28 



evei-y side of it. It mattered not so much to-day, however, for naturalists can 

 always find objects of interest immediately around them. Here were numerous 

 quarries to attiact attention. By the aide of one of them the Club assembled 

 at the sound of the horn for the transaction of business. An alteration of the 

 Rules, to the effect that the Officers of the Club should be elected at an Autumn 

 meeting of the preceding year, instead of at the annual meeting in Spring, of which 

 due notice had been given, was unanimously carried. The following gentlemen 

 were elected members, viz. : — Col. Symonds, of Pengethly, Bernard Matthews, 

 Esq., of Ludlow, and Mr. "W. Price, of the Vern ; and some other gentlemen 

 were proposed for election at a future meeting. 



Dr. Bull thought it might be interesting to the members who came from a 

 distance if he took that opportunity of drawing their attention to 



EWYAS HAROLD, ITS NAME, ITS CASTLE, AND ITS PRIORY. 



The district was not only beautiful as they could see, but it presented much 

 that was interesting to the historian and to the antiquary. One of our members 

 present, the Rev. W. C. Fowle, has done more than any one else to create this 

 interest by the very able paper he had read at the meeting of the Cambrian 

 Archieological Association at Hereford two years since. Mr. Fowle had begun with 

 the name itself, and had endeavoured to unravel the mystery which hung over 

 its origin. "Ewyas" or "Bwis'^asit was more anciently spelt, and as it is to 

 this day commonly pronoimced, has long been a puzzle to antiquaries. Mr. 

 Fowle could not satisfy himself upon it, and passing by the British " Glds," 

 as well he might, seemed to think that it might possibly be derived from the 

 Saxon "£■«" water. Another member of our Chib, Mr. Flavell Edmunds, who 

 has for many years past devoted much study to the origin and derivation of names 

 in this district, has arrived at a very different conclusion, and one much more 

 interesting in the view of natural science. Mr. Edmunds' solution of the difficulty 

 is entirely original, and he has kindly commissioned me to lay it before you to-day. 

 He derives the name "Ewyas" from the British " Yw-ys" pronounced ^'' Ewis" 

 the yew place. The whole district, he thinks, was formerly called the " Ystrad 

 Fio" the district of the Yew trees. The Ystrad-yio was probably that part of the 

 district about Crickhowell ; the Yio-ys seems to have been the eastern part, which 

 included the Llanthony valley and the country eastward of the Black Mountain to 

 Ewyas Harold. The Hundred of Ewyas Lacy, which is the only other example 

 here of the occurrance of the name " Ewyas, " stretches from Rowlestone to 

 Cusop, embracing this side of Herefordshire and part of the Black Mountains. 

 Ewyas Harold, though clearly a part of Eiois in former times, is now in the 

 Webtree Hundred. Giraldus Cambrensis speaks of the Abbey of Llanthony as 

 situated "in the deep vale of Ewyas," and an old writer of the 12th century, 

 Caradocus of Llancarfan, speaks also of Crickhowell as situated in the " Ystrad 

 Fic," all facts tending to show how extensive the district of Ewis was in days long 



