OWEN GLYNDWR’S HOUSE, MACHYNLLETH
CHAPTER XVI
MACHYNLLETH
Pronunciation of the name—Owen Glyndwr—His history—David Gam—Fish—Lakes—Bugeilyn—Llyn Penrhaiadr—Towyn—Inscribed stone of S. Cadvan—Who Cadvan was—Tal y Llyn—Bass fishing—Llanegryn and its screen—Peniarth—The Wynn family—Welsh names—The Arms of Wales—The Three Feathers.
THE pronunciation of this name demands a smattering of knowledge as to how to speak it intelligibly to a Welshman; but the clerks at railway stations delivering tickets to the place are prepared to accept every laboured effort to pronounce and mispronounce it. To ensure being understood, call the place “Măhúntleth.”
The town, a cheerful little place, clean, but without anything of much interest in it, is one of the six contributing boroughs of Montgomery. It has not even an old parish church; the structure that serves for the purpose is modern and poor in design. But it does retain a little plaster-and-timber house, nearly opposite the gates of the grounds of Plas Machynlleth, the place of the Marchioness of Londonderry, which is traditionally held to have been the dwelling in which Owen Glyndwr assembled a parliament to consult as to the best means of resisting Henry IV., and the place also where an attempt was made to assassinate him by David Gam.
Owen Glyndwr was born about 1359 in South Wales, but descended from the princes of Powys, and he takes his name from Glyndyfrdwy in Yale. He first comes to notice as witness in a remarkable trial that lasted four years between the houses of Grosvenor and Scrope relative to rights to a certain coat-of-arms.
The story of rights over a common, which originated the struggle between Owen and Lord Grey of Ruthin, and brought on a contest with the whole power of England, that lasted through Glyndwr’s life, has been already told.