HIS fhire owes its name to its Welsh Ta appellation Brycheinog, or Breckiniaue, and is bounded on the north by Radnorfhire; on the east by that of Hereford; on the fouth-eaft by Monmouthshire; on the fouth and fouth-weft by Glamorganfhire; and on the weft by part of the fhires of Caermarthen and Cardigan. Mr. Templeman extends it to thirtyfive miles in length, and thirty four in breadth, and gives it an area of feven hundred and feventy fquare miles. It is divided into fix hundreds, containing four market towns, about 6000 houfes, and June, 1763.

35,300 inhabitants.

It is a very mountainous couns try, except on the north-fide; but intermixed with many pleasant and fruitful valleys and plains, which produce plenty of corn; and with regard to cattle, prodigious herds are fent every year to England from the mountains. The air is very mild, except upon the hills, where it is fharp, but wholefome.

The principal rivers are the Ufk, the Wye, and the Yrvon. The Uk comes from the Black-mountains, on the fouth-weft fide of the county, and thence runs, northward, till it reaches Tre-castle, after which it winds towards the eat, paffing by the town of BreckNa

nock,

aldermen, two chamberlains, two conftables, a town-clerk, two ferjeants, and other inferior officers; is pretty well inhabited, has fome fhare of the woollen manufacture, the ruins of its caftle, with fome towers, and three churches.

nock, and leaves the county a little below Crick Howel. The Ufk runs through the middle of the fhire; but the Wye only waters the northfide of it, and enters Herefordshire at Hay. The Yrvon rifes among the hills on the north-weft-fide of the county, whence it runs fouth towards Llangamauh, where it turns to the north-west, and falls into the Wye at Bealt. Thefe, as well as the leffer rivulets, are all well ftored with fifh, particularly the Uk and the Wye, which abound with falmon and trout.

In this county is a famous pool, or meer, about two miles east of Brecknock-town, called Brecknockmeer, which is two miles long, and nearly the fame in breadth, which, tho' full of otters, abounds with perch, tench, and eels.

The capital of this county is Brecknock, fituated almost in the centre, and a compact well-built town; with good markets on Wednefdays and Saturdays. It stands at the confluence of the rivers Hondhy and Ufk, over which is a good ftone-bridge. That this place was inhabited at the time of the Romans, is plain from feveral coins of their emperors that have been found, and from Roman bricks often turned up by the plough in a fquare camp near it, with this infcription, Leg. II. Aug. Bernard Newmarch, who conquered this county in the time of William Rufus, built a ftately caftle here, which was afterwards repaired by the Breofes and Bohuns: and king Henry Eighth founded a collegiate church of fourteen prebendaries, which he tranflated hither from Abergwily, in Caermarthenshire. It is governed by two bailifs, fifteen

Bealt is a pleafant town, fituated in a woody part of the county on the river Wye, over which it has a large wooden bridge, leading into Radnorfhire. It has two weekly markets, on Monday for cattle, and on Saturday for corn, &c. It was fortified with a castle, built by Rice ap Griffith, and rebuilt by the Breofes and the Mortimers. In the year 1690, a confiderable part of the town was totally deftroyed by an accidental fire. It has a confiderable manufacture of stockings:

Hay is a good town, fituated on the banks of the Wye, on the borders of Herefordshire. It is fuppofed to have been well known to the Romans, from their coins being often found here, and fome ruins of walls built by that people, still remaining. It was burnt by the rebel Owen Glendour, in his paffage through thefe parts. It once had a caftle, which, with those of Brecknock and Radnor, were mortgaged by William de Breos, lord of Brecknock, to king John.

The moft remarkable antiquity in this county, is that noted monument called the Maiden-ftone, in British Maen y Morynnion. It is a rude pillar erected in the middle of the road near Brecknock, fix feet high, two broad, and fix inches thick. On one fide are the figures of a man and woman, dreft in ancient habits. The antiquity of it is not doubted; but whether it be a British or a Roman work is uncertain.

COM

HE Normans, notwithstanding their repeated treaties, and the vast fums of money which they had received, continued to make defcents perpetually in the territories of France, fometimes in one place, fometimes in another, which gave the king inexpreffible trouble. Sometimes he repelled force by force; at others he was conftrained to procure their departure, by paying them large fums of money, which differed little from tribute, by which the kingdom was at length fo exhaufted, that, having engaged to pay them four thousand pounds in filver, he was compelled to have recourfe to a capitation in order to levy it. What was still a heavier misfortune both to him and to the nation, was the death of Robert le Fort, who, with two other generals, fell in an engagement with the Danes. The king ⚫ had married his fecond wife, by whom he had several children, but they died young. He was very defirous to have her publicly crowned, from a fuperftitious opinion that the children he might have by her afterwards would furvive. This ceremony was accordingly performed; and the king being apprehenfive that it might increase the discontent of his eldeft fon, Lewis, whofe continual intrigues with the king of Bretagne had given him exceffive trouble, he refolved, once for all, to try if it was not pollible to content both. With this view he declared Lewis. king of Aquitaine, in the room of his brother, with which both the prince and the

867

people were equally pleafed, and he confented that the county of Contentein, hould be incorporated, and for ever annexed to Bretagne. It had been happy for him and his fubjects, if all his defigns had been as juft in their nature, and as fortunate in their iffue, as thefe; for both the kings remained perfectly fatisfied with these conceffions, and engaged, whenever the circumftances of his affairs fhould require it, to fecond him against his enemies, each of them with a certain corps of troops, which was a point of great confequence to his government, and contributed not a little to the repofe of France.

