aded Glamorgan, Henry Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick,
captured Swansea, and in the twelfth century built a castle there. King
John gave it a charter, and it became a town of some importance, as he
granted it extensive trading-privileges. In another charter, given by
the lord of the manor in 1305, the first allusion is made to Welsh coal,
for the people among other privileges are allowed to dig "pit-coal in
Ballywasta." Thus began the industry that has become the mainstay of
prosperity in South Wales. Warwick's Castle at Swansea has entirely
disappeared, the present ruins being those of a castle afterwards built
by Henry de Gower, who became Bishop of St. David's. What is left of it
is almost hidden by modern buildings. It has the remains of a
curtain-wall and two towers, the larger of which has an arcade beneath
the battlement--an unusual but pleasing feature. Lewellyn harassed the
town and castle, but it had not much history until the Civil War, when
there was a little fighting for its possession. A Parliamentary ship
appeared in the bay and demanded the surrender of the town, which was
refused; but in the following year the Parliamentary troops captured it.
Subsequently the castle changed hands several times--the guide-book
states "rather politically than gloriously." Cromwell ultimately took
possession in 1648, resided at Swansea for some time as lord of the
manor, and was very liberal to the town. The castle was dismantled and
partly destroyed, the keep being used as a jail. Swansea, like all the
cities in the Welsh coal and metal region, has grown greatly during the
present century. Walter Savage Landor lived here for a while, just when
the copper-works were beginning to appear in the valley of the Tawe.
Their smoke defiled the landscape, and he exclaimed, "Would to God there
was no trade upon earth!" He preferred Swansea Bay above the gulf of
Salerno or of Naples, and wrote, "Give me Swansea for scenery and
climate! If ever it should be my fortune to return to England, I would
pass the remainder of my days in the neighborhood of Swansea, between
that place and the Mumbles."

[Illustration: SWANSEA CASTLE.]

Swansea's earliest dock was made by walling a tidal inlet called Port
Tennant, and is still used. Its former great dock was the North Dock,
constructed in the old bed of the Tawe, a newer and more direct channel
being made for the river. It has two recently-constructed and larger
docks. Up the valley of the Tawe t