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There is a certain ftyle of melody peculiar to each mufical country, which the people of that country are apt to prefer to every other style. Some of the dignified old Welfh Tunes convey, to our ideas, the ancient manners and conviviality of our ancestors. There are others that recal back to our minds, certain incidents which happened in our youth, of love, rural sports, and other paftimes; they likewife excite in us a longing defire of a repetition of thofe juvenile pleasures; and perhaps it is on account of these effects they produce, that they are fo well remembered, and continue to be fung with fuch delight by the natives. The attachment to national tunes, when once established, instead of offending by repetition, is always upon the increase. The mufic, as well as the poetry, of Wales, derived its peculiar and original character from the genius of the country: they both fprang from the fame fource; its delightful valleys gave birth to their foft and tender measures, and its wild mountainous fcenes to their bolder and more animated tones 13. And where could the Mufes have chofen a happier refidence? Here the eye is delighted with woods and valleys at once wild and beautiful: in other parts, we are aftonifhed with a continued tract of dreary cloud-capt country, "hills whofe heads touch heaven"--dark, tremendous, precipices--rapid rivers roaring over disjointed rocks--gloomy caverns, and rufhing cataracts. Salvator Rofa's extravagant

fancy never indulged itself in grander or more favage profpe&ts! Nor has Claude Lorraine's inimitable pencil ever delineated fcenes that excelled fome of the valleys of Wales!

It is not to be wondered at, that the venerable Cambrian fongs poffeffed fuch influence on the minds of our ancestors, when we confider their beautiful and various change of ftyle and time; tranfitions abrupt as the rocky profpects of the country, and fudden as the paffions of the people.

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The most ancient style of Welsh mufic is the grave and folemn, which was confecrated to religious purposes 14. The next, diftinct from the former, is ftrikingly martial and magnificent 15. Another is plaintive and expreffive of forrow, being appropriated to elegies and the celebration of the dead ". Another is of the pastoral kind, and of all perhaps the most agreeable; coming nearest to nature, and poffeffing a pleafing melancholy and foothing tranquillity, fuitable to genial love ". There are alfo, dancing Tunes, or jigs, which are extremely gay and inspiring ".

Of these ancient melodies I have recovered fome genuine remains; and their effects are not wholly loft or forgotten. A new era of Cambria-British harmony has rifen in our times, and the wonderful things related of it in former ages have been already realifed.

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The harp in the hands of the British fair 19, has acquired new honours and a more irresistible influence; and never produced fuch transport and enthusiasm when ftruck by a Cybelyn, or a Cadwgan 20, as it now excites, affifted by the liquid voice, and distinguished beauty of our modern female Bards.

13 Whoever defires to fee this idea pursued to fome length, may find it ingenioufly and philofophically developed, with reference to the native mufic of Scotland, in Dr. Beattie's Effays on Poetry and Mufic.

14 The fine old Pfalms, which are chanted in fome of the churches in Wales, particularly in thofe where modern finging is not introduced. Likewife Cór-Ardan, Cór-vinvain, Cor-wurgeg, Cor-Alchan, Cor Ffinrur, Côr-y-golovn, Côr Elvy, Hob y deri Danno, Hai Down, &c. Some fpecimens of thefe Choral Songs, are carefully displayed from an ancient manufcript in the original mutical notes, fuppofed to be Druidical, which the reader will fee engraved on a book, delineated in the print of the mufical inftruments, farther on in this volume.

15 Triban, or The Warriors Song, Triban Morganwg, Gorhoffedd Gwyr Harlech, Rhyvelgyrch Cadpen Morgan, Dowch ir Vrwydr, Erddigan troi'r tant, Shenkin, Syr Harri Ddu, Sibyl, Ffarwel trwy'r Pwll, Torriad y Dydd, Cudyn Gwyn, Blo.laur Greg, Ufula, Tyby Tywyfog, &c.

18 Morva Rhuddlan, Y Galin Drom, Davydd Garreg wen, Gorddinen, Diddanwch Gruffudd ab Cynan, Cwynvan Brydain, Anbarwild ymadael, Mwynen Mon, Symlen ben B's, Yr Hen Dun, Gadael y Ter, &c.

17 Nos Galan, Tón y Ceiliog Du, Mwynen Cynwyd, Winifreda, YEos lais, Ar byd y Nos, Codiad yr Hedydd, Blodau'r Dyffryn, Creigiau'r Eryri, Difiyll y Donn, Serch Hudol, Ffarwell Viengetid, Yayna'n yw, Merch Megan, Pen Rhaw, Mentra Gwen, Diver

EDWARD JONES.

iad y Gerwyn, Erddigan Caer-Waen, Abfen Don, Croefo'r Wenynen, &c. Dad Dau, Maynder Meirionydd, &c.

