TOWYN (TYWYN-MEIRIONYDD), a market-town and parish, in the union of MACHYNLLETH, hundred of ESTIMANER, county of MERIONETH, NORTH WALES, 16 miles (S. W.) from Dolgelley, and 221 (W. N. W.) from London; containing 2906 inhabitants. This TOWN is beautifully situated at the distance of about a mile from the sea-coast, near the mouth of the river Dysyni, in a small and pleasant vale, watered by that stream, and on the verge of a tract which once formed a very extensive morass, but which has lately been secured by an embankment from the inundation of the tide. The surrounding scenery, which is strikingly diversified, combines features of romantic grandeur with picturesque beauty: the town is sheltered in the rear by a distant chain of lofty mountains, among which the summits of Ceder Idris appear with majestic grandeur; and in front it commands a fine expansive view over the bay of Cardigan. The houses, which are of respectable appearance, are built principally of the coarse grey stone found in the neighbourhood; and the general. appearanee of the place is neat and prepossessing. The fine beach near the town, being remarkably convenient for sea-bathing, 'has made it the resort during the summer of numerous visiters, chiefly from Llanidloes, Newtown, Montgomery, &c.; and valetudinarians are also attracted hither by a well, called St. Cadvan's, in a field below the church, much celebrated for the cure of rheumatic, scrofulous, and cutaneous disorders, and which formerly was quite open, but for the better accommodation of the public has been inclosed, and made into two baths, each about six feet square, with four dressing-rooms attached; the whole under the care of a person appointed for the purpose. Several improvements have taken place in the town within the last few years; some new houses have been erected, and a line of road has been constructed, forming an easier approach. The sands are firm and smooth, and the ride or drive over them to Aberdovey, a rising village about four miles distant, especially at low water, is very pleasant. A beautiful line of road to that interesting spot has been constructed under the auspices of Athelstan Corbet, Esq., whose seat is near the town, and is continued from that place to Pennal, affording an extensive ride through a tract of country abounding with picturesque scenery, and commanding views of Snowdon, Aran Mowddwy, Cader Idris, and Plinlimmon. Races were formerly held on the marsh below the town, on the 6th and 7th of September, and were in general well attended by the gentry of the neighbourhood, and by visiters at the watering-places on this part of the coast: they are now held near Aberdovey. The PARISH, which comprises a wide district of about thirty thousand acres, is bounded on the north by the river Dysyni, on 'the -south by the Davey, on the west by Cardigan bay, and on the east by the parishes of Tilylltri and Pennal. It extends eight or nine miles in length, and from five to six in breadth, including, besides the Vale of Dysyni, a large tract of land on the banks of the river Dovey, 'and reaching to within a very short distance of the church of Penal. The surface is greatly diveridfled, and the high grounds above Talgartli, Penmaen Dovey, and the town, embrace fine prospects of the vales of Dovey, Pennal, and Dysyni, with the surrounding hills and Cardigan bay; the soil is various. Some copper and lead mines, within its limits, have been let by their proprietor to a company in London; and there are slate quarries near the port of Aberdovey, which is described under its appropriate head. Webs and flannels are manufactured in various parts of the parish, affording employment to a portion of the inhabitants. The market is on Friday; and fairs are held on March 16th, May 14th, September 17th, and November 18th. Towyn is one of the places at which the poll is appointed to be taken in the election of the parliamentary representative of the county. The LIVING consists of a rectory and a vicarage: the rectory, which is an appropriation annexed to the bishopric of Lichfield, by a forced exchange in the reign of Edward VI., is rated in the king's books at £60. 13. 4.; and the vicarage, which is discharged, is rated at £6. 13. 4., and is of the net annual value of £224, with a glebe-house, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Bangor. The tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £980, of which a sum of £800 is payable to the Bishop of Lichfield, and £180 to the vicar. The church, dedicated to St. Cadvan, a native of Armorica, who came to Britain, with other religious missionaries, about the commencement of the sixth century, and is said to have been afterwards abbot of Bardsey, is a spacious and ancient cruciform structure, in the Norman style of architecture; it contains some very old monuments, and on the north side of the chancel, under arched canopies, are the effigies of two persons, of whom one, wrapped in a winding-sheet, is supposed to be that of Cadvan, and the other, in armour, to be that of Grufydd ab Adda, of Deilech, in this parish. There is also a stone, seven feet and a half long, having sculptured upon it a cross and an inscription on each side, in very ancient characters, and so mutilated as to be illegible; it is called St. Cadvan's Stone, and formerly stood erect against a tomb in the churchyard, thought to cover the remains of that saint. In the cemetery was also another upright stone rudely carved, which commemorated some warrior. There are places of worship for Independents, and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. Lady Moyer, in 1717, gave £400 three and a half per cent. consols. for the foundation and endowment of a school, which was further endowed, in the same year, by .Athelstan Owen, Esq., with £4 per annum; 21 children are gratuitously instructed, and about 30 others paid for by their parents; the master's salary amounts to £10. 