s.

Under powers secured in 1884, the town obtains its chief water supply
from a gathering ground near the sources of the Taff on the old red
sandstone beyond the northern out-crop of the mineral basin and on the
southern slopes of the Brecknock Beacons. Here two reservoirs of a
combined capacity of 668 million gallons have been constructed, and a
conduit some 36 m. long laid to Cardiff at a total cost of about
L1,250,000. A third reservoir is authorized. A gas company, first
incorporated in 1837, supplies the city as well as Llandaff and Penarth
with gas, but the corporation also supplies electric power both for
lighting and working the tramways, which were purchased from a private
company in 1898. The city owned in 1905 about 290 acres of parks and
"open spaces," the chief being Roath Park of 100 acres (including a
botanical garden of 15 acres), Llandaff fields of 70 acres, and Cathays
Park of 60 acres, which was acquired in 1900 mainly with the view of
placing in it the chief public buildings of the town.

_Commerce and Industries._--Edward II.'s charter of 1324 indicates that
Cardiff had become even then a trading and shipping centre of some
importance. It enjoyed a brief existence as a staple town from 1327 to
1332. During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. it was notorious as a
resort of pirates, while some of the ironfounders of the district were
suspected of secretly supplying Spain with ordnance. It was for
centuries a "head port," its limits extending from Chepstow to Llanelly;
in the 18th century it sank to the position of "a creek" of the port of
Bristol, but about 1840 it was made independent, its limits for customs'
purposes being defined as from the Rumney estuary to Nash Point, so that
technically the "port of Cardiff" includes Barry and Penarth as well as
Cardiff proper. Down to the end of the 18th century there was only a
primitive quay on the river side for shipping purposes. Coal was brought
down from the hills on the backs of mules, and iron carried in two-ton
wagons. In 1798 the first dock (12 acres in extent) was constructed at
the terminus of the Glamorgan canal from Merthyr. The commercial
greatness of Cardiff is due to the vast coal and iron deposits of the
country drained by the Taff and Rhymney, between whose outlets the town
is situated. But a great impetus to its development was given by the 2nd
marquess of Bute, who has often been described as the second founder of
Cardiff. In 1830 he o