Thefe three claffes were, the Bards, as before mentioned, who were the national Preceptors, Poets, and Musicians.. The Ofyddion, (Offwyr, or Ovates,) compofed and performed facred and prophetic hymns, and were alfo natural philofophers, aftronomers, and magicians. The Druids were the priests, moral philofophers, and phyfiologifts; which last name, (Druids,) was frequently given to the whole order, and fometimes appropriated only to a particular class *. From the great affinity in their civil and ecclefiaftical rites and cuftoms, the Druids, and the other branches of the facerdotal order, appear to have been originally a tribe of the firft Patriarchs', and defcended from Gomer, the son of Japheth ; and that hierarchal custom was continued by the Druids, Bards, and Ofyddion, in this ifland, until about the feventh century; and much later than that, in the island of Bardfey, in the Isle of Man, and in the Æbudes, or Hebrides. The Patriarchal was the most ancient form of government amongst mankind; and the foundation of the Monarchical, of the Eremitical, (or British Saints,) and of the Monachal inftitution in Britain, and among other Celtic nations. "Music and poetry were doubtless invented by the fages before the flood. Mofes particularly tells us, that Jubal was the first inventor of mufic*; and with respect to poetry, he has given us a short specimen of it, in the speech of Lamech to his two wivest. Indeed man could not behold the beauties of nature without admiration; and the fight of the wondrous objects of creation must inspire him to return thanks to great Author of his being, in the most beautiful and pleafing words his mind could fuggeft. His raptures would have been but ill expreffed, had he used the common language; fomething more sweet and har the "this institution for it is deemed unlawful to commit their ftatutes to writing; though in other matters, whether public, or private, they make use of Greek characters. They seem to me to follow this method for two reafons: to hide their myfteries from the "knowledge of the vulgar; and to exercise the memory of their scholars. They teach likewife many things relating to the stars and their motions; the magnitude of the world and our earth, the nature of things, and the power and prerogatives of the im"mortal God." Cafar's Commentaries, Book vi. c. 13. Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xv. c. 9. Lucan's Pharfalia, book 1. Strabo, lib. iv. Pliny, lib. xvi. c. 44. lib. xxx. c. I. 449. Rowland's Mona Antiqua, and Borlafe's Hiftory of Cornwall. Befide the Druids, the Britons had Druidesses, who affifted in the offices of religion, and shared in the honours and emoluments of the priesthood. The Druideffes of Gaul and Britain are faid to have been divided into three ranks, or claffes. Those of the first clafs vowed perpetual virginity, and lived together in fifterhoods, very much fequestered from the world. These venerable vestals were great pretenders to divination, prophecy, and miracles; were highly admired by the people, who confulted them on all important occafions as infallible oracles. The second clafs confifted of certain female devotees, who were indeed married, but spent the far greater part of their time in the company of the Druids, and in the offices of religion; and converfed only occafionally with their hufbands, who perhaps thought themselves very happy in having such pious wives. The third class of Druideffes was the lowest, and confifted of fuch as performed the most fervile offices about the temples, the facrifices, and the perfons of the Druids. Mela, lib. iii. c. 2. Gruttes, p. 62. Relig. de Gaul, lib. i. c, 27. Tacit. Annal. lib. xiv. and Henry's Hiftory of England The spreading oak was held in the highest veneration by the Derwyddon, or Oakmen, as well as among the Hebrew Patriarchs, and they never performed any religious ceremony without being adorned with garlands of its leaves; (as Pliny informs us, lib. xvi. c. 44, and Joshua, c. xxiv. ver. 26.) The Romans likewife wore wreaths of oak in honour of Ceres, because she first taught mankind the use of corn, instead of acorns. Virgil's Georgics, lib. 345. 7 Exodus, c. xxiv. Ezra, c. vii. ver. 24. 1 Chronicles, c. vi. xxv. 2 Chronicles, c. v.-Camden cites Laxius, and fays that the first speech used in Britain, was fuppofed to be the Hebrew. 8" When the religious men of Britain were fo miferably haraffed and perfecuted by the pagan Saxons, they were forced to retire into places of most difficult access for their own fecurity, and there they built churches fuitable to their condition, and lived very retired lives." Stillingfleet's Antiquities of British Churches, c. 1. page 287. See alfo note 4, in page 2 of this work; and note 2, in page 47. The Æbude islands acquired that name probably from the clafs of Druids called Eubates, or Ovates; as well as Bardsey island, from thofe of the Bards. • Genefis, c. iv. ver. 21. H Genefis, c. iv. ver. 23.