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The History of Wales, in Nine Books, with an Appendix. By the Rev. William Warring ton. 4to, Il. Is. London, J. Johnson. 1786, [Concluded from page *160. ]

TWales, from the death of Gryffydh ap

"HE fixth book contains the History of the prifoners and other fpoils they had taken in the country."

Cynan to the acceffion of Llewellyn ap Jorwerth. Upon the death of the former, his eldest fon Owen, furnamed Gwynedh, under the newly-adopted title of prince, fuccceded as fovereign of North Wales.

A feries of profperity had of late attended the Welsh princes, which might in fome measure be attributed to the embarrassed fituation of Stephen, king of England, who, engaged in fupporting a doubtful title, had neither inclination nor leifure to attend to affairs in which he was not immediately concerned, and which were carried on in fo remote a part of the island. He therefore concluded a peace with the Welsh, and allowed them to retain the territories they had lately recovered, free from homage or tribute.

Our author obferves, that the annals of Wales are disfigured for fome years by dreadfui fcenes of favage manners; parents, children, and brothers engaging in unnatural contefts, which generally proved fatal to the parties concerned, and nearly involved the State in the fame ruin. The following is a ftriking inftance of it.

"Annarawd, the son of Gryffydh ap Rhys, had married the daughter of Cadwallader, the brother of Owen, prince of North Wales.-A violent difpute having arisen between the father and the fon-in-law, they decided the contest, by fingle combat. In this encounter, the latter prince was flain. Owen was fo incenfed at this action of his brother, that he invaded his territories, fet fire to his castle of Aberystwyth, laid waste the country, and obliged him to fly to Ireland; where foon engaging in his service some chieftains, and a large body of forces, he landed at Ahermenai in Caernarvonshire. Owen opposed this invafon with a powerful army, but, before any action had taken place, a peace was concluded between the brothers; which so incenfed the Irish that they detained Cadwallader as a fecurity till they had received their stipulated pay, who, to recover his liberty, gave them 1000 head of cattle. As foon as the Prince of Wales heard that his brother was at liberty, he fuddenly attacked the Irish, flew great numbers of them, and recovered the cattle which had been given by Cadwallader, with

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Another cruel measure characterises the barbarous manners of the Welsh about this period. Their princes too frequently adopted the custom of Afiatic fovereigns, of exterminating the younger branches of their family. "Cadwallon, the brother of Owen, having been affaffinated, left a fon of the name of Cynetha, the undoubted heir to his territories. To render his nephew incapable of afferting his rights, Owen had the barba rity not only to put out his eyes, but, refining on a favage and deteftable policy, caused him to be caftrated, that no heirs in future might lay claim to his territories, or retaliate the injuries he had received. An action, fays Mr. Warrington, so atrocious, as not even to be extenuated by the rudeness of the times, and which throws a deep shade over the character of a prince, in other respects a friend to his country, and of an amiable and gallant spirit."

In the year 1157, Henry king of England, by the wife measure of having a fleet on the coaft of Wales, a fecond time reduced the Welsh nation to a dependance on the crown of England. The long and gallant refiftance however which this people made for freedom, against a power so very unequal, muft excite our admiration and wonder; nor is it lefs surprising, that a nation like the English, fo much farther advanced in political wisdom, fhould not have been able to terminate the conteft fooner.

To Owen Gwynedh, after a reign of 32 years, fucceeded his fon David, "During this period, Madoc, another fon of the late prince, feeing the contention which agitated the fiery fpirits of his brothers, with a courage equal to theirs, but far more liberally directed, gave himself up to the danger and uncertainty of feas hitherto unexplored. He is faid to have embarked with a few thips. Sailing weft, and leaving Ireland to the north, he traversed the ocean till he arrived by accident upon the coaft of America. Pleafed with its appear. ance, he left there a great part of his people, and returning for a fresh fupply, was joined by many adventurers, both men and women; who, encouraged by a flattering defcription of that country, and fick of the diforders

This discovery rests on no better foundation than what may be gathered from the Poems of Meredyh-ap-Rhys, who flourished in 1473, of Gutwin Owen, in 1480, and Cynfrig-ap. Gronw, near the fame period. Thefe bards preceded the Expedition of Columbus; and relate or allude to that of Madoc, as an event well known, and univerfally received to have happened 300 years before.- —See Jones's Musical Relics of the Welsh Bards, p. 19. EUROP. MAG. x x

which

which reigned in their own, were defirons o feeking an afylum in the wilds of Ame

rca.

