been invented but by some of that great Cimmerian family from whom Britain was afterwards colonised. Accordingly we are told in a Triad that the denominators were "y gal gre," probably the people of Gallo-Græcia, or it may be, more generally, the Gallic horde."

When the aboriginal colony first took possession of the island, they found in it an extraordinary quantity of honey,' which in their own language was called mel, and from that circumstance they styled it "Y vel Ynys," i. e. the Honey Isle. Such is the statement of the national memorials, and it is wonderfully confirmed by the testimony of Himilco, a Carthaginian general, who, as Festus Avienus relates, referred in his journal to the British isles under the name of Estrymnides. This appellation has been taken by some writers, absurdly enough, to mean the isle of gadflies; but as Pliny states the œstrus to be the Apes grandiores, Estrymnides must surely mean the isle of bees. Nor is there any difficulty presented in the chronology. Himilco's voyage to the Estrymnides, though not easily determined, and sometimes placed as late as 420 B.C., is generally placed as far back as 1000 before the Christian era; and the final abandonment of the name "Y vel Ynys," after having existed for upwards of 1000 years, occurred, according to the bardic computation, about 600 years before the incarnation. There is no doubt that honey was abundant in this country in former times, for we find throughout our early records that the favourite beverage of the natives was made out of it, and even such words as cyveddach and meddwdod (revelling and drunkenness) seem to have originated in medd (mead). The following

4 Sub voce Prydain.

5 This cannot refer to the colony which settled there under Brennus, B.C. 278, but must mean the earlier inhabitants, the compiler designating their country by the name it generally bore in his own time. 6 Gre, several together, a flock, a herd. 7 Iolo MSS. p. 1. 8 Celtic Researches, p. 228. From Bochart's Canaan, lib. i. c. 35, 39.

9 Iolo MSS. p. 412. According to another chronicle, p. 429, 849

years.

notice which occurs in the Welsh Laws shows that bees were regarded by our ancestors, in later times at least, with a sort of religious veneration :

"Bees derive their origin from Paradise, and because of the sin of man did they come from thence, and God conferred on them his blessing, and therefore mass cannot be chanted without their wax."1

But some persons, though they do not dispute the application of the name, give it however a different interpretation, taking it to signify the isle of Bel. This hypothesis they ground upon the alleged enumeration of Bel or Baal among the British gods. There is no doubt that the worship of Bel was at one time practised in Britain, but it may be questioned whether it was of indigenous growth, or carried to any considerable extent. The national traditions, while they admit that the Cymry did in the earliest period of their historical existence, fall into idolatry, maintain that they afterwards recovered a knowledge of the true God3 and embodied it into their theological code as one of the fundamental doctrines of druidism:

"There are three primeval Unities, and more than one of each cannot exist: ONE GOD, one Truth, and one point of Liberty; and this is where all opposites equiponderate.'

They assert, moreover, that the Irish, the Cymry of Armorica, and the Germans "corrupted what was taught them of the British bardism, blending with it heterogeneous principles, by which means they lost it," a statement which is partly confirmed by the testimony of Julius Cæsar, where he says that druidism originated in Britain, and that the Gauls who wished to gain a perfect knowledge of its principles, resorted thither for the purpose.6 Now it is remarkable that the several altars dedicated

1 Leges Wallicæ, lib. iii. c. v. sec. 10.

2 See ancient documents cited in Coelbren y Beirdd, by Taliesin ab Iolo. 3 Iolo MSS. p. 425.

4 Theological Triads apud E. Williams' Poems, vol. ii. p. 227. 5 Institutional Triads, ibid. p. 230.

6 De Bell. Gall. vi. 13.

to BELI DUW CADWYR, "Beli, the god of warriors," which were dug up in the last century, were found almost exclusively in the territory of the Brigantes, a tribe which, though originally of the Cimbric stock, appears to have been of a comparatively late importation, and closely connected with the Irish nation. At any rate it was, in the time of Claudius, a stranger to that patriotism which always distinguished the Cymry, otherwise its queen would not have betrayed the Silurian hero into the hands of his enemies.

The Brigantes, under the influence of a corrupt theology which they had probably learned previous to their immigration into this country, might have misunderstood the attention paid by the Cymry to solar aspects in the erection of their circles, and the holding of their congresses for divine adoration, even as the Cymry themselves had formerly regarded as gods the rods of science which bore only the name of the deity," and thus adopted the worship of Bel, as being, in their opinion, the national religion. Or, indeed, it might have been the Romans that committed the mistake in this instance, for it is remarkable that the inscriptions on the altars clearly prove, as far as they go, that they were the oblations of of that people exclusively. No monumental vestige of idolatry has yet been discovered among the Cymry proper.

