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“On Mr. Buchanan's arrival in Paris, he found that the pictures, although still on the walls of the Hotel de Talleyrand, had been placed entirely under the control of Monsieur Bonnemaison; and, as he was informed that several competitors for them had come into the field, he lost no time in concluding a transaction with that gentleman, by which he was to pay 320,000 francs for the collection as it stood described in the printed catalogue, which contained forty-six pictures, the greater proportion of which were of the first class."

We now take our leave of the author, and recommend him and his book to the favour and attention of the public. The object of the work is interesting, the details are accurate, and the facts merit record in this collected state; while the style of the author is chaste, and his matter possesses a harmony which proves that he feels the first quality of a picture, and has had the felicity to transfer his knowledge from the cabinet to the printing-office.

The History of Wales, descriptive of the Government, Wars, Manners, Religion, Laws, Druids, Bards, Pedigrees, and Language, of the Ancient Britons and Modern Welsh, and of the remaining Antiquities of the Principality. By John Jones, LL.D. and Barrister at Law.

- 8vo. 20s.

WALES is less illustrated than any other portion of the British islands, -not because the Welsh are less fond of their country than either the Scotch, Irish, or English, nor because Wales is less deserving of illustration; but simply on account of the accidental circumstance that Wales is without a capital city, in which self-love may be nurtured, and the national genius concentrated and displayed. Again, Wales possesses no university, and its frontier adjoins England through so large an extent, that its unassociated population emigrates without those previous ties, which, under other circumstances, unite the Scotch in particular.

Dr. Jones tells us that he has been induced to send this publication to press, from the frequent observations of men of letters, that the History of the Ancient Britons is a desideratum in literature. The English authors, who have written on the History of Cambria, have been incompetent, from their deficiency in the language of the country; and the last historian, Mr. Warrington, laboured under this difficulty, Several Englishmen, however, deserve Cambrian gratitude, for detached contributions towards a History of Wales: and the author feels pleasure that the Literature and Antiquities of his country have exercised the pens of Mr. Cox, Mr. Sharon Turner, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, bart., and Dr. Meyrick. The present History has avowedly been compiled from the works of all preceding writers on the subject, with the freedom of selecting whatever appeared most consistent with the well-received testimonies of other nations.

In his preface, Dr. Jones makes the following observations on the sources of Welsh History :

"The ancient monuments in Wales are generally written in Latin, Saxon, or Norman French. Mr. Grose says, in his Antiquities, that the characters on the abbey of Llanegwest, or Valle-Crucis, are 'Maso Gothic and Franco Theotiscan mixt." The Runic and Dano Saxon characters are seldom to be met with in inscriptions in Wales; and where they do occur, the author has not ventured to decipher from the copies of others. The Dano Saxon alphabet was much in use in Wales and Northumberland prior to the Norman invasion." The font at Bridchirk, in the county of Cumberland,

presents a fine specimen of that character: the Monumenta Danica of Olans Wormius abound with Dano Saxon inscriptions; and the same letters are now used in Wales, under the vulgar idea of their being the alphabet of the hards.

"The Chapter on Laws may give offence to the believers in the story of Asser and Alfred; but they have to shew that Asser was a Welsh name; that Dyfnwal was a Welsh name; and that shillings and pence are Welsh words. It has been the object of the author, in this and every other part of the work, to reject idle tradition, and to sacrifice even his national pride to the cause of truth. A great British lawyer, of the name of Dyfnwal Moelmud, is reported, among the illiterate, to have written on the Welsh laws; and weak men have published his triades, as specimens of his great wisdom, and incomparable rules of justice. Dyfnwal Moelmud denotes a profound Welshman, bald and dumb. The term Wallia, and the triadic mode of writing, were creatures of the seventh or eighth century; and the triades attributed to Dyfnwal consist of low and wretched adages, not reconcilable, in any instance, to either logic or jurisprudence. With this rejection, the Chapter on Laws contains passages from the Anglo-Saxon laws relating to Welshmen; a summary of the laws of Hoel; and abstracts of the English statutes, down to the last enactment inclusive.

