[73b] Much has been said and written by ancient authors respecting the derivation of the name of this city, which is generally allowed to be the Muridunum, or Maridunum, mentioned in the Roman itineraries. Some derive it from Caer and Merddyn, that is, the city of the prophet Merddyn; and others from Mûr and Murddyn, which in the British language signify a wall. There can, however, be little doubt that it is derived simply from the Roman name Muridunum. The county gaol occupies the site of the old castle, a few fragments of which are seen intermixed with the houses of the town.
[73c] Dinevor, the great castle, from dinas, a castle, and vawr, great, was in ancient times a royal residence of the princes of South Wales. In the year 876, Roderic the Great, having divided the principalities of North and South Wales, and Powys land, amongst his three sons, built for each of them a palace. The sovereignty of South Wales, with the castle of Dinevor, fell to the lot of Cadell. [The ruins of Dinevor Castle still crown the summit of the hill which overshadows the town of Llandilo, 12 miles from Carmarthen.]
[74a] There is a spring very near the north side of Dinevor park wall, which bears the name of Nant-y-rhibo, or the bewitched brook, which may, perhaps, be the one here alluded to by Giraldus.
[74b] Pencadair is a small village situated to the north of Carmarthen.
[75a] Alba Domus was called in Welsh Ty Gwyn ar Daf, or the White House on the river Taf. In the history of the primitive British church, Ty Gwyn, or white house, is used in a sense equivalent to a charter-house. The White House College, or Bangor y Ty Gwyn, is pretended to have been founded about 480, by Paul Hên, or Paulius, a saint of the congregation of Illtyd. From this origin, the celebrated Cistercian monastery is said to have derived its establishment. Powel, in his chronicle, says, “For the first abbey or frier house that we read of in Wales, sith the destruction of the noble house of Bangor, which savoured not of Romish dregges, was the Tuy Gwyn, built the yeare 1146, and after they swarmed like bees through all the countrie.” (Powel, p. 254.)—Authors differ with respect to the founder of this abbey; some have attributed it to Rhys ap Tewdwr, prince of South Wales; and others to Bernard, bishop of Saint David’s, who died about the year 1148. The latter account is corroborated by the following passage in Wharton’s Anglia Sacra: “Anno 1143 ducti sunt monachi ordinis Cisterciensis qui modo sunt apud Albam Landam, in West Walliam, per Bernardum episcopum.” Leland, in his Collectanea, says, “Whitland, abbat. Cistert., Rhesus filius Theodori princeps Suth Walliæ primus fundator;” and in his Itinerary, mentions it as a convent of Bernardynes, “which yet stondeth.”
[75b] Saint Clears is a long, straggling village, at the junction of the river Cathgenny with the Tâf. Immediately on the banks of the former, and not far from its junction with the latter, stood the castle, of which not one stone is left; but the artificial tumulus on which the citadel was placed, and other broken ground, mark its ancient site.
[76a] Lanwadein, now called Lawhaden, is a small village about four miles from Narberth, on the banks of the river Cleddeu.
[76b] Daugleddeu, so called from Dau, two, and Cled, or Cleddau, a sword. The rivers Cledheu have their source in the Prescelly mountain, unite their streams below Haverfordwest, and run into Milford Haven, which in Welsh is called Aberdaugleddau, or the confluence of the two rivers Cledheu.
[76c] Haverford, now called Haverfordwest, is a considerable town on the river Cledheu, with an ancient castle, three churches, and some monastic remains. The old castle (now used as the county gaol), from its size and commanding situation, adds greatly to the picturesque appearance of this town. [The old castle is no longer used as a gaol.]
[79a] The province of Rhos, in which the town of Haverfordwest is situated, was peopled by a colony of Flemings during the reign of king Henry I.