language, which would have greatly tended to elucidate Camden's Bri tannia, had he been more acquainted with our Welsh antiquities. These oracular memorials appear to have been a part of those Oral Traditions which anciently were recited by the Bards, at the public Gorseddau, Tribunals, or provincial Congresses: "But heed, ye Bards, that for the sign of onset Which custom, of celebrating the worthiest heroes, &c. has been handed down to us from the remotest time; and when writing be came more general, these traditional verses were committed to writing by the succeeding Bards, and others. Memorials of the Tombs of the Warriors.' The Tomb of TUDAIN, FATHER OF THE MUSE, The wave breaks on the territory of IoLo; The The grave of GWYDION, the son of Dos, He whose grave is in MAES MAWR, Proud was his hand in grasping the wrathful blade; To whom belongs the square grave, With the four stately stones on its corners ? The grave of ALUN of DEMETIA, is at TREVRED; The son of MEIGEN, his birth was a blessing. The three graves on the heights of CELVI, The Awen tells me, are the tombs Of CYNON with the rough eye-brows; The tomb of CYNVAEL; and the tomb of CYNVELI. After wounds and bloody tumults; And after arraying the squadrons of white steeds: The grave of a beautiful Warrior, by whose hand He He whose grave is on yonder cliff; TARW TRIN; (the bull of conflict:) mercy be to him! The grave on LLETHR Y BRYN, Many that do not know, ask to whom it belongs: Is in the HIGH TYDDYN ; Low is his dank bed: 'Tis the grave of CYNON, son of CLYDNO EIDDYN ! Yonder grave, on the mountain's brow, Is his who led the armies to glory: The tomb of Hyrmael the generous, son of Hywlydd. The grave of Elidyr, the courteous, Magnificent in prosperity; the Chieftain Of Gwenevwr, with glory crowned, the mighty hero of the shout. The tomb of Owain, the son of Urien, is girted with Four stones, at Llan-Morvael : And in Abererch lies Rhydderch the Generous. The grave of the horse; and that the Hero's grave: The grave of Gwalchmai, in Peryddon, Where flows, by intervals, every ninth wave- Hear, yon wave of heavy murmur, dashing on The tomb of An ap Llian, in the mountain of Euas. Had for chief Diviner, Merddin Emrais.' It may be collected from the song addressed to Gwalog, or Galgacus, that it was composed at a subsequent period: but we should have been glad if our Bard had informed us where he procured it, and if he had attempted to ascertain the scenes of the battles mentioned in it. In the specimens of the poetry of the middle period, we do not see that culture has made any great progress. In order to admire these poems, however, the reader must be born in the principality, and understand the language; then, no doubt, he would discover that there is in the very words, and in the metrical niceties, a charm which warrants the praises of Mr. Jones. REV. JAN. 1803. We cannot except from this character the compositions of Hywel, son of Owen Prince of Gwynedd. We know not whether the present agrees with the antient bard, in the preference which he gives to his own country over England, as appears in the commencement of one of his poems, here thus translated: Fair foam-crown'd wave, spraying over the sacred tomb of Rhuvon the Brave, the chief of princes, behold this day. I hate England, a flat and unenergetic land, with a race involved in every wile. I love the spot that gave me the much desired gift of mead, where the seas extend in tedious conflict; I love the society, and numerous inhabitants therein, who, obedient to their Lord, direct their views to peace; I love its sea coast, and its mountains, its city bordering on its forest, its fair landscape, its dales, its waters, and its vales; its white sea-mews, and its beauteous women. I love its warriors, and its well-trained steeds; i's woods, its strong holds, and its social domicil. I love its fields, clothed with tender trefoils, where I had the glory of a mighty triumph. I love its cultivated regions, the prerogative of heroism; and its far-extended wild; and its sports of the chase, which; Son of God! have been great and wonderful. How sleek the melodious deer, and in what plenty found!' The easy flow, the playful turn, the elegance, and the poetic spirit, which distinguish the compositions of David ap Gwylim, are striking. He flourished about the end of the middle period, and he appears to be the first pride of the British muse. If he lives not to fame, it was not because he wanted genius, or the refinement and culture requisite in the walk of poetry which he chose, but because he wrote in a language which was approaching to the period of its extinction; and which, containing few compositions of great interest, (with the exception. of his own,) would never become the object of the study of the learned. His poems on the