BOSHERSTON, a parish, in the hundred of CASTLEMARTIN, county of PEMBROKE, SOUTH WALES, 6 miles (S. by W.) from Pembroke,
containing 222 inhabitants. This parish is pleasantly situated on the shore of the Bristol channel, by which it is bounded
on the south, and the rocks on this part of the coast are, by the repeated action of the sea, worn into caverns of
considerable depth, and of singular and romantic appearance. Of these, Bosherston Meer, about a quarter of a mile from the
sea, is the most remarkable: at the entrance it presents only a small opening on the surface of the ground, but gradually
expands into a spacious cavern of increasing depth, which has never yet been explored. Previously to the commencement of a
storm, the confined air is greatly agitated, and the most terrific noises issue from the cavern, which are heard at a
great distance: during the violence of the tempest immense columns of spray are occasionally thrown up, and so great is
the force of the receding current of air, that animals near its mouth are drawn into the cavern and engulphed in its
vortex. By far the greater part of the land in . this parish is enclosed and in a state of cultivation, but there is a
considerable portion forming an extensive expanse of open downs. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of St. David's, rated in the king's books at 1611. 6. 8., and in the patronage of Earl Cawdor. The church, dedicated to
St. Michael, is a neat edifice, and was handsomely ornamented by John Campbell, Esq., a member of the Cawdor family. A
little to the east of Bosherston Meer, and also within the parish, is the hermitage of St. Gawen, situated in a fissure of
the rock, apparently formed by some violent convulsion, and about half-way between the summit and the base. A flight of
steps, rudely cut in the rock, forms an ascent to the small chapel, which is about twenty feet in length and twelve feet
wide, with an altar formed of a coarse stone slab, harmonizing with the rude and simple character of the place. On one
side a door, opening from the chapel, leads into a small cell, cut in the rock, in form resembling the human body, which
is said to have been the solitary retreat of St. Gawen. Beneath the hermitage is St. Gawen's well, formerly in great
repute for the miraculous efficacy, in the cure of diseases, superstitiously ascribed to it through the influence of the
saint, and still held in veneration by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. The scenery around this sequestered spot is
of the wildest and most romantic character: large fragments of rock, scattered in confused heaps, lie around it in every
direction, and huge masses of rugged cliffs, threatening to detach themselves every moment from the higher precipices,
which impend over the sea-worn base of the rock., give to the bold sublimity of the scene an appalling grandeur of effect.
St. Gawen, from whom the promontory called St. Gawen's Head derives its name, though popularly regarded as a saint and
anchorite, is said to have been the nephew of the renowned King Arthur, and one of the knights of his round table; and
Hoole, in one of the notes attached to his translation of Orlando Furioso, asserts that on " a beach of the sea, near
Milford Haven, is a natural rock, shaped into a chapel, which tradition reports to, have been the burying-place of Sir
Gawaine, King Arthur's nephew." The poor are maintained by an average annual expenditure of £84. 9.