18

Hoffedd Modryb Marged, Ceffylyn Rhygyngog, Gyrru'r Byd om blaen, Fiddle Fadale, Tri banner Tôn, Confet Davydd ab Gwilym, Hoby Dyliv, &c.

19 "The harp is the favourite inftrument of the fair fex, and nothing fhould be fpared to make it beautiful: for, it fhould be a principal object of mankind to attach them by every means to mufic, as it is the only amufement that may be enjoyed to excefs, and the heart fill remain virtuous and uncorrupted." Dr. Burney's Hiftory of Mufic, vol. I.

Their butinefs fhould be to practise merely for the amuse. ment of themselves, their own family, and particular friends, or rather for domeftic comfort, which they were by Providence delign d to promote; viz. To calm the boisterous paffionto relieve the anxieties and cares of life-to inspire chearfulnefs-to appease the nerves, when irritated with pain, tickness, or labour of mind or body-to foothe the peevishness of infancy and old age-and to raise the mind to a feeling and love of order. She who fhall improve the natural talents, with which women are born, of doing all these things, will not have mis-pent her time by applying a few years to mufic."

Stilling fleet's Principle and Power of Harmony, p. 151. 20 Cybelyn, and Cadwgan, were celebrated performers on the Harp, and compofers of Welsh Mufic. See p. 38.

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The following curious narrative, describing the principal profeffion of the Bards, is extracted from an ancient folio manuscript, which was pointed out to me in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, by the Rev. Mr. Price; marked KKK, and page 207, &c.—

I did not think myself at liberty to make any alterations in this tranfcript, farther than to modernize the old orthography, fo as to make it more intelligible to the generality of readers.

TH

HE office or function, of the British or Cambrian Bards, was to keep and preserve Tri Chov Ynys Prydain: that is, the Three Records, or Memorials, of Britain, otherwife called the British Antiquities; which confifts of three parts, and are called Tri Chov: for the prefervation whereof, when the Bards were graduated at their Commencements, they were trebly rewarded; one reward for every Côv, as the ancient Bard Tudur Aled recites, and alfo his reward for the fame, at his commencement and graduation at the royal wedding of Evan ab Davydd ab Ithel Vychan, of Northop in Inglefield, Flintshire, which he, in the Cerdd Marwnad of the faid Evan ab Davydd ab Ithel, records thus:

Cyntav neuadd i'm grâddwyd,

Vu oror llys v' Eryr llwyd;

Am dri chôv i'm dyrchavodd,

In neithior-llyma 'r tair rhôdd.

The firft Hall wherein I was initiated,

Was the Court of the Grey Eagle ;

For by the Tri Chov I was elevated,
In the Nuptial Feaft: behold the three gifts!

Which fhews that he was exalted, and graduated at that wedding for his knowledge in the said Tri Chov, and was rewarded with three several rewards.

The First of the three Côv is the history of the notable acts of the Kings, and Princes of Britain and Cambria.

The Second of the three Cov is the language of the Britons, of which the Bards were to give an account of every word and fyllable therein, when demanded of them; in order to preferve the ancient language, and to prevent its intermixture with any foreign tongue, or the introduction of any foreign word in it, to the prejudice of their own, whereby it might be corrupted or extirpated.

The Third Cov confifted of the pedigrees, or defcents of the nobility, their divifion of lands, and blazoning of arms 21.

21 Arms took their origin from the example of the Patriarchs: for, holy writ informs us, that the 12 Tribes of Ifrael were distinguished by fignets. See Exodus, chap. 28, and chap. 39; Numbers, chap. 2; Pfalm 20; and Daniel, chap. 6.

Coats-of-Arms were in ufe among the Old Britons from the remotest period; although, arms were not generally diffufed among different nations until the Holy Wars.

The Cymbri, or Britons, had their bodies and fhields decorated with various colours; animals, birds, &c. which at first denoted valour, afterwards the nobility of the bearer; and, in process of time, gave origin to armorial enfigns. See Tacitus IV. 22; Cafar's Commentaries, Book V. chap. 10; and Plutarch's Life of Marius. Alfo it is recorded that K. Arthur bore on his field, in the battle of Coed Celyddon, the image of the Virgin Mary.. See Lewis's Ancient Hift. p. 182; and pp. 7, 8, 9, and 10, of this work. Allo, Guilim's Heraldry.

