their respective situations, coincides with the natural position of the river Teme, and the camps of Brandon and Coxwall hills. To the scholar and the antiquarian the whole kingdom does not afford a more interesting or gratifying subject; let them observe the polished and simple form of the roman camp, and the rude and natural features of the british. The roman general depended alone on the strength of his arms, and the valour of his well disciplined legions; but the british chieftain called nature to his assistance, and strengthened her by art. From the departure of the Romans, to the Norman conquest, history supplies no certain information concerning Ludlow, yet from various written and traditionary accounts it is more than probable that there existed here a town, or fortress, of some importance, previous to the recorded erection of the Castle. Dinan, Llystwysoc, ancient british names for this place, are certain indications of its having been the Palace of a Prince, as the Saxon name Ludlowe, Leodlowe, that is, People Mote, indicates its appropriation to the administration of justice. Presuming from its british name, that this place was, at a remote period, a royal residence ; and from indisputable authority, knowing, that after the departnre of the Romans, the struggle for mastery between the Saxons and Britons, continued more than five hundred years; and that during that period the frontier of Wales was peculiarly distinguished as the scene of contest; it may be deemed neither uninteresting nor too far deviating from our purpose, to give short notices of the most remarkable events connected with the history of Mercia. The Saxon octarchy was progressively formed; Ella in Sussex, and Hengist in Kent, made a duarchy before the year 500. When Cerdic erected the state of Wessex a triarchy appeared; east Anglia made it a tetrarchy; Essex a pentarchy. The success of Ida after 547 establishing the sovereignty of the Angles in Bernecia completed an hexarchy, and the northern Ella by becoming king of Deira, made an heptarchy. In 586 the octarchy was completed by the establishment of the kingdom of Mercia. As the Anglo-Saxons warred with each other, sometimes one state was absorbed by another, and sometimes, after an interval, it emerged again, as the tide of conquest fluctuated, till at last a permanent monarchy arose under Egbert, or more certainly under Alfred the Great, Arthur, one of the most renowned heroes who fought against the Saxons, some time previous to the establishment of the kingdom of Mercia, was a chieftain of South Wales. He is said to have fought twelve successful battles; and though it appears from several authorities that there were other kings in various parts of Britain during Arthur's reign, yet he is represented as the paramount sovereign; the Pendragon, or Penteyrn, in nominal dignity at least, above every other. Arthur perished in a civil feud with Medrawd his nephew, whose name has been blackened with every reproach, because Arthur, the shield of the Cymry, perished in the war which he had excited. The numerous celebrated british chiefs who succeeded are not forgotten by the ancient bards, in whose productions their fame yet lives. Many instances might be given of the striking traits of characteristic energy attributed to the heroes of bardic song. Taliesin makes Owen, the son of Urien, exclaim, in his address to his warriors: "Being assembled for our country, Let us elevate our banners above the mountains; Taliesin was not only a bard but a soldier, and describes in expressive language the scenes of warfare he himself had witnessed : "Neither the fields, nor the woods, gave safety to the foe Like a wave raging against the shore. I saw the brave warriors in array; And after the morning, how mangled! I saw the tumult of the perishing hosts; The blood springing forward and moistening the ground. Wearied, on the earth no longer verdant, I saw at the pass of the ford, The blood stained men dropping their arms; As the Saxons gained upon their possessions, the Britons were confined to a narrower portion of the country; but the latter yielded no part until it had been dearly purchased. The most indignant of the fugitives retired into Wales. There the bards consoled the expatriated Britons with the hope that the day would afterwards arrive when they should have their full revenge, by driving out the Saxon hordes. That they should again be led by their majestic chief, Arthur, and be again victorious. That this happy day should restore to every one his own that the horns of gladness should proclaim the song of peace, the serene days of Cambrian happiness. The anticipation of this blissful æra gave rapture to the Cymry, even in their stony paradise of Wales. This flattering prediction is extant in the writings of Myrddin :— And afterwards is added:- "Their lord they shall praise, Their language preserve, Their country lose, Except wild Wales, Till the destined period of their triumph revolves, The crown of their land, And the strange people Will vanish away,' In 607, or 609, the Britons suffered a disastrous overthrow while fighting under Brocmail, king of Powis, against Ethelfrith. Ancient Bangor fell into the hands of the victor, and its noble Monastry was levelled to the earth; its vast library, the collection of ages, the repository of the most precious monuments of the ancient Britons, was consumed; half ruined walls, gates, and rubbish, were all that remained of this magnificent edifice. This attack was excited by the Monk Augustine, called the Apostle of England: on his first visit a convention with the Cambrian Bishops was appointed; but the imperious tone assumed by the Missionary was neither calculated to conciliate esteem nor persuade to submission. The mischief of unequal warfare was foretold in threatening language, and the prophecy of the enraged saint was too fatally verified. But amidst their misfortunes, the Cymry sometimes triumphed. In 610 Ceolwulf from Wessex advanced upon them, not merely to the Severn, but crossed it, into the province of Glamorgan. The inhabitants hastened to Tewdric, their former king, who had quitted his dignity in behalf of his son Mowric, to lead a solitary life among the beautiful rocks and woodlands of Tintern. They solicited him to reassume the military command, in which he had never known disgrace. The royal hermit beheld the dreaded |