nugatory-The clergy, armed with this new power, did not long fuffer the statute to continue a dead letter, for Thorpe was tried within five years' of it's paffing, and the archbishop of Canterbury, and the chaplains and clergy which attended him, conceived that they had now not only authority to burn, but to drown [i]; and this mode of punishment was abfolutely advised by the archbishop. State Trials, vol. i. p. 36.

In confirmation of what I have here advanced, the writ which iffued for the burning William Sawtree, who was the firft that fuffered for herefy, makes no mention of its being agreeable to the antient law [k]; whereas, in the time of James the First, this is added to the writ, and this poffibly may have contributed to the opinion that such a punishment had been fo long known in this country.

How happy is the fituation of an Englishman at present, that he can confider this terrible process as a matter of speculation, and calmly amuse himself with it as a common point of learning, or antiquity!-The thundercloud is now removed to a fafe diftance, and becomes a matter of dif quifition and curiofity mixed with a pleasing terror.

[i] In the Appendix to the State Trials, there is the form of an indictment for this offence in Southwark, which makes it moft infinitely ridiculous.

[k] There is a writ in Rymer of the year 1410, and the eleventh of Henry the Fourth, which recites the punishment of burning a heretic to be agreeable to the antient canon law: but this could not become the law of England till the present statute had adopted it.

SATUTES

STATUTES MADE AT WESTMINSTER.

T

HESE ftatutes, which amount to the number of thirty-five

chapters, relate to very mifcellaneous matters-The 2d chapter, after reciting les entiers coers et les grandes naturesses, which the clergy of England had born to the king, confirms all their rights and privileges; but at the fame time directs, that the words infidiatores viarum et depopulatores agrorum (inferted in the petition of the clergy preferred to the king in this parliament) fhould not henceforward be used in any indictment-And particularly, that if any clerk is fo indicted, he shall be immediately entitled to the benefit of clergy-This part of the statute would be abfolutely unintelligible, was it not for the explanation which Sir Edward Coke hath given us in the 2d Inft. p. 41. infidiatores viarum were heretics, who pafted up their notions, and doctrines in the highways; and Depopulatores agrorum were those who fuffered the parfonage glebe to continue unimproved, and the parfonage houses to go to ruin and decay, this being fuppofed to tend to the depopulation of the country.

I should, from this explanation of the words by Sir Edward Coke, fuppofe, that the new reformers, being perfecuted by the regular clergy, had not rested merely on the defenfive, but had prosecuted, in their turns, their perfecutors by indictments at common law--The clergy attacked the reformers as infidiatores viarum, and the reformers carried on counterindictments against the clergy as depopulatores agrorum, who fuffered their. parfonage houses to decay-This, at least, is the only light that I can pretend to throw upon this very obfcure law.

The 11th chapter recites the great decrease of fish in the Thames (and other rivers) by feeding hogs with the fry caught at the wears; which seems to be a very fingular recital: but there is an Irish statute of Charles the First, which does not permit any hogs to be kept near the sea coast, because they are faid to deflroy the Spawn; which is much more probable than that they should be capable of getting at the fish themselves-Be this as it may, the fry of the Thames is destroyed at present to make artificial pearls with the scales; and perhaps it is better that the fifh fhould decrease than that we should lose so valuable a manufacture-It is indeed very doubtful whe

ther

ther any regulation for preserving fish, or any of the game laws, tend in reality to the increase of either fish or fowl-And it is remarkable, that in Cornwall, where the game laws are not put in execution, they have more partridges than perhaps any other county of England-The latest ftatute, however, with relation to the game, should be most strictly observed, as it preferves the farmer's grain from trefpaffes till the harvest is over.

This collection of ftatutes clofes with fome very fevere laws against the Welsh [7], which were occafioned firft by Richard the Second's being well received in Wales on his last return from Ireland [m], and now by the rebellion of Owen Glendower.

From the noble and most truly poetical ode, which was occafioned by the maffacre of the Bards under Edward the First, it hath been generally conceived, that these laws of rigour were preceded by others ftill more rigorous during that king's reign-I have already had occafion to make fome remarks on the ftatute of Roteland (or more properly Ruydland) in the eleventh year of Edward the First, which was immediately after the conquest of Wales, and by which nothing more feems intended, than to make a thorough union both of laws and of people I do not mean by this to affert, that no feverity was used by the conqueror of WalesLewellin, their laft prince, complains of the English oppreffion in the moft feeling manner-" Nam nos adeò fpoliati eramus, immò in fervitutem redacti per jufticiarios, & ballivos regis, amplius quam fi Sara"ceni effemus, vel Judæi-Denunciavimus domino regi, fed femper mit"tebantur jufticiarii & ballivi ferociores, et crudeliores, et quando illi "faturati erant per injuftas exactiones, alii de novo mittebantur ad po

pulum excoriandum, in tantum quod Wallenfis malebat`mori, quam "vivere [n]."- Befides this proof of oppreffion, a manufcript history, written by Sir John Wynne of Gwydir [0], authorises the supposed tradition of a maffacre of the Bards; nor could the writer of that most admirable ode have made his bard fo warmly exprefs, or his reader feel, the tyranny of Edward, if he had not probably raised an indignation and fire in his own breast by reading of other materials, which I have not happened to

[] The English at this time held the Welsh in great contempt-The bishop of St. Asaph had in this parliament advised the lords not to irritate them too much; who made answer, Se de illis fcurris nudipedibus non curare. Lel. Collect. vol. ii. p. 31.

[m] See a collection of antient pieces touching Ireland, printed at Dublin in 1757; and amongst thefe, the ftory of Richard the Second being laft in Ireland, written by a French gentleman, who accompanied him in that voyage, and tranflated by Sir Geo. Carew.