-Lamech was the father of Noah, Genefis, c. v. ver. 30. monious monious, more lofty and fublime, was wanting to exprefs the ideas he had conceived of his Maker, and the thanks he owed him for fo many bleffings: and hence he ranfacked nature for expreffions, and lively images; he formed to himself, as it were, a new language, and adorned it with numbers and cadence. This was undoubtedly the origin of poetry; and it was long applied only to its proper object, the celebrating the greatness of the Almighty, and the magnificence of his works*, which the ancient Hebrew bards defcribed in the most pompous, the most majestic, and the most sublime manner that is poffible to be conceived. The expreffions, the fentiments, the figures, the variety, the actions, every thing is furprifing! But this facred ufe of poetry and mufic did not long continue; the Heathens borrowed these arts, and used them firft in the fervice of their false gods, and afterwards, to record the actions of their great men, and the founders of empires." Bardic Songs, and historic examples of our great and wife progenitors, have always been confidered as a most useful and pleafing branch of polite literature. They inform us of the actions, and cuftoms of mankind in former ages, bring the times paft into our prefent view, make us as it were co-eval with the celebrated heroes of former times, and naturally incite us to an emulation with them in glory. Natural affections ftir up every one's curiosity to investigate the lives and gallant deeds of his own ancestors; for the virtues and honours of our fore-fathers form the most interesting fubject of all others. I wish I were equal to do adequate juftice to fo important a fubject: "O, for a Muse of fire, that would ascend "The brightest Heaven of invention †!" to delineate the Bardic Lore, and fountain of ancient British mufic and conviviality in their true light. But, I cannot do better than refer my reader to the original specimens of poetry and music of the bards themfelves, in the following sheets: "Thefe venerable ancient fong-enditers "Soar'd many a pitch above our modern writers: "And strength, and nature made amends for art." "Amidst the rude scenes of nature, amidst rocks, and torrents, and whirlwinds, and battles, dwells the fublime. It is the thunder and lightning of genius; it is the offspring of nature, not of art." "The gay and the beautiful will appear to more advantage in the midst of smiling scenery, and pleasur "able themes." The Britons were always famous for three things; namely, handsome Women, brave Warriors, and eminent Bards. Nay, the piety as well as the beauty of our British ladies is too effential to be omitted: that I may have the felicity of gratifying the fair fex, it is with pleasure I observe, that it is taken notice of, not only by the Roman wits, but by Saint Paul himself, who, in one of his Epiftles, falutes Claudia Rufina, a British lady, eminent for her extraordinary beauty and learning, and who was commended by Martial, in these verses: * Claudia cæruleis cúm fit Rufina Britannis Edita, cur Latiæ pèƐtora plebis habet? Among the painted Britons, Claudia, born, "What shapes! what heavenly charms! enough to raise "A noble strife in Italy, and Greece". 1. Chronicles, chap. xxv. ver. 3.-Pfalm xeii, and xcvi. + Shakespear's Henry V. • Rowe's Lucan, and Dr. Blair. 1° 2. Timothy, c. iv. ver. 21. "Martial, lib. viii. pars. 2.Epig. xvii. et lib.4. Epig.13.--Ufferium Eccles. Primordiis, p.10,11. 12 Gibson's Camden, zd edition, Introduction, lxxvii. and Stilling fleet's Antiquities of British Churches, c. 1. p. 44Claudia is faid to have been Carattacus's daughter and the wife of Aulus Rufus Pudens, fenator of Rome, and hoftefs of St. Paul when he was there. Baleus makes mention of a Book of Epigrams which was written by Claudia, and an Elegy upon her husband's death, befides other verfes. Alfo, fee Martial, lib. i. Epig. 32. and lib. iii. Epig. 20. "For mountains, bridges, rivers, churches, fair Here 1 you Here have Claudia, a British woman, and Linus her fon, both Chriftians, in the very dawn of christianity; and Linus was ordained bishop of Rome, by the facred hands of the apoftle himself. Refpecting our Warriors, both of the Army, and Navy", their fame is too well known from the earliest ages, to need an illustration: and as to the Bards, their history will be found in my firft Book of Relicks, and in this volume. These venerable remains of hiftory, poetry, and music of the aboriginal Britons, are perhaps unparalleled in any other country, in point of authenticity, as well as antiquity; and if there were wanting farther proof to corroborate these ancient relicks, here we have the record of the tombs of the British Warriors, Bards, Saints, and others, which are pointed out to us; and many of them still remain to this day, and the very places retain their names: likewife, there is another correfponding proof, in that of