have a value, which does not, in general, belong to productions of this nature. With respect to the Triads, which are, perhaps, peculiar to Welsh literature, they embody, in their quaint form, some of the earliest traditions relating to the history of the island; and, as they are confirmed, in numerous instances, by other authorities, an equal credit may, without difficulty, be conceded to them in those, in which such confirmation is wanting. Wherever, therefore, any notices connected with this work have been found in the Triads, the author has not hesitated to avail himself of them; yet these are not numerous, and relate, as will be seen, to the earliest lives. In a word, with reference to the two sources of information now alluded to, poetry, among the Cymry, had, for ages, anticipated the functions of history; and in the Triads were often preserved what might not admit of diffusion in the strains of the bard. These phenomena, in ancient Welsh literature, had apparently their origin in the Bardic, or Druidical Institution, of which the encouragement of oral tradition, whether by songs or aphorisms, formed a prominent characteristic. The reader must not, he says, conclude, that the following pages embrace all that is worthy of record in the biographical annals of Wales. The few names to which they are confined form a selection out of a considerable number, most of them equally worthy of the pen of the biographer. But the author's plan was originally of a limited nature, and the chronological arrangement he had adopted made it unexpectedly necessary, in the progress of the work, to curtail it still The consequence has been, that many lives of interest have been excluded, which, however, if the present attempt should be favorably received, may serve to form a supplementary volume. more. After describing the characteristics of Welsh poetry, and the principles of bardism, the author gives an analysis of Aneurin's poem of Gododin, which will be as curious as new to most of our readers. "Among these intellectual relics, the Gododin of Aneurin has ever held the first rank, and yet not so much for its poctical merit as for its historical details, the more valuable because the internal proofs of its genuineness are of so decisive a character. It does not indeed, like the classical effusions of Greece and Rome, or even like the reputed productions of Ossian, contain a well-contrived fable, embellished with all the artful colourings of the muse. It has no regular design, no definite object; and, least of all, does it aim at flattering the national prepossessions of those to whom it may be supposed to have been addressed. On the contrary, the subject chosen by the poet is in the highest degree reproachful to the character of his countrymen: he sings of a disastrous defeat which they had sustained, and that, too, owing to their inordinate indulgence in a low and degrading propensity. This is surely the very last theme that would have suggested itself for the purposes of imposture; it was scarcely calculated to excite attention, much less admiration. In a word, it is just such a subject as an artless writer, having no desire but to report what he saw, may be presumed to have adopted; and the genuineness of the Gododin, as a work of the sixth century, might be left with security to rest on this ground alone. But this is not all: the style of the poem, the language in which it is written, and the incidents which it records, are so many positive testimonies to its genuine character. It was the offspring of an age, be it remembered, which, in comparison with those that gave birth to the Iliad and Eneid, cannot but be deemed barbarous; and it must not, therefore, be placed by the side of the renowned masterpieces of the Mæonian and Mantuan bards. Whatever may have been the original form of the Gododin, it presents now little more than a collection of elegiac and encomiastic strains on the heroes who fell in a certain battle, in which the poet was also engaged. The style is, like the subject, devious and irregular, and may be likened to an assemblage of mountain oaks in their native rudeness and disorder, rather than to the stately and well ordered forest that owes its grandeur to the care and cultivation of man. Hence the poem is marked more by the bursts of feeling and energy of expression, which it occasionally displays, than by any regular luxuriance or dignity of style. It may rather be considered, in the words of an ingenious writer, as so many poetic memoranda of a disastrous conflict, penned by a friend who had witnessed its events in all the confusion in which they had occurred, than a well-conceived and artfully arranged series of individual conflicts, like the poem of Homer, which, though genuine as to the author, yet contains incidents which the poet's invention