OGOF MORRIS (MORRIS’S CAVE).
Near Tre’rddol in North Cardiganshire, there is a cave known as Ogof Morris. According to a tradition I heard in the neighbourhood, this Morris was a notorious robber who lived in this cave, and went about to steal hens and sheep; but at last he was caught and hanged at Cardigan. According to the eminent antiquarian, Mr. Barnwell, there was a robber of the name also in Pembrokeshire, who had a little dog trained to fetch the arrows shot at unfortunate wayfarers. At last he was killed and buried at a spot where there is a stone still called “Bedd Morris” on the highway from St. David’s to Newport.
BLOODY CAVE.
There is a cave at Pendine, in Carmarthenshire, in which according to tradition a gang of most desperate and murderous robbers once made their headquarters. At last, these scoundrels were attacked by the people of the neighbourhood, and put to death for murdering a woman for her money.
PLANT MAT’S CAVE.
According to tradition “Plant Mat,” or “Plant y Fat,” were two sons and a daughter of one Matthew Evans, who kept a public house at Tregaron in the seventeenth century. These persons became highway robbers and lived in a cave near Devil’s Bridge. The entrance to the cave admitted only one person at a time and this enabled the robbers to keep out hundreds when they were attacked. It seems that they had some notion of honour, for it is said that if either had a friend, he gave him his glove, which served as a passport when stopped by the others. They lived for some years in this cave, but at last they were executed for murder. One of them was captured near Hereford, just as he was giving out the well-known hail of “Deliver or die.” These robbers are also credited with the attributes of the fairies.
TWM SHION CATTI’S CAVE.
“Mae llefain mawr a gwaeddi,
Yn Ystradffin eleni;
Mae’r ceryg nadd yn toddi’n blwm,