The Arwyddwardd, Enfign-Bard, or Herald at Arms, whofe

The

duty was to declare the genealogy, and to blazon the arms of nobles and princes, and to keep the record of them; and to alter their arms according to their dignity or deferts. Thefe were with the kings and princes in all battles and actions. As for their garments, I think, they were fuch as the Prydyddion had; that is, a long apparel down to the calf of their legs, or fomewhat lower, and were of divers colours. Alfo, the Song of Victory defcribes, that the Ancient Chiefs wore divers colours. Judges, chap. 5, ver. 30.

According to the primitive law of Dyvnwal Moelmid, the Ancient Britons divided this land according to this manner; Tri byd y gronun haidd, or thrice the length of one barley corn, maketh a modvedl, or inch; three modvedd, or inches, maketh a palu or palm of the hand; three palo, or palms, maketh a troedvedd, or foot; three feet, or troedvedd, maketh a cam, pace, or ftride; three cam, or ftrides, to the naid or le p three naid, or leaps, to the grwn; that is, the breadth of a butt

* Dyvnwal Moehmud, (or, Dunwallo Molmutio,) was fupreme king of Britain, and the first monarch that conftituted laws in this island, and the first that ware

a crown of gold. He reigned about 440 years before the time of Chrift. Ponticus Verunnius fays, that Dynwal was a very comely perfon, and had yellow hair, curling down to his thighs. Lewis's Ancient Hift. of Britain, p. 39: and Brempien Monach. For, inter Hifl, Angl. Script. Antiq. Col. 956. 8.

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The ancient Bards had a ftipend out of every plow-land in the country, for their maintenance; and alfo a perambulation, or a vifitation, to make once every three years, to the houfes of all the gentlemen in the country, which was called Cylch Clera, being for the prefervation of the faid Tri Chov: at which perambulation they collected all the memorable things that were done and fell out in every country that concerned their profeffion to take notice of, and wrote them down; fo that they could not be ignorant of any memorable acts, the death of any great perfon, his defcent, divifion or portion of lands, coat of arms, and children, in any country within their diftrict'. At these perambulations, the Bards received three rewards, being a fixed and certain ftipend, from every gentleman in whofe houfe they were entertained; and this reward was called Clera.

Cerdd Voliant is a poem of laud, or praife, compofed in commendation of a gentleman or lady in his or her life-time.

Cerdd Varwnad is an elegiac poem, compofed to record the actions and to lament the death of renowned perfons.

And when

Those men, that are termed above by the name of gentlemen, are called Gwýr Bonbeddig2; and there is no man by the law entitled to the appellation of Gwr Bonbeddig, but he that is paternally defcended from the Kings, and Princes of Britain; for Bonkeddig is equivalent to Nobilis in Latin: and the paternal genealogy of every gentleman muft afcend to fome royal perfonage, from whom he originally held his land and his arms. A gentleman, fo defcended by father and mother, is ftyled, or titled by the law, Bonheddig Cynhwynawl, which fignifieth, a perfect nobleman by father and by mother. This title, Bonbeddig, is the highest that a man can have; and remaineth in his blood from his birth to his death; and cannot be conferred by any man whatever, nor any, that hath it really, be deprived of it. All other titles may be taken from man; may become extinct by his death, or other cafualties; but this cannot; for, he inherits it from his birth, and it is not extinguifhed by his death, but remaineth in his blood to his pofterity, fo that he cannot be fevered from it. Common perfons of late years have taken upon them the title of Bonhedd, or Noble; but they are not really fo, though fo called by courtesy, by reafon of their wealth, offices, or merit; these, however, being only perfonal, and Bonbedd being permanent. You may understand hereby that the gentry of the country had a special intereft in the Tri Chov, or the hiftories where the acts and deeds of their ancestors and kinsmen, and the prefervation of the language, arms, descents, and divifions of lands, were recorded; and, therefore, the ftipend paid by them to the Bards was not inflituted without good caufe; nor their entertainments in their perambulations allowed them without good reafon; as all the hiftories and of land, or tir: and ml of those tir, maketh a milltir, that is, a thousand fir, or a m le: and that was their neafure for length, which has been used from that time to this day: and yet, and for fuperficial meaturing, they made three hyd gronun hauld, or barley-corn length to the modwedd, or inch; three modvidd, or inches, to the palv, or hand's-breadth; three palv to the troedvedd, or foot; four troedvedl, or feet, to the verian, or the fheit yoke; eight tredvedd, or feet, to the mai-iau, and twelve troedvedd, or feet in the gefeiliau; and fixteen troedvedd in the birian; and a pole or 10d to long, that is, fixteen feet long, is the breadth of an acre of land; and 30 poles or rods of that length is the length of an erw, or acie by the law; and four ew, or acre, maketh a tyddyn, or mefluage; and four of that tyddyn, or meffage. maketh a rbandir; and four of thofe rhandiedi maketh a gavel, or tenement, or hoult; and four gavel maketh a trev, or township; and four trev, or town hips, maketh a maenil, or macnor; and twelve maend or maenor, and day driv, or two townilips, maketh a cwmwd, or Comot; and two cwmwd or Comot maketh a cantrev cr cantred, that is, a hundred towns or townfhips: and by this reckoning, every tyddyn containeth four erw; every rhandir containeth fixteen erw; and every gavel contameth tixty-four erw. Every town or township containeth two hundred and fifty-fix erw, or acres; thete erws being fertile arable land, and neither meadow, nor pafture, nor woods; for there was nothing meatured but fertile arable land, and all others were termed watics. Every maenol containeth four of thefe townfhips; and every cwmwd containeth fifty of thefe townships; and every cantred a hundred of thefe townships, whereof it hath its name. And all the countries and lord's dominions, were divided by cantreds, or cantre; and to every one of these cantreds, comots, maenors, towns. gatvels, were given fome proper names. And Gwlad, or country, was the dominion of one lord or prince, whether the Grulad were one cantred, or two, or three, or four, or more; fo that when I day he is gone from gwlad to gwlad, that is, from country to country, it is meant, that he is gone from one lord or prince's dominion to another prince's dominion; as, for example, when a man committeth an offence in Gwynedd, or North Wales, which containeth ten cantreds, and fleeth or goeth