An instance of favage barbarity was about this time perpetrated on fome of Henry's vaffals in South Wales. William de Bruce, lord of Brecknock, invited to an entertainment, at the castle of Abergavenny, Seifyllt ap Dyfnwal, Geoffry his fon, and other chiefs of diftinction. In the midst of their festivity, to give fome colour to the bafenefs of his defign, he told the Welsh chieftains, that in future they should not travel armed, either with their fwords or bows, and required them to take an oath for the due performance of this. So imperious a command was by a high-fpirited nobility univerfally rejected: when, on a fignal being made, a number of armed foldiers rufhed into the hall, and maffacred the Welsh lords, Not fatisfied with this, Bruce, attended by his ruffians, proceeded to the houfe of Seifyllt, and murdered his infant fon, in the prefence of his mother.

"Scenes fuch as thefe," Mr. Warrington remarks, "are fo expreffive of horror, that they difguft the eye of humanity, and it is with pleasure we turn to the more agreeable profpects which are opening to our view, of juftice and order, of freedom and national importance."

The feventh book contains the hiftory from the acceffion of Llewelyn ap Jorworth, to the death of David ap Llewelyn. During this period, we behold the Welth exposed to all the viciffitudes of fortune, in their manly Atruggles for liberty: by exerting their united ftrength, fometimes raifell to the higheft pinnacle of profperity; at others, in an inftant fallen into difunion and dependance. Llewelyn ap Jorworth poffeffed not only many of the qualities which conftitute the warrior and the great prince, but in private life was juft, tender, and amiable. His de fects (for in characters the most eminent for their virtue, the shades of human infirmity will appear) may be confidered as the vices of the times he lived in, more juftly than his own. A few acts of ferocity, too frequent a violation of treaties, and a want of firmness on fome occafions in his conduct, may injure his fame in fome degree, but cannot deprive him of the title of Llewelyn the great, conferred on him by the gratitude of his country, for a long life employed in its defence.

The eighth book contains the narrative from the acceffion of Owen and Llewelyn, the fons of Gryffydh ap Llewelyn, who fome years before had been killed by attempting to escape out of the Tower of London, to the death of Llewelyn, the laft prince of Wales.

Owen had fhared in the captivity of his father, but was afterwards taken into favour, and highly careffed at the English Court, from whence, on the death of David Llew. elyn, he withdrew, and fortunately effected his escape into Wales.

At this time, our author obferves, the Welsh had neither opportunity nor spirit either to carry on commerce or cultivate their lands, and in consequence were perishing by famine. "The harp of the churchmen," to use the words of an old writer, were changed into forrow and lamentations, their high and ancient renown was faded."

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In this fituation the two princes thought proper to conclude a peace with the English king, on the fevere conditions, of yielding up for ever all the country from the frontier of Cheshire to the water of Conway; and that all the Barons of Wales were to do homage and fervice to the kings of England for ever.

For fome years after this, the Welsh nation remained difpirited and inactive. With their freedom they lost every trace of their national character, till Owen, the eldest of the reigning princes, not brooking a partner in the throne, engaged his younger brother in hoftilities against Llewelyn; when after a fharp engagement, their army being routed, and thernfelves taken prifoners, that prince remained in fole poffeffion of his mutilated kingdom.

The eyes of the Welsh nobility were at length opened; a feries of injuries awakened them to a fenfe of their loft condition. They reforted to their prince, and in the most folemn manner, with an affecting tho' manly fpirit, they declared, that they would rather die in the field in defence of their natural rights, than any longer remain subject to fo cruel and oppreffive an enemy. Llewelyn feconded their ardour. They all determined to refcue their country, or bravely perish amidst the ruins of its freedom.

Actuated by this principle, they immedi ately commenced hoftilities; and from that period exerted themfelves with unremitting ardour, tho' with various fuccefs, to recover their liberty. At one time, by one of thofe turns in human affairs which neither fagacity can forefee, nor power prevent, Llewelyn in a fortunate moment, by his own spirit and judgment, obtained what many of his anceftors had negociated and fought for in vain. At length, however, the genius of Llewelyn, weighed in the balance with that of Edward, funk in the fcale. Trusting the fafety of Wales to the chance of war, and relying on its natural fituation, the ftrength of which had fo often baffled the armies of England; he neglected to furnish with the neceffary

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flock of provifions, an important prit to which he and his people might be forced to retire. Thus fituated, he had no alternative but to implore the mercy of the English king. A peace was concluded, on humiliating terms for the Welsh,

For fome time, the Hiftory of Wales affords no incidents worthy of notice; the fpirit of the people was broken by the rigour of a foreign government. They regretted the freedom they had lost; but, too weak to recover it, they remained filent and dejected.

