446 
To the Editor of ihe Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
“N looking over a volume of your very 
valuabie publication, printed about two 
years ago, I found a letter, signed Mei- 
rion, requesting that some of your cor- 
respondents would inform him where 
Moel-Ivor was situated. 
Perhaps at this distant period it may 
be unnecessary to comply with Meirion’s 
wishes ; but, presuming this account may 
meet his eye, I am inclined to satisfy his 
enquiries. 
Moel-Ivor is situated in Cardiganshire, 
eight miles south-west of Aberystwith, 
near the turnpike-road leading from Car- 
digan and Lampeter to Aberystwith, 
within half a mile of the village, and its 
parish-church of Lanrystid, and one mile 
of the sea. It was the ancient seat of 
the Gwynnes’ and Philips’, and is evi- 
dently of great antiquity. It has been 
in the possession, (and now is) of the 
same family, with a considerable estate 
attached to it, for several hundred years. 
From the Gwynnes and the Philips’, it 
descended by marriage to the Saunders’ 
of Pentre, in the county of Pembroke; 
the present owner is Dr. Davies of Car’ 
marthen, having obtained it by mar- 
rying the surviving heiress of this house, 
who is the great grandaughter of the last 
Gwynne of Moel-Ivor. 
It is supposed to have been anciently 
the residence of Prince Ivor. It has 
many remains of antiquity surrounding 
it; the valley in which it stands is small, 
but well watered and fertile, and the pre- 
_ bability is, that Moel-Ivor was a British 
station, as the remains of several en- 
campments are still visible near it. 
The old castellated building was re- 
moved to the otherside of the valley, from 
where it originally stood, and a large 
mansion-house was built by Jenkin 
Gwynne, in the reign of Queen Eliza- 
beth, about the year 1565, when he was 
High Sheriff of the county of Cardigan. 
The family having chiefly resided on their 
Carmarthenshire estate, this house be- 
came ruinous and ‘neglected; it was 
pulled down about twenty years ago, and 
a good farm-house erected on its site. 
Llanio Issa, (the supposed ancient 
Laventium of the Romans,) lies about 
twelve miles south of Moel-ivor, and the 
ruins of the “Abbey of Strata Florida, 
about the same distance to the south- 
éast. ( 
There are several peculiarities in the 
Moel-Ivor in Cardig sanshire. 
[Dec.-1 
situation of eis place, and in the ad- 
jacent districts of Cardiganshire, well 
worth the attention of the antiquary, 
and the future historian of that county. 
Oct. 1807. 4 FRIEND TO ENQUIRY. 
a Y 
_ For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the cREDIT due tO BRUCE'S TRAVELS. 
HE late octavo edition of these well- 
known Travels had been prepared 
for the press by the author himseli, pre- 
vious to his unexpected death, in 1794. 
It contains a few minute variations from 
the former edition; but it has received a 
large and valuable accession of notes 
and appendices, from the editor, who has 
availed himself of Mr. Bruce’s foriental 
manuscripts, to acquire a knowledge of 
the Ethiopic and Ambaric languages, 
and whose useful illustration may enable 
us to estimate, with sufficient precision, 
the credit due to the original werk. 
The scepticism which preceded the 
first publication of the Travels has been 
long exploded, and no rational man can 
now doubt that Mr. Bruce resided for 
some considerable tine at the court of 
Abyssinia, and explored the Abyssinian 
source of the Nile. His long disserta- 
tion upon subjects of remote and ob- 
scure antiquity are rejected by the editor 
himself as visionary; but his astronomi- 
cal observations, which are published en- 
tire from his journals, are numerous and: 
important; and certainly no traveller 
ever contributed more than Bruce to the- 
geographical and historical knowledge of 
the countries which he visited. At the 
same time his work is not merely scien- 
tific, but may be classed among the most 
pleasing and popular Travels in the Eng- 
lish language. His apparent vanity, 
when compared with the modesty of more 
recent Travels in Africa, may be partly 
explained by the author being also the 
hero of his own adventures; while the 
travels of others are more: frequently 
compiled by men of letters in London, 
from the journals and personal informa- 
tion with which they are furnished by the 
travellers themselves. After all, how- 
ever, the questicn still remains unde- 
cided,whether these Travels are to be re- 
ceived, in every particular, as strictly 
true; or as a mixed work of imaginatiqn 
and memory, of which the outl:nes are - 
certain, but in which the adventures and. 
local observations are often ideal, or are 
wrought up in a manner the most con- 
ducive to the amusement of the re, 
and . 
