PENARTH, a seaport of Glamorganshire, Wales, is picturesquely situated on rising ground on the south side of the mouth of the Taff opposite Cardiff, from which it is four miles distant by rail and two by steamer. It was a small and unimportant village until an Act was passed in 1856 for making a tidal harbour, The docks (1865-84) are on a very extensive and complete scale, and the town is now an important shipping port for the minerals of South Wales, especially alabaster, coal, and iron. In 1883 there entered 1130 steamers and 567 sailing-vessels with an aggregate registered tonnage of 1,316,265 tons. The total quantity of coal and coke shipped in the same year was 2,274,003 tons. A line of rails 4 miles in length connects the docks with the Taff Vale Railway. The town is frequented in summer as a bathing-place, and the Blued c beds at the head are of special interest to geologists. The principal buildings are the custom-house and dock-offices, and the church of St Augustine, in the Early English style. erected by the Baroness Windsor, who also built national schools. The population of the urban sanitary district (area, 2202 acres) in 1871 was 3104, and in 1881 it was 6228.