The cafe of the king of Lorrain was by this time become of the last importance. Lothaire flattered himself, that Pope Adrian would treat him with more tenderness than his predeceffor had done, notwithstanding the difcoveries that had been made by the archbishops of Cologne and Treves, who being abandoned by the king, after all they had done, went to Rome, and laid open all that scene of corruption and perjury in which they had been partakers. It feems indeed to have been the Pope's intention; who, having commanded him to put away his mistress, to take an oath to have nothing more to do with her, and to engage twelve of his principal nobility to fupport this oath by their own, encouraged him to come to Rome, in order to receive abfolution. This did not, by any means, please his uncle, who, in cafe the fentence of excommuniNn 2

cation

cation had been pronounced, would infallibly have difpoffeffed him of his dominions: and, in order to fettle the method of divifion among themselves, the two kings of Germany and France had an interview at Metz, where the matter was entirely fettled between them. This coming to the ears of Lothaire, heightened his uneafinefs exceed ingly. He applied himself, therefore, with great affiduity to obtain the good-will of his uncle, Lewis the German, upon whofe word he could better rely than upon that of Charles and after feveral interviews, and laying before him the difficulties he was under, he carried his point, infomuch that he promifed, not only to make no attempts upon his dominions in his abfence, but likewife to protect his fon Hugh, whom he had by Waldrade; and even restored to him the county of Alface, which he had yielded fome years before, and agreed that it should be erected into a dutchy, in favour of that young prince. In confidence that his uncle would perform his promife, Lothaire proceeded in his voyage to Italy, where his brother the emperor declined feeing him; but he fent his confort to meet him, who accompanied him to his interview with the Pope. Adrian gave him hopes, celebrated mafs in his prefence; and, when they came to communicate, purged him and the lords who were with him, as to the cath they had formerly taken. Lothaire, and the greatest part of his attendants, communicated; though fome, upon hearing the Pope's exhortation, drew back. Adrian intended to have had the whole affair examined over again by the bishops of Lorrain

and Germany, and upon their report to a council which was to have been held at Rome, to have decided which was the king's lawful spouse; for, in the second cause before the Pope's legates, Lothaire had affirmed, that he had married Waldrade before he espoused Theutberg. But there was no occafion for thefe proceedings, fince, in his return to his domi- 869 nions, Lothaire died of a fever at Placentia, on the 7th of August. It was generally believed that he was himself perjured, and that the lords who communicated with him knew it. They all died in a very fhort fpace, and he did not furvive them a full month. By the demife of this prince, without lawful iffue, the fucceffion to his dominions lay open; but Charles of France; who had an army ready to march, and withal a very strong party in Lorrain, entered and took poffeffion immediately and having been folemnly crowned at Metz, looked upon this realm as his own, notwithstanding the Pope interfered in favour of the emperor, who, as the brother of the deceased, feemed to have the bett right; and, notwithftanding, the king of Germany infifted on his claim. But, when the latter had prepared to affert it by arms, Charles confented to a divifion, which took place in the fucceeding year, by which the flames of war were kept from breaking out.

It was judged neceffary, in order to this, that the two kings fhould have an interview; and with this view Charles went to Herftal, and Lewis came to Merfen, and from thence each advanced to a royal palace, at an equal distance from

both

both places, and, after a month's time spent in conferences, the bufinefs was amicably fettled. Lewis obtained by this partition, the cities of Cologne, Utrecht, Strafburg, Bafil, Treves, Metz, and their dependencies, with all the countries between the rivers Ourt and Meufe, together with Aix-la-Chapelle, and most of the districts between the Rhine and Meufe. On the other hand, Charles acquired Lyons, Befancon, Vienne, Tongres, Toul, Verdun, Cambray, Viviers, and Ufez, together with Hainhault, Zealand, and Holland. The Pope ftill interpofed very warmly, and left no method untried to have procured at leaft fomething for the emperor, if it had been in his power; but it was to no purpose, at leaft with regard to Charles, who, when he found the Pontiff grew very angry, and treated him but very coarfely in his letters, laid them afide, without giving the Pope any answer. His fon Carloman, whom he had put into orders, but whom, notwithstanding he had fuffered to command his forces more than once, having no inclination 870 to that courfe of life to which he had been defined by his father, left the court; and putting himself at the head of a body of defperate thieves, committed horrid devaftations in the country between the Meufe and the Seine, which gave the king great difquiet, and the more, becaufe all the promifes of pardon he could make were vain, and without effect.

Pope Adrian being mifinformed, or not having fagacity enough to make a right judgment of affairs, interpofed in this bufinefs alfo: for the king, taking advantage of

Carloman's being in orders, refolved to profecute him by church cenfures, but firft procured the bishops in his dominions to excommunicate thofe who had feduced his fon into rebellion, or who fupported and affifted him therein; and Hincmar, bishop of Laon, having refused to fign the excommunication, was alfo proceeded against in the fame way; and at length Carloman himself, who thereupon applied to the Pope; and he writing in a very rough ftile to Charles, gave him an opportunity of thewing him in a very contemptible light to pofterity. The circumftances of the French monarch were very much changed. In the beginning of his reign he courted equally the nobility and the bishops; afterwards, being abandoned by the former, he cajoled the latter, and it was chiefly by the help of their authority that he had emerged from his troubles: but now his power and his experience being greater, he answered the Pope with great fpirit and good-fenfe, reproached him for the indecent language he had ufed, and made him fo fenfible of the rafhness of his conduct, that he found it neceffary to pen a recantation, which, no doubt, he flattered himself would be kept a fecret; and with which pofterity being acquainted, is from thence enabled to form a right judgment of the piety and policy of the court of Rome. He went farther: from affecting to dictate to Charles he became his creature; and, in hopes of railing his own family, promifed all the aliftance poflible in promoting his defign of affuming the impe- 871 rial dignity, and taking pof

feflion