Chapter 31

IN WHAT MANNER THIS NATION MAY RESIST AND REVOLT

HAVING hitherto so partially and elaborately spoken in favour of the English, and being equally connected by birth with each nation, justice demands that we should argue on both sides; let us therefore, at the close of our work, turn our attention towards the Welsh, and briefly, but effectually, instruct them in the art of resistance. If the Welsh were more commonly accustomed to the Gallic mode of arming, and depended more on steady fighting than on their agility; if their princes were unanimous and inseparable in their defence; or rather, if they had only one prince, and that a good one; this nation situated in so powerful, strong, and inaccessible a country, could hardly ever be completely overcome. If, therefore, they would be inseparable, they would become insuperable, being assisted by these three circumstances; a country well defended by nature, a people both contented and accustomed to live upon little, a community whose nobles as well as privates are instructed in the use of arms; and especially as the English fight for power, the Welsh for liberty; the one to procure gain, the other to avoid loss; the English hirelings for money, the Welsh patriots for their country. The English, I say, fight in order to expel the natural inhabitants from the island, and secure to themselves the possession of the whole; but the Welsh maintain the conflict, that they, who have so long enjoyed the sovereignty of the whole kingdom, may at least find a hiding place in the worst corner of it, amongst woods and marshes; and, banished, as it were, for their offences, may there in a state of poverty, for a limited time, perform penance for the excesses they committed in the days of their prosperity. For the perpetual remembrance of their former greatness, the recollection of their Trojan descent, and the high and continued majesty of the kingdom of Britain, may draw forth many a latent spark of animosity, and encourage the daring spirit of rebellion. Hence during the military expedition which king Henry II. made in our days against South Wales, an old Welshman at Pencadair, who had faithfully adhered to him, being desired to give his opinion about the royal army, and whether he thought that of the rebels would make resistance, and what would be the final event of this war, replied, “This nation, O king, may now, as in former times, be harassed, and in a great measure weakened and destroyed by your and other powers, and it will often prevail by its laudable exertions; but it can never be totally subdued through the wrath of man, unless the wrath of God shall concur. Nor do I think, that any other nation than this of Wales, or any other language, whatever may hereafter come to pass, shall, in the day of severe examination before the Supreme Judge, answer for this corner of the earth.”

FOOTNOTES

{155a} Port Gordber, written _Gordwr_ by Humphrey Lhwyd in his Breviary of Britain, probably a corruption from Gorddyar, a roaring, applied to the sea, as Gorddyar môr, the roaring of the sea.

{155b} The harbour, now known by the name of Portscwit, (and recorded in the Triads as one of the three passages or ferries in the Isle of Britain), is situated on the Welsh side of the Bristol channel, at a short distance from the lower passage.

{155c} Port Mawr, or the large port, is thus mentioned by Leland in his Itinerary, tom. v. pp. 28, 29:—“About a mile of is Port Mawre, where is a great sande with a shorte estuary into the lande. And sum say that there hath beene a castel at or aboute Port Mawr, but the tokens be not very evidente.”

{155d} Rhyd-helyg, or the Ford of the Willow.—I imagine this place is Walford in Herefordshire, near the banks of the river Wye.

{156} Brutus, according to the fable, in his way to Britain, met with a company of Trojans, who had fled from Troy with Antenor and Corinæus at their head, who submitted themselves to Brutus, and joined his company; which Corinæus, being a very valiant man, rendered great service to Brutus during his wars in Gaul and Britain; in return for which, Brutus, having subdued the island, and divided it amongst his people, gave Cornwall to Corinæus, who, as it is said, called it after his own name, Cernyw.

{157a} Uchelwyr, so called from _Uchel_, high, and _gwr_, a man.

{157b} This assertion is unfounded, if we give credit to the Welsh Chronicle, which dates the death of Cadell in 907, and that of Anarawdin in 913. [Howell Dda, the son of Cadell, reunited Wales under one sovereign.]

{158a} B.M.—This abbreviation, which in every manuscript I have seen of Giraldus has been construed into _Beatam Mariam_, and in many of them is written _Beatam Virginem_, may with much greater propriety be applied to _Belinus Magnus_, or Beli the Great, a distinguished British King, to whom most of the British pedigrees ascended; and because his name occurred so frequently in them it was often written short, B.M., which some men, by mistake, interpret _Beata Maria_.—(Sir R. C. H.)

{158b} Aberfraw, a small town at the conflux of the river Fraw and the sea, on the S.W. part of the isle of Anglesey, and twelve miles S.E. of Holyhead.

{159a} A great lordship in Herefordshire, including the district between Hereford and Monmouth, bordering on the river Wye.

{159b} Book ii. chapter i.

{162a} Book ii. c. 4.

{162b} If by the mountains of Eryri we are to understand the Snowdonian range of hills, our author has not been quite accurate in fixing the source of the river Dovy, which rises between Dynas-y-mowddu and Bala Lake, to the southward of Mount Arran: from whence it pursues its course to Mallwyd, and Machynlleth, below which place it becomes an estuary, and the boundary between North and South Wales.

