GLAMORGANSHIRE, a county of South Wales, stretching, in a circular line, along the northern shore of the Bristol Channel, from east to west about forty-two miles, and extending to the mountains in some parts to the distance of twenty-two or twenty-three miles. It is bounded on the north by Caermarthen and Brecknock, on the east by Monmouthshire, and on the south and west by the Bristol Channel. Its whole area is 822 miles, or 526,080 statute acres, in which are included the watercourses, roads, and sites of buildings, which occupy a large surface.

The county may be divided into two districts of a very opposite character, according to the nature of the soil, rather than into those ten hundreds by which its parts are politically denominated. About one half the county, on the sea-shore, is rich and fertile land, and produces excellent crops of wheat, oats, beans, and barley. The soil is generally of moderate consistence, and of a loamy nature, some parts being mixed with day, others with sand, and almost all resting on a calcareous substratum. It is easily ploughed, very friable, and, when laid down in grass, yields excellent herbage, by which many cattle are fattened, and much good butter is made. The manure principally used is lime, which is rendered very cheap from the vicinity of coals to the limestone district.

The inland part of the county rises gradually from hills to mountains, and in that district the agriculture is in a very backward state. The soil between these hills and mountains is composed generally of a black peat, but sometimes of a brown gravelly earth. Lime applied to the former is beneficial for a few years, but its good effect then ceases; and having but little cattle to make manure, and that manure being neglected to be preserved with due [7:10:532]care, the agricultural produce of the district is insufficient for the subsistence of the inhabitants. On some of the mountain farms the land is sowed with corn as long as it will yield any increase without fallow or manure, and when so far exhausted it is left without cultivation for many years. Much of the unenclosed mountain tract is devoted wholly to feeding sheep, and the occupiers of land around them having rights of common without stint, so overstock them, that the animals seldom attain their full growth; but when removed to better pasture, and fattened, their mutton is excellent. The farms are mostly of very small value, varying in rent from L.5toL.200 annually; the average of the whole is not L.50, though in many instances the rent has been tripled, and even quadrupled, within the last twenty years. The ploughing is generally executed by oxen, and their ploughs being of clumsy construction, sometimes six or eight are used to perform the work, and yet perform it ill; in some cases two, in others four, are harnessed to plough with two horses .before them. The most commendable part of the rural economy of the county is the construction of the houses, barns, and other farming erections. These are solidly and substantially built, and being uniformly white-washed on the outside, have a clean and neat appearance.

The agriculture of this county, valuable as it is in the more southern part, is the least productive source of its riches. The greater part of it abounds with minerals, which, owing to the great extension of good roads, of navigable canals and railways, within the last few years, have become a most important source of wealth. The northern and middle parts of the county comprehend a portion of that great mineral tract which begins at Pontypool in Monmouthshire, and terminates at St Bride’s Bay in Pembrokeshire. The exterior stratum or boundary consists of a bed of limestone, within which are contained all the strata of the other minerals in the following position. On the north side of a line drawn from east to west through the middle of the district, all the strata rise gradually to the north, and on the south side of the same line they rise to the south till they come to the surface, except at the east end, where they rise to the eastward. In the centre of this tract, the iron and coal mines in the vicinity of Myrthr-Tydvil are both the richest and most abundant. The whole of the coal is at the depth of 440 feet beneath the surface of the ground, which is composed of argillaceous strata, with occasional veins of hard rock. The coal is about fifty-two feet deep, the thickness of the veins varying from twelve inches to nine feet in thickness. The ironstone lies under the stone at a depth of about 108 feet, and is separated by argillaceous earth and stone into eighteen different veins, each about four feet ten inches in thickness. When this ore is smelted, it yields iron to the amount of three tenths of the weight of the ore.

Coal is found in vast quantities both in the north and south divisions of the county, but of different natures. That in the south is of the bituminous kind, or coaking coal, like the coals of Newcastle. That of the north (when large, called stone-coal and small culm) is difficult to kindle, burns slowly, but emits an intense heat with little or no smoke, and without being distended. This latter is principally used by the maltsters and lime-burners.

Although the abundance and excellence of the coal and iron have caused the erection of blast-furnaces in many parts of the county, yet the largest and most numerous are those near the recently-built town of Myrthr-Tydvil, which, within a few years, has grown up from an obscure village to be the most populous village in the whole principality of Wales, and contained, in 1811, 11,000, and in 1831, 22,000 inhabitants.

