Meurig, king of Garth-Madrin (a part of Brecknockshire), had a daughter, Marchell, who said to her father in coaxing terms, “I _do_ want a fur cloak; the winters here are abominably cold.” “You shall have one,” answered the father. On cool reflection Meurig considered that fur cloaks were expensive luxuries, far beyond the means of a petty Welsh prince. So he said to Marchell, “My dear, I am going to marry you to a very agreeable young man, Aulac” (Amalgaidh), “an Irish prince, and he has ample means at his disposal to provide you with the desired fur cloak.” So Aulac was invited over, found Marchell charming, and carried her back with him to Ireland. Now whilst he was in Wales he had allowed his eyes to wander, and he had seen that there was a good deal of rich and covetable land there. So he speedily returned at the head of a host of Irish kernes, and overran, not Brecknock alone, but all Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Pembroke, and established himself as prince there. Whether Marchell ever got her fur cloak history does not say. Aulac and Marchell had a son, Brychan (the Speckled or Tartan-clad), who has given his name to the county of Brecknockshire. Brychan was a much-wived man, unless he be greatly misrepresented, and had a numerous family. Not only do the Welsh genealogists give him forty-nine children, but the Irish, the Cornish, and the Bretons attribute to him several more. The fact is that all Brychan’s family, grandchildren as well as children, have been run together, for all such as exercised tribal rights formed the family clan. In one of the S. Neot’s windows may be seen good old Brychan seated on a throne, holding a lapful of progeny before him, dense as young rabbits. In Ireland the tribes are called after the founder, as the Hy Conaill, Hy Fiachra, or sons of Conal, sons of Fiech, though grand, great-grand, and great-great-grandchildren. Now the Irish who had invaded South Wales were not allowed a peaceful time in which to consolidate their power, for in the time of the grandchildren of Brychan, if not in that of his son Cledwyn, king of Carmarthen, there came down a Northern Briton, named Dyfnwal, into South Wales and drove them out, and pretty well exterminated the family of Cledwyn. This must have been about the year 500, and it was probably due to this that so many of Brychan’s sons and daughters and grandchildren took to their heels and crossed the Severn Sea, and established themselves in North Devon and Cornwall. It was not till about fifty years later that Caradoc Strong-i’-th’-Arm, the son of a granddaughter of Brychan and prince of Gallewig, the region about Callington, marched westward from the Severn, and expelled the invaders, and recovered Brecknockshire. When the great migration took place it comprised not only the family of King Brychan, but also the Gwentian royal family, that was allied to it by blood.