M E R 
of which runs a branch of the Taff Veclian river. The 
area of this caftle forms an irregular pentagon, defended 
on the fouth and eaft tides by a very large and deep trench 
cut in the folid rock. On the north and weft fides it was 
rendered fufficiently ftrong, by the bold and rugged pre¬ 
cipices which overhang the dingle. This caftle was the 
feat of the kings of Brycheinog, the laft of whom feems 
to have been Ivor Bach, or Ivor the Little, who was (lain 
in battle in a valley near the caftle, which is called after 
him, Pant Cited Ivor, or the “ Valley of Ivor’s Army.” 
This caftle is now entirely in ruins, having been deftroyed 
by Oliver Cromwell at the time when the general demo¬ 
lition of caftles by his army took place. We are told, 
that near this caftle, lead-mines were worked fo far back 
as the time of the Romans. Wilkes's Britijh Directory, 
vol. v. Carlijle's Topographical Dili. 
'MERTO'LA, a town of Portugal, in Alentejo, fituated 
cn the river Guadiana, containing about 24.00 inhabi¬ 
tants. This town was taken from the Moors by Don 
Sancho, in the year 1239. It is twenty-four miles fouth- 
fouth-eaft of Pera, and twenty-feven north of Tavira. 
-Xat. 37. 36. N. Ion. 7. 37. W. 
MER'TON, a village in the county of Surrey, fituated 
on the Epfom road, nine miles diftant from London, and 
four from Kingfton. The manor, which before the Con- 
queft was the property of earl Harold, and was afterwards 
held by the crown, was granted by Henry I. to Gilbert 
Norman, (heriff of Surrey, who, in the year 1115, founded 
a convent for canons regular of the order of St. Auguftine. 
Merton-abbey, as it was called, was built with ftone ; and 
in 1136 the canons entered on the pofi'effion of it. In the 
year 1236 a parliament was held at the abbey, wherein 
were enacftecrthe llatutes which take their name from that 
place, and which are the moft ancient body of laws, after 
Magna Charta. In this afl'embly, upon a motion of the 
bifliops for eftablilhing a conftitution of the canon-law, 
by which marriage could legitimate ifiue previoufly born, 
the lay-lords made that celebrated anfwer, Nolumus leges 
Anglia mature; “ We will not change the laws of Eng¬ 
land.” It is not lefs memorable for the conftitutions 
which the clergy of England made there in 1258 ; which 
were not only calculated to promote their own grandeur, 
at the expenfe of the crown, but were fo inimical alfo to 
the authority of the pope, that, at the king’s requelf, the 
fovereign pontiff himfelf thought proper to abrogate 
them ; although fome of the principal articles which they 
enafted were in favour of points, for which the great 
champion of the papal authority, the canonized Becket, 
had fuffered affaflination. At Merton-abbey alfo was 
concluded the peace between Henry III. and Louis, the 
eldeft fon of Philip king of France. The abbey was fur- 
xendered in 1538; and the lite was afterwards granted 
to the newly-eftablifhed monaftery at Shene. After the 
diffolution, it was leafed out to private perfons; and, 
during the civil war of Charles I. it appears to have been 
qfed as a garrifon. In 1680 it was advertifed to be let, 
and was defcribed as containing feveral large rooms and 
z fine chapel. This chapel, fo late as the year 1733, was 
entire. At prefent there is no other veftige of the abbey 
but the eaft window of the chapel, which appears, from 
the ftyle of its architecture, to have been built in the fif¬ 
teenth century. The walls which furround the premifes, 
including about fixty acres, are nearly entire, being built 
-of flints. On the lite of the abbey a manufactory for 
printing calicoes was eftabliflied in 1724, and another in 
1752; and, at the north-weft corner of the premifes, is a 
copper-mill. Upon a moderate computation, one thou- 
fand perfons are now employed in the different manu¬ 
factories within the walls-; a pleafing contraft to the mo¬ 
nadic indolence which reigned here in the gloomy days 
of fuperftition! * 
, The parifh-church of Merton was built, early in the 
twelfth century, by Gilbert Norman, the founder of the 
*bbey. It is conftruCted of flints, and coniilts of a nave 
Vol. XV. No, 1032. 
