were formerly five trade gilds in the town, the chief industries being
cloth and leather manufactures. There are five ancient fairs for stock,
and formerly each of them was preceded by a leather fair. The fairs held
in May and November were also for hiring, much of the hiring being now
done at the Guildhall, and not in the streets as used to be the case.

During the Civil War the greater part of the castle and of the town
walls (which with their four gates were until then well preserved) were
demolished by the inhabitants in order to prevent the town being either
garrisoned or besieged. Charles I., however, stayed a night at the
priory house shortly after the battle of Naseby. The chief ruins of the
castle are now enclosed in the grounds of the Castle Hotel, the
principal object being Ely tower, where Bishop Morton was imprisoned.

Besides those already mentioned the persons of note born in the town
include Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham; Dr Hugh Price, founder of
Jesus College, Oxford; Dr Thomas Coke, the first Wesleyan missionary
bishop in America; and Theophilus Jones, the historian of the county.
Henry Vaughan, the Silurist, at one time practised here as a doctor of
medicine. (D. Ll. T.)

BRECONSHIRE, or BRECKNOCKSHIRE, an inland county in South Wales, and the
fourth largest in all Wales, bounded N.W. by Cardigan, N. and N.E. by
Radnor, E. and S.E. by Monmouth, S. by Glamorgan and W. by Carmarthen.
The general aspect of the county is mountainous, and the scenery is
marked by beauty and grandeur. The climate is moist but temperate and
healthy, and the soil of the valleys, often consisting of rich alluvial
deposits, is very fertile. The loftiest mountains in South Wales,
extending from Herefordshire and Monmouthshire (where their eastern
spurs form the Hatteral Hills) in a south-easterly direction into
Carmarthenshire, completely encircle the county on the east and south
except for the break formed by the Vale of Usk at Crickhowell. Their
highest summit north of the Usk, on the eastern side, where they are
known as the Black Mountains, or sometimes the Black Forest Mountains,
is Pen y Gader (2624 ft.) between Talgarth and Llanthony, and on the
south-west the twin peaks of the Mynydd Du ("Black Mountain") or the
so-called Carmarthenshire Vans or Beacons, only the higher of which, Fan
Brycheiniog (2632 ft.), is, however, in Breconshire; while the centre of
the crescent is occupied by the masses of the B