[x] Appendix to Wynne's hiftory of Wales.

[o] Evans's fpecimens of Welsh poetry, 1764-There is an account of a voyage to Spain, by this Sir John Wynne, printed after one of Hearne's Collectanea-He was to attend on Charles the First whilst in Spain, and failed from Plymouth to the Groyne.

2

meet

meet with-I would only say, that we have no proof of oppreffion to the Welsh in our statute [p] books till the prefent laws.

The 27th chapter directs, that there fhall be no weftours, rymours, miniftral, ou autre vagabonde, par faire kymortha, ou coilage-which, as it hath not been tranflated, I fhall render waster, rhymer, minstrel, or other vagabond, to make affemblies or collections-As for the word kymortha, it is plainly a Welsh word, but improperly fpelt, as there is no fuch letter as k in the Welsh language--The common gloffaries take no notice of this word, and I have therefore looked into Dr. Davis's dictionary, who gives as the nearest word to it cymmod, which he renders cohabitatio; and, as I appre hend the word cymmod is pronounced cummoth, it comes pretty near to the word kymorthas; and which being Welfh, it is not to be fuppofed that it should have been either pronounced or fpelt with any accuracy, as there were at this time no representatives for Wales in the English parliament.

It appears by the laws of Hoel Dda, that there were good political rea. fons for abolishing the Welsh bards and harpies, as they were the Tyrtæus's upon every expedition against the English: "Quandocunque muficus "aulicus iverit ad prædam cum domefticis, fi illis præcinuerit, habebit juvencum de prædâ optimum ; & fi acies fit instructa ad prælium, præ"cinat illis canticum vocatum unbenjaeth Prydain (five Monarchia Bri"tannica) [s]."

And again" Quando cantica requiruntur, muficus, cui jus cathedræ "competit; Dei laudes primo decantabit, & deinde regis in cujus palatio "fuerit.”

[] There are some statutes of the second year of this king with regard to the Welsh, but they cannot be confidered as laws of extraordinary rigour.

[9] For the fignification of the word minstrel, fee the introduction to the collection of old fongs, published by the ingenious Mr. Percy, 1765-See alfo a note on the 13th of Rich. II. [r] I take this regulation to explain an antient law in Lindenbrogue: Qui harpatorem (qui cum circulo harpare poteft) in manum percufferit, componat illum quarta parte majori compofitione, quàm alteri ejufdem conditionis homini, inter leges Anglorum & Werinorum-The harper" qui cum circulo harpare poteft," I should imagine to fignify in this barbarous Latin, he who can play to a number of people standing round the harp in a circle, as the Welsh often do to this day, making extemporary ftanzas to the tune which is played.

[] The notes to Hoel Ddha's laws give us no light with regard to this antient British fongnor have the modern Welsh harpers any tradition of a tune fo entitled-The most antient and best tune, which they have still retained, is called Morfa Rhuydland or Rhydland, where the Welsh received a great defeat-The melody is plaintive and good-The kings of England had formerly both harpers and bagpipers in their band of mufic, and with a falary of 18. per ann. in the first year of queen Mary. The two harpers, muficians to queen Mary, were neither of them (as far as can be collected for their names) Welshmen, nor was the bagpiper a Scotfinan. Gg The

The army being preceded at its onfet by a bard, or finger of a particular fong, is not peculiar to the Welsh-Voltaire gives us the following account of a battle by the Normans :

"Les anciennes chroniques nous apprennent, qu'en premier rang de "l'armée Normande, un ecuyer nommé Taillefer monté fur un cheval "armé, chanta la chanson de Roland, qui fut fi long tems dans les bouches "des François, fans qu'il en foit refté le moindre fragment-Le Taillefer [t] apres avoir entonné la chanfon que les foldats repetoient fe jetta "le premier parmi les Anglois, & fut tué." Voltaire's Add. Hift. Univerf. p. 69.-We likewise find, that amongst the northern nations, the Scaldi or Bards were to advance before any other part of the army-Perhaps the fong of Britons, ftrike Home might have its effect in animating a modern army, if the noise of artillery and fire-arms would not foon drown all inferior fhouts.

Bishop Nicholson, in the appendix to his Historical library, hath given us fome curious particulars with regard to the Irish bards, whom he reprefents to have obtained great part of their lord's lands, and who were likewife, upon all occafions, very tumultuous and disorderly-Baron Finglass, who wrote in the time of Henry the Eighth a Breviate of Ireland [u], propofes not only fevere regulations against rhymers and minstrels, but also against the shamnabs, who, it seems, were the Irish genealogifts-Hollinshed, in his Chronicle, likewise informs us, that the Irish bard (if he was not well paid for his panegyric) turned libeller immediately; and if his audience were not attentive to his mufic and poetry, that he commanded filence in the most imperious manner.

Notwithstanding thefe ftatutes of Henry the Fourth [w], the bards and musicians continued in Wales, and had regular degrees and rank in their science or profeffion, as we find by a very curious commiffion of queen Elizabeth, which is prefixed to a collection of Welsh poems, published by the Rev. Mr. Evan Evans in 1764 [x].-This commiffion directs thofe, who are not real bards and muficians, to be treated as vagabonds-And

[] This fame Taillefer we have an account of likewise in the Romaunt of the Rofe,

"Taillefer qui moult bien chantoit,

"Sus un cheval qui toft alloit,

"Devant eus alloit chantant,

"De l'Allemagne, et de Rollant,

"D'Oliver et des vaffaux,

"Qui morurent en Rainfchevaux."

[] Amongst the pieces touching Ireland, published at Dublin, 1757.

[w] By the laws of Macbeth, a minstrel is to draw the plough instead of the ox. [] Printed for Dodsley, 4to.

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