A Book of North Wales

by S. Baring-Gould

In a Carnarvonshire will case, heard in July, 1894, the number of Joneses and Robertses called as witnesses during the two days that the action lasted threw judges and counsel engaged into a condition of absolute bewilderment, and turned the court into a patronymical Bedlam.

Sometimes parents, with national enthusiasm, have their sons christened with a truly Welsh name, and are not always careful to select such as will pass smoothly over English tongues, should these sons, on growing up, go out of the Principality. Such was the case with a Rev. T. Mydir Evans, who in England became “Passon Murder Evans.” And what stumbling has been caused over the name of Dr. Gwenogfryn Evans at Oxford!

It was at Bishop Lee’s suggestion, and in the year of his death, that the shires of Wales were formally constituted, though earlier, in 1535, the counties of Denbigh, Montgomery, Merioneth, Glamorgan, Brecon, and Radnor had been constructed out of the old Marches of Wales.

In conclusion, a word must be added relative to the arms of Wales and the three feathers of its Prince’s crest.

Coats-of-arms were assumed and changed very arbitrarily in early days, and there does not seem to have been any fixed rule as to those borne by the several princes. Owen Gwynedd is said to have had on his shield vert, three eagles in fess or, membered and beaked gules, and these are quartered by the Wynns of Peniarth.

But Rhodri the Great had four banners carried before him on which were depicted lions, to represent the principalities of Gwynedd, Powys, Deheubarth, and the Isle of Man, over which his rule extended. Yet the red dragon was the symbol and ensign of the Pendragon, or chief king.

A lion rampant appears to have been the favourite bearing of the princes of Powys. Gruffydd ab Cynan of Gwynedd bore three lions passant gardant in pale argent incensed azure.

Lewis Dwnn, in his Heraldic Visitations of Wales, says that “the recognised arms of the Principality were four lions passant gardant quarterly, and that is the coat now accepted for Wales.”

The red dragon was used by Henry VII. as his crest, and as a supporter on the dexter side, and on the sinister, the greyhound of York.

Henry VIII. retained the dragon, but discarded the greyhound for a lion. The unicorn supplanted the dragon in the reign of James I. The ostrich feather was not properly a Welsh crest at all, but was employed as a badge by Edward III. It was not till the reign of Henry VII. that the three plumes, to represent the three principalities of Wales, in a circlet or coronet, were adopted as a cognisance of the Prince of Wales, and since then have remained as an appropriate symbol; for, indeed, Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth are feathers in the cap of our princes of which they may well be proud.