the tradition of the country. These are rarities almost unknown to the English hiftorians, and fuch uncontrovertible documents I conceive would be of more effential confequence in correcting, and illuftrating the ancient British hiftory, than all the Monkish legends and romances, which have fo frequently been recurred to by the English hiftorians, for want of better. Now I fhall beg leave to infert here, the opinion of four of the most respectable English literary characters, relative to the old Britons, in their own words: "The Britons, or Welsh, were the firft poffeffors of this island, whose names are recorded, and are there"fore in civil history always confidered as the predeceffors of the prefent inhabitants." Dr. Johnson's Hiftory of the English Language. Milton fays, "The ftudies of learning in its deepest sciences have been fo eminent among us, that writers "of good antiquity have been persuaded that even the school of Pythagoras, and the Perfian wisdom, took beginning from the old philofophy of this land*." "Or if I would delight my private hours "That folace? all our law and story strow'd "With hymns, our pfalms with artful terms infcrib'd, "Our Hebrew fongs and harps in Babylon, "That pleas'd fo well our victor's ear, declare "That rather Greece from us thefe arts deriv'dt." From certain general wife maxims, or principles of truth, fidelity, justice, and equity, in which the Bards and Druids inftructed the people in their orations, they made the rules of their decisions when they acted as judges at the Gorfeddfa. An eminent fage of the law hath indeed affirmed, that the ancient Britons, before they were fubdued by the Romans, were in poffeffion of that admirable system of jurisprudence, the present common law of England; and that no material changes were made in that fyftem, either by the Romans, the Saxons, Danes, or Normans. His words are thefe: "The realm of England was first inhabited by the Britons: next after them it was ruled by the Romans; then again by the Britons: after whom the "Saxons poffeffed it, and changed its name from Britain to England : then the Danes for fometime had 13 This book may by chance fall into the hands of fome of our brave tars, therefore, for their amufement, I fhall beg leave to mention here, an account of a remarkable entertainment which was given, probably in confequence of fome naval victory, in the reign of William and Mary." On the fifth of October, 1691, a bowl of punch was made at the house of the Right Honourable Edward Russel, when he was Captain-general, and Commander-in-chief of his Majefty's forces, in the Mediterranean fea. It was made in a fountain in the garden, in the middle of four walks, all covered over head with lemon and orange trees; and in every walk was a table the whole length of it, decked with cold collations, &c. In the faid fountain were used the following ingredients: Four hogfheads of brandy, 8 hogfheads of water, 25,000 lemons, twenty gallons of lime juice, thirteen hundred weight of fine Lisbon fugar, five pounds of grated nutmegs, 200 toasted biscuits, and laftiy, a pipe of dry mountain Malaga. Over the fountain was a large canopy, built to keep off the rain, and there was built on purpose, a little boat, wherein was a boy belonging to the fleet, who rowed round the fountain, and filled the cups for the company; and, in all probability, more than 6000 people drank thereof." • Milton, vol. i. p. 238. 4to. + Milton's Paradife Regained. "Antiquissimi enim bi (viz. Druida) apud Celtas, doctores, et ipfis Græciæ fapientibus excellentiores, qui poftea longo temporis decurfu fecuti funt Druidarum fe&tam." i.e. The Druids have been famous from the most remote antiquity; long before Greece could boast of her wife men, or philofophers, who were really beholden to the Druids, and copied them in many particulars. Elias Sched. De Diis Germanis: and Borlafe's Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 67. Egbert, king of the Weft-Saxons, to keep up the memory of his own nation, published an edict; wherein it was ordered that the whole heptarchy which the Saxons had poffeffed themselves of, fhould be called Englelond, i. e. the Land of the Angles: which was about the year 800; and hence came the name of England, and the Latin name Anglia.-Gibson's Camden. "the "the dominion of it; then again the Saxons: laft of all the Normans, whofe pofterity govern it at "prefent. Yet, in the times of all thefe different nations and kings, this kingdom hath always been governed by the fame cuftoms by which it is governed at prefent. If thefe ancient Britifh cuftoms “had not been most excellent, reafon, juftice, and the love of their country would have induced "fome of these kings to change, or abolish them; especially the Romans, who ruled all the rest of "the world by the Roman law."