yere I herde of a grete nowmbre
of the same Irisshemen that were cast over lande upon the cost
within the saide Shire, whereupon I made a preycys watche, and
in two little parisshes in one nyght I gadered of theym above
two hunderde that were newe comyn, besides as manye that were
comyn there before; and all the same new Company I did send
to See agayne. Albeit sythyce they be comyn agayne with
manye more; and every one that comythe dothe clayme kynred
to one or other of the same shire, townes & countre foresaid.
And even sythyce that I expulsed the said new comyn Irisshemen
out of the countre as before, the rest do grudge agaynst me, and
of truethe in all the said circuete there be four Irisshemen

agaynste one Englisshe or Weshe; and therfore, after my pouer mynde, it were expedyent & necessarye that the Kings Highenes with his moost honorable Counsaill shulde ponder the same, and devise some order to be takyn, as well for the avoiding of the moost part of theym, as alsoe that noo man within that parties shall reteigne any that shall come out of Irelande thider at any time herafter into thair service, upon a certayne penaltye; and ells they shall never be woren out but increas more & more. And furder sygnyfying unto your moost noble Grace that the Mayor & Towne of Tenbye have commytted and dow mony great ryotts, rowtes, and unlefull assembles agaynst the King's lawes, his peax, crowne, & dignyte, with divers extorcions, as shall appere by divers indictaments remaynynge agaynst theym in the King's Records of Pembroke. And also it shalbe duely proved that they have ayded and vittailed the Kynge's enymyes at sundrye tymes; and that as shalle pleas the Kynges Highenes and your most noble Grace to commaunde me to do, concernyng any order that shalbe takyn concernyng the premyssis, shalbe accomplisshed to the uttermost of my little power; as knoweth God, who ever preserve your moost noble Grace in felicitie. From Carmurden the viijth daye of this July &c.

To my
Lorde Legatis

moost noble Grace.

Your humble Servaunt,

R. GRUFFITHE.

The rebel Desmond was the traitorous Earl James, who had entered into treaty with Francis the First of France, to bring 25,400 men into the field whenever a French army should land in Munster; had afterwards treated with the Emperor of Germany for the invasion of Ireland, and was ambitious enough to aspire to the hand of the emperor's daughter.

Germin Griffith, who was one of the bailiffs of Tenby in 1526, appears as a follower of another Earl of Desmond, in 1544, when he was "George Grenelef, peticapytayne" of the band of Kerne that nobleman sent as his contingent to the siege of Boulogne; and he wrote as "Captain G. Grenleffe," from Cork, 4th March, 1546, to the king's secretary, to announce his having captured a French ship that had attacked his vessel while lying in Cork harbour. Perhaps this vessel was his own "great

shypp well appoynted with ordinaunces," and the gallant captain a buccaneer, to whom an alibi might have been as convenient as an alias.

The usurpation of Tenby by the Irish was, in all likelihood, not very lasting; nor can their influence in the corporation be believed to have produced any sanitary effects: the adjective "cleane" is not applied to them in its ordinary acceptation; and we know that each of the principal towns in their own country had a faubourg peculiar to the Celtic population, known as "the Irish-town,"-a St. Giles' in comparison with les quartiers inhabited by persons of English habits. Butjesting apart few of the new comers were probably of Milesian descent, but either of pure Welsh extraction, like Greenleaf, or of Flemish or Gallo-Anglican origin. And it is remarkable that the incensed correspondent observes they claimed kindred with one person or the other in Pembrokeshire. I have heard of "Scotch cousins," and—feeling that "blood is thicker than water”. do not admire the cold-hearted way R. Gruffithe regarded the advances of expatriated Irishmen towards their distant kinsmen, the legs of whose genealogic relationship were so many centuries long, and from whom a dangerous sea had hitherto so unkindly separated them. Subsequent to this time some of the surnames of the Tenby mayors, &c., Barrett, Canton, Sutton, Wadding and Stafford are those of merchants of the same period in the sea-port towns along the south coast of Ireland. Wexford, as the caput baroniæ of Leinster, descended regularly with its lordship to the eldest co-heiresses of the successive Earls of Pembroke, and a constant intercourse was maintained between the two counties. The seneschal or agent placed in charge of the Irish estate was often a Welshman. John of Castlemartin held that office in 1280, succeeded by Maurice, Lord Canton, whose family founded St. Dogmael's, near Newport, and, on the opposite coast of the channel, Glascarrig Abbey. Two knights of the Wogan family were sent over at different times as seneschal; and, in 1303, that post was held by Adam de

la Roche, who might almost have discerned from the summit of the mountain over Wexford-near which his own lands lay-the opposite hills of Preseley, belonging to his kinsman David, lord of Roche Castle.1

Pole-Hore, Wexford, Feb. 10, 1853.

HERBERT F. HORE.

Of the fortified towns in South Wales, Tenby appears to have been as impregnable as any, as well from its natural position as the strength of its walls. Of these a considerable portion remains ;-of the rest some has given way to decay, but more to the growth of the town in modern times. Formerly there were three principal gateways, the north, which has been entirely removed; the south, now remaining; and the east, of which part may still be seen. Of the walls connecting these, that portion between the east and north gates has been thrown down, nearly all of it. The rest is tolerably perfect. Some of the most picturesque remains of the fortifications may be judged of by the illustrations which conclude these notices of Tenby.

EISTEDDVODAU; TEMP. HENRY IV.

[TRANSLATED FROM THE BOOK OF ANTONI POWEL.]

IN the time of Henry the Fourth occurred the domestic war of Owain Glyndwr, in which the Welsh proved very successful under the leadership of Owain; and the Welsh would at that time have regained their privilege and crown, had it not been for the treachery of some of the nobles of Wales, who exposed the designs and resisted the preparations of Owain and his allies. After that, Owain concealed himself, but as the king got intelligence that the bards were acquainted with the place of his retreat, he prohibited them, under pain of fine and imprisonment, from holding Eisteddvodau and chairs for vocal song, except under the protection and privilege of a license from the king himself. Wherefore there could be found, neither a chaired bard

1 See the deed, dated 1303, of David de Rupe, lord of Maynclochan, Archæologia Cambrensis, 1852, p. 264.