At length roufed by repeated acts of oppreffion, a general infurrection took place in 1281; which Edward immediately marched to fupprefs, and advanced as far as Conway, near which place he encamped at the foot of Snowdon mountains, and made preparations to pass the Menai. Here, however, he met with a fevere check, the Welth rufhing down in great multitudes from the mountains, on a party of English and some Gafcon lords, who had paffed over at low water to reconnotre their works. Fifteen knights, thirty. two efquires, and one thousand common fol. diers were flain, or perifhed in the water.

Elated by this fuccefs, the Welsh urged Llewelyn to act with intrepidity, and affault the English in their turn. This he thought unfafe to do without farther reinforcements; to obtain which he determined to go into South Wales, and accordingly marched with a body of forces to the aid of his friends in that country.

As foon as the king heard of this movement, he fent orders to Oliver de Dineham to país over the Severn to Carmarthen, to fupport his generals in that country.

Llewelyn proceeded with his forces to the Cantrev of Buellt, where by agreement he was to hold a conference with fome lords of that district. Having therefore posted his army on the top of a mountain near the waten of Wy, he placed a body of troops at a bridge which commanded the paffage over that river. Thus fecured, as he thought, from any fudden attack, he proceeded unarmed, and attended only by his efquire, into the valley where the conference was to be held. In a moment after his departure the bridge was attacked, and defended with fuch spirit, that the English were unable to make any impreffion, till a detachment having with difficulty forded the river, the Welsh, affaulted in the front and rear, were driven from their poft.

The prince, who was waiting in a fmall grove, being informed by his efquire that he heard a great outcry at the bridge, eagerly enquired if his people were in poffeffion of it; and being told they were, he very calmly replied, "He then would not ftir

from thence, tho' the whole power of England was on the other fide of the river." This confidence, not improperly placed, lafted only for a moment; the grove being in an inftant furrounded. Llewelyn then endea voured as fecretly as he could to make good his retreat, and join his troops on the moun tain. In this attempt he was difcovered, and closely purfued by one of the enemy, who, not knowing his quality, plunged his fpear in to the body of the prince, unarmed and uncapable of defence. The English then proceeded to diflodge the enemy from their post, which they gallantly defended, till overpow ered by numbers they were obliged to giv way, leaving two thousand men, a third of their number, dead on the field,

"Thus" fays Mr. Warrington, "fell Llewelyn ap Gryffydh, after a reign of thirtyfix years. Inttead of reciting his virtues, highly marked in the conduct of his life, or regretting his rival's ambition, it is our with to draw a veil over the melancholy fcene. Gratitude could pay no tribute to his memory fo expreflive, as the tears which his coun try shed upon the tomb of their fallen prince. An elegy compofed by a bard who lived in his Court, in wild yet pathetic notes, and with a feemingly prophetic spirit, finely ex preffes their forrow and despair.

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"The voice of lamentation is heard in eve ry place, as heretofore in Camlan. The copious tears ftream down every cheek, for Cambria's defence, Cambria's munificent lord is fallen.-Oh Llewelyn ! the lofs of thee is the lofs of all. At the thought of thee horror chills my blood, exhausts my fpirits, and confumes my flesh. Behold how the course of nature is changed! how the trees of the forest rush furiously against each other! See how the ocean deluges the earth! how the fun deviates from its courfe! how the planets start from their orbits !-Say, ye thoughtless mortals, do not these things portend the diffolu tion of nature? And let it be diffolved · Let a speedy end be put to the incurable anguish of our fpirits fince; now there's no place to which we miferable men may flee, no fpot where we can fecurely dwell, no friendly counfel, no fafe retreat, no way to efcape our unhappy doom.”

The last book of this Hiftory, which contains the hiftory from the acceffion of David ap Gryffydh to the entire conqueft of Wales, prefents the affecting spectacle of a brave and generous prince, after every effort to preferve the freedom of his country, falling in the conflict, and finding an honourable grave in its ruins. This important event took place during the reign of Edward the firft, who meanly, facrificed the gallant David to his interest. As being a baron of the realm, he was proX X 2

ceed

eeeded against as a fubject of England, and by his peers condemned, as a traitor to the king who had made him a knight,

The author has added a short history of the bards; a race of men who poffeffed, for many ages, fo great an influence over the genius of the Welth, infpiring them with hofpitable. manners, and with the fentiments of freedom

and glory. This our limits will not permit us to give an account of; we can only, as a fpecimen of their poetry, give the following tranflation of an elegy written by Llywarchhen, a British bard of the fixth century, on the death of Cyndyllan, prince of Powis.

