PREFACE.

IN the compilation of this little book assistance has been derived from Mr. Clark's Report to the Government on the Sanitary condition of Llandilo; and from the map made by Mr. Bagot for "The Local Board." Also from Clark's Kidwelly Castle; from the valuable pages of the Archalogia Cambrensis; as well as from Woodward's History of Wales; but especially, for "The History," from that portion of The Beauties of England and Wales which treats of this district. The matter taken from The Beauties (itself derived from the Myfyrian Archæology) is large.

The reader should be cautioned, however, that much which passes for Welsh history of the Vale of Towy is believed, by very competent authority, "to be destined. to suffer many corrections and alterations from the light of archæological science." The historical mine of the Record Offices has yet to be worked, as well as the archives of the houses of Dynevor and Golden Grove.

Here and there, in the book, references are made to other sources whence aid has been drawn. A small portion is a reprint of a guide published some years since by Mr. Davies (Teilo). With these exceptions, together with the reprint from Siluria, all responsibility as to the rest must be accepted by the compiler.

The matter thus brought together (much of it from works not very accessible to many people interested in matters connected with Llandilo and its vicinity), and now presented in a convenient and not expensive form, will, it is hoped, meet with a favourable reception both from residents and from tourists.

Considerable trouble has been taken in preparing “The Guide" portion, in order to increase the interest taken in antiquities—especially the old castles, so that many a tourist, or other visitor, may no longer be amenable to the charge of indifference to those very interesting objects which is implied in the lines (here given as a "various reading")

"Those crumbling ruins!
High o'er the river's brim,
Crumbling ruins are to him,
And they are nothing more.'

It is not expected that the opinions dropped here and there in the book will always receive the approval of all who may peruse these pages; but it is believed also that every body will not condemn them; for, "as it hath been, so it is," &c.

Tot homines, quot sententiæ.

The attention of the reader, if of antiquarian proclivities, is particularly directed to the articles "Careg Cenen" and "Cwrt-bryn-y-Beirdd," in the appendix.