LLANRWST (LLAN-RWST), a market-town and parish, comprising the township of Gwydir, and the head of a union, in the hundred of NANTCONWAY, county of CARNARVON, but chiefly in the Uchdulas division of the hundred of Turmas, county of DENBIGH, NORTH WALES, 20 miles (W. by S.) from Denbigh, 26 (W. by N.) from Ruthin, and 217 (N. W. by W.) from London; and containing 3904 inhabitants, of whom 3524 are in the Denbighshire, and 380 in the Carnarvonshire, portion. This town is of very great antiquity, and in the year 952 was the scene of an important battle in the contests maintained at this period, for the sovereignty Wales, between the sons of Hywel Dda and of Edwal Voel, when the former, assembling their forces in South Wales, laid waste the territory of North Wales as far as the river Conway, but were opposed by the latter at the town of Llanrwst, where, after an obstinate conflict, in which many of considerable rank were slain on both sides, the sons of Edwal Voel were victorious, and pursuing their enemies into South Wales, they retaliated upon their territories for the ravages which had been inflicted on their own. The TOWN is pleasantly situated on the eastern bank of the river Conway, which here forms the boundary between the two counties, four miles to the north of the road to Hol head, and In .the spacious and beautiful Vale of Llanrwst, environed by majestic and well-wooded hills, the land at the foot of which is well watered, and exceedingly productive: it is large, well built, and amply supplied with water, but consists principally of small houses and shops; the streets are spacious and well paved. Over the river is an elegant bridge of three arches, built about the year 1636, under an order from the privy council of Charles I., from a plan by Inigo Jones, who is erroneously stated to have been a native of this place; the expense of its erection, amounting to about one thousand pounds, was conjointly defrayed by the two counties which it connects: two of the arches are exceedingly handsome; the third, having been rebuilt in 1703, is somewhat inferior; the central arch, which forms a much larger segment of a circle than the other two, is nearly sixty feet in span. Excellent roads have lately been made, communicating with the London, Liverpool, and Holyhead roads, and also with Denbigh, and St. Asaph, the improved state of which has caused a con. siderable increase of visiters, during the summer months, to the picturesque and much admired scenery of this neighbourhood. Llanrwst was formerly noted for the making of harps: at present the spinning of woollen yarn, and the knitting of stockings, constitute the principal trade, the town being situated at the north-western extremity of the hosiery district of North Wales, and, next to Bala, the principal market for that article; the former of these branches, however, is in a very low state, there being only one mill, in which four or five persons are employed. The river Conway is navigable from its mouth to Tr6vriw, about two miles from this town, for vessels of sixty tens' burthen, which bring coal, lime, timber, and greeery, for the supply of the inhabitants of Llanrwst and the neighbourhood, and carry back the produce of the slate quarries and mines of the adjoining parishes. The market, which is on Saturday, is well supplied, particularly with corn, which is not sold by sample, but in small quantities, suitable to the eireumstances of the purchaser; it is the general mart for the inhabitants of the surrounding district, to a distance of twenty miles In every direction. Fairs, chiefly for the sale of eattle, corn, and wool, take place on the first Tuesday in February, March 8th, April 25th, June 21st, August 10th, September 17th, October 25th, December 11th, and the second Tues.. day after that day: at the June fair a great quantity of wool is sold to the clothiers of Yorkshire, and at the September and October fairs great numbers of cattle are sold to the English drovers. The market- , plane is a spacious square area, in the centre of which stands the town-hall, a plain substantial structure, erected at the expense of Maurice Wynne, of Caer Melwr, as appears from a stone over the principal entrance, bearing the arms of the Wynnes, and the initials of the founder, with the date 1661: above this is a clock, with a cupola, containing the market bell, and surmounted by a large gilt eagle. This edifice, however, is in the course of re-erection by Lord Willoughby D'Eresby; with an additional floor for a corn- market. The general quarter-seer sions for the county were formerly held in this ball, which practice has been discontinued since the removal of the assizes from Denbigh to Ruthin. The petty-sessions for the Uchdulas division of the hundred of Iodides are held here; and Llanrwst is, by the late Boundary Act, a polling-place in the election of knights for the shire. The PARISH is upwards of forty miles in circum. ference, and comprises, in the Denbighshire portion, 15,000 acres, of which 8300 are arable, 6000 pasture, and 700 woodland; and in the Carnarvonshire portion 7694a. 3r. 22p., of which about 293 acres are amble, 6588 pasture, 693 wood, and the remainder water, roads, and waste. The soil of the lower grounds consists principally of a mixture of argillace. ous earth and vegetable mould, the latter generally diminishing in quality as the elevation of the land in, creases, some parts of which rise into lofty bills and mountains, including Moel Siabod, and Mod Seiviog, the former reaching an elevation of 2878 feet above the level of the sea; on the summit of the latter three parishes meet. The chief agricultural produce is wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, and the various grasses; and in the spring, summer, and autumn months, the higher