fair Morvadd should never be compared to the sonnets of Petrarch; though they far excel the latter in ease, exhibit more true taste, and are more within nature. David was a fine genius, who owed little to letters; while the superior learning of the Italian proved injurious to his compositions. Whether the love of the swain of Avignon was real may well be doubted, but events proved that the passion of the British Bard was not feigned. His Morvudd was the theme of one hundred and forty-seven of his poems; yet he was unsuccessful; for her father married her to a hunchbacked old man, who had more wealth than the man of song. But he contrived to carry her off twice from her husband, which brought him into much trouble.' We were surprized to find this Bard's religious poems so rational, and displaying so little of the Romish superstition: no saint is addressed; and the blessed Virgin, though often Among the Philosophical Observations, Precepts, and A woman's strength is in her tongue.' The wholesomest flesh of wild beasts, is the Roe-Buck. Of wild fowls, the Partridge. Of tame fowls, the Hen. Of sea fish, the Flounder, or flat fish. Of fresh-water fish, the Trout.' Wheat, Beas, and Acorns. Three things the miser gets for his riches; pains in heaping; anxiety in keeping; and sorrow in losing. The three delays on the highway: A nut; a fair maid; and a squirrel.' No speed, without a steed. No valour equal to man's. No glutton equal to the cormorant. No herbalist equal to the goat. } Nothing so tractable and stately as the steed. No melody so pleasant as the nightingale's. No ravage equal to that of fire. No obstruction equal to that of water. No lightness equal to air. No weight equal to earth. No infinity equal to nothing. Nothing good, but God.' This volume is decorated by a frontispiece representing a blind Welsh harper playing to some peasants, and is concluded by 52 pages of engraved music. Jo. G. 2. [68] ART. XII. The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester. By John Nichols, F.S.A. Edin. & Perth. Vol. III. Part I. Con taining East Goscote Hundred. Folio. pp. 560. 21. 12s. 6d. Boards. Nichols. W E announced the former vols. of Mr. Nichols's History of Leicestershire in M. R. vols. xxi. and xxxii. N. S. and, are now required to attend to the first part of vol. 3. which of itself makes a very handsome folio, as the price and number of pages sufficiently indicate. In a long advertisement is found a list of queries, 74 in number, formerly addressed to the Nobility, Gentry, and Clergy, by Mr. Nichols, the perusal of which will give the reader a complete idea of the various materials of which a county history is composed. It contains also an account of the forces of the county, as they stood in the year 1628, and concludes with Burton's valediction to the reader in 1641; part of which, as containing an antiquary's vindication of the study of antiquities in general, and of those belonging to the several districts of our country in particular, we shall transcribe: "Some first strike at the main, holding it unfit that a book of this nature should come in publick. What their reasons should be I never yet could learn. For myself, I was altogether unwilling to the setting it forth; not for the matter or subject, but for my own insufficiency, it requiring a more judicious head. But that it is fit that a work of this kind should be published, I must needs assent thereto, and truly say, that if all the shires were illustrated in the same manner, much light and benefit would arise thereby. They perhaps distaste that truth should be discovered; sed magna est veritas, et pravalet. "In discovering of titles and tenures, I have been exceeding wary not to prejudice any in the least degree; and for those few genealogies inserted, I have ascended no higher than might stand with truth; neither have I endeavoured to wrench or screw any into a family but what were justly issuant. "And what I have spoken of any, I have related it sincerely; imitating therein Leandro Alberto in his Description of Italy, Mr. Lambarde, Mr Camden, Mr. Carew, and others; not with an intention of soothing or fawning, for I ever hated base and servile flattery; neither have I any such cause, for that I have means sufficient to my own content; neither have I any relation or dependency upon any -I am free. But sith their humour is to live in obscurity and blindness, let them nuzzle themselves still in their own ignorance, die in darkness, be buried in forgetfulness, and receive that doom which Henry of Huntingdon imposeth upon their like, which hereafter followeth. "Next I have been taxed, for that, having taken upon me the profession of another study, learned and profitable, I have yet addicted myself to the study of Antiquities, terming it an over-curious search 1 |