M E R _ 105 
and chancel; and at the weft end is a low' fpire. From 
the ftyle of architecture, it is prefumed to be the original 
ftruCture, which has undergone but little alteration. In 
the chancel-window are fome remains of painted glafs ; 
and againft the north wall of the church is a large picture 
of Chrift bearing the crofs. The whole has been lately 
plaftered on the outfide, and beautified in other refpeCts- 
The bridge over the river, built in 1633, is remarkable 
for its arch, which is turned with tiles inftead of brick 
or ftone; and it is the boundary of the three parilhes of 
Mitcham, Wimbledon, and Merton. 
Merton Place, built by fir Richard Hotham, became 
afterwards the refidence of Thomas Sainfbury, efq. from 
whom it was purchafed by the late and much-lamented 
lord Nelfon. Here he intended to pals the evening of 
life, having had the houle and grounds taftefully ar¬ 
ranged : the latter are particularly beautiful; the walks 
reprefenting, in miniature, the windings of the Nile. In 
this pari fir is alfo Cannon-hill, the villa of William Mel- 
liih, efq. and the feats of Jofeph Huddart, efq. and James 
Heron Park, efq. 
MER'TON, a town of Scotland, in the county of Ber¬ 
wick : ten miles fouth of Lauder. 
MER'TVOI KUL'TUCK, a bay at the north extre¬ 
mity of the Cafpian Sea. Lat. 46. N. 
MER'TZA, a fmall ifland in the north part of the gulf 
of Bothnia. Lat. 65. 27. N. Ion. 22. 9. E. 
MER'TZBACII, a town of the duchy of Wurzburg: 
fix miles north-north-eaft of Ebern. ‘ 
MER'TZDORF, a town of Silefia, in the principality 
of Neifle : three miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Grotkau. 
MER'TZICK, lately a town of France, and chief place 
of a canton of the fame name, in the department of the 
Mofelle, on the Sarte; but (with fome territory round 
about it) placed at the dilpofal of Auftria by the Treaty of 
Vienna, June 1, 1815; and by that power ceded to Pruffia 
by a feparate treaty in 1816. It is nine miles from Saar 
Louis. 
MERU', a very celebrated mountain, in the mytholo¬ 
gical fables in the Hindoos. The word in Sanlkrit figni- 
fies an axis, or centre; and hence, perhaps, it has been 
’applied to the north pole, which, being deemed the molt 
elevated region, led the poets to deferibe Merit as the 
liigheft mountain in the world. It is alfo, by way of pre¬ 
eminence, called Su-meru, denoting its fairnefs or beauty. 
In the 15th chapter of the firft book of the Mahabarat, it 
is thus defcribed : “ There is a fair and ftately mountain, 
and its name is Meroo; a moft exalted mafs of glory, re¬ 
flecting the funny rays from the fplendid furface of its 
gilded horns. It is clothed in gold, and is the refpefted 
haunt of dews and gandharvas (deities and celeftial cho- 
rifters). It is inconceivable, and not to be encompafled 
by linful man; and it is guarded by dreadful ferpents. 
Many celeftial medicinal plants adorn its fides ; and it 
ftands, piercing the heavens with its afpiring- fummit, a 
mighty hill, inacceflible even by the human mind. It is 
adorned with trees and pleafant dreams, and refoundeth 
with the delightful fongs of various birds.” This may 
be deemed fufliciently extravagant; but it is tame, com¬ 
pared with fome of the ravings of Hindoo myftics, who 
find, in the contemplation of this myfterious mountain* 
types and fymbols of every thing in and out of nature. 
Here follows a fpecimen of the Brahmanda Purana, taken 
from Mr. Wilford’s Differtation on the Sacred Ides in the 
Weft, in vol. viii. of the Afiatic Refearches. “ Meru is 
the facred and primeval Linga; and the earth beneath is' 
the myfterious Yoni, open like the Padma or Lotos. The 
convexity in the centre is the os tineas, or navel of Viftmu: 
and the Hindoos often reprefent the phyiiological myfte- 
ries of their religion by the emblem of the lotos, where 
the whole flower fignifies both the earth and the two 
principles of fecundation; the germ is both Meru and 
the Linga; the petal and filaments are the mountains 
which encircle Meru, and are alfo the type of the Yoni; 
U u the 
