Erthig, Dec^r. [...]3:^ thd 1776.

Dear Sir.

I took my Route from Erthig on the 13^th. of August 1766¹ in a party with D^r. Cust, M^r. Brownlow Cust, and M^r. Kent, the descendant, and opulent Heir of our first Modern Gardiner, of that name, and Passed in primo limine,² the inscrutable Remains of Watt's-dykeⁱ; Our Tradition is, for we have no written Memorial, that it was a Cotemporary Work, with Offa's dyke, which for a considerable way, runs parallel with it, at unequal distances, but here, within two miles; The intermediate Country is supposed to have been neutral Ground, set apart for Treaty, and Traffick, and it was a Law to each Nation, that if a Saxon was taken armed, on the Western side of Offa, or a Welchman to the East of Watt, he forfeited the loss of a Member:⁴ Hence, passing Offa's dykeⁱⁱ at Adwy-ar y Claudd [sic]ⁱⁱⁱ and leaving the broken Extremity of the Brendaeg Hills, and the Minera lead mines, (once the anxious object of Roman, as since of British Adventurers,⁵ (on our left, We departed out of Bromfeild, and entered the Hilly Hundred of Yale, at Abber Croes Newydd: The former fine Lordship, (in which, is my Paternal House,) in the Tripartite Partition of all Wales, by Rodoricus Magnus, circiter annum 870. was a Comot^iv of the Kingdom of Mathrafal or Powys Land,^v in the Cantred [sic] Uchnant, which, was a Subdivision of Powysfadoc,^vi one of the two Greater divisions: The Mercian Saxons, under the Auspices of their Prince Offa, extended their Conquests over this Country, (tho in part Recovered afterwards by the Welch,^vii) and probably gave to this Hundred, the name it now bears; a Saxon Compound of the Plant Broom, and the Field, or Seat of it's [sic] Growth, and I observe in many parts, there is yet much to be found of it; A ^viiiShrub indeed! of no ordinary fame, for besides giving title to this fine Country, it marked with it's [sic] name the Angevin Family, the magnanimous Race of the Plantagenets,^ix who are said to have been so called, from the use of weaving in their Helmets, a sprig of this Plant. By the Act of Union, the 27^th. of Henry 8^th.^7x This Lordship was made Parcel of Denbighshire, then first Exxted into a County:^xi In the Earlier times, as I have before observed, it was a Comot of the Kingdom of Mathrafal, by the name of Maelor Cymraec, and as a Portion of it Passed by the Bounty of Rodoricus Magnus, to his youngest Son Merfyn, in whose Posterity this Principality remained Entire, till the death of Blethyn ap Confyn [sic]; That Potentate, (who was also Prince of North Wales) divided it between his Sons Meredith, and Cadwgan; nevertheless it returned whole and entire to the Possession of Meredith ap Blethyn; He, once more dissevered it, and it fell between his two Sons Madawc, & Griuffydh; Madawc the Elder, married Susannah, the Daughter of Gruffydh ap Conan, Prince of North Wales: 1^st.^xii This Moiety^xiii after his death^xiv, (which happened at Winchester,) underwent a Tripartition, and was divided between his Sons Gruffydh Maelor, Owen ap Madawc, and Owen Brogynton [sic]; Gruffydh Maelor had to his share Both the Maelors,⁹ with Llanrhaidr Mochnant; He married Angharad the Daughter of Owen Gwynedh Prince of North Wales, and by her had Issue one son Madawc, who held his Father's Inheritance Entire, and left it to his only son Gruffydh; He married Emma the daughter of James Lord Audley, and by her had Issue: Madawc, Llewellyn, Gruffydh, and Owen; Gruffydh, the Father, being a warm Partizan of Henry 3^d. and Edward 1^st. and therefore very obnoxious to his own Countrymen, in fear of their just Resentments, kept himself close shut up in his impregnable Castle of Dinas-Bran;¹⁰ Our Welch Historians assert: that Edward 1^st– with great Ingratitude, made away ^privately with two of his Children, and bestowed the Wardship of Madawc the Eldest Son (who by his Father's Will inherited the Lordships of Bromfeild, and Yale) on John Earl Warren, who soon secured to himself this fine Possession, and began the Castle of Holt, the Capital of his ill-atchieved [sic] Lordship; It was finished by his Son William; In this great Baronial House it continued for three descents, and then passed by Alice (the Sister and Heir of the last John Earl Warren) to Edmond Fitzallan Earl of Arundel her Husband, in which line it also Remained for three Descents. Richard the son of Edmond, Richard, his Son, and Thomas Earl of Arundel; For want of Issue to this last Thomas Earl of Arundel and Warren, [...]His Unintailed [sic] ^Estates fell to two of his Sisters,^xv Elizabeth, married to Henry Mowbray Duke of Norfolk, and Joan, to William Beauchamp Lord of Abergavenny.^xvi