has arranged as it pleased." But the Gododin is genuine, not only as to its author, but also as to its subject: it is, in short, a poetical record of a train of calamities which the bard himself witnessed, and under the influence of which he may almost be said to have written. Hence that undisguised simplicity, that vivid freshness of style, which communicates to the poem its most prominent and most attractive characteristics. "The language is evidently that of a remote age, and, although intelligible in its general construction to the Welsh scholar of the present day, contains many words no longer in ordinary use. It abounds, too, in those dialectical distinctions that were peculiar to the Cymry of North Britain, and is marked, morcover, by the adoption of many compound terms particularly in use among the poets of the sixth century, but of which subsequent ages have furnished comparatively but few examples. "The calamitous incidents recorded in the Gododin are also strong proofs of its genuineness; for, independent of their general consistency with the character of that turbulent age, many of them are corroborated by the testimony of the Triads, and of contemporary bards. It is worthy of remark, too, with reference to this point, that they are such events as were very likely to call forth the particular emotions evinced by the writer, when they had taken place, as it were, under his eye. Accordingly, he details what he had seen, not merely as a poet, but as a man, as it was presented to his feelings, not to his imagination. Above all, he dwells with a sort of restless anxiety upon the disgraceful cause of these complicated disasters, the inebriety of his countrymen ; and speaks of it in such a manner as one who had witnessed its effects, and had suffered from them, and such a one only was likely to do. It is the language of nature, expressing, without embellishment and without disguise, the mental workings of an individual deeply affected by the calamity and disgrace in which he had participated. "Such are the leading features of the Gododin that seem to render its reputation unquestionable as a genuine production of the period to which it is ascribed. From what has been already said it will be perceived, that it has no pretension to the character of an epic poem. It is more properly heroic than epic, and is at last but a fragment of the original composition, if it be true, as traditionally related, that the number of its stanzas corresponded at first with the number of chieftains engaged in the battle, who have already been incidentally mentioned as amounting to three hundred and sixty-three. The poem, as we now have it, contains about nine hundred lines, and embraces an intermixture of heroic and lyric verse, but of which the former predominates. As before remarked, there is no art or method in the conduct of the poem; it even wants, what most probably it never possessed when perfect, a preparatory exordium or invocation. The poet plunges at once into his subject. Like a resolute warrior, he throws himself, without premeditation, into the midst of the battle, and sets out by describing, not his plan or purpose, but one of his heroes.' From this he passes to other similar portraits, devoting, as he proceeds, to his fellow-warriors the meed of eulogy or lamentation. His transitions are accordingly abrupt and frequent, and his expressions often extremely concise, and sometimes even obscure. Yet, however deficient the poem may be in the embellishments of art, or in the delicacies of contrivance, enough remains to vindicate the genius of the bard, and the current celebrity of his production. "The commencement of the Gododin, already alluded to, conveying an animated picture of a young warrior, is in the lyric measure. The following version will give the English reader some notion of it, although it is impossible, even if it were desirable, to transfer to the translation the metrical distinctions of the original. "Lo, the youth, in mind a man, As his buckler, beaming wide, Think not, youth, that e'er from me "The next quotation supplies an example of the full heroic verse, in which the poem is chiefly written, though subject to the disadvantage of being almost a literal prosaic version. The passage contains one of the bard's allusions, already noticed, to the intemperance of his countrymen, as the main source of the deplorable catastrophe he had undertaken to celebrate. "At Cattraeth's scene of blood, when nois'd by fame, A powerless throne, a land all desolate. On biers are borne, to glut the yawning grave; As sworn to Tud volch and to Cyvolch proud; That tho' by blaze of torch they quaff'd bright mead, Tho' sweet its taste, its curse would long be felt. "Another stanza, written in the same metre, will perhaps be sufficient to give the reader an insight