There are seventeen blast-furnaces near this place, each of which can make from 100 to 180 tons of iror weekly. The most extensive of the works, that of Cyfar-tha, belonging to Messrs Crawshay and Company, produce annually upwards of 20,000 tons of pig-iron, and somewhat more bar-iron. The fires of the furnaces are blown by a steam-engine of fifty horse power, and an overshot wheel of fifty feet in diameter, which requires twenty-five tons of water each minute to keep it at work. The number of men employed at Messrs Crawshay’s work is from 1500 to 2000, making, with their families, more than three thousand persons, whose yearly wages amount to more than L.140,000.

The next considerable manufactory is that commonly called tin plates. The cheapness of iron and coal causes the tin of Cornwall to be sent here, and spread over those iron plates, which are afterwards dispersed all over the world.

In like manner, the copper ore from Cornwall, from North Wales, and from Ireland, is attracted to Glamorganshire by the cheapness of coal; and it is smelted in works upon a most extensive scale, in the vicinity of Aberavon, Neath, and Swansea, whence it is forwarded by water-carriage to the places where it receives its final appropriations to the several purposes for which it is wanted. There are some extensive manufactories of earthen ware, which are increasing in their operations; and small concerns adapted for making soap, salt, and woollen cloths.

The most considerable exported production from this county is coals from the ports of Swansea and Neath. At the former of these ports, the facility of loading vessels is so great, that ships of three hundred tons burden enter with one tide, are loaded and enabled to sail sometimes the next, but usually the next tide but one. The quantity annually exported amounts to about 450,000 tons, and more might be shipped, but for some superior privileges in the city of Bristol, which favour the coal-mines of Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire.

The rivers of Glamorganshire are, ls<, The Taf or Tave, over which is the celebrated bridge of one arch, supposed to be the largest in the world, being one hundred and forty feet in the span, planned and executed by an untaught country mason, a native of the county; 2d, the Elay, a stream of short course, near Llantrissent; 3d, the Ogmore, crossing the county, and entering the sea near Bridgend; 4fΛ, the Nedd or Neath, passing from Brecknockshire, through most romantic valleys, by Neath, to the sea at Britton Ferry; and, ι>th, the Tawy, which discharges itself into Swansea Bay.

As these rivers are scarcely navigable, and the two which are so, but for a short distance, canals have been constructed for the conveyance of the heavy productions of the county, and have produced a wonderful effect both on its wealth and population. These are the Cardiff Canal, which affords water-carriage from Myrthr-Tydvil to Pe-narth Bay; the Neath Canal, which traverses the county from south to north; and the Swansea Canal, which runs to the north till it reaches Brecknockshire. The number of railroads communicating between the iron-works and coal-mines and the canals are too numerous to admit of being enumerated, and have proved very beneficial undertakings both to the constructors and to the public.

The peasantry of this county generally use the Welsh language, and either cannot or will not speak English. In the towns, however, the latter is very commonly spoken, and in the churches the service is occasionally conducted in it. There is, however, a portion of the county, to the south of the mountains round Oxwich Bay, where the Welsh language is quite unknown, whilst, on the opposite side of the same mountains, the inhabitants are unacquainted with English.

Glamorganshire returns to the House of Commons two members for the county, and one for the newly created·
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borough of Myrthr-Tydvil, and also one for the old united boroughs of Cardiff, Cowbridge, and Llantrissent. The population returns of the four decennial censuses give the inhabitants in 1801, 71,525; in 1811, 85,067; in 1821, 101,737; and in 1831, 126,200.

The county town is Cardiff, and it-is the chief place for shipping the iron of Myrthr-Tydvil. Its pier is now accessible for ships of two hundred tons, but some improvements are in progress which will enlarge the harbour, and adapt it for the reception of vessels of a greater draught of water than can now reach it. The chief towns, and their population, are as follow :—Myrthr-Tydvil, 22,083; Swansea, 13,256; Cardiff, 6187; Neath, 4034; Llansamlet, 3187; and Llantrissent, 2789. Landaff, though a city and the seat of a bishop, has only 1299 inhabitants.

As the picturesque beauty of many parts of the county is very great, it has ever been the favourite resort of many families of respectability. That it was so in ancient times, the number of ruins of ancient castles clearly evince; and few parts of the island, excepting the immediate vicinity of the metropolis, have so many gentlemen’s seats within them. The principal of these are, Gnoll Castle, the seat of the Mackworths, now Mr Grant; Cardiff Castle, Marquis of Bute; Dunraven, Thomas Wyndham, Esq.; Penlline Castle, Lord Vernon; Margram, Mr Talbot; Classmont, Sir John Morris; Southall, John Lucas, Esq.; Gellyhir, Sir Gabriel Powell; Penllergaer, John Llewelyn, Esq.; Penrice Castle, R. Μ. Talbot, Esq.; Woodlands, General Ward; and Penderi, Thomas Morgan, Esq.; with many others.

(See Rees’s South Wales; Malkin’s Scenery of South Wales ; Parliamentary Returns.)