Meifod, lluest, cynaeafdy and hendre in Welsh place-names By MELVILLE RICHARDS, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S. In Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol. LVI, pp. 13-20, I discussed the terms hafod and hafoty in Welsh place-names in connection with the practice of trans- humance. In correspondence which I have since had with Dr. Iorwerth Peate, Messrs. D. B. Hague and A. H. A. Hogg of the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments, and others, different shades of emphasis on certain points have emerged. We should not, perhaps, attempt to fit transhumance in Wales into a too rigid and systematized pattern. Mr. Hague points out that some at least of the hafodau developed into very substantial dwelling-houses, especially Hafod-y-rhisg and Hafod- lwyfog in Beddgelert. This development no doubt goes together with the tendency for some hafodau to become independent of the corresponding hendre. There are other terms connected with transhumance which we might now consider. Meifod may be the 'May dwelling', remembering that the Welsh summer commenced on Calan Mai, 'first of May,' and that May used to be called cyntefin, 'first month of summer,' or it may be the 'middle dwelling,' from meidd- middle,' between the hendre and the hafod. There are some half dozen examples of this name. It occurs in Meifod (Abergele, i.e., the old parish of St. George, c.f. 1334 Meynyot Surv. Denb.), in Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, in Y Feifod (Llangollen, c.f. 1391-3 Veyvot GPJ/EC 47, 1568 Vivod HPF iv 43; the medieval spelling is retained\*n^ maps as Vivod). There was another in the parish of Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch. The best-known example is the famous Meifod in Montgomeryshire where the kings and princes of Powys were buried. In Llanenddwyn there are Meifod Isaf and Uchaf. The form is preserved too in Gwernfeifod in Llanrhaeadr-ym-Moch- nant. If Meifod, however, is really 'half-house', or 'lodging', then it probably has no connection with transhumance. As well as hafod and hafoty there was another well-documented term for a 'summer dairy cottage', namely lluest. The term is mentioned in an article on the cattle drovers in Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1946, p. 251, where special reference is made to driving cattle from the Vale of Glamorgan to the upland areas of the parish of Aberdare, where temporary summer cabins were occupied, i.e., Lluestaillwydion (now changed to the meaningless Llestrillwydion
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