[155b] The harbour, now known by the name of Portscwit, (and recorded in the Triads as one of the three passages or ferries in the Isle of Britain), is situated on the Welsh side of the Bristol channel, at a short distance from the lower passage.
[155c] Port Mawr, or the large port, is thus mentioned by Leland in his Itinerary, tom. v. pp. 28, 29:—“About a mile of is Port Mawre, where is a great sande with a shorte estuary into the lande. And sum say that there hath beene a castel at or aboute Port Mawr, but the tokens be not very evidente.”
[155d] Rhyd-helyg, or the Ford of the Willow.—I imagine this place is Walford in Herefordshire, near the banks of the river Wye.
[156] Brutus, according to the fable, in his way to Britain, met with a company of Trojans, who had fled from Troy with Antenor and Corinæus at their head, who submitted themselves to Brutus, and joined his company; which Corinæus, being a very valiant man, rendered great service to Brutus during his wars in Gaul and Britain; in return for which, Brutus, having subdued the island, and divided it amongst his people, gave Cornwall to Corinæus, who, as it is said, called it after his own name, Cernyw.
[157a] Uchelwyr, so called from Uchel, high, and gwr, a man.
[157b] This assertion is unfounded, if we give credit to the Welsh Chronicle, which dates the death of Cadell in 907, and that of Anarawdin in 913. [Howell Dda, the son of Cadell, reunited Wales under one sovereign.]
[158a] B.M.—This abbreviation, which in every manuscript I have seen of Giraldus has been construed into Beatam Mariam, and in many of them is written Beatam Virginem, may with much greater propriety be applied to Belinus Magnus, or Beli the Great, a distinguished British King, to whom most of the British pedigrees ascended; and because his name occurred so frequently in them it was often written short, B.M., which some men, by mistake, interpret Beata Maria.—(Sir R. C. H.)
[158b] Aberfraw, a small town at the conflux of the river Fraw and the sea, on the S.W. part of the isle of Anglesey, and twelve miles S.E. of Holyhead.
[159a] A great lordship in Herefordshire, including the district between Hereford and Monmouth, bordering on the river Wye.
[159b] Book ii. chapter i.