CONWAY (Conwy, or Aberconwy)  , a municipal borough in the Arfon parliamentary division of Carnarvonshire, N . Wales, 14 M. by the London & North-Western railway from Bangor, and 225 m.N.W. from London . Pop . (1901) 4681 . The town is enclosed by a high wall, roughly triangular, about 1 m. round, with twenty-one dilapidated round towers, pierced by three principal gateways with two strong towers . The castle in the south-east angle, built in 1284 by Edward I., was inhabited, in 1389, by Richard II., who here agreed to abdicate . Held for Charles I. by Archbishop Williams, it was taken by General Mytton in 1646 . Dismantled by the new proprietor, Earl Conway, it remains a ruin . It is oblong, with eight massive towers, and has, within, a hall 130 ft. in length, known as Llewelyn's . The parliamentary borough of Conway,returning, with five other towns,one member, extends over to the right bank of the stream Conwy (Conway) . In 1885 the mayor of Conway was made a constable . Llandudno with Great and Little Orme's Heads are at some 4 M. distance .

Two

bridges, a tubular for the railway (40 ft. shorter than that of the Menai) and a suspension, designed by Stephenson (1846–1848) and Telford (1822–1826) respectively, cross the stream . St Mary's church is Gothic; the Elizabethan Plas Mawr is the locale of the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art . There are still some fragments of the 1185 Cistercian Abbey . There are golf links here and at Llandudno . The Conwy stream, on which a steamboat runs from Deganwy (2 M. below Conway town) to Trefriw, opposite Llanrwst, in summer, has some coasting trade in sulphur and slates . It is about 30 in. long, its valley (a haunt of artists) containing the towns last mentioned and Bettws y coed . Its pearls are mentioned in Drayton's Polyolbion and Spenser's Faerie Queene . Pearl fisheries existed at Conway for many centuries, dating back to the Roman occupation . Tacitus, Agricola, 12, says of Britain " gignit et Oceanus margarita, sed subfusca ac liventia," as are those found to-day . Diganhwy (Dyganwy, Deganwy) is mentioned in the Mabinogion (Geraint and Enid), if the reading is sound; it is certainly mentioned in the Annales Cambriae (years 812–822) and in the Black Book of Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen), xxiii . 1 . Caer-hyn, 41 m. from Conway, is on the highroad from London to Holyhead, and is the Conovium of the Romans .

The site of the

camp can still be traced, consisting of a square, strengthened by four parallel walls, extending to a distance from the main work . The camp is on a height, with the Conwy in front and a wood on each flank . At the foot of the hill, near the stream, was a Roman bath, with walls, pavement and pillars . Camden's Britannia mentions tiles, with marks of the loth or Antoninus's legion, as being found here, perhaps mistakenly . Gleini nadroedd (possibly amulets) and vitrum have been found here . In Bwlch y ddwy faen (" two rock ravine "), on the way to Aber, are the remains of a Roman road and antiquities .