Archeologia Cambrensis.

NEW SERIES, No. XIV.-APRIL, 1853.

BRESELU HILL.

BRESELU, or Presele, the name of the highest summit in the Pembrokeshire range of hills, which divides the county nearly equally into a northern and southern portion. The word I take to be derived from Bres,1 a round top or summit, and selu, to espy or look out, as a place of observation. This epithet is very applicable to the situation, for it rises in the centre of other lower hills, and commands a very extensive prospect of the county over both portions from sea to sea. The name is variously written, but erroneously, as Percelly, Persely, and Percelley. Many would derive it from Presel, Celtic for a place overgrown with furze or brushwood; but this does not apply to the locality, which, on every side, is bare of all shrubs, being closely covered by an even, short, downy sward, almost similar to that of the chalk districts in England, with this difference, that here the substratum is chiefly blue slate, on which rests a dry black turf or peat, and here and there a little clay.

To the south-east of this eminence there is a singular deep depression, the sides of which form nearly a semicircle, very precipitous towards the centre, but which is still covered by the same short sward that constitutes a

1 More probably, perhaps, from Bre, a hill, a word of frequent occurrence in the Gododin.-ED. ARCH. CAMB.

ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. IV.

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particular feature over nearly the whole extent of this beautiful hill-range; there are also pointed masses of trap-rock seen jutting out from the sides of this chasm or rift, apparently broken off in the convulsion that caused it, and which some are of opinion was the result of volcanic action; but I am more inclined to attribute this break in the uniform swell of the hill to the disruption of a mountain lake that might previously have occupied the summit, then probably more extended in that direction, and the water, by its violent descent, would have formed this crater-like hollow, as well as the alluvial flat at the south side of Breselu, which is now the source of many of the numerous streams that issue thence; and what still strengthens the supposition is, that the surrounding stratification exhibits very little displacement; the reverse would have occurred had fire been the agent. This cavity is termed Cwm-cerwyn, literally the hollow of the mash-tub; but the name is applied also to the mountain, with the affix to distinguish it of Moel-Cwm-cerwyn, i. e., the smooth or bald top of the hollow of the mash-tub, as that of Breselu, like Cotswold in Gloucestershire, is given to designate the aggregate of the mountain range. The whole of this district is about seven miles long, by two broad, and forms a connected hill-chain from east to west, with the exception of Bren-y-Mawr (commonly made feminine as Bren-yfawr) on the east, and Carn-engyle, the rock of fire (engyl), or beacon-rock, on the west. The principal heights along the united portion are Carnau-MeibionOwen, and Moel-trigarn on the east; and to the west, Bwlch-gwynt, Anglice windy-port, and Moel-Eryr, all hills of considerable elevation, that of Moel-cwm-cerwyn or Breselu being nearly 1700 feet above the level of the sea, and is a known landmark for mariners navigating the Irish Channel. The detached hills cannot be more aptly described than in the quaint language of the celebrated old antiquary George Owen of Henllys, who

says,

"These hills may stand as Captain and Lieutenant, Vrenny

fawr leading the Vauntguard and Carn-Ingle the rereward having Percelley hill ranged in rank between them both, among whom Cwm cerwyn being neere mid-way, may well for his high stature overlooking the rest, clayme the place of Ensign Bearer.'

From hence spring most of the rivers and streams that water Pembrokeshire, and are, from their general character of rapidity, and the current of air that passes along with them, the proximate cause of the salubrity of this portion of the county. The names are taken from a list of them given by the same learned author whose words I previously quoted. The most considerable are the eastern Cledde, with its tributaries the Kewgill, the Bray, the Clydaghe, the Llony, the Breynan-ddu and Breynanwen, the Cryning, the Syvynvy (almost as large as the Cledde), the east Marlais, and the brook Gloyn; the river Gwayn, with its tributaries the Logen, the Nantmarchan, the Kead, the Wala, and three nameless brooks, with the Creini, which I have added, not found in the MS. referred to. The names of these rivers I shall recapitulate at the end of this article, with the orthography corrected, and the probable Celtic derivations.

