THE ECLECTIC REVIEW, FOR SEPTEMBER, 1812. Art. I. A Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire. By Richard Fenton, Esq. F.A. S. 4to. pp. 587. Appendix pp. 75. Price 41. 4s. Longman and Co. SOME books-if we may be permitted to use so familiar a simile-resemble a warehouse, well stored with goods, but offering few attractions to entice the customers, and fewer accommodations for the mere lounger; while others, like some of our retail shops, exhibit an imposing shew of articles, tastefully arranged in the window, and on the counter, to tempt even those who need not purchase, and to amuse such as cannot. It is hardly necessary to add, that county histories generally belong to the former, and books of travels as frequently to the latter. In the present history of Pembrokeshire, Mr. Fenton has endeavoured, and we think with considerable success, to combine the characteristics of both classes. The geographer, the antiquary, and the genealogist will not be disappointed when they seek for those articles which they are accustomed to collect from similar performances; and the fire-side traveller, whose taste is not so heightened, as to require hair-breadth escapes, or chivalrous adventures on every trip, will find a very considerable share of rational amusement in our author's company. The County of Pembroke, remote from any cities of primary importance, distinguished by no particular manufactures, af. fording no opportunities for the rapid acquisition of wealth, and eclipsed in natural beauty by other provinces of the principality; possesses but few attractions either for the man of commerce or the traveller. It is therefore no wonder that it needs a description ;-such as take the trouble to read Mr. Fenton's will also own that it deserves one. At a period of civilization in Britain when personal security and the enjoyment of property, depended upon individual prudence and precautions, more than on the equally disVol. VIII. 4 C pensed protection afforded by effective laws; this part of Wales maintained a strenuous independence by means of its numerous population. The wealth of its inhabitants allured plunderers; but at that time, when plunderers seized on a territory, it was not merely to deprive their opponents of it, but to enjoy it themselves; and thus what was lost in battle, was made good by colonies of the conquerors. Even after the subjugation of the principality, the Flemings, who were transported thither as a scourge to the natives, added fresh numbers to the whole, and probably increased their prosperity. But slow decay succeeded this period. Trade dwindled away; the towns were deserted; permission to pull down one castle after an other was obtained from the crown; the deserted mansions of the land owners fell into ruins, and in several places even the burial grounds of the former inhabitants were violated by the ploughshare. The love of ancestry is inherent in the character of the Welsh almost to a fault, and the child soon makes the enquiry: "where did my forefathers dwell, where do their bones repose?" Yet so great is the number of extinct families, that the country is strewed with untenanted dwellings, and dilapidated castles, whose owners and origin are as unknown as the worshippers at the cromlechs, and logan stones around them, and the churches adorned with tombs and effigies of as uncertain import, as the unhallowed tumuli beneath which the heroes of an earlier age are forgotten. 1 Such was the state of Pembrokeshire during a period in which Manchester, Liverpool, and their attendant manufactures rose from nothing to their present gigantic magnitude, and such it remained even towards the close of the last century. But now a brighter period appears to open upon this of late declining county. The symptoms-perhaps the causes-that the tide of prosperity has again begun to flow, are indeed principally confined to the infant town of Milford, and the communication established between that place, the metropolis, and the sister island. These may perhaps be esteemed slight; but we have had an opportunity of witnessing the change produced in an interval of twenty years, and estimating the difference; and can unite our hopes with those who look forward to a restoration of its former importance. It is not however to be expected that with a returning growth of population, the sites of antient habitations will be re-occupied. The circumvallations of a camp and the moat of a castle are, happily, no longer necessary to secure the safety of the inhabitants; and instead of situations rendered almost inaccessible by morasses, or precipices, those which afford the readiest opportunity of access will be chosen by a race whose strength, whose riches, and whose happiness depend on society and intercourse. Pembrokeshire will therefore, probably, long present the singular contrast of rising villages and towns, enlarging with the growth of its new population; and deserted ruins, the exuviæ of one that is no more. It is evident that, to elucidate the scenery and history of such a country much more is requisite than the cursory observations of a traveller; and we must confess that we should have seen, with equal regret, the task undertaken by one who destroyed their effect by giving his readers nothing but dry statistical tables, genealogies, and chronologies. Mr. Fenton is evidently intimately acquainted with his subject. Being himself a native of the county, his predilection for it is unquestionable; and by assuming the language of a traveller, (whether his journeys be imaginary or real is of no great importance, we suspect them to be a mixture of both) he is enabled, in an interesting manner, to convey information, which, however valuable, would in almost any other-bave tired our patience. The work would have been rendered more valuable and complete if a table of the population had been added in the appendix. Leaving Fishguard, the place of his habitation, Mr. Fenton in his first "Iter" pursues the north-western coast of the promontory, towards St. David's. At the distance of a few miles from the former place, he notices Lanwnda, which will long be memorable to the inhabitants of this county as the scene of alarm and of exultation. The newspapers of the day gave ample and detailed accounts of the invasion alluded to, but were equally assiduous in propagating misrepresentations of various kinds, among which a story of a regiment of Welsh amazons, or old women, who were mistaken for such on account of their red cloaks, makes a very distinguished figure. Our readers will be glad to see an account of the occurrence, from the pen of an impartial eye witness, "whose retired habits precluded him from a share in the council or the field, and who therefore had leisure calmly to attend to all that was passing." • On Tuesday the 20th of February, 1797, the finest day