LLANGADVAN (LLAN-GADFAN), a parish, in the union of LLANVYLLIN, upper division of the hundred of MATHRAVAL, county of MONTGOMERY, NORTH WALES, 7 miles (W. N. W.) from Llanvair; containing 1070 inhabitants. This parish derives its name from the dedication of its church to St. Cadvan, son of Eneas Lledewig, of Armorica, who flourished in the sixth century, and was regarded as the tutelar saint of warriors. It is pleasantly situated on the turnpike-road from Welsbpool to Machynlleth, whichpasses by the noted posting-house called Cann Office, about three-quarters of a mile from the church; and comprehends a tract of nearly seven thousand acres, of which about five thousand are inclosed and cultivated, and of the rateable annual value of £3062. The surface is boldly undulated, and the surrounding scenery is strikingly varied, combining portions of cultivation and verdure with features of rugged sterility. At Moel Achles, in the hamlet of Cowny, a vein of lead-ore was discovered, and mines of that metal were for some time wrought with considerable success; but the works have been discontinued: peat is dug, and forms the principal fuel of the inhabitants. A branch of the river Vyrnwy flows through the village, and unites with the Banwy, near the church. In the neighbourhood are some handsome mansions, of which the principal within the parish is Llwydiarth House, formerly the seat of the family of Vaughan, descended from Aleth Hen, King of Dyved. The living is is rectory, rated in the king's books at £9. 5., and in the patronage of the Bishop of St. Asaph: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £389; and there is a glebe of 26 acres, with a glebe-house. The church is a small venerable structure, in the ancient style of English architecture, and is appropriately fitted up for the performance of divine service. It is supposed that there were formerly chapels in the hamlets of Cyfin, Cowny, and Maesllymysten, which were served by monks from the adjoining monastery of Cyfin; and, according to tradition, the inhabitants of these hamlets had no sittings in the parish church, the smallness of which appears to corroborate the account. The churchyard is also extremely small, and the soil so shallow that the want of a more spacious cemetery is much felt by the inhabitants. The old parsonage-house was burnt down in 1645, when Vavasor Powel was sent by the parliament to sequestrate the livings of the clergy in the county of Montgomery. There are places of worship for Independents and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. A circulating school, commenced in 1833, is attended by about 110 children daily and 140 on Sundays, and is endowed with £20 per annum, by Mrs. Bevan's trustees, for which all the children of the poor are instructed: about 15 children are taught in a day school at the expense of the parents; and there are six Sunday schools, conducted gratuitously, four of which appertain to Independents, and two to Calvinistic Methodists, and in which are 340 persons. Several small charitable donations and bequests have been assigned for distribution among the poor, which, being consolidated, yield an interest of £1. 16., annually, divided in small portions; and in the same manner those attending the church receive 2s. worth of bread every Sunday, arising from a gift of £104 by Mrs. Grace Edwards, in 1802, secured by a mortgage on the tolls of the second division of the Montgomeryshire roads. Three other small charities, amounting to £60, one of which was a bequest of £40 by the Rev. John Williams, in 1773, have been lost. In the hamlet of Cyfin, in the parish, was a small monastery, probably dependent on the Cistercian abbey of Strata Marcella: among its endowments were the hamlet of Cevnllks Ucha, in the parish of Llanervul, and that of Tirymynach, in Lianbr31,nmair, which, on its dissolution, became the property of the Vaughans of Llwydiarth. There are no remains of the building; but the site is still called Cae'r Mynach, and below it is a ford over the river Owddyn, a branch of the Vyrnwy, called Rhyd-yByde, which is by some thought to be a corruption of RlISNI-yr-Abadau, " the ford of the abbots," or of R11,11-y-Badau, "the ford of the boats," from a pool adjoining, where boats were formerly kept. At Cann Office are the remains of a British encampment, the area inclosed by the defences of which is partly occupied by the present posting-house: a mound of earth, about seventy yards in circumference, extending along the bottom of the meat by which it was surrounded, is still remaining. Near Pont-y-Llogel, in the hamlet of Cyfin, and near the bank of the river Vyrnwy, are two cairns, the larger of which is nearly sixty yards in circuit, and has its outer circumference composed of upright stones, four feet in height, with the interior piled up to the height of five feet in the centre. In removing the stones, to furnish materials for the wall of Llwydiarth Park, a stone coftin was discovered in the centre, containing two skeletons, the head of one being placed by the feet of the other, and an urn, in which were some burnt bones and ashes. There are numerous carneddau in this and the adjoining. parishes of Garth-beibio and Llanervul, varying in diameter from ten to twenty yards, and a great number of smaller dimensions. In the centre of each of these, when opened, is found a eist-vaen, or stone coffin, over which the cairn is always more protuberant: the outer circumference, like that of the large one above-mentioned, is generally formed of large upright stones, and those contained within are piled loosely in circles around the tomb, the interstices being filled up with stones of a smaller size. Besides these, which are undoubtedly the sepulchres of native British chieftains, there is, on the neighbouring hills, and more especially on that called Pen Coed, a great number of barrows, supposed to be the graves of their followers; they all exhibit evident marks of fire, and in some the heat appears to have been so intense, that the stones were partly vitrified. In the hamlet of Moelveliarth are the remains of a small fort with intrenchments; and in Maesllymysten is a small camp, on the summit of a precipitous eminence, defended on the only side on which it is accessible by a deep ditch. On the summit of an opposite hill, called Mopart, and running completely across it, is a ditch as large as Offa's Dyke, probably intended to prevent incursions from the mountains above. A pair of ancient mill-stones was found in digging for turf in the hamlet of Cyfin, in the ,year 1828, at a depth of nearly two feet below the surface. Fynnon Gadvan, or " St. Cadvan's Well," was formerly in great repute for the.marvellous efficacy attributed to its water, and was once covered with some building, of which the stones, of remarkably large size, were remaining within the last few years. There is a chalybeate spring in the township of Cyfin; but it is not much resorted to. William Jones, an eminent poet and critic, was born in the parish, in 1729, and was interred here in 1795; the Cambrian Register contains a sketch of his life, and some notice of a history which he published of this and the adjoining parishes of Garthbeibio and Llanervul.