_Twm Sion Catti._--The noted robber, Twm Sion or Shôn Catti, referred to
at No. 24. p. 383., was a Welshman who flourished between the years 1590
and 1630. He was the natural son of Sir John Wynne, and obtained his
surname of Catti from the appellation of his mother Catherine. In early
life he was a brigand of the most audacious character, who plundered and
terrified the rich in such a manner that his name was a sufficient
warrant for the raising of any sum which he might desire; while his
unbounded generosity to the poor or unprotected, joined to an innate
love of fun and frolic--for he was a very Eulenspiegel--made him the
darling of the people. His chosen dwelling-place was in the almost
inaccessible cave situated near Llandovery, at the junction of the Tywi
and the Dethia (the Toothy of Drayton), which still bears his name. As
time passed on, he wooed and won the heiress of Ystrad-ffin, in the vale
of Tywi; and on becoming possessed of her property, abandoned his wild
life, and with it the name of Catti; and quietly subsiding into Thomas
Jones, Esq., became a poet and antiquary of high reputation. In addition
to which, and as if to mark their sense of the value of a man so
powerful for good or for evil, the government appointed him high sheriff
for the county of Carmarthen. He died universally respected, and left a
name which yet kindles many a Welsh heart, or amuses many a cottage
circle in the long nights of winter.
His life has been published in an 8vo. volume, which was probably the
work to which the "Note" of "MELANION" referred.