to Powys, which is the name of another country and prince's
dominion, which containeth ten other cantreds, he is gone from
one country, or dominion, to another, and the law cannot be
executed upon him; for, he is gone out of the country. Tegings
is a country, and containeth but one cantred; and Dyffryn Clyd
was a country, and did contain but one cantred.
any did go from Tegings to Dyffryn Clwyd, for to fly from the
law, he went out from one country to another: and fo every
prince or lord's dominion was Gwlad, or Country, to that lord
or prince; fo that Gwlad is Pagus in my judgement. Some-
times a cantred doth contain two comots, fometimes three, or
four, or five; as the Cantrev of Glamorgan, or Morganwg, con.
taineth five comots. And after that the Normans had won fome
parts of the country, as one lord's dominion, they constituted in
that fame place a Senefcal, or Steward, and that was called in the
British tongue Swyddog, that is, an Officer; and the lordship
that he was fteward or, was called Swydd, or Office, and of
thete Syddeu were made fhires. And Swydd is an Office, be it
great or imall; and Swyddog is an Officer alfo of all flates; as
a Sheriff is a Swyddog, his Sheriffalty, or Office, and the shire
whereof he is Sheriff is called Swydd: fo that Swydd doth con-
tain as well the fire as the office of a Sheriff, as Swydd
Amythig is the thire or office of the Steward, Senefcal, or
Sheriff of Salop, &c.

See pp. 26, and 33, of this work.

The greatest and highest degree was Brenin, or Teyrn, that is, a King; and next to him was a Twyfog, or a Duke; and next to him was a Jarll, or an Earl; and next to him was an Arglwydd, or a Lord; and next to him was a Barwn, or Baron; and next to that is the Breir, or Uchelor, which may be called the Squire; next to this is a Gwr-cang, that is, a Yeoman; and next to that is an Alltud; and next to that a Caeth, which is a Slave, and that is the meanest amongst these nine feveral degrees. And these nine degrees had three feveral tenures of lands, as Maerdir, Uchelordir, Priodordir. There be alfo other names and degrees which be gotten by birth, by office, and by dignity; but they all are contained under the nine aforesaid degrees. See Leges Wallicae, p. 155, and Silas Taylor, on Gavel-kind. acts

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acts of the kings and nobility were collected, and all the battles recorded by them, and exprefly remem bered in the Cerdd Voliant of fuch noble perfons as had performed fervices in the field, and in their Cedd Varwnad; fo that there could be no perverfion of truth, in compofing hiftories from three years to three years. There was, befides, a fevere punishment inflicted by the law upon the Bards, of long imprisonment, lofs of place and dignity, befides great difgrace, if any of them should fet down, for truth, but the truth, in any historical treatise whatfoever.