"The language of the ancient Britons, preserved in the Gaëlic, Cambrian, and Cornish dialects, is interesting to the antiquarian and the philologer: and it is very desirable that some learned writer would publish a Celtic and English Dictionary, incorporating these dialects, and tracing every word from its Asiatic, African, Grecian, Gaëlic, Roman, Scandinavian, Saxon, or Norman origin. The late Rev. Mr. Richards, of Coychurch, in his Welsh and English Dictionary, has made a partial attempt; but, by confining himself to derivations from the Hebrew, he has transformed the ancient Britons into a colony of Jews. The author of the present work has confined his labours to a glossarial specimen of the dialects."

Dr. Jones's history of the Ancient Britons, from remote times to the final retirement of the Romans, contains some curious passages:"Britain was, in remote times, attached to Gaul by the Isthmus of Dwryfran. A convulsion of nature, attended with an irruption of the Atlantic Ocean into the lake Llychlyn, separated Britain from the continent of the Celta; for the homogenous strata on the British and Gallic coasts, and the more distant positions of Norway and Scotland at present, than in anterior times, are positive proofs of this catastrophe; and the term Afanc, whereby the waters of the Channel are personified, as a moving inroad, has been formed from a reference to this awful event of a continental dissociation.

"The national name which the inhabitants of this island assumed, in remote ages, was Brydon, the fair tribe; and hence their territory was called Brydain and Prydain; for the names of countries, in ancient times, were always formed from the names of the people who inhabited them. These Brydon, called in history Y Ddraig Brydon, or British Tribe, were blue-eyed, and of a fair complexion; and used the language and customs of the Celta, or Galli, of the continent; for the Cimbri, Galli, and Celta, were the same genus of people, under specific appellations; Cimbri, or Cynmry, signifying the first race; Gael, or Galli, the powerful; and Celta, the people of the woods, or

coverts.

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The island of Britain received an increase of population from the following event:About 420 years before Christ, a Carthaginian commander, of the name of Hamilco, was sent by the senate of Carthage to survey the western coasts of Europe: in the course of his voyage, Hamilco visited the British isles, and mentioned them in his journal by the name of Estrymnides. This appellation, quoted by Avienus, has been taken by some writers to signify the Isles of Gad Flies; and Virgil gives the word ergos that signification:

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"cui nomen asilo,

Romanum est, œstron Graii vertêre vocantes."
GEORG. lib. iii. 148.

But Pliny states the oestrus to be the apes grandiores; and from this a acceptation Estrymnides may signify the Isle of Bees; and this conjecture is well founded, when we recollect that Britain was called by the ancient Britons Y Fêl Ynys, the Honey Island; and that Ireland was called by the Gwyddelod, or Irish, Innis Fael, or the Isle of Honey. This casual visit of Hamilco opened a commercial intercourse between Carthage and Britain, which was beneficial to both countries. The Britons received a knowledge of the Mediterranean, Phoenician, or Carthaginian trade; the mode of Grecian

warfare, by fighting in chariots; the Alexandrian method of keeping public and private accounts in the ancient Greek alphabet, as preserved in the Thesaurus of Muratori. "A passage in the Poenulus of Plautus gives us to understand that Carthage, in the Punic language, was called Anec :

Muthum, Balle becha, e dre Anec."

Muthus, Ballus's son, of the town of Anec.
Carthaginiensem Muthum Balli filium.”

PENUL. act v. sc. 2.

"And hence it appears, that Bryd-Anec, or, as usually written in Greek characters, BPETANNIKH, signifies the British Carthage.”

Of the British chief who opposed Cæsar he speaks as follows:

"The Britons had, at the time, a chieftain of great valour and experience, of the name of Cassibelaunus, in the British Cassfelyn, or the Brazen Helmet, whom they appointed commander of their forces.

