CONVIL, or CYNWYL, a parish, in the higher division of the hundred of ELVET, county of CARMARTHEN, SOUTH WALES, 6t miles (N. N. w.) from Carmarthen, on the road to Newcastle, containing 1566 inhabitants. This is a place of great antiquity, having been originally a British settlement, afterwards visited by the Romans: it has subsequently been the scene of many interesting transactions connected with the history of the principality. Henry Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII., is supposed to have marched through it, on his way to meet Richard III., who is said to have encamped his forces at Llanvihangel-Yeroth, in the vicinity of which a battle took place between the vanguard of the earl and the rearguard of the usurping monarch, which terminated in the troops of the latter being obliged to retire, in consequence of the unfavourable position which they occupied. A remarkable embankment here, called "The Line," extending a mile and a half in length, and in many places eighteen feet high, is ascribed by tradition to the earl; and on the opposite bank, in a marshy soil, is a corresponding work, on the line of which is an artificial eminence, called "The King's Barrow," still bearing on its summit the marks of fire, having probably been used as a beacon, kindled to prevent a surprise by night from the hostile party on the other side. This tradition, however, is generally rejected, on the ground of the apparent inutility of such a work in a country friendly to Henry's designs, and of which many of the inhabitants were actually engaged with great energy in carrying into effect the object of his enterprise; yet, by a striking coincidence, there is, within a mile and a half of these lines, a place called Llwyn Davydd, and it is on record that the earl halted at a place of that name, usually considered that near Llandysilio-Gogo, on the seacoast in Cardiganshire, which, however, is out of the direct route between Milford Haven, where he landed, and Shrewsbury, the road sometimes lying through deep valleys, at that time rendered impassable by the boggy nature of the soil, and Llwyn Davydd, in the adjoining parish of Llangeler, being in the direct road over a chain of hills. The small rivers Bala and Gwili run through this parish: the neighbouring district is composed of deep dingles and dorsal hills, which converge in a point at this place. A fair is held on November 21st. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Abernant, in the archdeaconry of Carmarthen, and diocese of St. David's, endowed, exclusively of Abernant, with only £3 per annum, and a legacy of £8 by Mrs. Anna Warner. The church is dedicated to St. Michael. There are two places of worship for Independents, and one each for Baptists and Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. The sum of £5 is annually distributed among decayed housekeepers, arising from legacies by Mrs. Warner, of Southampton, in 1721, and Thomas Howell, Esq., of Pencaerau. Within the limits of the parish there was a remarkable cromlech, noticed by most preceding writers as being in a perfect state, but now scarcely distinguishable from an ordinary heap of stones, some of which, after being broken into fragments with gunpowder, were used, within the last few years, in the erection of a farm-house near the spot. This ancient monument of the Druids consisted of one principal stone of prodigious weight, supported by four upright stones, and surrounded by others in an erect position, supposed to have originally formed an entire circle. In addition to its appropriation to religious purposes, it is supposed to have been also used as an observatory, as it occupied the summit of a lofty hill, from which there is at most times a distinct view of the Bristol channel, and is found to have been originally constructed with a due regard to the meridian of the place, which now declines a little to the eastward; and this deviation, on a calculation of the precession of the equinoxes, has been considered a proof of its having been erected something more than two thousand years ago, or two hundred years before the Christian era. There are various tumuli in the parish, within which also there is a mineral spring, strongly impregnated with iron, and formerly held in considerable repute for its-efficacy in the cure of certain diseases: it is called Fossana, or Ffos Sana, and from this appellation is supposed to have been known to the Roman conquerors of Britain, and to have been called by them Fons Sana. On a farm called Troed y Rhiw, in the northern part of the parish, formerly stood a chapel, which is supposed to have been suffered to fall to ruin in or prior to the reign of Henry VIII., few vestiges of it being now discernible. The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor amounts to £498. 15.