into the Gododin. It commemorates a chieftain named Cynon, and is written with much natural feeling. "None made the social hall so free from care As gentle Cynon, Clinion's sovereign lord; For highest rank he never proudly strove, And whom he once had known he ne'er would slight. Yet was his spear keen-pointed, and well knew To pierce with truest aim th' embattled line. Swift flew his steed to meet the hostile storm, "There is something in this passage calculated to awaken our classical recollections. It affords, in particular, a parallel to some parts of the Iliad, in which the same interesting allusion to the private qualities of a fallen chief accompanies the commemoration of his heroic virtues; a feature that may likewise be traced in the strains of the Bard of Cona. But the poem of Aneurin, it is hardly necessary to repeat, has nothing in common with the general characteristics either of the Homeric muse or of the reputed effusions of Ossian. Such accidental resemblances as that here noticed owe their birth to the natural affinities of genius, when acting from the impulse of feeling unembarrassed by any artificial restraints." The lives contained in the volume are those of Arthur, Aneurin, Taliesin, Llywarch Hen, St. David, Asser Menevensis, Hywel Dda, Rhys ab Tewdwr, Owain Gwynedd, Giraldus Cambrensis, Llywelyn ab Gruffydd, Davydd ab Gwilym, Owen Glyndwr, Sir Rhys ab Thomas, Humphrey Llwyd, Dr. John David Rhys, Bishop Morgan, Dr. John Davies, Edward Llwyd, Lewis Morris, Thomas Pennant, esq. and the Rev. Peter Roberts. The accounts of Taliesin, Hywel Dda, Owain Glyndwr, and Sir Rhys ab Thomas, are peculiarly interesting, and written with spirit, and display historical research and accuracy. Indeed the entire volume is replete with information new to the general reader, and creditable in its display to the ability of the author. Memoirs of the Life and Religious Labours of Howell Harris, esq including an Authentic Account of the Calvinistic Methodists in Wales. By John Bulmer.-8vo. pp. 133. 3s. 6d. HOWELL HARRIS, esq. 66 was born at Trevecka, in the parish of Talgarth, in the county of Brecon, January 23, 1714." "This eminently pious and useful man was the chief instrument employed by the head of the church in giving rise to a very considerable and still increasing denomination of Christians,-a man whose apostolic labours were the means of promoting an extensive revival of religion, not only in Wales, but in different parts of the kingdom." In plain English, Howell Harris, esq. of Trevecka, was an itinerant preacher in Mr. Whitfield's connexion, who, after "the boys (to use the language of Mawworm,) had thrown brickbats at him, and pinned crackers to his tail," in all the towns to which "the Spirit" called him, with the detail of which we are made acquainted in this volume, "fell asleep in Jesus at Trevecka, July 21, 1773; and now rests blessedly from all his labours;" and, now that we have finished the volume, we also rest from ours. The Life and Diary of Lieut.-Col. J. Blackader, of the Cameronian Regiment, and Deputy Governor of Stirling Castle; who served with distinguished Honour in the Wars under King William and the Duke of Marlborough, and afterwards in the Rebellion of 1715 in Scotland. By Andrew Crichton, Author of the Memoirs of the Rev. John Blackader. We learn from the text, that Lieutenant-Colonel John Blackader was a native of Dumfries-shire, born in the parish of Glencairn, on the 14th of September, 1664,-his father, the Rev. John Blackader, being minister of Troqueer in the presbytery of Dumfries; and expelled at the restoration of Charles II. for refusing to comply with Episcopacy; also that his parentage was highly respectable, the house of Blackader having, at various times, formed matrimonial connexions of the first respectability; but of all this remote and once opulent ancestry, nothing remained to him except the name. His father, as hath been already noticed, was a minister of the church of Scotland. He bore a proportional share of the toils and harrassings of that unhappy period, being one of the most indefatigable and intrepid preachers of his time. Though expelled from his charge at Troqueer, he did not renounce the ministerial privileges of his office because he was deprived of its temporalities. Denied access to the established pulpits, he erected the standard of religious liberty in the fields, and was one of the first three who ventured their lives for the free preaching of the gospel. His itinerary labours were continued for nearly twenty years, with a zeal and perseverance truly apostolical, and a success altogether astonishing. His exertions were not circumscribed to Dumfries-shire or Galloway, but extended to almost every county south of the Tay. There was scarcely a hill, a moor, or a glen, in the southern and western districts of Scotland, where he did not hold a conventicle, or celebrate a communion. In these excursions he was frequently the companion and coadjutor of Welsh, Peden, Cargill, and other undaunted Covenanters, who maintained the rights and the freedom of 7 Crichton's Life of Lieut.