+------------+-------+ | | Owen. +1282 | | | | | | | | Madog. +1278 Gruffydd Vychan Owen Goch Llewelyn David | ancestor of +1254 +1282 +1283 Gruffydd. +1282 Owen Glyndwr CHAPTER III ANGLESEY The “Mother of Wales”--Agricola--Invades Môn--Mines--Caswallon Long-hand--Drives out the Irish--Conquest by Edwin--Aberffraw--Characteristics of Anglesey--Plas Llanfair--Llandyssilio--Llansadwrn--Inscribed stone of Sadwrn--Prophecy--Beaumaris--Bulkeley monuments--Penmon--Church of S. Seiriol--Old gallows--Puffin Isle--Maelgwn Gwynedd--Gildas--Loss of the _Rothesay Castle_--Tin Sylwy--English and Welsh inscriptions--Monument of Iestyn--His story--The Three Leaps--Amlwch--Llaneilian--John Jones--Llanbadrig--The witches of Llanddona--Goronwy Owen--Lewis Morris. ANGLESEY is called the “Mother of Wales,” apparently because of its fertility and as supplying the mountain districts of the Principality with corn. It has not the rugged beauty of the greater portion of Wales--there is, however, some bold coast scenery on the north and the west--but it possesses one great charm, the magnificent prospects it affords of the Snowdon chain and group and of the heights of Lleyn. Its Welsh name is Môn, which was Latinised into Mona, and it did not acquire that of Anglesey till this was given to it by King Egbert in 828. We first hear of it in A.D. 78, when the Roman general Cn. Julius Agricola was sent into Britain. He at once marched against the Ordovices, who occupied Powys. [Illustration: HOLYHEAD, AT RHOSCOLYN] As represented by Tacitus, Agricola was a Roman of the purest type, a man sincere, faithful, and affectionate in his domestic relations, and gracious in his behaviour to all men. He was upright in his dealings, a fine soldier, an able general, but inflexible in his dealings with the enemies of Rome. The ancient Roman was filled with the conviction that the gods had predestined the City on the Seven Hills to rule all nations and languages, and that such as resisted were to be treated as the enemies of the gods. No mercy was to be accorded to them. Much of the same principle actuated the generals of the Republic and the Empire as did the followers of the Prophet. With one it was Rome, with the other Islam, or the sword.