HARLECH, a town (small and decayed), formerly a borough, in the parish of LLANDANWG, hundred of ARDUDWY, county of
MERIONETH (of which it is the ancient shire town), NORTH WALES, 20 miles (N. W.) from Dolgelley, by Barmouth, 32 (W. by
S.) from Bala, by Festiniog and Maentwrog, and 229 (w. N. W.) from London. The population is returned with the parish.
This place is conjectured by some writers to have been a fortified post of the Romans, constructed to defend the openings
of the two testuaries to the north of it, called respectively the Traeth Mawr and the Traeth Bach, and to secure a
communication with the opposite shore; but this opinion rests only upon the discovery of some Roman coins and a golden
torques in the vicinity. It is evident that it was formerly a fortified post of the ancient Britons, and was called 'Nit-
Bronwen, from Bronwen, the sister of Bran ab Ll9r, Prince of Siluria, or Gwent. It afterwards obtained the name of Caer
Collwyn, from having been, towards the close of the ninth century, the residence of Collwyn ab Tango, one of the fifteen
tribes of North Wales, and lord of Eivionydd, Ardudwy, and part of Lleyn, who inhabited a square tower which subsequently
became a portion of the more modern castle, and of which there are yet some remains. According to some of the British
historians, the castle was founded, so early as the year 530, by Maelgwyn Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales: the present
structure was built by Edward I., upon the ruins of the former, and was either called Arlech, from its situation upon a
rock, or by its present name of Harlech, which signifies "the fair rock:" it was completed prior to the year 1283, for at
that time Hugh de Wlonkeslow was constable, with a small garrison under him, and had an allowance of 100 per annum, which,
however, was afterwards much reduced. Owain Glyndwr, during the furious and destructive war which be waged against Henry
IV., forcibly took possession of this fortress, in 1404; but it was retaken by the English troops within three years
afterwards. In 1459, it became the asylum of Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI., who, after the disastrous battle of
Northampton, retired to Coventry, and thence to this fortress, from which, after a short stay, she departed for Scotland,
again to take the field in the North of England. On the accession of Edward IV. to the throne, that monarch soon became
master of the whole of the kingdom, except two or three strong fortresses in Northumberland, and Harlech castle. The
latter was held by Davydd ab Ievan ab Einion, a man of great stature and dauntless valour, and one of the most staunch
supporters of the Lancastrian cause. To effect its reduction, Edward, in 1468, despatched Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, with
a strong body of men, Who, after encountering the most formidable difficulties in their march through a rugged alpine
territory, the line of which was afterwards called Le Herbert, or " Herbert's Way," invested the castle. The earl
entrusted the prosecution of the siege to his brother, Sir Richard Herbert, a knight equal in prowess and bravery to the
Welsh commander; whom he summoned to surrender, but received only a laconic and humorous refusal. Finding that the place
was so strong, as only to be reduced by famine, after a siege of no ordinary duration, he entered into terms of honourable
capitulation with Davydd, whose security and protection he guaranteed by intercession with his sovereign; but in this he
was at first unsuccessful, until he boldly offered his own life, and threatened to reinstate the Welsh hero in his
impregnable fortress, apprizing the king, at the same time, of the difficulty of obtaining possession of it. From a
manuscript in the Cotton Library it appears that, in the reign of Elizabeth, the garrison of Harlech castle consisted of
twenty-four men, commanded by a constable receiving an annual allowance of fifty pounds. In 1624, much damage was done to
the cattle and other fanning stock of the neighbourhood by an extraordinary mephitic vapour, which arose from the sea, and
is conjectured by Camden's Annotator, Bishop Gibson, to have been caused by the putrefaction of a great swarm of locusts,
which visited the neighbouring coasts about this time, and was suddenly destroyed by the coldness of the climate. During
the civil war of the seventeenth century, this castle was alternately in the hands of both parties. Sir Hugh Pennant
bravely defended it for the king, until deserted by his men, when it was surrendered to the parliament: subsequently it
was again possessed by the royalists, from whom it was ultimately taken by Gen. Mytton, in March 1647, at which time the
garrison consisted of twenty-eight men, under the command of Capt. William Owen: it was the last fortress in Wales which
held out for the king, in like manner as it appears to have been among the last defended for the house of Lancaster. The
town, which is situated on the shore of the northern part of the great bay of Cardigan, having on one side some of the
wildest and most desolate mountains in the principality, and on the other the wide expanse of sea which separates this
part of Merionethshire from the great promontory of Lleyn in Carnarvonshire, has declined into little more than a village
of inferior size and insignificant appearance. It was made a free borough by Edward I., who granted it certain lands,
privileges, and immunities, and placed it under the government of two bailiffs, a recorder, sergeant at mace, and other
officers; but the chief of its burgensic privileges were abrogated by an act of enclosure in 1806, and there are now only
five burgesses remaining, whose duty is confined to their meeting the parliamentary representative of the county, on the
day of election, at the extremity of the town, and walking before him, with wands in their hands, to the town-hall, and
thence to his place of abode; and this is the only remnant of municipal authority which the town retains. Owing to the
unimportance of the Merionethshire towns, the privilege of sending a member to parliament, granted to those of the other
Welsh counties by the 27th of Henry was withheld from Harlech and the other boroughs of this county; and in lieu thereof,
the flourishing town of Haverfordwest, in Pembrokeshire, was invested with the franchise. The county assizes were formerly
held here, but were removed to other places about two centuries ago; and the county court was removed from Harlech about
the commencement of the present century: the building in which the assizes were held is still standing. The market, which
was on Saturday, has fallen into disuse: fairs are held on March 4th, April 14th, the Thursday in Trinity week, June
10th, August 16th, September 22nd, and October 11 th, chiefly for the sale of live stock. There are places of worship for
Baptists and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists, with Sunday schools attached. Here is a parochial school, endowed with
410 per annum by the Rev. John Ellis. The castle stands on the edge of a lofty perpendicular rock, which overhangs an
extensive marsh, once covered by the sea, but enclosed by the act passed in 1806. The buildings surround a spacious square
area, at each angle of which is a circular tower, with a turret rising from one of its sides; and on each side of the
entrance is also a tower: the apartments, now roofless, are of large dimensions, particularly the banqueting hall, which
is seventy-five feet long and thirty in width, and was lighted by four lofty windows on the side facing the sea: the other
parts most easily distinguishable are the state chamber, the white chamber, the chapel, dungeons, keep, and water gate;
and on the lower part of the rock, adjoining the marsh, are vestiges of walls, with towers of defence. Part of the walls
of the original edifice, of native Welsh construction, are yet apparent, the more modern works in some places resting upon
them. This fortress was inaccessible on the side next the sea, and was protected on the other by a fosse of extraordinary
depth and width, which, prior to the invention of gunpowder, rendered it impregnable. A constable is still appointed, the
office being at present filled by Col. Vaughan, of Reg. From the castle is obtained a delightful view of Cardigan bay and
the Carnarvonshire hills, with the lofty Snowdon towering above the rest. The golden torques above mentioned, which was
dug up in 1692, in a garden near the castle, is now in the possession of Edward Mostyn Lloyd Mostyn, Esq.: it is a round
wreathed flexible bar, abqut four feet long, composed of three or four rods twisted together, the spiral furrows being
separated by sharp intervening ridges, running its entire length: the ends are plain, truncated, and turned back like
pot-hooks: it is about an inch in circumference, weighs eight ounces, and is supposed to have been a Roman British
ornamental badge of dignity, hung round the neck and breast, with the quiver suspended from it behind. In the vicinity are
some scattered vestiges of ancient Druidical monuments.