-Col. J. Blackader. [BIOGRAPHY. their national worship, in the face of peril and sword. In 1674, he was proclaimed a rebel and fugitive, and a premium of a thousand marks were offered to any that should kill or apprehend him. After the defeat at Bothwell-Bridge, he went over to Holland, where he made a short stay, and proved eminently serviceable in allaying those irritations and ill-natured debates that had sprung up among the refugees, from want of proper information on the true state of Scottish affairs. On his return, he was apprehended at Edinburgh, in his own house, and sent a prisoner to the Bass Rock, then employed as a convenient receptacle for the persecuted victims of Prelacy. In this bleak and solitary isle, he lingered several years in rigorous captivity. The harshness of his treatment, and the ungenial air of the place, terminated his days. He died in 1685, and was buried in the church-yard of North-Berwick, the adjacent parish. We now arrive at the hero of the work : From Colonel Blackader's future life and reflections, it is manifest he had imbibed early impressions of religion. At twelve years of age, he is said to have been admitted a communicant to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. He appears to have frequently attended conventicles and communions, which were celebrated in the open fields, and which had begun, about 1677, to attract immense crowds of hearers from all parts of the country. With such a religious cast of mind, it may appear singular that Colonel Blackader should have embraced a military life. It seems to be the profession to which by habit and education he was least adapted, and in which he was likely to encounter more occasions of annoyance and vexation than in any other. The army, however, may probably have been an object of necessity, more than of choice, with him. Although it is forbidden to propagate or maintain religion by force, the use of the sword is nowhere prohibited in defence of the established authorities. These were evidently the views and feelings which Colonel Blackader entertained upon the subject, and which alone. could have reconciled him to an occupation to which he was naturally disinclined." The editor's account of the origin of the Cameronian regiment fills fifty pages, and the curiosity of the subject will justify our quotations from it: "The regiment in which young Blackader enrolled himself a cadet, was that raised at the Revolution by the Cameronians, under command of the Earl of Angus, It is now the 26th Regiment of the line, British Infantry, and still retains the appellation of the sect from which it was originally formed. The Cameronians, or as they were sometimes called, the United Societies, or Hill-men, from their mode and place of worship were a party that separated, about the year 1680, from the main body of the Presbyterians. The designation by which they are still known, was first applied to them as followers of Richard Cameron, one of their itinerant preachers, who fell in the rencounter at Airs-moss, where he and his little band were surprised and defeated by Bruce of Farlshall. In rejecting the King's authority, they stood distinguished from all other Presbyterians, although the whole body of sufferers have often been falsely and injuriously involved in that aspersion. They did not openly announce their_revolt from government, until they were provoked and exasperated to a degree of madness, by its oppressive exactions and brutal inhumanities. The law, by placing their lives and properties at the mercy of every ruffian soldier, or every hireling informer, had laid them, as it were, under an absolute necessity of entering into leagues and compacts for their mutual security. In the heat and frenzy of their spirits, they published treasonable and sanguinary declarations, denouncing vengeance on their persecutors, and warning them, at their peril, not to molest their worship, or "stretch forth their hand against them while maintaining the cause and interest of Christ against his enemies. These excesses, instead of being viewed in their proper light as the effects of tyrannical violence, were converted into an apology for the most shocking barbarities, and used as a pretext for multiplying those very rigours from which all the mischief had originated. The wretched Cameronians became a butt for the vengeance and fury of the government. They were decried, in edicts and proclamations, as a race to be abhorred by all Christians, and extirpated from the face of the earth. Such as escaped |