Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire, a maritime county of South Wales, the westernmost of the Principality. Measuring 30 by 25 miles, it has an area of 611 sq. m., or 391,181 acres, of which three-fourths is arable. The coast-line is much of it rugged and precipitous; and inland the surface is undulating, green hills alternating with fertile valleys, and attaining a maximum altitude of 1754 feet in the Precelly range, which traverses the north of the county from east to west. Rivers are the Teifi, separating Pembrokeshire from Cardigan, and the East and the West Cleddau. The rocks are largely Silurian; the soil varies much in quality; and coal, slate, lead, and iron have been worked. St David's Cathedral and half-a-dozen mediæval castles make up the antiquities with Ogam inscriptions, neolithic implements, and Roman coins. At Haverfordwest and Tenby a colony of Flemings was established in 1107. They adopted the English tongue; and Pembrokeshire, or 'Little England beyond Wales,' is now over more than half its area inhabited by an English-speaking population, although it is the remotest of all the Welsh counties. It was harried by Owen Glendower in 1405; and on 22d February 1797 it witnessed the last French invasion, when 600 regulars and 800 gaol-birds landed near Fishguard, only to surrender unconditionally to some militia and yeomanry under Lord Cawdor. Pembrokeshire returns one member. Pop. (1801) 56,280; (1841) 88,044; (1881) 91,824; (1891) 89,125. See Fenton's Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire (1811).