No man defcribed any battle but fuch as had been an eye-witness thereof; for, fome of the chief Bards were marshals of all battles: they fat in council in the field, and were the king's or general's intelligencers. how the action went on; fo that they could not be ignorant of any circumftance, or thing, done in the field. They did not write of battles by hearfay, and affairs by relation, unless it were fome fudden or unexpected fight or fkirmish; for, in all battles of moment, they were prefent, as I fhall prove at large in another place.

Our hiftories were not written by a school-mafter, that travelled no farther for his knowledge than a child's journey from his breakfast to his leffon; nor by any monk, that journeyed no farther than from mass to meat; nor by any apprentice, that had no other education than from fhop to market; nor by any perfon of low birth, condition, or calling; but by Bards nobly defcended, barons, and fellows to lords and princes. King Arthur and two of his knights, Sir Trystan, and Sir Lambroch, were Bards, as this verse testifies.

Arthur aefden a Thryftan,
A Llywarch ben cyvarch cán.

Arthur, with broken fhield, and Tryftan3 woo'd
The mufe; but Llywarch was the most belov'd.

The Pen-bardd, or Bardd Teulu, was of fo high a vocation, that he fat at meals next to the pen-teulu, (who was called princeps familiæ,) and had such respect and honour done unto him, that it was the office of the penteulu, who was the fourth perfon of the land, to prefent the Harp to him, when he performed a fong, in the presence of the king, at the principal festivals of the year, Christmas, Easter, and Whitfuntide. The chief Bards were very often of the king's council; and, the chief Bard in the land was befides allowed a chair in the royal palace on feftivals, when the king and his family fat in ftate. As a symbol of this, at the commencement of the Bards, for their graduation, their chiefeft title was Pencerdd; and the head Pencerdd had a jewel in form of a chair bestowed upon him on his creation, or graduation; which he wore fufpended from his neck by a ribband or chain. He then was called Bardd Cadeiriawg, which is a chaired Bard, and he fat in a chair in the king's house, or any where else, by virtue of his dignity as fupreme Bard; which it was not lawful for any other Bard to claim, but only the Bardd Cadeiriawg, who had won the chair upon difputation openly before the king at commencement-time, or at a royal wedding. When the Bardd Cadeiriawg was dead, that formerly enjoyed the faid jewel, it was fometimes yielded to the chief Bard of knowledge and worth by the others, without difputation, (if his fufficiency in his profeffion was known to furpass all the reft; and fo he had it pro confeffo,) that he was the chief Bard of knowledge in that dominion. But, if any Bard whatfoever challenged to difpute for it, it could not be given him (pro confesso;) but he difputed for it, and thereby accomplished the proverb, (viz. win it and wear it ;) for, he could not wear it, unlefs he did win it upon trial, or it was yielded unto him by all the other Bards, upon conviction of his pre-eminence, and fingular knowledge and worth, above all the reft; for, the dignity of a Bard amongst the ancient Britons was very honourable. The Bards were men of high descent, often of the blood royal, and called the kings and princes by the title of coufins and fellows, as Bleddyn Vardd called Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, (whom the English ftyle Leolinus Magnus,) Prince of Cambria, his coufin, in thefe verfes:

Collais a gerais o gûr, ac Arglwydd,

Erglyw ein tramgwydd, trymgwyn anwar;
Collais chwe teyrn cedyrn cydvar,
Chwe Eryr cedwyr cadr eu darpar;

Llewelyn a'i blant blaengar-vrodorion,

Ai baelion wyrion;-oer eu galar!

I have loft him I loved, my kinfman and my lord;
Pity our dire fall; fad and violent is our complaint.

I have loft fix mighty chiefs, who were one in wrath;

Six warring eagles, of irresistible onfet.

For Llewelyn and his fons, a forward race,
And his generous grandfons, direful is our moan!

That was Llewelyn himself, and David and Gruffyth, his fons; and Owain gôch, Llewelyn, and David, the three fons of Gruffyth ab Llewelyn. So did Cynddelw, the great Bard, who called Madog ab Meredydd,

3 Sir Tryftan was fo eminent a performer on the Harp, that Dr. Hanmer's Chronicle, p. 52; and pp. 12 and 14 of this work. he charmed La Bel Ifod, daughter of the king of Ireland. See

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the Prince of Powys, his lord and fellow, or fellow-lord, in his poem made in commendation of the faid
Madog, viz.

