8 
for these eighteen centuries. How vast then {must be the period since the river 
flowed along the terrace at Welfield made an island of the Garth, and at a 
distance of 60 miles down the river flowed in and out of the bone caves at 
Doward ! 
The day’s ramble did not, however, begin with geology. The train in due 
course left Hereford at 9.25., took up members and friends at Credenhill, Moor- 
hampton, Hay, and Builth, and at 12 o’clock deposited the party at Llechrhyd 
junction, where the Rev. W. Jones Thomas kindly undertook the duties of their 
guide for the rest of the day. The first halt was made at Cwrt Llechryd, close to 
the station, where Mr. Thomas led the party round the west side of the Ancient 
Earthworks, pointing out the care and labour bestowed upon them, and remarking 
that the spot was identified with the history of Wales at a period which is still full 
of the deepest interest to every patriotic Welshman. It was in that neighbour- 
hood that Llewelyn, the last Prince of Wales, was slain. Not far off on one side 
lay Aberedw, where he vainly attempted to collect his followers, and where he 
was betrayed to the enemy, while near on another side was the place where he had 
his horse shod reversely ; and in the same district was Cwm Llewelyn, ‘‘ Llewelyn’s 
Dingle,” where he was beset, overpowered by numbers, and slain by Adam of 
Frankton ; whilst Bedd Llewelyn, “the grave of Llewelyn,” is still known as the 
spot where his body was interred. Although he was slain as far back as 1277, 
the facts are fresh in the popular memory, and people still speak with abhorrence 
of the traitors of Aberedw, and still honour the grave of the native Prince whom 
those men betrayed. The position of Cwrt Llechryd made it a place of importance, 
and the earthworks showed that it had been fortified with care. Mr, Thomas 
added that the name was interpreted as the flat place (Ulech) of the ford (rhyd). 
He was glad to see Mr. Flavell Edmunds present, and should feel gratified if that 
gentleman would give them the result of his researches on the subject of earth- 
works and of that one in particular. 
Mr. Flavell Edmunds then led the party to the highest part of the 
enclosure, adjoining the farm-house on the south side, and there pointed out the 
original din or camp, the nucleus out of which the whole might be said to have 
erown. He showed that it, as well as the outer entrenchment, was constructed on 
the circle, thus proving that the work was British, just as the use of the square 
and the oblong marked Roman work. He pointed attention to the simplicity 
of the construction, a mere circle of earth surrounded by the hollow out 
of which the earth was taken to form the ridge. In course of time, the 
ditch was usually deepened and widened, and the ridge was raised; and then a 
row of stakes was fixed into the ridge, after the fashion of the New Zealand pah 
of the present time. The Romans called the line of stakes a vallus, and the whole 
fortification, stakes, ridge, and ditch, has become known asavallum. The Britons 
had the word gwawl, which bore the same meaning ; and the Angles, coming later, 
borrowed the word in the form of wall. When the Romans constructed permanent 
camps, out of which grew their cities, they substituted a structure of stone for the 
row of stakes. The Saxons built little, but their stoc or stow was a place enclosed 
with stakes, and their tun was a house in the centre of an enclosure formed with 