Ynys Bell, the distant isle, would not be an inapt designation of Britain considered externally, but the description of course fails when it comes from the mouths of occupants, and it was after it was colonised, we are told, it received the name of "Ynys Vel."

There is a fragment of a poem, apparently of the age of Beli Mawr, father of Cassivelaunus, from which we learn that the island was even then occasionally designated by the title of "Ynys Vel;" it is printed in the Myvyrian Archaiology, vol i. p. 73, and is as follows:

7 Coelbren y Beirdd.

8 E. g. DEO MARTI BELATVCADRO Romanus votum reddidit, inscribed on an altar which was discovered at Netherby, in

"I will earnestly sing thy praise,
Victorious Beli,

Who protectest the privileges
Of the Honey Isle of Beli."

This however continued as its sole appellation for 849 years, or according to another chronology for 1063 years, that is until the time of Prydain ab Aedd Mawr, from whom, in consequence of the political revolution which he effected, it received the name of "Ynys Prydain," which it still bears.

The name Prydain, Anglicè Britain, through ignorance of this simple tradition, has been much discussed, and traced to various sources. Thus, some historians derive it from the Welsh "Pryd cain," fair aspect; or, “Bri ton," above the wave; some from the Irish "Braidin," an extensive country; some from the Hebrew "Berithtan," separate country; some from the Phoenician “Baratanac," the land of tin; some from the Latin "Brutus," and indeed in support of this last name a Triad may be adduced, which says,

"After it was conquered by Brutus, it was called the isle of Brutus."9

As this statement, however, runs counter to all the bardic traditions on the subject, it may safely be regarded as a forgery, having been perpetrated by some scribe of the Armorican or Mabinogion school.

Prydain flourished, according to the bardic computation, 605 years before Beli Mawr. It was he who first consolidated the several states of Britain under one sovereign, on which account he was ranked as one of the three national pillars of the island. And not only was the country called after his name, but, in after times, the old British constitution became distinguished as the regulation of Prydain.

JOHN WILLIAMS ab Ithel.

9 Triad i. First Series.

STOKESAY.

THE following paper on the history of Stokesay has been kindly furnished by Mrs. Stackhouse Acton. The paper as sent to us comprised also an architectural description, but as that has been fully given, with illustrations, by Mr. Hudson Turner in his recent work on Domestic Architecture, it has been omitted here:

At the time of the Norman conquest, the manor of Stoke was held by Ældred, a freeman, under Edric Pylvaticus, a powerful Saxon Thane; but on Edric joining in a revolt of the Welsh, his estates were seized by the king, and in 1070 the earldom of Shrewsbury, with 357 manors in Shropshire, were conferred by the Conqueror on his kinsman Roger de Montgomery.

Among them was Stoke, which Earl Roger granted with twenty-two others to Walter de Lacy, one of his Norman followers. It is stated in the Domesday Survey to have contained fourteen carucates of land in cultivation, (of which five were demesnes,) and 960 of waste, twenty vileins, nine fœmina cotarensis, a mill paying nine measures of wheat, a miller, and a keeper of bees.

After the death of Roger de Montgomery, and of his eldest son, his estates were forfeited, and Stoke again fell to the crown, in consequence of Robert de Belesme, the younger son, having espoused the cause of Robert Duke of Normandy in his attempt to obtain the English throne. The greater part of his Norman followers returned to their own country; but Walter de Lacy having speedily resumed his allegiance, obtained a pardon and was allowed to hold Stoke and other estates from the king in capite.

During the tenure of the Lacys, it was bestowed by them as superior lords on a branch of the family of Say, Lord of Clun and Richard's Castle, of whom Theoderic de Say, in 1156, gave the advowson of Stokesay (the first time so called) to the abbey of Haughmond, confirmed by Hugh de Laci as chief lord, and he also gave some land at Stoke to the abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul at Shrewsbury.

Though the name of Say has been retained, the manor does not appear to have been long held by that family, for it had reverted to the Lacys before the accession of Henry III., and continued in their holding during several generations, till on the death of Walter de Laci in 1240, his estates were divided between two grand-daughters; Margery, the youngest, married John de Verdon, and received Stoke as a part of her portion.