grounds afford abundant pasturage for horses, cattle, and sheep. Clay-slate and greywacke are quarried for fences, building, and the repair of roads; and lead-mines are worked in each division of the parish the forest trees consist principally of oak, larch, spruce, Scotch firs, ash, beech, sycamore, birch, and alder: the rateable annual value of the Denbighshire portion of the parish has been returned at £7960. The parish being situated in the rich and fertile Vale of Llanrwst, the environs of the town partake very largely of the beautifully picturesque scenery for which the district is celebrated, the most prop minent and striking features of which are the precipitous woods and lofty cliffs of Gwydir. The sun. face is diversified with hill and dale, woods, rocks, and water, together with moors, pastures, and arable land, uniting, in their .perpetually varying conibina- Lions, to produce pictorial scenes of the highest order. The Vale of Llanrwst,. which is neither so widely extended as the Vale of Clwyd, nor so contracted as that of Llangollen, is regarded by the admirers of picturesque scenery as exhibiting the most varied assemblage of beautiful features which the pencil could delineate. The prospects of the dense woods and towering bills that inclose it on each silk, is en.. livened by the river Conway, which every where presents an animated scene, either of small vessels arriving at, and departing from, the village of Trevriw, or of the diminutive boats called coracles, used in fishing for salmon and smelts, which, together with various kinds of trout, eels, &c., are supplied to the town and neighbourhood. The gentlemen's seats in the vicinity and more remote localities, which greatly contribute to increase the powerful effect of the ferent views, are, Gwydir, the Abbey, Cyfdk, Belmont, Pitts Madoc, Penloyn, the Cottage, Rendre House, Oaklands, Beaver Grove, and Tan-y-Celyn, a neat residence newly built on the banks of the Conway. The ancient mansion of Gwydir, beautifully situated amongst extensive woods of oak, which clothe the rocks projecting between the rivers Conway and Llugwy, near the foot of a lofty precipice called Carreg-y-Gwaleh, or " the rock of the falcon," was erected, according to some initials and a date over the gateway, by John Wynne ab Meredydd, in 1555, and comprised an extensive but somewhat irregular pile of building, ranged in a quadrangular form, and consisting of an inner and an outer court; but this edifice was taken down, in 1816, since which time the present structure, on a much smaller scale, has been built: a small portion of the former mansion still remains, and has recently been fitted up in an antique and elegant style. Above this stood another edifice, called the Upper Gwydir, erected, in 1604, by Sir John Wynne, which was pulled down several years ago. The LIVING comprises a sinecure rectory and a discharged vicarage, united by act of parliament passed in 1678, and in the patronage of the Bishop of St. Asaph; the former is rated in the king's books at £12, and the latter at £6. 5. 5.: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £900, subject to rates, averaging £15 per annum; and there is a glebe-house, with other appendages, valued at £50 per annum. The church, dedicated to St. Grwst, Rhystyd, or Restitutus, and situated close to the river, is said to have been originally erected on ground given by Rhin, son of Nevydd Hardd, a chieftain of one of the fifteen tribes of North Wales, to expiate the murder of Prince Idwal, a son of Owain Gwynedd, by order of Nevydd, to whom Owain had entrusted him to be fostered, according to the custom of the country. The present structure, supposed, from its style of architecture, to have keen erected early in the fifteenth century, has lately been thoroughly repaired, and a tower added to it, at the sole expense of the late rector, the Rev. H. Holland Edwards, Prebendary of Westminster; it contains 743 sittings, of which 173 are free, and is 92 feet long and 33 broad. Adjoining it, on the south side, is the Gwydir chapel, a handsome square castellated edifice, the interior of which is decorated with a profusion of carved work: it was built by Sir Richard Wynne, from a design by Inigo Jones, in 1633, as a burial-place for his family, the deceased members of which had previously been interred in the chancel, and contains several elegantly engraved brasses, exhibiting portraits of several of the family; it has a carved and fretted roof, said to have once belonged to the conventual church of Maenan abbey, situated about three miles distant. On the eastern wall is a slab of white marble, recording the pedigree of the founder, and tracing his ancestors to Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales. On the southern wall is a newly restored monument to the memory of Sir John Wynne, Bart., a learned antiquary, and an indefatigable gleaner of materials for the illustration of Welsh history, which were published under the title of the " History of the Gwydir family;" also to that of his great-grandfather Meredith, and his wife Sidney, daughter of Sir William Gerard, Chancellor of Ireland. In the centre of the chapel, upon the floor, lies the stone coffin of Llewelyn the Great, who died in 1240, and was interred in the abbey which he had founded at Aberconway, thence removed to Maenan, and from that place, at the dissolution, the coffin was brought to the old parish church of Llanrwst, where it remained obscured by rubbish until placed in its present more appropriate situation. The same attention has likewise been paid to another piece of antiquity, placed near it, viz., a recumbent armed effigy of Howel Coytmor, grandson of Davydd, brother to Llewelyn ab Grufylid: he was owner of the Gwydir estate, which was sold by one of