The saga commences on Easter Sunday 1744 when the then Elizabeth Lewis and her future sister-in-law attended the morning service at the parish church. After the service and sermon were over they adjourned to an ale house in the village where they stayed until late in the evening. On Easter Monday both women together with Morgan Beynon went to a dance at Carreg Sawdde by Llangadog. Later that evening Morgan Beynon and Elizabeth Lewis decided to get married there and then. The curate of Llangadog, one Evan Griffiths was found and said he required a fee of ten shillings to marry them. Morgan Beynon could not afford to pay this fee, whereupon the curate agreed to marry them for half a crown, since in any case he was a friend of the bridegroom. Two aerial photographs are presented and these convey the nature of the greater part of the parish landscape with its characteristic patchwork of fields and well scattered farmsteads. These photographs were taken in high summer and the rather stark differences in field colours reflect primarily the after effect of cutting grass for conservation as hay or silage. Aerial photographs have however the disadvantage of giving a flattened perspective to the landscape and the more familiar and human viewpoint is revealed in some representative views taken from eye level.

An inscription on one of the gravestones in the cemetery of the parish church records the following somewhat sardonic and forceful reminder. The Red Book of Hergest is one of the most ancient manuscript volumes in existence, dating from the years immediately following 1382. Now kept in the Bodleian Library on behalf of Jesus College, Oxford, as well as containing early prose and pieces of poetry the red vellum book also holds a collection of herbal remedies from the Physicians of Myddfai.The sons often walked around the lake hoping to see their mother again. One day she appeared to the eldest son, Rhiwallon, presented him with a collection of medicinal prescriptions and instructions, and told him that his future and that of his descendants was to be a healer. She later returned and passed him information on herbs and plants to be used in cures. In due course Rhiwallon went to the court of Rhys Gryg of Deheubarth, where he became a famous doctor, as did his own sons. Estate duty was introduced in 1894 and its level progressively increased until 1930. This together with certain extra duties levied in Lloyd George's budget of 1909 were a blow to the survival of many estates which were very often already in a precarious financial predicament. Financial settlements for family relations which were beyond the financial resources of the estate owner were a great source of weakness. A greater financial return from investment other than in land was an attraction to sell off and invest the proceeds in industrial or financial institutions. Latterly the difficulty of imposing and raising rents in periods of agricultural depression were an added complication. All of these factors undoubtedly played a part but I suppose that ultimately it was a question of resolve, nerve and self assurance. Was it worth the trouble to be an owner of an estate generating a relatively low income from land, and perhaps just as importantly no longer guaranteed a social position and pre-eminence in the community. Was it worth all the trouble to have the men of the estate or parish doff their hats and say sir and the women to curtsy: probably not, or at least not any longer. For the parish of Myddfai two overseers of the poor were appointed annually by the Church Vestry, one for the upper division of the parish and similarly for the lower division. These overseers almost invariably also acted as churchwardens, thus in their capacity as overseers they were responsible for setting and collecting the Poor Rate whilst in their capacity as churchwardens they were primarily responsible for setting and collecting the Church rate. The Church Rate strictly speaking was to be used for 'the repair of the nave of the parish church and for furnishing the utensils for divine service' but in practice it extended much beyond this for money was raised to finance a host of other functions under the jurisdiction of the churchwardens such as the destruction of vermin to give but one example. There is little doubt that the overseers were under constant surveillance and pressure from the majority of their fellow parishioners to reduce the level and burden of the poor rate. One way of cutting down on expenditure gave rise to one of the most disagreeable practices associated with poor law administration, or so it seems to us today. The Act of Settlement of 1662 had given legal powers to the overseers to expel or remove from their own parish certain persons who were not born within the parish or who had no right of settlement there. In practice this meant the removal of those who were or likely to become a charge on the poor rate of the parish. After 1846 the act was ameliorated a little in that persons who had been resident for five years were deemed to be legally settled and therefore not liable to eviction or removal as it was termed. The whole ethos of the poor law was that the parish looked after its own and no one else if it could help it. The accounts for 1818-19 thus record costs For removal and suspension of William Morgan

which may be translated as 'March kills but April flays' signifying that April is an even harsher month than March. One normally imagines this saying as applying to farm animals, but seemingly the parishioners of Myddfai as probably of every other parish were not outside its remit. The number of deaths builds up from December to reach a peak in April and then in the summer we have the good months of July, August and September. One can only surmise that the standard and level of nutrition was in some way responsible for the pattern shown. There is no evidence to suggest that the pattern seen was in any way related to an absolute shortage of food, what was probably more important was the poor quality and nature of the food eaten, leading to progressively lower resistance to illness and disease. Food eaten in the winter months was probably unbalanced or deficient with respect to vitamins and minerals.The officers of secretary and treasurer four years and thereafter renewable for further periods of four years as the AGM decides.