s have sprung up on the coast, notably
at Borth, New Quay, Tresaith, Aberporth and Gwbert. Quarter sessions are
held at Lampeter, and here also are held the assizes for the county,
which lies in the South Wales circuit. The county returns one member of
parliament, and has no parliamentary borough. Ecclesiastically it lies
wholly in the diocese of St David's, and contains sixty-six parishes.

_History._--In spite of its poverty and sparse population, Cardiganshire
has never ceased to play a prominent part in all Welsh political,
literary and educational movements. The early history of the district is
obscure, but at the time of the Roman invasion it was tenanted by the
Dimetae, a Celtic tribe, within whose limits was comprised the greater
portion of the south-west of Wales. After the departure of the Romans,
the whole basin of the Teifi eventually fell into the power of Ceredig,
son of Cunedda Wledig of North Wales; and the district, peopled with his
subjects and nearly co-extensive with the existing shire, obtained the
name of Ceredigion, later corrupted into Cardigan. During the 5th and
6th centuries Ceredigion was largely civilized by Celtic missionaries,
notably by St David and St Padarn, the latter of whom founded a
bishopric at Llanbadarn Fawr, which in the 8th century became merged in
the see of St David's. Two important local traditions, evidently based
on fact, are associated with this remote era:--the inundation of the
Cantref-y-Gwaelod and the synod of Llanddewi Brefi. The
Cantref-y-Gwaelod (the lowland Hundred), a large tract of flat
pasture-land containing sixteen townships, and protected from the inroad
of the sea by sluices, was suddenly submerged at an uncertain date about
the year 500. The legend of its destruction declares that Seithenyn, the
drunken keeper of the sluices, carelessly let in the waters of the bay,
with the result that the land was lost for ever, and Prince Gwyddno and
his son Elphin, with all their subjects, were forced to migrate to the
wild region of Snowdon. This tale has ever been a favourite theme with
Welsh bards, so that "the sigh of Gwyddno when the wave turned over his
land" remains a familiar figure of speech throughout Wales. In support
of this story it may be mentioned that there are indications of
submerged dwellings and roads (_e.g._ the Sarn Cynfelin and Sarn Badrig)
between the mouth of the Dovey and Cardigan Head. The famous synod of
Brefi, an historical fact clouded by m