"The Roman consul again marched, with his troops, along the banks of the Thames, as the Saxon maritime towns could assist him with shipping, in case of a second disaster. In the course of this route, the British general gave him battle on every opportunity, took whole cohorts prisoners, would not give Cæsar time to encamp, and, by cutting off the communications between him and the maritime cities, he obtained signal advantages over the Roman foraging troops, although they went out in armies, or parties of three legions. It was after their quitting the colonial town of Rochester that the Romans felt the full impression of British valour, and the entangling manoeuvres of Cassibelaunus. The British general would not permit the Romans to retreat to Rutupæ, nor suffer them to proceed to their friend Mandubratius, or Mandebrog, the governor of the Saxon settlement of London; and it appears, from the commentaries, that Cæsar was always shut up within his mass of legions.

"By great circumspection, under great difficulties, and by almost permissive marches, the Romans ascended along the Thames, as high as the Two Wares, called by the Saxon settlers Tweywicken, and by the English Twickenham. Below these Wares, and at low water, the Roman army passed the river, but with considerable loss; for, on the return of the tide, the remainder of the troops, harassed by the brave Cassibelaunus on the rear, were obliged to proceed with great risk along the stakes which formed the wares. This incident gave Cæsar the invention of a tale, that the Britons, in their retreat, drove stakes and piles into the Thames to prevent his passage; and this narration might be credible at Rome, because the Romans had no such contrivance as a ware, nor had they a correspondent expression in the Latin language. Cæsar, after great labours and long privations, was supplied with provisions for the skeletons of his legions by Mandubratius, or Mandebrog, and the Trinobantes, or Saxon Newtownsmen of London, and other colonies: but, notwithstanding this well-timed relief, the Roman consul found himself so weak, and the Roman forces were so little disposed for further services, that the only achievement Cæsar performed, during a residence of two or three months in London, was the taking of Verulam, or Gwerulan, or, more probably, Wallingford, or Carleua, which was an entrenchment, consisting of a bank and foss drawn round a clump of trees, or circumambient grove, and called by the Britons Llan, and by the Romans Oppidum. Whilst Cæsar was thus engaged in taking this llan, or town, the virtuous Cassibelaunus, warmed with the love of pure glory, was in continual action, investing the station at Rutupa, destroying the naval camp, and capturing the Roman ships of burden, then at anchor at Deal.

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These glorious labours of Cassibelaunus, which an intermediate oblivion prevents the historian from gracing his pages with the detail of, were decisive of the future conduct of the Roman arms; and Cæsar, under the pretence of disturbances in Gaul, suddenly retired from Rutupæ. Such was the termination of the second adventure of Julius Cæsar; for, as Pompey is made to say in Lucan

"Territa quæsitis ostendit terga Britannis.

In this original narrative we lament that Dr. J. does not quote his authorities; but we conclude that he rests on the general reference in his preface, though this is deficient in the precision required on such subjects.

He relates the affair of Boadicea with less precision:

“A. D. 58. Paulinus is represented to have been a general of great military knowledge, slow and deliberate in his measures, and cautious and moderate in their exe3 R

Crit. Gaz. Vol. 1. No. 6.

cution: he prosecuted the war against the Britons of the west of England, and Wales; and passing the Menai from Llanvair-Is-Gaer to Llan-Idan, he laid waste the Isle of Mona, destroyed the sacred groves, and carried his arms to the furthest parts of the island, which, from his name, have been called Talybolion, or the heights of Paulinus. "Whilst Paulinus was engaged in this campaign, the Iceni and Trinobantes, under the command of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, put to death the colony at Verulam, took the station of Camlan, or Camalodunum, near the present Camelford, destroyed the temple of Claudius, put the garrison to the sword, defeated the ninth legion, and devoted to the manes of murdered Britons the lives of 70,000 of the Romans and their allies. Suetonius Paulinus, being informed of these disasters, withdrew his forces from Mona, and proceeded to London, a place of great celebrity, as the residence of merchants, and the great mart of trade and commerce, but not distinguished by the title of a Roman colony. In this place Paulinus, at first, thought of fixing his head quarters, and of acting on the defensive: but, reflecting on the impolicy of inaction, whilst the Britons were gaining progressive successs, he collected his forces, consisting of the 14th legion, the vexillarii, or flank companies of the 20th, and some German auxiliaries, and marched his army a considerable distance to the south of London, to meet Boadicea, on her return from Camlan, or Camalodunum.