15., under the endowments. There are three other day schools, in which about 150 children are taught at the expense of their parents; also two boarding-schools, one of which contains 10 boys and the other 10 girls. Eleven Sunday schools also, each of which contains from 50 to 80 males and females, are conducted ratans teachers ' one in connexion with the Church, and the ether ten appertaining to dissenters. Almshouses in the village for five widows wore founded and endowed with lands, now producing £20 a year, by Mrs. Anne Owen. From the Ren. Edward Morgan's charity at Llangelynin 20s. per minas are received, and distributed on Easter Monday, among such poor people and children as can best repeat the Church catechism. In the township of Is-yr-Avon, Lewis Lloyd, Esq., of D61-y- Cletar, county of Cardigan, bequeathed, in 1691, a tenement and land, designated Abergroes, consisting, with mountain, of 128a. Br. 35p., and .paying £15 per annum rent, for the benefit exclusively of the poor of the township; and the commissioners of charities lately directed that this benefaction, together with 2:36., the produce of others in the township of Cynval Vawr, should in future be applied to the support of a school in the former. On the contracted summit of an immense rock, rising to a considerable elevation from the vale in which the town is situated, are some remains of an ancient cattle of great strength, the fortifications of which comprehend the entire summit of the eminence; one of the apartments, thirty-six feet in diameter, was hewn out of the solid rock. This fortification, which is called Tebeni, Mr. Pennant conjectures to have been the strong castle of Bere, fortified by Davydd ab Grufydd, which was taken, in 1283, by William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, a short time prior to the entire subjugation of the principality by Edward I., by _which monarch it was committed to the custody of Robert Fitz-Walter, who at the same time obtained theprivilege of blinding in the circamjacent country. The Roman road from Cevn Caer, a Roman station in the parish of Pennal, to the village of Carreg, on the opposite bank of the river Dovey, passes through the parish, near Toilgarth. Close to this place a battle was fought between the Welsh partisans of the house of Lancaster, under the command of Thomas ab Grufydd ab Nicholas, of Dynevor, and those of the house of York, under Henry ab Gwilym, of Court Henry, one of the Earl of Pembroke's captains, in which the former gained a decisive victory. Here also the same Thomas ab Grufydd encountered in single combat David Gough, a near kinsman of Matthew Gough, a celebrated warrior in the reigns of Henry V. and VI., whom he slew. A tumulus in the grounds of Tillprth is said to have been raised over the body of Thomas ab Grufydd, and some of his followers, who were murdered while asleep on the spot, by a party' of the adherents of the vanquished. At a small distance from the town is Ynysymaerigtm)n, the seat of A. Corbet, Esq., a noble mansion, pleasantly situated in grounds tastefully laid out, comprehending much beautiful scenery, and embellished with flourishing plantations and timber of ancient growths among which is an evergreen oak, considered to be the finest tree of its kind in the kingdom. The gardens rank among the first in the principality, being very extensive, and containing numerous very curious rare trees and plants. This seat, during the parliamentary war, was burnt to the ground, to prevent its affording any shelter to the parliament's forces; and on a farm in the immediate vicinity, called Bryn Castel!, is a circular mound of earth, near which, a few years since, the half of a cannon ball, weighing seven lb., was found, which is now in the possession of Mr. Corbet. At Dd(gdch is a small but very picturesque waterfalL Craig-y-Deryn, or " the Rock of Birds," about four miles from Towyn, up the Vale of Dysynni, derives its name from the number of birds that shelter in its crevices during the night; the scenery around it is extremely wild and romantic, and the discordant clamour which announces their retreat to this sequestered spot adds greatly to the effect of the scene. Its summit was once occupied by an ancient fortress or strong-hold, of which there are some vestiges; and several others of the same kind, occupying similar situations, are found near this part of the coast.