might, on this plan, write what may be called an Etymological Dissertation on the Sciences, which would be interesting. Most of the terms in architecture, in Greek, Latin, and English, are of this nature. So, in Welsh, adail, (wattling,) clwyd and cronglwyd, ty, (tyv-tyvu,) an arbor, (growth,) llys, (growing shrubs or underwood matted together,) and many others. Mr. Edward Jones, of the Temple, can inform you of a lordship in Middlesex, where the records of its court-baron are notched in wood, like Coelbren Beirdd. y This Coelbren has taken up so much of my sheet, that I have no space left to answer your other objections to the discovery of America by Madog ab Owain Gwynedd. I must leave this to be the subject of another letter. In the mean time, I remain, &c. E. W. Ancient Peithynen, or Bardic Book, to which the above Letter refers. LINES TO GWENDDOLAU. I CANNOT Count the sunbeams bright, Or the virtues soft in thy heart that dwell: And the lightning of wit, with its playful guile, Thou art a Peri! sent to prove G. WINTER EVENINGS, BY A YOUNG LADY OF CARNARVON. LONG evenings! what do you call to mind, Nor the warbled music from ancient groves, MONUMENTS OF DR. JOHN DAVIES, THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. AND THE REV. PETER ROBERTS. To the Editors of the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine. GENTLEMEN, PRESUMING that the monumental inscriptions of persons who have devoted their talents to the cultivation of Welsh literature might not be deemed uninteresting, I send you the following. The first, to the memory of Dr. Davies, was formerly in Mallwyd church, but is now obliterated; the other two I personally copied from the originals. GWENFFRWD. JOHANNES DAVIES, S.T.D. Rector Ecclesiæ Parochialis de Mallwyd, Et sepultus fuit 19. A.D. 1644, in virtutis, On an elegant marble in Whitford church: This monument is erected rather as a token of filial piety, than with a design of adding duration to the memory of THOMAS PENNANT. His active benevolence and private virtues will ensure him a more lasting remembrance in this neighbourhood. His literary labours will obtain him immortality among those who, by a On a tablet in Halkin church, to the memory of the late Rev. Peter Roberts, author of the "Popular Antiquities," "History of the Cymry," &c. : PETRUS ROBERTS, Hujus ecclesiæ Parochialis Rector Natus apud Ruabon in agro Denbighensi Poesi, musica Gentis Cambro Britanæ instructissimus, Multa ad haec omnia spectantia Vel oblita vel minus intellecta, explicuit: Decess an Salut. Human MDCCCXIX. ætat. LX. EPITAPH. THE following beautiful tribute appears in the Welsh language on a neat stone, placed by a lady over the remains of her nurse, in a churchyard in Montgomeryshire: NO. V. Buaist, Fam i mi yn foreu, Maethaist fi â'th gariad goreu; TRANSLATION. Nurse, mother of my infant days, LLWYD. B HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE GAULS AND OF THE ARMORICANS; BY DAN. L. MIORCEC DE KERDANET, Docteur en Droit, Avocat à la Cour, &c. Corresponding Member of the Royal Cambrian Institution. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY DAVID LEWIS, Editor of the Cymrodorion Transactions. [Continued from Vol. I. p. 106] Eighth Century. AT length the Celtic language became extinct in Gaul, and from that time is found only in the heart of Armorica, though we still perceive some feeble traces of its existence in the ancient namnes of places, and in some expressions of the French language. In the island of Britain, where several languages were spoken, the Ancient British was only known in Wales and Cornwall; the venerable Bede says, that the languages made use of in his time, in the other divisions of that island, were the Pictish, Scotch, and English, or rather the Anglo-Saxon. That historian mentions in another part of his works, that the sons of an ancient king of the island being converted to the Christain faith, complained in Ancient British that they did not receive panum nitidum, (bara-can,) thus designating the holy sacrament. Brut y Brenhinoedd, an Ancient British chronicle, in four books, appeared about the year 735; and in 1138, Geoffry of Monmouth translated it from the Welsh into Latin. "This ancient manuscript," says he, "which I have translated from the Ancient British into Latin, was brought to me from Lower Brittany, by Walter, archdeacon of Oxford;" and in another place he imperiously adds, "I permit my contemporary, Caradoc, to treat of the princes of Cornwall and Wales from the time the English rendered themselves masters of our island. Let William of Malmesbury, and Henry of Huntingdon, write, as long as they please, the history of those Saxon and English kings; but I forbid them to meddle with any anterior epochs, I impose silence on them, for they have not been fortunate enough to see this valuable Armorican manuscript." It is from this rare original that Geoffry has derived the wonders he relates respecting the origin of the British nation, which he traces even from the ashes of Ancient Troy. According to him, or rather according to the chronicle, the first Britons were of Trojan origin. Brutus, having killed his father, was banished from Italy, passed into Greece, and there collecting the wrecks of the Trojan nation, placed himself at their head, and defeated the king of the country. He afterwards equipped vessels, in which he sailed to Gaul, where he was again victorious; his nephew Turnus, with his own hand, killed 600 Gauls; every thing gave way before the Trojans; but as their destiny summoned them to Albion, these heroes embarked, and arrived without accident in the island which, from Brutus, took the name of Brutain, or Britain, then inhabited by enormous giants, commanded by Goémagot, who was twelve feet high, and so strong, that he could, without difficulty, tear up by their roots the largest trees, and use them as clubs. These monsters Brutus defeated, and destroyed the greater part of them. Corineus, a Trojan, the first prince of Cornwall, challenged Goémagot to wrestle, when the giant seized and pressed him with such force, that he broke three of his ribs;* but Corineus, undismayed, grasped the giant, threw him over his shoulders, and, in spite of his resistance, cast him into the sea, where he perished. Our historian afterwards proceeds through the reigns of the successors of Brutus, who all proved themselves worthy of their august origin, for we continually read of heroes, enchanted arms, and vanquished giants. His narration commences A.M. 2872, and terminates with the reign of Cadwalader, about A.D. 682 or 689; yet notwithstanding this prodigious space of time, the historian marches without a guide through this obscure and tortuous labyrinth, with the confidence of a person to whom they were familiar. About the year 768 or 771, an anonymous monk wrote, in Breton verse, the life of St. Guenolé, first abbot of Landévénec, in Cornwall. The reason that induces us to believe this legend to be really of the above date is the circumstance of Charlemagne being mentioned in it as a prince who had recently ascended the throne; and it besides contains a number of Breton words which are now inexplicable. The learned Benedictine D. Pelletier had in his possession three copies of this legend. In 778, Arastagne, king of Armorica, and Hoel, count of Nantes, accompanied Charlemagne in his wars against the Saracens, where they rendered themselves so conspicuous by their heroic achievements, that they were celebrated together in the same songs. "Their glorious deeds were sung by the Breton troubadours, whose songs were much esteemed by the seigneurs, who took pride in repeating them to their families assembled in their castles during the long winter evenings." Arastagne and Hoel fell at the battle of Roncevalles, by the side of the brave Roland. This establishes a very dignified pedigree for the "Cornish hug." |