"When the two armies met, the Romans formed themselves in order of battle; but the Britons advanced in a multitude, and without regularity: the Romans fought with swords, and the Britons with missiles. Under such unequal circumstances discipline prevailed, and the fortune of the day favored the Romans. The loss of the Britons was estimated at eighty thousand slain, and that of the Romans four hundred men killed, and the like number wounded; and Boadicea is said to have put an end to her existence by poison: but this is the Roman account, and a drama of the historian, to spare his nation the disgrace of having murdered a woman, and to deprive Boadicea the immortality due to her for having fought and fallen in the defence of her country."

:

The following passage in Chap. II. is new to our vulgar history “About the same time (449) an Irish adventurer, of the name of Brychan, took possession, either by marriage or by force, of the district of Garth Madrym, in Wales, and called it after his own name, Brychienog, or Brecknock: this Brychan was the father of saints: the stone at Towyn, with the word PASCEN, is to the honor of a son of his; and the inscribed stone at Parkeu, in Henllam-am-Goed, in the county of Carmarthen, is dedicated to Crinwendda, a daughter of Brychan."

We cannot refrain from introducing two ancient heroes of romantic history in the grave language of Dr. Jones :

Am

“A.D. 481. This prince, (Aurelius Ambrosius,) with his brother, Uthyr Pendragon, had retired, on the usurpation of Vortigern, to their uncle, the king of Bretagne. brosius, burning with revenge for the treachery of the Saxons, was assisted by his uncle with a large body of troops, and landed in Britain, where he was instantly raised to the throne: his first labour, according to tradition, was that of piety; for it was by his command that the structure, or circle, called Stonehenge, or Stonehang, was erected, on the site of an ancient conventional circle, and which the Welsh have ever since called Gwaith Emrys, or Merddin Emrys.

"It is said this work was designed as a memorial of the treachery of the long knives, as a monument encircling the manes of the slain, and as a conventual circle for state or national assemblies; and that the numerous barrows which surround this circular erection are the burial-places of the British chieftains; and one of the avenues to Stonehenge leads through a group of these barrows, consisting of seven on each side, which, to this day, are denominated the kings' graves: this circular work has been commemorized in the following triad :

"Tair gorchwyl gadarn ynys Prydain: codi maen Cetti, adeilaw gwaith emrys, a thyrru Cludau'r gyfrangon.

"The three mighty labourers of the island of Britain: building the walls of monasteries, for Cetti is Cedtu, the house of creed or belief; erecting the stones of contest, or Ymrys, to commemorate the places of battles; and driving the piles of partition, or Worcester, to keep out the Saxons. The triad is, however, too modern to refer to Stonehenge, which was the scene of Druidical rites; the barrows are the repositories of the bones of the victims; and the altar Cromlech, or Hanging Stone, which formerly occupied the centre, gave this circular space the appropriate name of Stonehenge.

"The other and concomitant great labour of Ambrosius was to check the encroachments of the Saxons: in this object he was well supported by the Cumbrians, by the Britons,

who had retired to Bretagne, and by the ancient natives, who fled from the territories of Hengist, and of Ella, who had lately founded a colony in Sussex. With these forces he marched against the Saxons beyond the Humber, completely defeated them, took Hengist prisoner, and instantly put him to death, as a sacrifice to the wrongs of Britain."

"He next drove Octa and Esca out of York, attacked Ella and the south Saxons, and recovered the ancient stations of Winchester and Salisbury.