The remains of antiquity in cromlechau, meini-hirion, British camps, and tumuli, are numerous in this interesting region, and deserve to be narrowly explored before modern tillage and modern destructiveness shall have obliterated all traces of them. The fine triple stone entrenchment that crowns the summit of Moel-trigarn, and encloses three enormous cairns, merits particular observation. The height of this nearly conical hill is great, far surpassing that of the mountain ridge which connects it with Breselu, and the view from it is very extensive and varied towards the north.

This fortress appears to have been erected by the earliest Celtic settlers, the entrenchments, together with the cairns, being entirely composed of stone, without any admixture of earth, and from its extent, and almost impregnable position, must have been of great importIt seems very probable that the hill tract was the part of the country first occupied, as affording the inha

ance.

bitants greater security from the sudden incursions of invaders, to which the lowlands, then encumbered by forests and fastnesses, would have exposed them. The conjecture is borne out by the fact that the whole extent of this mountain ridge exhibits many proofs of early habitation; faint marks of the plough, in the undulations of the sward, may be traced in various directions, and rude conical pits and stone enclosures are also frequent. Vestiges of a road crossing Breselu are to be met with, which go by the names of Ffordd-fleming, the Via-flandrica of Giraldus and others, and the Roman road to Menapia of modern antiquaries. That this road might have been used by the latter people I will not pretend to dispute, as it takes a very good line to pass through their station (Ad-Vicessimum) for the one at St. David's; but from observations I lately made, (having had doubts as to the original construction of the road,) I am convinced that it was first formed by the Britons, as a road to connect their hill-forts, and traverse the then only cultivated portion of the land. To the Flemings it could have served no purpose whatever, running, as it does, in a totally different direction to that of their possessions in the south of Pembrokeshire. The very formation of the road bespeaks it not of Roman origin, its surface being too narrow and irregular to denote it as such; and although it may take a tolerably straight line in some portions, it is, along this ridge particularly, very unlike the roads that were undoubtedly constructed by that civilized people in other parts of the kingdom.

The Romans formed their military roads in a manner unknown to ruder nations, and upon the principle of a double arch, (if I may so term it,) or two unequal segments of a circle, the lower one being the greater, with the upper one forming an ellipsis; the centre of the lower segment was composed of large stones, regularly placed, and not mixed with earth or rubbish, over which successive layers were distributed, the stone diminishing in size as the surface of the road was approached and completed, much in the way of our best Macadamized pavements, to

which, in some respects, they were superior, as the greatest thickness or substratum lay in the centre, and, from the reversed figure of the arch, gave the proper resistance to where the road would generally experience the greatest weight, and left the sides proportionably thinner, to drain off the water from the surface into the soil beneath. This would at once distinguish such from the early British mountain roads, which were formed of the rudest masses of stone, thrown together as chance might direct, mixed with earth and gravel, and to which two deep side trenches were added, either for drainage or shelter. The Via Flandrica will be found to exhibit this character, wherever the portions that occur are sufficiently perfect to undergo the examination. Near or adjacent to these hill-roads we also find the remains of tumuli, stone enclosures, and other relics of antiquity, from which it may fairly be deduced that this was the part of Pembrokeshire first inhabited; the migration to, and occupation of, the adjacent lower country was a work of time, and progressed gradually as the population increased, and at which period the Britons began to be invaded by the piratical hordes of Norway and Denmark, together with adventurers from Ireland, the latter of whom kept possession of a large maritime portion of the county, and built earthen works of considerable strength, which at length, not without difficulty, were wrested from them by the native forces, after many a hard-fought battle.

I must here notice one of the several tumuli which occupy the ridge and summit of Moel-Cwm-cerwyn. It was opened in the autumn of 1806 by my late father, along with another barrow, but I fear imperfectly, as it was in company with a large party from Picton Castle, which divided his attention too much, to overlook minutely the operations of the workmen who explored it. I was at the time prevented by indisposition from attending, and had only, upon the return of the party, the mortification of receiving the fragments of one of the finest British urns ever discovered, from the aggregate of