-And Sir Philip Sydney, in his Defence of Poefy, fays. "In Wales, the "true remnant of the ancient Britons, as there are good authorities to fhew the long time they had poets, "which they called Bards; fo through all the conquefts of Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, some "of whom did seek to ruin all memory of learning from among them, yet do their poets, even to this day, "laft; fo as it is not more notable in the foon beginning, than in long continuing." We have no regular account that throws much light on the profeffion of the Bards, after their feparation from the facerdotal character, and the extinction of the Druids, until the reign of Howel, king of Wales: in whose time, all the ancient records, and laws of the Britons were collected together, and he, and his wife men, selected from them, expounded, reformed, added to, and adjusted, according to the exigency of thofe times; which were afterwards proclaimed, and confirmed, in A. D. 940; and called Cyfreithieu Hywel Dda, ac eraill: The Laws of King Howel the Good, and others; or Leges Wallica'. That code of laws is fo very interefting and curious, that I fhall extract from it what relates to the Bards, for the information of the reader, as it conveys to us a perfect idea, of the Bardic character, as well as of the stately grandeur of that period. The Bardd Teulu, or Bard of the palace, was, in rank, the eighth officer of the king's household; he was alfo one of the royal guests, and fat at his table, next to the heir apparent. On his appointment, the Bard received a harp from the King, and a golden ring from the Queen: (he obtained that pre-eminence by his fuperior merit in the science of mufic and poetry, at one of the British Olympics :) The king found him his woollen apparel, and a horfe; and the Queen found him his linen apparel. His lodging was in the house of the heir apparent, who was the controller of the houfhold; and on the three great feltivals in the year, it was the office of that prince to deliver the harp into the hands of the Bard, when he was going to perform; and for which fervice, he was entitled to a fong (or a tune) from the Bard, whenever he chose. When the Royal Family defired a fong in the great hall, the Bardd-Cadeiriawg, or ChairedBard was to fing firft, a hymn in praise of God; and another in honour of the King, and of the most worthy of his ancestors3, and their exploits. When those were over, the Bard of the palace was to fing next upon some other fubject, in the lower part of the hall: And, if the Queen defired to have mufic, after she retired from the table to her apartment, he was then to perform three tender and eloquent fongs, or pathetic tunes, different from those which he had played in the hall. The Bard accompanied the army when they marched on a warlike expedition into an enemy's country; and when they were preparing for 1 4 • Sir John Fortefcue de Laudibus Legum Anglia, published with notes by Mr. Selden, c. xvii. p. 38, 39. Cæfar de Bel. Gal, lib. vi. c. 13. Exodus, c. xxii. ver. 5, 6, 7, &c. Job, c. xxiv. ver. 2, &c. Dyvnwal Moelmud's Laws, mentioned in Galfrid Monum, lib. ii. c. 17. Leges Wallica, lib. ii. cap. x. 12.— Lib. iii. and iv. Strabo, lib. iv. Leges Wallica, Ecclefiafticæ et Civiles Hoeli Boni, et aliorum Walliæ Principum, quas ex variis Codicibus Manufcriptis eruit; tranflated into Latin, with notes, by Dr. William Wotton, and Mofes Williams; printed in folio, London, 1730. 3 Leges Wallica, p. 68, 69, 70. 36, 37, and 14. 2 Leges Wallica, p. 8. 16, 17. 35, 36, 37, &c. The following curious relique of our honoured British hero, the father of Chivalry, I think worthy of a place here; he was the fon of Igren, Dutchess of Cornwall, by her husband Uther Pendragon, King of Britain, a defcendant of Constantine: this is a letter from the faid King Arthur, (who was crowned King of Britain, about A. D. 516) to the Senate of Rome, in which he claimed his defcent as follows: " Understand among you of Rome, that I am King Arthur of Britain, and freely re hold, and shall hold; and at Rome harzily pill I be not to give you rɲuage, but to haue truage of you; For Constantine that par helens son, and other of "mine ancestors, conquered Rome, and thereof pere Emperors; and that they had and held; I shall haue yours, Goddis "Grace." Morgan's Sphere of Gentry, Book ii. p. 102. King Arthur bore for his arms, " Our Lady standing by the cross." But, according to Holmes, he bore, "Vert, a Cross or in the firft quarter, a Madona and Child in the fecond." The Monk of Malmesbury fays of him; "This is that Arthur whom the Britons even to this day fpeak of, a man right "worthy to have been celebrated by true ftory, not by falfe tales; feeing it was he that long time upheld his declining country, and even inspired martial courage into his countrymen." Of King Arthur's conquefts of Norway, &c. about A.D. 517, fee Harkluyt's Account of Navigation, and Voyages, vol. i. fol. Silas Taylor's Hift. of Gavelkind, p. 55. Gibson's Camden, &c. battle, battle, he recited and performed to them the