The most eminent saint of Wales … David, or, as his countrymen call him, Dewi, was the son of Sandde ab Ceredig ab Cunedda, by Non, the daughter of Cynyr of Caer Gawch: To repeat all the fabulous legends invented respecting him, would be to heap together a mass of absurdity and profaneness; for the monks, in the excess of their veneration, have not scrupled to say that his birth was foretold thirty years before the event, and that he was honoured with miracles while yet in the womb. But to pass by these wretched imaginations of a perverted mind, it will be sufficient to notice only those statements of his history which have an appearance of truth. It is said by Giraldus that he was born in a place since called St David's, and that he was baptized at Porth Clais in that neighbourhood by Ælveus, or rather Albeus, bishop of Munster, ‘who by divine providence had arrived at that time from Ireland.’ The same author adds, that he was brought up at a place, the name of which, meaning the ‘old bush,’ is in Welsh ‘Hen Meneu’ and in Latin ‘Vetus Menevia.’ The locality of Hen-Meneu is uncertain, and a claim has been set up on behalf of Henfynyw in Cardiganshire, which answers to the name, and its church is dedicated to the saint; but it is clear that Giraldus and Ricemarchus, from whom the information is derived, intended to designate some spot near the western promontory of Pembrokeshire, possibly near the Roman station of Menapia, for the latter writer intimates that the ‘Old Bush,’ as he calls it, was the place where Gistlianus resided before he removed to the valley of Rosina.