LLANDDWYN 15 



"more properly Rhos Hir" (Long Moor) "from its 

 situation in an extensive marshy plain on the eastern 

 side of the Malldraeth sands, and near a long dorsal 

 ridge covered with heath." 



Although the ridge and heath are still to be seen, 

 and Saint Mary and her church are gone with the 

 Welsh princes and their palace once standing here, 

 it matters perhaps little, seeing the good folk of 

 Newborough are content with their new name, the 

 origin of which, truth to tell, lacks rather than suffers 

 from obscurity. 



If Edward I. conferred on Newborough an empty 

 dignity, it suffered indignity substantial enough 

 under George III. A large tract of land lying 

 towards the sea, over which the inhabitants had 

 exercised a right of common for pasturage and the 

 gathering of turf, was then inclosed by Act of 

 Parliament. Sea-grass, which the poorer of them 

 had been wont to take freely for the making of ropes 

 and mats, had thenceforth to be paid for ; and to-day, 

 albeit poverty squalid enough exists in Newborough, 

 evidences of the old industry are few. 



And now Newborough stands, last outpost and 

 feeble protestant of a civilisation not its own, looking 

 out over its common land become a desolate warren 

 miles of sand-billows with their marram crests, 

 from which the wild west winds whip the driving 

 sand-spray and cast it in her face. 



A thriving Newburgher, more generous, perhaps, 

 than wise, has returned to build for his native place 

 a fine modern Institute strangely out of keeping with 

 her fallen estate; and the hope is expressed that, by 

 the introduction of electric cars, the tide of prosperous 