animating fong, called Unbeniaeth Prydain, or the Monarchy of Britain; (which probably was to remind them of their ancient right, in praise of their brave ancestors, and to inspire them with heroism;) and for which fervice he was rewarded with one of the most valuable things of the plunder. If he went with other Bards, upon a musical peregrination, he was entitled to a double portion for his fhare. He held his land free. If the Bard defired any favour of the King, he was to perform to him one of his own compofitions; if of a nobleman, he was to perform to him three; and if of a plebeian, he was to fet him to fleep. Whoever flightly injured the Bard, was fined fix cows, and a hundred and twenty-pence: and whoever flew a Bard, was fined a hundred and twenty-fix cows'. When the King rode out of his caftle, his royal retinue confifted of thirty-fix horfemen; who were his nobles, his family, military officers, and five Bards; befides fervants". In the ancient state of rude magnificence of the British court, there was one officer whofe original occupation is now entirely difufed; and that was, the Troediawg, or footman, whofe office was to fupport the King's feet, at Banquets; he was the footstool of his throne, and the guard of his perfon; hence is derived the origin of footman": The Pencerdd, or Cadeir-fardd, the Head of Song, or Chaired-Bard, was one who had achieved his pre-eminence in a musical and poetical contest, in an Eisteddfod, or Seffion of the Birds, which was held triennially in the royal palace; (or in the Hall of the Lord;) this folemnity was decided by the venerable judge of the palace; and as a reward, he received from the victorious Bird a bugle-horn, a goldring, and a cushion for his chair of dignity. But if the judge pronounced an unjust sentence, and the accufation was proved; he was then for ever deprived of his office, and condemned to lofe his tongue; or to pay a confiderable ransom for that member. This Chaired-Bard, according to King Howel's Laws, was the Bard of a district, or country, and chief president of mufic and poetry, within that precinct; and in him was vested the control of all the other Bards within that jurifdiction; he was alfo a teacher, and at ftated periods he prepared the undergraduates to take their degrees; which were ratified by the Seffions of the Bards, every third year: and he also regulated and affigned to each of the other Bards their Clera circuits within his district. This Pencerdd Gwlad, or head Bard of the district, had his lands free; his perquifites arose from his fcholars, and he was alfo entitled to a fee from every bride, and the Amobr, or marriage fine of the daughters of all the inferior Bards within his district. He was not numbered among the regular officers of the palace; but whenever he attended the king, he fat in the tenth place in the royal hall, next to the judge of the palace. His privilege of protection lafted from the beginning of his first fong in the hall of the palace, to the conclufion of the last. Every Pen cerdd, or chief Bard that the Lord affigned privileges to, he was to find with mufical inftruments; fuch as, a harp to one; a crwth to another; and pipes to the third: and when the Bards died, those inftruments were to revert to the Lord ". The chancellor, (or chief magiftrate,) on entering into office, received from the King a gold-ring, a harp and a chefs-board*, which he was never to part with. In the beginning of the tenth century, it was the office of the king's domeftic chaplain to say grace, before and after meals; to chant the fervice, and occafionally to be confulted on matters of conscience". He was alfo fecretary to the King; and, during the King's absence, this chaplain, the judge, and the steward of the houshold, supported the royal dignity, and exercised the authority annexed to it: in early periods, the duties of thofe officers were in the province of the Bard, Druid, and Ovydd, as I have before intimated†. • There is a very curious and beautiful Chefs-board, in the King's museum, (or palace,) at Drefden; with men of filver, and gold, and adorned with the heads, or portraits of the elector Auguftus, and other princes then living. John Lydgate, the poet, calls Chefs, the Game Royal, and compares it to an amorous war; and fhews the esteem he had for it, by dedicating one of his poems to the lovers of that game. 11 Leges Wallica, c. xiii. p. 18, &c. and 52. + We find, that whoever was raised to the fituation of a judge, or chief, was commonly invested not only with the prophetic, but the bard-like character; for we know, that the prophets generally fung their prophetic raptures to the Harp. (1 Samuel,c.x.ver. 5, 6.-1 Chronicles, c. xxv. ver. 1, 5. 6, 7, &c. In after-times, when Saul was elected king, he also affumed at once the prophetic and mufical office. The fongs and bard-like powers of David, his kingly fucceffor, are too well known to need an illuftration. The fame |