{162c} Our author is again incorrect in stating that the river Maw forms, by its course, the two tracts of sands called Traeth Mawr and Traeth Bychan. This river, from which Barmouth derives the name of Abermaw, and to which Giraldus, in the fifth chapter of the second book of his Itinerary, has given the epithet of _bifurcus_, runs far to the southward of either of the Traeths. The Traeth Mawr, or large sands, are formed by the impetuous torrents which descend from Snowdon by Beddgelert, and pass under the Devil’s Bridge at Pont Aberglasllyn, so called from the river Glasllyn; and the Traeth Bychan, or little sands, are formed by numerous streams which unite themselves in the vale of Festiniog, and become an æstuary near the village of Maentwrog.

{165a} Better known as Geoffrey of Monmouth.

{165b} The Anglo-Saxons called the Britons _Wealhas_, from a word in their own language, which signified literally foreigners; and hence we derive the modern name Welsh.

{168} The Peak, in Derbyshire.

{169a} Sir R. C. Hoare has altogether misunderstood the original here. It was the custom in the middle ages to place the guests at table in pairs, and each two persons ate out of one plate. Each couple was a _mess_. At a later period, among the great the mess consisted of four persons; but it appears that in Wales, at this time, it was formed of three guests.

{169b} “Bread, called _Lagana_, was, I suppose, the sort of household bread, or thin cake baked on an iron plate, called a griddle (_gradell_), still common in Caermarthenshire, and called _Bara Llech_ and _Bara Llechan_, or griddle bread, from being so baked.”—Owen. “_Laganum_, a fritter or pancake, _Baranyiod_.”—_Lluyd_, _Archaiology_, p. 75.

{170} _Brychan_, in Lhuyd’s Archaiology and Cornish Grammar, is spelt Bryccan, and interpreted a blanket.

{171} “Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod cæruleum efficit colorem, atque hoc horridore sunt in pugna adspectu; capilloque sunt promisso, atque omni parte corporis rasa, præter caput et labrum superius.”—_Cæsar de Bello Gallico_, cap. 13, 14.

{172} This instrument is generally supposed to have been the origin of the violin, which was not commonly known in England till the reign of Charles I. Before this time the crwth was not probably confined to the Principality, from the name of _Crowdero_ in Hudibras; as also from a fiddler being still called a _crowder_ in some parts of England, though he now plays on a violin instead of a crwth.

{173} These Welsh lines quoted by Giraldus are selected from two different stanzas of moral verses, called Eglynion y Clywed, the composition of some anonymous bard; or probably the work of several:

“A glyweisti a gant Dywyneg, Milwr doeth detholedig; Digawn Duw da i unig?

“Hast thou heard what was sung by Dywynic? A wise and chosen warrior; God will effect solace to the orphan.

“A glyweisti a gant Anarawd? Milwr doniawg did lawd; Rhaid wrth anmhwyll pwyll parawd.

“Hast thou heard what was sung by Anarawd? A warrior endowed with many gifts; With want of sense ready wit is necessary.”

Or, as Giraldus quotes it,

“Wrth bob crybwll rhaid pwyll parawd.”

“With every hint ready wit is necessary.”

_Myvyvrian Archaiology_, page 172.

{179} Awenydhion, in a literal sense, means persons inspired by the Muse, and is derived from Awen and Awenydd, a poetical rapture, or the gift of poetry. It was the appellation of the disciples, or candidates for the Bardic Order; but the most general acceptation of the word was, Poets, or Bards.

{183} Genealogies were preserved as a principle of necessity under the ancient British constitution. A man’s pedigree was in reality his title deed, by which he claimed his birthright in the country. Every one was obliged to show his descent through nine generations, in order to be acknowledged a free native, and by this right he claimed his portion of land in the community. He was affected with respect to legal process in his collateral affinities through nine degrees. For instance, every murder committed had a fine levied on the relations of the murderer, divided into nine degrees; his brother paying the greatest, and the ninth in affinity the least. This fine was distributed in the same way among the relatives of the victim. A person past the ninth descent formed a new family. Every family was represented by its elder; and these elders from every family were delegates to the national council.—_Owen_.

{184} The _naviculæ_ mentioned by Giraldus bear the modern name of _coracles_, and are much used on the Welsh rivers for the taking of salmon. Their name is derived probably from the Celtic word _corawg_, which signifies a _ship_. They are mentioned by the ancient writers.

{197} By the city of Legions Chester is here meant, not Caerleon.

{198} Of the stones inscribed “HIC VICTOR FUIT HAROLDUS”—“HERE HAROLD CONQUERED,” no original, I believe, remains extant; but at the village of Trelech, in Monmouthshire, there is a modern pedestal bearing the above inscription.—See the description and engraving in Coxe’s Monmouthshire, p. 234.

{203} In one MS. of Giraldus in the British Museum, this name is written Ovidius.