ever remembered at such a season, when all nature, earth, and ocean, wore an air of unusual serenity, three large vessels were discovered standing in from the Channel, and nearing the rocky coast of Lanwnda, which the inhabitants at first imagined to be Liverpool merchantmen becalmed, and coming to an anchor to wait the return of the tide, or a brisker gale; but on their approaching much nearer than it was usual, or might be deemed safe for vessels of that size, a most serious alarm was excited; an alarm that was considerably increased when boats were seen putting off from their sides full of men, followed by others manned alike, in such rapid succession, as to leave no doubt of their being an enemy, which, late in the evening, was confirmed by their having begun to disembark, a service that was not completed till midnight; by which time their casks of ammunition, heavy as they were, were rolled up an almost precipitous steep, grown glassy by the dryness of the weather. This was a task apparently so Herculean, as almost to exceed credibility; and what I question much, all circumstances considered, if greater powers, in a better cause, would not have hesitated to attempt. The night being remarkably dark, it was impossible to ascertain their numbers; fear, and the love of the marvellous, magnifying their hundreds into thousands, an uncertain source of horror to which the report "Vires aquirens eundo" of every courier passing from the scene of their landing, to disseminate the intelligence through Fishguard, in no small degree contributed. The inhabitants more immediately within the reach of the ferocious invaders for the most part deserted their houses, and took refuge in the rocks and thick furze, not too far off to admit of their casting a melancholy eye through the gloom toward their dwelling, which they feared they should never return to, or expected every minute to see wrapped in flames. The town of Fishguard and its vicinity, though a little farther off, yet caught the general panic; and after many useless conferences and discussions, (the inhabitants) were able to effect nothing more than the removal of their wives, children, and most valuable articles for greater security into the interior. • In the meantime, the blood-hounds were no sooner at leisure than they hastened to satiate their hunger, which, from the vast toil they had undergone, and their scanty allowance of provision for some days, was become voracious. The fields were selected for the purpose of cookery, and the operations were carried on upon an immense scale. Not a fowl was left alive, and the geese were literally boiled in butter. They then proceeded to plunder, and give a loose to every brutal excess that pampered and inflamed appetites could prompt them to; but the veil of night was kindly drawn over their execrable orgies, disgraceful to nature, and which humanity shudders to imagine. But what less could have been expected from wretches commissioned (as it afterwards appeared from the instructions taken on board one of the frigates that conveyed them to our shores) to confound and desolate. Gluttony was followed by intoxication: and here the finger of heaven was manifestly visible; for, in consequence of a wreck of wine a few days before on that coast, there was not a cottage but supplied a cask of it; the intemperate use of which produced a frenzy that raised the men above the controul of discipline, and sunk many of the officers below the powers to command; and to this principally, in gratitude to the Divine Being, may be ascribed the so happy termination of a business that seemed to menace a much more distressing catastrophe. For certain it is, had they availed themselves of the first moments of alarm, debate and indecision, the ravage without much hazard to themselves, they might have committed is incalculable. Fishguard, a place totally incompetent to oppose such a force, with all its wealth, its shipping shut up at that time benepped in her harbour, was in sight, and might have become an easy prey: nay all the country, even to the opulent town of Haverfordwest, might have felt the force of their arms before they could have received any material check. But sensual indulgence into which they instantly plunged, had enervated and rendered them unfit for service; the spirit of obedience was extinguished; and every attempt to rekindle it and restore order, only served to increase that licentiousness which actual correction ripened into mutin y: a symptom no sooner discovered by the French general, than he, like a discreet pilot, who, when he finds the vessel will not answer the helm, her leak too increasing, takes the first opportunity, without consulting the dissatisfied crew, to run her ashore, late on Wednesday evening proposed a surrender, by us accepted as absolute and unconditional; and by the French soldiery beginning to awake from their delirium, and capable of reflecting on the flattering advantages they had lost, acceded to, with a sort of sulky submission to the imperiousness of the terms.'— pp. 10, 13. The hill to the west of this place presents numerous druidical remains-for by this name our author very properly continues to distinguish those immense specimens of the useless application of vast power, the origin of which is, and probably will remain, buried in obscurity. The principal are, a rocking stone of about five ton weight, which seems remarkably well poised, "yielding to the pressure of the little finger," and three cromlechs, one erect and two overturned. The rocks in the vicinity exhibit interesting marks of the operations of the workmen who raised these monuments, and consist according to our author of a green serpentine. Basaltic columns are also found at the headland of Penainglas, and at Fishguard. A little further appear what our author conceives to be relics of the antient town of Trêf Culhwch, an immense quantity of loose stones scattered over the declivity of the hill, with attendant cromlechs; indeed every step of his progress discovers ruins of one kind or other, intrenchments, tumuli, cistvaens, &c. to which he devotes the attention which they merit. We must pass these without further notice, in order to make room for some of his observations on the history Ty Ddewi, or St. David's, once the metropolitan see of all Wales, and the resort of pilgrims from every quarter, now a memento to the fortuitous traveller, how low the mighty may fall. It seems that the Romans were acquainted with this part of Wales, Richard of Cirencester's seventh iter terminating at Menapia, whence "per m. p. xxx navigas in Hyberniam," clearly proving Menapia to have been in this neighbourhood, though Mr. Fenton suspects that its site is now lost beneath the sand of the barrows. Our author seems to have been particularly successful in tracing the Roman road leading in this |