{40}Winchelcumbe,or Winchcomb,in the lower part of the hundred of Kiftsgate,in Gloucestershire,a few miles to the north of Cheltenham.
{41}St.Kynauc,who flourished about the year 492,was the reputed son of Brychan,lord of Brecknock,by Benadulved,daughter of Benadyl,a prince of Powis,whom he seduced during the time of his detention as an hostage at the court of her father.He is said to have been murdered upon the mountain called the Van,and buried in the church of Merthyr Cynawg,or Cynawg the Martyr,near Brecknock,which is dedicated to his memory.
{42}In Welsh,Illtyd,which has been latinised into Iltutus,as in the instance of St.Iltutus,the celebrated disciple of Germanus,and the master of the learned Gildas,who founded a college for the instruction of youth at Llantwit,on the coast of Glamorganshire;but I do not conceive this to be the same person.The name of Ty-Illtyd,or St.Illtyd's house,is still known as Llanamllech,but it is applied to one of those monuments of Druidical antiquity called a cistvaen,erected upon an eminence named Maenest,at a short distance from the village.A rude,upright stone stood formerly on one side of it,and was called by the country people Maen Illtyd,or Illtyd's stone,but was removed about a century ago.A well,the stream of which divides this parish from the neighbouring one of Llansaintfraid,is called Ffynnon Illtyd,or Illtyd's well.This was evidently the site of the hermitage mentioned by Giraldus.
{43}Lhanhamelach,or Llanamllech,is a small village,three miles from Brecknock,on the road to Abergavenny.
{44}The name of Newmarche appears in the chartulary of Battel abbey,as a witness to one of the charters granted by William the Conqueror to the monks of Battel in Sussex,upon his foundation of their house.He obtained the territory of Brecknock by conquest,from Bleddyn ap Maenarch,the Welsh regulus thereof,about the year 1092,soon after his countryman,Robert Fitzhamon,had reduced the county of Glamorgan.He built the present town of Brecknock,where he also founded a priory of Benedictine monks.According to Leland,he was buried in the cloister of the cathedral church at Gloucester,though the mutilated remains of an effigy and monument are still ascribed to him in the priory church at Brecknock.
{45}Brecheinoc,now Brecknockshire,had three cantreds or hundreds,and eight comots.-1.Cantref Selef with the comots of Selef and Trahayern.-2.Cantref Canol,or the middle hundred,with the comots Talgarth,Ystradwy,and Brwynlys,or Eglyws Yail.-3.
Cantref Mawr,or the great hundred,with the comots of Tir Raulff Llywel,and Cerrig Howel.-Powel's deion of Wales,p.20.
{46}Milo was son to Walter,constable of England in the reign of Henry I.and Emme his wife,one of the daughters of Dru de Baladun,sister to Hameline de Baladun,a person of great note,who came into England with William the Conqueror,and,being the first lord of Overwent in the county of Monmouth,built the castle of Abergavenny.
He was wounded by an arrow while hunting,on Christmas eve,in 1144,and was buried in the chapter-house of Lanthoni,near Gloucester.
{47}Walter de Clifford.The first of this ancient family was called Ponce;he had issue three sons,Walter,Drogo or Dru,and Richard.The Conqueror's survey takes notice of the two former,but from Richard the genealogical line is preserved,who,being called Richard de Pwns,obtained,as a gift from king Henry I.the cantref Bychan,or little hundred,and the castle of Llandovery,in Wales;he left three sons,Simon,Walter,and Richard.The Walter de Clifford here mentioned was father to the celebrated Fair Rosamond,the favourite of king Henry II.and was succeeded by his eldest son,Walter,who married Margaret,daughter to Llewelyn,prince of Wales,and widow of John de Braose.
{48}Brendlais,or Brynllys,is a small village on the road between Brecknock and Hay,where a stately round tower marks the site of the ancient castle of the Cliffords,in which the tyrant Mahel lost his life.
{49}St.Almedha,though not included in the ordinary lists,is said to have been a daughter of Brychan,and sister to St.Canoc,and to have borne the name of Elevetha,Aled,or Elyned,latinised into Almedha.The Welsh genealogists say,that she suffered martyrdom on a hill near Brecknock,where a chapel was erected to her memory;and William of Worcester says she was buried at Usk.
Mr.Hugh Thomas (who wrote an essay towards the history of Brecknockshire in the year 1698)speaks of the chapel as standing,though unroofed and useless,in his time;the people thereabouts call it St.Tayled.It was situated on an eminence,about a mile to the eastward of Brecknock,and about half a mile from a farm-house,formerly the mansion and residence of the Aubreys,lords of the manor of Slwch,which lordship was bestowed upon Sir Reginald Awbrey by Bernard Newmarche,in the reign of William Rufus.Some small vestiges of this building may still be traced,and an aged yew tree,with a well at its foot,marks the site near which the chapel formerly stood.
{50}This same habit is still (in Sir Richard Colt Hoare's time)used by the Welsh ploughboys;they have a sort of chaunt,consisting of half or even quarter notes,which is sung to the oxen at plough:
the countrymen vulgarly supposing that the beasts are consoled to work more regularly and patiently by such a lullaby.
{51}The umber,or grayling,is still a plentiful and favourite fish in the rivers on the Welsh border.
