"Carmarthen is a Fair & Populous Town, & of good resort; scituate on Navigable Towy, with a very commodious Key for small Vessels. It is plentifully supplyed with Salmon & other Fish, from the said river, and with Flesh, Fowl, &c. from ye Country adjacent, at a very reasonable rate. It had formerly Walls and a very strong Castle which were repaired with considerable additions by Gilbert de Clare, for ye defence of ye Town, which had been often beseiged and burnt by ye Welsh Princes Griffyd ap Rhys & his Brother Rhys. The Corporation (which sends a Member to Parliament) consists of a Mayor, 2 Sheriffs and 6 Aldermen, a Town Clerk, Sword Bearer and 2 Serjeants at Mace, &c. Here flourished ye famous British Merlin ano. 480, who for his Extraordinary learning in those times, and some skill in ye Mathematicks was reputed a Prophet, or Magician." [From Emanuel Bowen's Britannia Depicta, 1720.]

(This is an excerpt from ‘Genuki’ [Uk & Ireland])

‘Carmarthen’, is merely a ‘stones throw’ from Neath!