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denote the demarcation of commotes and cantrefs fro the stand- point of the central authority or administrative centre or seat of goyenmieju^call if what you will. The precise dating of the demarca- tion must remain obscure in most cases because of the paucity of Welsh records before the Norman Conquest. In any case, it is not suggested for one moment that the commotes and cantrefs were all subdivided at the same time and under the same conditions. This article merely suggests that the capM ofa j*iven commote or cantref will be found in the division known as is, and it must be for historians, if they so wish, to follow up some of the pointers, and to qualify or modify some of the tentative conclusions. It will be seen that in some cases these conclusions merely confirm what is already well known, but that some others have implications that are exceedingly important and interesting. It might be worth examining some English place-names in nether, under, and over to see whether any of these show a similar semantic development to is and uwch. Several friends have reminded me of the American usage of downtown for being at the hub of things, as it were. In the following notes we shall be moving in general from north to south. GWYNEDD Problems immediately confront us. The original Gwynedd was almost certainly west of the Conway and had sites" which were historically of prime importance-Caernarvon for one, and Aberffraw for another, a royal residence and 'the principal seat of Gwynedd' at least from the time of Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon in the seventh century. The portion of Gwynedd east of the Conway had various names—Y Berfeddwlad 'Middle Country', the Four Cantreds or Quatuor Cantredae (Rhos, Rhufoniog, Dyffryn Clwyd, and Tegeingl). But it was also known as Gwynedd Is Conwy, and if our theoryis right, we expect it to be so named from the point of view of an important site. If Is Conwy is an early division then we might think of Degannwy, seat of Maelgwn Gwynedd and later of Rhodri Mawr. If not, then we should probably plump for Dinbych (Denbigh). (v. fig. 1.) This was presumably supplanted by the Edwardian Conway. RHOS Divided into the commotes of Is Dulas and Uwch Dulas, east and west of the River Dulas. Here, I think, there can be no doubt