LLANGAMMARCH (LLAN-GAMMARCH), a parish, in the union and hundred of BUILTH, county of BRECKNOCK, SOUTH WALES, 9 miles (W.
S. W) from Builth, on the road to Llandovery; comprising the townships of Penbyallt and TrevlIjrs, and containing 1062
inhabitants. The western and southern parts of this parish are mountainous, and in some places the soil is boggy; but the
country adjacent is, notwithstanding, far from being unproductive; and much stately and valuable timber is found in the
vicinity. On descending into the Vale of Llangammarch from the Eppynalills, the north side of which is steep, and in some
places even precipitous, the prospect is both luxuriant and picturesque, commanding a view of the Irvon from Llancamddwr
to the influx of the river Dulas, throughout which part of its course its banks are finely wooded. The village is situated
on the river Irvon, a powerful stream which flows into the Wye near Builth, and on the turnpike-road from that town to
Llandovery. A small manufacture of fine flannel, employing only about a dozen persons, is carried on: the rateable annual
value of the whole parish is £2945; of which sum £1290 has been returned for the township of Penbyallt, and £1655 for that
of Treyflys. Llangammarch forms a prebend in the collegiate church of Christ at Brecknock, rated in the king's books at
£27, and belonging to the Bishop of St. David's, as Treasurer of the College, to which office the great tithes are
appropriated. The living is a discharged vicarage, with the perpetual curacies of Llanwrtyd and Llanddewi- Abergwessin
annexed, rated in the king's books at £8. 14. 5., and in the patzonage of the Bishop; present net income. £209. The
church, dedicated to St. Cammarch, is situated on a projecting rock between the rivers lrvon and Cammarch, and consists
only of a nave and chancel, in a very dilapidated condition: it was formerly much larger, even within the memory of man,
having an aisle, which, becoming ruinous, was taken down, and never rebuilt. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have two
places of worship, one of which, situated at Cevn Llanddewi, is endowed with a tenement called Pen-llech-vfich, in this
parish, purchased by subscription among the congregation, and now let for £5 per annum to one of their own sect. Margaret
Jones, by will dated May 22nd, 1782, bequeathed the aeversion of £400 three per cent. annuities, on the death of Harriet,
wife of John Robotham, of Hampstead, in the county of Middlesex, then upwards of sixty years of age, to the curate,
churchwardens, and overseers of Llangammarch, in trust for the establishment and endowment of a free school, and also the
reversion, on the death of the same party, of £200, the interest to be applied in clothing old persons; £50, the interest
to be employed in clothing young people; and £50, the interest to be appropriated for an annual feast to the trustees. Mr.
Hugh Perry, of Brecknock, in 1730, charged a tenement with the payment of twenty shillings annually, after the decease of
his daughter, to be distributed among the poor of the parish; but it is not now paid. In the township of Trevllys about
20 children are instructed in a day school at the expense of their parents; and in Penbyallt are two Sunday schools, in
which the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists gratuitously teach 280 persons. Near the ancient mansion of Caemu is a circular
artificial mount, two hundred and forty feet in circumference, and eighteen feet high, supposed to have been the site
either of an ancient British or a Roman fortress; but, as there are neither any remains of the walls nor of the fosse, it
is impossible to ascertain its exact origin: no Roman coins, nor any antiquities of that people, have ever been
discovered here; but, from its situation, it is not unlikely to have been the site of a watch-tower on the Roman road
from Carmarthen to the station at Cwm, in the county of Radnor. James Bowel, a voluminous writer and eccentric wanderer,
author of the " Epistoler Hoeliante," the " Lexicon Tetraglotton," " Londinopolis," " Dodona's Grove," and other works,
was born at Cevn-Bryn, in the parish, as was also his elder brother, Dr. Thomas Howel, Bishop of Bristol: their father
was curate of Llangammarch from 1576 to 1631. Theophilus Evans, author of several theological and other -works, resided in
the parish, of which he was vicar for many years: his first publication, entitled " Pwyll y Pa-der," appeared in 1739,
and contained a comment on the Lord's Prayer, in several sermons written in the Welsh language; in the same year he
printed his " DIch y Priv Oesoedd," a brief history of the Britons, a work more read and admired in South Wales than any
published in the vernacular language, and in 1752 he published, in the English language, a " History of the Modern
Enthusiasm." He was a learned antiquafy, and a man of great piety and benevolence, and devoted to study all the time which
was not employed in the performance of his pastoral duties: being for many years afflicted with a scrofulous complaint,
he was the first to discover the medicinal virtues, in such disorders, of the mineral waters in the neighbouring parish of
Llanwrtyd, an account of which he published. In 1763, he resigned the living of Llangammarch in favour of his son-in-law,
the father of the late Theophilus Jones, Esq., the historian of the county of Brecknock, who was born in the parish: this
gentleman's history of his native county evinces extensive acquirements, and great industry and perseverance; he died at
Brecknock, but was buried at Llangammarch.