Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Anglesea

ANGLESEA or Anglesey (i.e., the Angle s Island), the Mona of Tacitus, an insular county of North Wales, separated from the mainland of England by the Menai Strait, over which Mr Telford s magnificent suspension bridge was thrown in 1826, followed by the renowned tubular railway iron bridge in 1850. The island contains 193,51 1 acres. The surface is for the most part flat, and the soil but moderately fertile. The exports consist of barley, oats, cattle, sheep, and hogs ; and a considerable trade is carried on in butter, cheese, hides, tallow, wax, and honey. It contains valuable minerals, and furnishes (though not so abundantly as formerly) copper, lead, silver, marble, asbestos, limestone, marl, and coal. The chief copper mines are at Parys, and were first worked in 1768 ; and those of coal are at Maltraeth and Tredfaeth. The stones for the towers of the tubular bridge were quarried at Penmore, 4 miles north of Beaumaris. There aro no manufactures of importance. The herring fishery in some years gives employment to a part of the inhabitants ; and other kinds of sea-fish are abundant. Anglesea was anciently famous as the seat of the Druidical pontiff, and a Druidicai college; and a number of (so-called) Druidicai remains such as the cromlechs atPlasNewydd are still to be seen. In 61 A.D. Suetonius Paulinus attacked the Druids in this their safest retreat, and they were utterly subdued by Agricola in 78. About 450 Caswallon, prince of Cambria, chose this island for his seat of government, and it continued to be the residence of the princes of North Wales till the final subjugation in 1277. At present the northern form of Welsh is spoken by the peasantry, but in the towns English is very generally understood. The county is divided into 6 "hundreds," and 76 parishes. The number of inhabitants in 1861 was 38,157; and in 1871,35,127. This decrease is ascribed to emigration, occasioned by the depressed state of the mining trades and lack of agricultural employment. The county returns one member to parliament, and one is also returned by the boroughs of Beaumaris, Holyhead, Amlwch, and Llangefni.