ANGLESEA CATTLE. 207 



also, in 1277 reduced the island with a fleet from the Cinque 

 Ports. After the inhabitants submitted to English laws and 

 government, the natives became patriotic — perhaps to a fault ; 

 for in ljS48 they had a council of war, and issued a general 

 declaration in favour of King Charles. With the blind pluck 

 inherent in islanders, they thought their little strike for the 

 king would change the aspect of affairs and avert his impending 

 certain fate. But the last humiliation of the inhabitants was 

 at hand, when on the 2nd of October in the same year they 

 capitulated to the Parliamentary forces under G-eneral Mytton, 

 and, like peaceable, good-natured people in novels, they have 

 lived happy ever after. 



The island of lona, one of the western islands of Scotland, 

 was remarkable in ancient times for its want of cows ; but the 

 island of Mona, in Wales, has long prided itself on having a 

 good stock of these animals. St. Columbus prohibited cows 

 from grazing on the slopes of lona, for he said, " Where there 

 is a cow there will be a woman, and where there is a woman 

 there will be mischief " ; but saints and sinners agree that 

 Anglesea was the special home of herds of prolific cows, whose 

 progeny were transported in great numbers into the adjacent 

 land to become food for the people of North Wales, and in 

 later times to penetrate into the large pastures in English 

 counties. The ancient British called their island Mon, a name 

 the Eomans Latinised into Mona. The Welsh characterised it 

 as "Mon Mam Gymru," or Mon the mother of Wales — sup- 

 posed by some to refer to its general productiveness, by others 

 to its being possibly at one time the principal seat of learning 

 and Druidical lore. I imagine the term "Mother of Wales" 

 arose from its maternal capabilities in supplying food to the 

 mainland by its corn and hordes of cattle. An old proverb 

 says that " As Mona could supply com for all the inhabitants 

 of Wales, so could the Eryri mountains afford sufficient pasture 

 for all its herds if gathered together." The late Eev. Eobert 

 Ellis, of Carnarvon, celebrated as a Welsh scholar and literary 

 antiquarian, suggested, in answer to some queries put to him 

 by me, a derivation for the ancient name of the isle as pertinent 

 as it is original. The word " mon " signifies cow ; thus Pontfon 

 becomes Cowbridge, ''Henfona" a place to keep cows; the Isle 