Come forth and fee, ye Cambrian dames, "Fair Pengwern's royal roofs in flames!

The foe the fatal dart hath flung,

(The foe that speaks a barbarous tongue) "And pierc'd Cyndyllan's princely head,

And firetch'd your champion with the dead: "His heart, which late with martial fire "Bade his lov'd country's foes expire,

(Such fire as wastes the forest hill) Now like the winter's ice is chill. "O'er the pale corfe, with boding cries, "Sad Argoed's cruel eagle flies; "He flies exulting o'er the plain, "And scents the blood of heroes flain.

Dire bird! this night my frighted ear "Thy loud, ill-omen'd voice fhall hear : "I know thy cry, that screams for food,

And thirsts to drink Cyndyllan's blood. "No more the mansion of delight, "Cyndyllan's hall is dark to-night; "Nor more the midnight hour prolongs "With fires, and lamps, and festive songs. "Its trembling bards afflicted fhun "The hall, bereav'd of Cyndrwyn's fon. "Its joyous vifitants are fled, "Its hofpitable fires are dead : "No longer rang'd on either hand Its dormitory, couches ftand:

"But all above, around, below,
"Dibad fights, dire founds, and fhrieks of

"woe.

"Awhile I'll weep Cyndyllan flain,
"And pour the weak desponding strain :
Awhile I'll footh my troubled breaft,
Then in eternal filence rest.”-

After reprobating the maffacre of the
bards, whom the conqueror facrificed thro'
a policy as atrocious as it was illiberal, our
author concludes his work with the follow.
ing remark. "The emotions which fo in-
teresting a spectacle, as that of an ancient and
gallant nation falling the victins of private
ambition, might at the time have excited,
have at this period loft their poignancy and
force. A new train of ideas arifes, when
we see that the change is beneficial to the
vanquished: when we fee a wild and preca-
rious liberty fucceeded by freedom, fecured
by equal and fixed laws: when we see man-
ners hoftile and barbarous, and a spirit of ra
pine and cruelty, foftened down into the arts
of peace, and the milder habits of civilized
life: when we fee this remnant of ancient
Britons uniting in intereft and mingling in
friendship with the English, and enjoying the
fame conftitutional liberties, the purity of
which, we truft, will continue uncorrupted
as long as this empire fhall be numbered
among the nations of the earth."

The perufal of this volume has afforded us much pleasure.

Mr. Warrington, who has upon the whole acquitted himfelf with no inconfiderable degree of merit, appears throughout, the warm friend of liberty, and fully equal to the task he has undertaken. If the nature of the fubject prevented his difplaying very great abilities, he has at least established a claim confiderably beyond mediocrity.

Bofwell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Dr. Johnson.
[Continued from page 173. ]

UR laft Critique ended with this fen

OUR

tence-"We have already had occafion to point out fome of Dr. Johufon's ftrange ideas on fea affairs."Here we stopped, and now thus resume the fubject.-In Bofwell, p. 151, the Doctor fays, "No man will be a failor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a gaol, for being in a fhip is being in a gaol with the chance of being drowned."-In the name of all that is capricious, what is this !!! A most notorious fact denied (for there are thousands of voluntary failors), and the bafeft principles fet up as fuperior wisdom! Such foolery is enough to make one fick.-You fhould not have recorded thefe filly rants, Mr. Bofwell; yet

in your 303d page you maft repeat it :— "The man in a gaol, faid he (i. e. the Doctor), has more room, better food, and commonly better company, and is in fafety."-In this fentence every thing is as fallacious as the motive of fafety is bafe.--The Doctor in another page of Bofwell ridicules the fuppofition that the labourer is encouraged to fubmit to his fate by the idea that he is ferv. ing the Public. Be that as it may, both the labourer and the failor are ftimulated by the thought that they are providing an indepen. dence for their families and themfelves; and it is well known how much the defire of beating an enemy, and fupporting the honour of his own fhip, infpires the meaneft failor

of

of the Royal Navy. These are feelings of which the rafcal who abandons his family, bilks his creditors, cuts himself off from the duties of fociety, and fculks in a gaol for fear of being drowned, is utterly incapable. Mr. Bofwell ought not to have given the Doctor's reveries as his ferious thoughts. The Doctor knew that the failor ferved his country, and that the fellow in gaol was a rotten member, a drawback and burthen on the public.