his descendants to the family of Wynne. There is a chapel of ease to Llanrwst at Capel-Garmon, which was rebuilt about the year 1789, and will afford accommodation to 210 persons; at Gwydir, half a mile distant, is a private chapel belonging to Lord Willoughby D'Eresby; and an additional church, dedicated to St. Mary, in the early English style, capable of seating 350 persons, was commenced in 1841, by subscription, on a site given by his lordship, for the accommodation of those who do not understand the Welsh language, in which the service is exclusively performed in the mother church. This edifice, which forms an interesting object at the entrance to the town from Pentre-Voelas, being situated on an ascent, was consecrated October 28th, 1842, and the necessary endowments for the minister, repairs of the church, and general purposes, provided by the Rev. H. H. Edwards. There are eleven places of worship for dissenters, of which four are in the town, belonging respectively to the Baptists, Independents, and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists, each, except the Wesleyan chapel, having a burial-ground attached. In the Denbighshire portion of the parish are three day schools, in which about 55 children are taught at the expense of their parents; and four Sunday schools, affording gratuitous instruction to about 800 males and females, who are also provided with books; and in the township of Gwydir the Calvinistic Methodists support three Sunday schools, in which are more than 200 males and females. Divers benefactions of considerable amount have been made for the benefit of the poor, which are judiciously managed, the proceeds being regularly distributed among the most deserving objects. An old foundation in the parish, called Jesus' Hospital, is supposed to have been originally endowed with the rectorial tithes of Eglwys-Vach, a parish of eight townships, of which the rector had but one, called the township of Bodnod, the other seven being an impropriation. It appears by various authentic documents that the hospital was founded by Sir John Wynne, Knt., of Gwydir, in 1612, for the support of a warden and twelve poor men; and that a free school within its walls was also established by the same benefactor, the master of which was to have £20 per annum, and an usher £10, with a house and garden each. The allowance to the warden was £20, and the salaries of the teachers were subsequently augmented to £25 and £15; and the remainder of the tithes was to maintain the almsmen, and to provide them every other year with warm gowns. The popular history of this charity however is, that the true founder was a gentleman of the name of Williams, and that Sir John Wynne was merely an instrument for carrying his benevolent intentions into effect. The endowment of both the hospital and school with the tithes of Eglwys-Vach, which were even then of considerable amount, is believed to have been the intention of Sir John Wynne, but this has always been denied by his descendants and by the heirs of Gwydir, who have contended that this disposition of the tithes is not sustained by deed or other legal writing. The present Lord Willoughby D'Eresby, to whom Eglwys-Vach has devolved as the representative of the family, also resists the claim of Jesus'-Hospital to the endowment; and the question now at issue is, whether these tithes, of which the gross annual amount has exceeded £600, were settled to maintain the hospital, or are a lay impropriation in the Gwydir family in its own right, out of which certain payments were charitably, but gratuitously, made for nearly two hundred years. The almshouses have ceased to be occupied by the poor, as rent-free tenements, since 1811, and the school has ceased to be a free school since 1803, but it should be mentioned that Lord Willoughby D'Eresby, in addition to salaries paid by him to the schoolmaster and mistress, distributes different sums of money, annually to a certain number of needy persons, in this parish, though all these payments are claimed to be voluntary, and wholly unconnected with the proceeds of the tithes. The almshouses are still standing, and are built of stone, and in tolerable repair, consisting of five tenements on the ground-floor and the same number above. About the year 1812, one of the ground tenements was destroyed to make a passage to a house then sold by Lord Willoughby to Mr. Evan Pritchard, and which house is said to have been the property of the hospital, and former residence of the warden: the old house has since been taken down and rebuilt. On a stone tablet in the wall that separates the almshouses from the churchyard is this inscription: " To Winn de Gwyder Fil Mauricii Miles et Baronnetta fundavit A°. 1610." Among other contributors to the charities of this parish were Dame Mary Mostyn, John Salusbury, Morris Hughes, and Evan Davies, of whom the last-named, in 1766, left property to the parish amounting to upwards of £600. About £800 have been invested in the funds and in turnpike-trusts, which produce annually £35. 8., whereof, among other charitable uses, a portion is distributed to the poor between Michaelmas and Christmas. The poor law union, of which this town is the head, was formed April 29th, 1837, and comprises the following 17 townships and parishes; namely, Gwern-Howell, Gwytherin, Llanddoget, Llangerniew, and PentreVoelas, in the county of Denbigh; EgIwys-Vfich and Maenan (in the parish of Eglwys- Viich), 'TirIvan, Eidda, and Trebrys (in the parish of YspyttyIvan), and Llanrwst and Gwydir, in the parish of Llanrwst, counties of Denbigh and Carnarvon; and Bettws-y-Coed, Dolwyddelan, Llanrbychwyn, Penmachno, and Trevriw, in the county of Carnarvon. It is under the superintendence of 20 guardians, and contains a population of 12,322.