"This great prince, after a lingering indisposition, died at Winchester, and was buried at Ambresbury, near Stonehenge. It is to be confessed, that notwithstanding his military valour, the Saxons gained great advantages over the Britons, and an extension of territories; for, in this reign, Ella founded the kingdom of Sussex; and Cerdic established that of the West Saxons, or Wessex.

"A. D. 500. Uthyr Pendragon, whose real name was Meiric ab Tewdrig, brother of Ambrosius, was now elected sovereign of the Britons. In his first campaign this prince obtained a great victory over the Saxons, then laying siege to Caer-ar-Clwyd, or Dunbarton, and made Esca and Cosa his prisoners.

"These generals shortly after escaped from prison, procured a fresh supply of troops from Germany, were again beaten, and both slain in the battle of Verulam. Uthyr, during this action, was indisposed, and carried through the ranks in a litter to encourage his men he expired after the taking of Verulam, and was interred at Ambresbury, near the remains of his brother Ambrosius.

"The victorious Uthyr was ably assisted in his campaigns by Maelgwyn ab Caswallon Law-hir, prince of Gwynedd, who resided at Diganwy, in Caernarvonshire. Uthyr, from his having conquered the Isle of Man and the Hebrides, received the title of Draco Insularis: his education was liberal, his stature almost gigantic, his valour not to be subdued, and his enmity towards the Saxons not to be pacified: he was a dragon in Man and the Hebrides, and a lion in Britain.

Our readers will demand of us Dr. Jones's account of ARTHUR; and we are gratified in presenting it :

"A. D. 517. The renowned Arthur, son of Meirig ab Tewdrig, prince of Morganwg and Garthmadrim, succeeded to the sovereignty of the Britons, and was crowned at Caer-Lleon upon Usk, but more likely at Exeter. Immediately after his coronation, Arthur went in pursuit of the Saxons, defeated Colgrin on the banks of the Douglas, and soon after had the like advantage over his brother Pandulph. The name of Arthur, from the valiant actions he had performed in his father's armies, was familiar, and even a terror to the Saxons: in consequence Cerdic landed in Scotland, as a distant point weakens the pursuit.

"Arthur having received reinforcements from Caron, king of Scotland, Maelgwyn, of North Wales, Meyric, of South Wales, Cador, of Cornwall, and Howel, of Bretagne, hastened to meet the enemy, and defeated the Saxons, who lost six thousand men in the battle of Lincoln: but this prince soon met with the displeasures of fortune; for the Saxons, in a short time after, beat the Britons at Cerdicsford, now Charford, in Hampshire; and under Cerdic, Pascen and Eppa, invested Bath, or Caer Badon, in order to bring Arthur into action.

Having received assistance from various chieftains, and, among others, five thousand men from Nathan Llwyd, of North Wales, Arthur engaged, and defeated, the Saxons, in the battle of Bannesdown. This sanguinary contest lasted for two days; Colgrin and Pandulph were among the slain; and the valour of Arthur, in this engagement, as related in history, borders upon the fabulous.

"The recollection of battles, or rather routs, like these, in which the contending parties were armed with swords, pikes, knives, and bludgeons, makes one thankful for the blessings of gunpowder, as a contrivance of great convenience to the general, and of great release to the soldier.

"The next expedition of Arthur was his rapid march from the west to Caer ar Clwyd, where his nephew, Howel, the king of Bretagne, lay ill, and was invested by the Picts and Saxons. Arthur relieved his nephew, pursued the enemy, and enjoyed a short interval of peace. Cerdic, profiting by this pacific interval, rallied his troops, had reinforcements from Germany, and obtained such advantages over Arthur, as to add to the kingdom of Wessex the present counties of Hants and Somerset. The absence of Arthur in Bretagne induced Cerdic again to extend his dominions: and this he most effectually accomplished as the result of a signal victory obtained over the Britons at Cerdic-Leagh, now Chersley, in the county of Buckingham, with the assistance of his son Cenric, and of his powerful allies, the East Angles, who had lately founded a kingdom of that name on the eastern coast of Britain. The adventurous spirit of the times,

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