advancement of the second Duke by Richard III to the office of High Constable and other offices; of the Duke's conspiracy against the King in favour of the Earl of Richmond; the assembly of the Duke's followers at Brecknock in 1483, and march thence into the forest of Dean, with a view to cross the Severn and join his friends in the West; his failure on account of unusual floods in the river, and retirement to the house of Sir Walter Devereux at Weobley; the dispersion of his Welsh followers for want of pay; his flight and concealment in the house of his trusted servant, Banastre, in Shropshire; his discovery, seizure, and execution at Salisbury on November 2nd,-all so graphically narrated by Carte.

On the Duke's attainder his possessions fell into the hands of the Crown, and so continued in the 9th and 10th Henry VII. We thus again obtain an insight of the affairs of Hay from the Minister's accounts of that year. The account of Watkin Robbinett, the reeve of English Hay, exhibits a very general falling off and decay, arising from the disturbed and lawless state of the country, induced probably by many years of civil war and unrest,-4s. 3d. only was received of the foreign rents, amounting to £6 5s. of divers lands in the lord's hands, for want of hirers. The farm of the demesne lands which, in 30 Henry VI was £4 13s. 4d., realised only £2 13s. 4d. The fulling mill and dovecot were totally decayed; nothing was received from the farm of the boat, as it was sunk in the excessive flood in 26 Henry VI; a few shillings only were received for the aftermath of the meadows, because the tenants were afraid to depasture their animals there for fear of robbers from different parts of Wales. Nothing was received from the sale of wood in the forest, or from the sale of hay. A part of the arrears and of the foreign and customary rents of the year were respited, as had been usual during the past eight years, until the King's warrant could be obtained for their discharge, because many tenants who used to pay the rents in

4TH SER., VOL. XIV.

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the time of Henry, the late Duke, had left their tenures void, and because the tenements continued unoccupied by reason of the war and strife prevailing between the tenants of the lordship of Hay and the tenants of the lordship of Elvael, on the opposite side of the river, and of other lordships their adherents. Thomas Lloyd, the bailiff of the borough, accounts for £11 4s. as rents of assize of 204 burgage tenants, according to a rental made in 4th Henry V. Nothing was received from the common oven, which had been recently newly built, because it was in hand, and no profit could be made of it-3s. 4d. only was received from 31 burgage tenants and other lands. The rent of the tolls of fairs and markets had fallen to £2 3s. 4d. The bailiff claimed an allowance out of the sum of £11 4s., rents of assize, in respect of 44 burgage tenements vacant in consequence of the war and strife above referred to, and of the loss of rent of divers tenements belonging to the chantry of the Virgin Mary at Hay. The sums claimed as allowances were respited, as in the case of W. Robbinett, until the King's warrant was obtained. An allowance was made to the burgesses of 15s. for the custody during the year of the three gates of the town, as in 38 Henry VI. Both of the accountants were committed to the custody of the constable of the castle for the sums found to be due from them.

The account of Hoel ap Philip ap Hoel ap Madoc, the bailiff of Welsh Hay, contains a return of several tofts and lands, as in hand for want of tenants, and yielding no profit, and states that no one was willing to accept the office of Ringeld John ap Thomas, who held the office of Steward of the lordship for his life, under the King's warrant, and of Receiver during pleasure, appears to have died during the year. His account is rendered by his deputy receiver, Walter Vaghan, who was charged by the auditor with the sums received of the reeve and the bailiffs of Hay borough and Welsh Hay; for the arrears and the monies found

to be in his hands he was committed to the custody of the King's Gaol of Fleet.

The second Duke had issue a son, Edward, who was restored to his father's honours and estates in 1486; and in 24 Henry VII received from the King a grant of the Castle of Bronllys and the Manors of Cantrecelley, Brynllys, Pencelli, and Alexanderston in Breconshire. His large possessions, wealth, and influence, combined with his pretensions to the Crown in the event of Henry VIII dying without issue, excited the King's jealousy. He was arraigned before his peers on charges without much foundation, sentenced to death, and beheaded at Tower Hill on 17th May 1521. He left issue one son, Henry, who was restored in blood, but not to the late Duke's honours and land, by the same Parliament (14 Henry VIII) which passed his father's Act of attainder, and on the 25th September following the King granted to him on his marriage a large portion of the Duke's forfeited estates, including the lordships and castles in South Wales. In the Parliament 1 Edward VI he was recognised as Lord Stafford, and afterwards summoned as a Baron to Parliament.

Nothing eventful remains to be related of the earlier history of Hay. This account of it may therefore well conclude with a few extracts from Leland's Itinerary, vol. v, fol. 72-"After passing over Wy river, the which for lack of knowleg yn me of the Fourde did sore troble my horse, I cam in crepusculo to the Hay. The Hay stondith hard upon Wy, and yet sheuith the token of a right strong waulle, having in it three gates and a postern. Ther is also a Castel, the which sumtime hath bene right stately.

"Within the Toune is but one poore Paroche. In the suburbe hard by Wy is a Paroche Chirch meately fair. Ther is also in the suburbe a Chapel wher on a Sunday I hard Messe. Not far from the Paroche Chirch in the suburbe is a great round hille of yerth cast up by mennes hondes other for a wyndmille to

stond apon or rather for sum fortres of Bataille. The toun of the Hay yet hath a Market: but the toun within the waulles is wonderfully decaied. The ruine is adscribed to Oene Glindour. One shewed me in the town the ruines of a gentleman's place called Waulwine, be whose meanes Prince Lluelin was sodenli taken at Buelth Castel and ther beheddid, and his hedde sent to the king....... The Toune longgid to the Duke of Bokingham. It pertaineth now to the Lord Stafford his sonne."

R. W. B.

PEN CAER HELEN.

ALTHOUGH this remarkable hill-fortress has been noticed already in the Archæologia Cambrensis, yet no satisfactory representation of its most remarkable feature has been given. This is now presented to the members in the engraving obtained from the camera of our official and efficient draughtsman, Mr. Worthington Smith. With the difference of size only, we have an actual facsimile of the stones by which the builders of this fort protected themselves when the usual defences of stone or earth, or the steepness of the ground, were insufficient.

Although so many centuries have passed during which the surface may have been raised from successive growths, yet from the nature of the ground in the present instance this growth could not have been very important. But the height of these upright stones is not very necessary to the defence, because of the peculiar mode of attack; for we know that the Gauls of those days charged at full speed, endeavouring to surmount all difficulties by a rush; but, on the other hand, if checked in their course, they did not renew the attempt.

A reference to the plan (cut No. 2) will show that