I am
Dear Sir
Your affect: Humble
Servant

Ph: Yorke –

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Editorial notes

1. For Yorke's account of this journey, see 0024.
2. 'first of all'.
3. Pennant refers to John Evans's 'actual survey of North Wales' and his intention to publish a large map of that area in a note in A tour in Wales 1770 [1773] (1778), I, p. 21, noting that the work is 'extremely worthy of public encouragement'.
4. Citing the Polycraticon of John of Salisbury (Sarisburiensis) as his authority, Camden notes 'that Harald establish'd a Law, that whatever Welshman should be found arm'd on this side the limit he had set them, to wit, Offa's-Dike, his right-hand should be cut off by the King's Officers'. See Camden, Britannia (2nd edn., rev. Gibson, 1722), II, p. 698.
5. For Pennant's comments on the mineral vein of Minera, which he describes as part of 'a rich mineral tract', see A tour in Wales (2nd edn., 1784), I, pp. 316, 447.
6. 'Common broom', used by the Plantagenet kings as an emblem.
7. What became known as the Act of Union of 1536 was represented by clause 26 of the legislation passed in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII. Among its provisions were the formation of new counties, including the division of the March into the counties of Denbigh, Montgomery, Radnor, Brecon and Monmouth; the abolishment of legal distinctions between the Welsh and the English; representation to the Welsh in the English parliament; and stipulation that English was to be the only language of the courts of Wales. Davies, A History of Wales, pp. 231–8.
8. Both John Davies and Geraint H. Jenkins note the fundamental difference between the act unifying Wales with England in 1536 and those which united Scotland with England in 1707 and Ireland with Britain in 1800. Whereas the parliaments of Scotland and Ireland voted for their own abolition, the English parliament (which contained no Welsh members) passed the legislation to unite England and Wales without Welsh acquiescence. Furthermore, the preamble to the statues claimed that an union already existed between the two lands. Yorke's comment that the Welsh example furnished John Somers with ideas on how to achieve the union of Scotland and England is worthy of notice. It may perhaps relate to the deception and trickery which Davies accredits to the promoters of the unions with Scotland and Ireland in their efforts to persuade the parliaments of the latter countries to agree to their own abolition. Davies, A History of Wales, p. 232; Jenkins, ' "Taphy-land historians" and the Union of England and Wales 1536–2007', 1–27, esp. 3.
9. Yorke refers to Bromfield, or Maelor Gymraeg, and Maelor Saesneg.
10. The account given by Yorke in his 1766 tour of Castell Dinas Brân focuses on its Galfridian association with the figure of Brennus and on traditional lore about a concealed treasure within the ruins. No mention is made of the medieval dynastic considerations discussed in this letter.
11. '... the Lug hastens to the Wye, first, by Hampton, where Rowland Lenthall, Master of the Wardrobe to King Henry the fourth, who married one of the heirs of Thomas Earl of Arundel, built a very fine House ...'. Camden, Britannia (2nd edn., rev. Gibson, 1722), I, p. 690.