divided between the two Kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys, the greater part being in Gwynedd.(2) According to Welsh legendary history, it was so called after Meirion, son of Tibiawn, son of Cunedda Wledig, a Northern British Prince, who lived in Cumberland in the 6th century. About the year 550, A.D., he is said to have sent his eight sons against the Gwyddelian Picts, who then occupied North Wales. The Cuneddian heroes are represented as having utterly overthrown and expelled the Irish, and occu- pied the country. The eldest, Encon Urdd appears to have appropriated Caereinion (in Montgomeryshire), and his eldest son, Caswallon llaw-hir, was sent against the Picts to Anglesey, which he subdued and occupied, having slain Serigi Wyddel, their prince there, with his own hand. Meirion settled in Meirionydd, and his uncle Edeyrn in Edeyrnion, afterwards and now part of Merionethshire. Another son, Dunawd, is said to have delivered the Commot of Ardudwy," in Eifionydd," and called it Dinodyn, or Dunodig. (3) It is open to much doubt whether this nomenclature, founded on the legend of Cunedda, can be accepted as literally accurate. It is more probable, as has been conjectured by a modern Welsh scholar, that in this we have the names not of individuals, but of various petty tribes of common origin, which moved down gradually from North Britain, and expelled the Gael from their scats in Gwynedd.(4) Some writers say that the province was called Mervinia, from Mervyn Frych, the father of Roderic the Great; and under this title Leland mentions it-- "Porrigitur vasto fluvii trans ostia Devi Tractu terra potens hastis Mervinia longis." (³) 9 In the 12th century it consisted of little more than the Cantref of Merionydd (comprising the modern hundreds of Talybont and Estimaner), Penllyn, and probably that sea-board portion of Ardudwy which lies between Tracthmawr and Barmouth. In Sir John Wynn's "History of the Gwydyr Family," it is stated that Conan ap Owen Gwynedd had for his part the County of Merioneth, and in a note it is added that it (*) Camden says that five countics of North Wales-viz., Montgomery, Merioneth, Caernarvon, Denbigh, and Flint-belonged to the Ordevices, and he traces the etymology of the latter word to the position of those counties with reference to the River Dovey. That as they" (the inhabitants) "settled above the two Rivers Devi which rise from contiguous springs, and run different ways-and Oar Devi (Ar Ddevi), signifies in British upon the Rivers Day, they might thence be called Ordevices. Nor, indeed, is the name of Ordevices totally ex- tinct in this tract, great part of it which lies on the sea, being still called by the inhabitants Ardudwy,' which the Romans seem to have softened into Ardovic and Ordevices." Camden's Britl. (1789), Vol. 11. p. 530. Camden's theory as to the name of Ardudwy is, however, too far-fetched. Ardudwy is as soft as Ardovie. It is more probable that as the tract of country which bears that name lies between the two estuaries of Traethmawr and Abermaw, it was therefore called "Ar-dy-dwy" that is, "Upon the two Rivers or Estuaries." (3) Nennius. IIist. Brit. Achau Saiut. Iolo MSS., p. 521. Camden's Britannia-Title Merioneth. Lloyd's (Powel's) Wales, p. 14. Rowland's land's Mona Antiqua (1766), p. 146, et seg. Henry Rowlands is not very accurate. He states that Meirion lived in the seventh or eighth century, and was the son of Owen Danwyn, and the brother of Seiriol, Patron Saint of Penmon, in Anglesea, and of Encon Frenhin, whose cloister was at Llanengan, in Llyn, Caernarvonshire. The latter was son of Encon Urdd ap Cunedda, and cousin of Meirion. (4) Vestiges of the Gael in Gwynedd. By the Rev. W. Basil Jones, M.A.
(2) Sec also Colt Hoare's Giraldus, Vol. z, p. 79-