Cyvarchav i'm rhi rad obaith

Cyvarchav, cyvarchais é canwaith;

Yn provi prydu o v'iaith-eurgerdd,

Ym arglwydd gydymaith.

I will greet my prince, hopeful in grace:

A hundred times have I greeted him

In effaying poetic lore, in my language of golden fong,

To my lord and companion.

And, in like manner, Iolo Góch claims kindred with Ithel ab Robert, of Coed y Mynydd, Tegengl, in his poem made to the said Ithel, wherein he writes as follows:

Hyd ar untro clo y clód,

Er un llwytho Ronwy Llwyd,

Poft dievrydd, pais dryvrwyd;

An bên-veistr gwys yn hanvod:

Cyd werfog Cóv diweir-falm,

Vûm ac ev yn dolev dalm.

Highest in the temple of Fame

Is the great grey-headed Gronwy;

A ftaunch pillar, clad in the close-woven coat of mail;

It is known that we are of the fame ftock as our aged chief:
Often have he and I fung together with the voice of gladness;
Sweet to me is the thought.-

Thus we find, that the ancient Bards, in the time of the kings and princes, were their kinfmen; and in
the following age, after the princes, they were a-kin to the nobility of the country; as Iolo Góch to
Ithel ab Kobert, of Coed y Mynydd; and Llewelyn Goch ab Meurig Hên to the noble family of Nannau.
Neither could any mean perfon, in the time of the Cambrian kings, presume to study the learning or pro-
feffion of a Bard; but, when the princes were extinct, this limitation ceased also, and men of inferior
birth, having good qualities, were admitted to ftudy the fcience of the Bards, and to proceed in their
profeffion to their graduation; but under the title and vocation of Prydyddion.

After the diffolution of the ancient government of Cambria, and the reduction thereof under Edward the First, that monarch, not refpecting the honour nor the dignity of the ancient British laws, antiquities, or rights, endeavoured, to the utmost of his power, (as did all his fucceffors, until Henry the Seventh's time,) to destroy and extinguifh both them, their fame, and antiquities *.

At this time the nobility and barons of Wales received fuch old Bards, after the death of the princes, as were then in being, into their protection; and encouraged them to take pupils that were fit and apt for that profeffion, and gave them all their stipend rights, privileges, and entertainments, as fully as when the law was in force. But now, alas! the great knowledge of the Bards, their credit and worth, are altogether decayed and worn out; fo that they are extinguished amongst us.

The Prydyddion, or Poets, at this time, likewife are of no eftimation, for divers reafons: neither did the Bards continue their records, fince the law was extinguished by the death of the princes, whofe acts they were bound to preserve; so that there is no history written by them fince the death of Llewelyn ab Gruffyth ab Llewelyn, the laft Prince of Cambria; for, they had no princes of their own to set forth their acts, and all the worthy acts of the Welsh, fince the death of their princes, and their annexation to the crown of England, were all affumed by the English kings, under whom they ferved as fubjects: thus all the actions and deeds of the Cambrians were drowned under the English title, and fhadowed by the English banner; as Virgil faith;

"Hos ego verficulos feci, tulit alter bonores;

"Sic vos non vobis," &c.

As for the acts of fome of our countrymen, fince the reign of our princes, I will (God willing!) another time, and in another place, fet them forth. And, in respect to the language of the Britons, as that is one of the Tri Chev, and part of the antiquity of Britain, I intend to write concerning the fame, fo that it may be more eafily read and perfectly underflood. I fhall then proceed to the hiftory of the kings of Britain, and Cambria, as I have found it in some of our ancient books; one whereof I have set forth, at this time, as the foundation of a greater work hereafter, which must have its chief dependance upon this book; and therefore, before I enter upon that of antiquity, which treateth of the acts and deeds of the Kings, and Princes of Britain, and Cambria, I will begin with the foundation of grammar, and treat of the letters and characters with their true and perfect found, tone and accent thereof, as they are used in our modern language".

See p. 38 of this work: and Warrington's Hift. of Wales.
Hail, Bards triumphant, born in happ er days.

It seems probable, that the preceding account, of the three
Memorials of Britain, was written by Humffrey Lhoyd, the Welsh

Hiftorian, who flourished A. D. 1560; or, by William Salisbury,
Efq. of Cae Dû, Llanfannan, in Denbighshire, author of a Welsh
and English Dictionary, Grammar, and one of the tranflators of the
Bible into Welf; he flourished A. D. 1547.

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