In page 153, we find our travellers lodged very meanly in the house of one who appears to have been a hero in heart, though low in rank and fortune. He was going to emigrate to America, unable to live under the oppreffion of his Laird. The Doctor wifhed that McQueen, the landlord, were Laird, and the Laird to go to America, "M'Queen very generously answered, he should be forry for it; for the Laird could not fhift for himfelf in America as he could."-Yet in this noble-hearted fellow's houfe were our travellers afraid of having their throats cut in the night for their money; for the landlord was about to leave the country!!!-Poor M'Queen walked fome miles with them next morning, by way of friendly convoy.-We had almoft omitted Mr. Bofwell's account of his falling asleep at this poor brave fellow's houfe:-"I fancied myself bit by innumerable vermin under the clothes; and that a fpider was travelling from the wainscot towards my month. At laft I fell into infenfibility."

In page 161, the reader is amused with a quarrel between our learned travellers. The evening grew dusky, and we spoke none," fays Mr. Bofwell; who, to get the inn prepared for the Doctor's reception, rode on before. The Doctor, who "was advancing in dreary filence, called me back," fays Mr. B. "with a tremendous fhout, and was really in a paffion with me for leaving him. I told him my intentions, but he was not fatis fied, and faid, Do you know 1 fhould as foon have thought of picking a pocket as doing fo.-Bofwell. I am diverted with you, Sir.Jobnfon. Sir, I could never be diverted with incivility. Doing fuch a thing makes one lofe confidence in him who has done it; as one cannot tell what he may do next. His extraordinary warmth confounded me."-This we have cited the rather, because, trivial as it may feem, it throws great light on the Doctor's character Mr. Bos well in common good-manners ought certainly to have told him where he was going; but we cannot commend the Doctor's taking the flip off to highly amifs. It betrays dreadful apprehenfions and jealoufies, and something peevishly childish, for children do not

like to be left in the dark. And Mr. Bofwell's incivility, arifing from the most civil intentions, deserved, at the worst, no fuch punishment as the Doctor's wrath had decreed-never to speak to him more after they had returned to Edinburgh.-But let us alfo view the fair fide of this quarrel in its happy termination. Dr. Johnson, on being told that a friend had taken offence at a harsh expreffion of his, had fome days before made this excellent remark-" What is to come of

fociety, if a friendship of twenty years standing is to be broken off for fuch a caufe ?" As Bacon fays, adds Mr. Bofwell,

"Who then to frail mortality fhall trust, But limns the water, or but writes in dust.” Mr. B. on the morning after the Doctor's anger, reminded him of this fentiment; and the reader of generous feeling must be highly pleased when he finds the good Doctor thus confeffing his over-heat :-" He owned," fays Mr. B." he had spoken to me in paffion; that he would not have done what he threatened; and that if he had, he would have been ten times worfe than I; that forming intimacies would indeed be "limning were tirey liable to fuch fudden the water,' diffolution."-This excellent remark ought to be deeply impreffed on the memory of every man who has profeffed friendship.

"

We now come to the vifit to Sir Alexander Macdonald.It is no uncommen thing in England to fee the hereditary poffeffors of the most ancient lordships forfaking with their families their manfions and parks, and taking up their refidence in little boxes and obfcure retreats Some are woefully compelled to this step by their former prodigalities; and others are inclined to it from their mere penurioufnels and poverty of fpi Sir Alexander and his lady they found rit. "in a house built by a tenant;" one we fuppofe the tenant had built for himself; "the family manfion having been burnt in Sir Donald Macdonald's time. Instead of finding the head of the Macdonalds furrounded with his clan and a feftive entertainment, we had a fmall company, and cannot boast of our cheer." Our travellers were of opinion that he ought to live in a very different style, and the head of the clan thought otherwife. They wiftly endeavoured to perfuade him to throw off his native difpofition and fixed ideas in a moment, and adopt theirs. But this was washing the blackamoor; and fure we are, all the mifers of the kingdom will commend the chieftain. This freedom of Mr. Bofwell's has, we find, made fome little dust, and raised the chieftain's anger; we therefore here fupprefs fome remarks of our own, as we defire to widen no breach among gentlemen

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