vented neither by hanger nor cold, they were eager to take advantage of dark and ftormy nights for hoftile invafions. There was not a beggar to be feen among these people, for the tables of all were common to all; and with them bounty, and particu, larly hofpitable entertainment, were in higher eftimation than any of the other virtues. Hofpitality, indeed, was fo much the habit of this nation, by a mutual return of fuch civilities, that it was neither offered to, nor requested by travellers. As foon as they entered any house, they immediately delivered their arms into the cuftody of some person; then if they fuffered their feet to be washed by those, who for that pur, pofe directly offered them water, they were confidered as lodgers for the night. The refufal of this offered civility intimated their defire of a morning's refreshment only. The offer of water for the purpose of washing the feet was confidered as an invitation to accept of hofpitable entertainment. The young men ufually marched in parties, or in tribes, a leader being appointed to each; and as they were devoted to arms, or given up to leisure, and were courageous in the defence of their country, they were permitted to enter the house of any perfon with the fame fecurity as their own. The ftrangers, who arrived in the morning, were entertained until evening with the converfation of young women, and with the mufic of the harp; for in this country almost every houfe was provided with both. Hence we may reason, ably conclude, that the people were not much inclined to jealousy; fuch an influence had the powers of mufic on their minds, that in every family, or in every tribe, they efteemed fkill in playing on the harp beyond any kind of learning. In the evening, when the visitors were all come, an entertainment was provided according to the number and dignity of the persons, and the wealth of the house; on which occafion the cook was not fatigued with dreffing many dishes, nor such as were high seasoned, as stimulatives to gluttony; nor was the house set off with tables, napkins, or towels; for in all these things they studied nature more than fhew. The guests were placed by threes at fupper, and the dishes at the fame time were put on rushes, in large and ample platters made of clean grafs, with thin and broad cakes of bread, baked every day. At the fame time that the whole family, with a kind of emulation in their civilities, were in waiting, the mafter and miftress in particular were always ftanding, very attentively overlooking the whole. At length, when the hour of fleep approached, they all lay down in common on the public bed, ranged lengthwile along the fides of the room; a few rufhes being ftrowed on the floor, and covered only with a coarse hard cloth, the produce of the country. The fame garb that the people were used to wear in the day served them alfo in the night; and this confifted of a thin mantle, and a garment or shirt worn next to the skin. The fire was kept burning at their feet throughout the night, as well as in the day. The women of this nation, as well as the men, had their hair cut round at the ears and eyes. The women alfo, as a head drefs, wore a large white robe, folding round, and rifing by degrees into a graceful tuft or crown, Both the men and the women were exceedingly atten tive to the prefervation of their teeth; by conftantly rubbing them with green hazel (probably the leaves, or bark) and cleaning them with a woollen cloth, they kept their teeth as white as ivory; and to preserve them ftill more, they abftained from every kind of hot food. The men were accustomed to fhave the whole beard, leaving only a whisker on the upper lip; they likewife cut fhort or shaved the hair of their heads, that it might be no impediment to their activity in paffing through the thick woods and forefts that covered their country. • The Welsh were a people of an acute and fubtle genius; and to whatever studies they applied their minds, enjoying fo rich a vein of natural endowments, they excelled in wit and ingenuity any other of the western nations. In civil caufes and actions, they exerted all the powers of rhetoric, and, in the conduct of thefe, their talents for infinuation, invention, and refutation, were confpicuous. In rhythmical fongs, and in extempory effufions, they excelled to a great degree, both in respect to invention and elegance of ftile; and for these purpofes poets or bards were appointed. But beyond all other rhetorical ornaments they preferred the ufe of alliteration, and that kind more especially which repeats the first letters or fyllables of words. They made fo much ufe of this ornament in every finished difcourfe, that they thought nothing elegantly spoken without it. In private company, or in feasons of public feftivity, they were very facetious in their converfation, to entertain the company and difplay their own wit. With this view, perfons of lively parts, fometimes in mild and fometimes in biting terms, under the cover of a double meaning, by a peculiar turn of voice, or by the tranfpofition of words, were continually uttering humorous or fatirical expreffions. • The loweft of the people, as well as the nobles, were indebted to nature for a certain boldness in speech, and an honest confidence in giving answers to great men on matters of business, or in the presence of princes. There were among the Welsh, what were not to be found among Other nations, certain persons whom they call Awenydhion (a word expreffive of poetical raptures) who appear to have been folely under the influence of the imagination. Thefe perfons, when they were confulted about any thing doubtful, inflamed with a high degree of enthufiafm, were carried out of themselves, and feemed as if they were poffeffed by an invifible fpirit. Yet they did not immediately declare a folution of the difficulty required, but by the power of wild and inconfiftent circumlocution, in which they abounded, any person who diligently observed the answer would at length, by fome turn or digreffion in the fpeech, receive an explanation of what he fought. From this ftate of ecftacy they were at last roused, as from a deep fleep; and were compelled, as it were, by the violence of others to return to themselves. Two things were peculiar to these perfons; that after the answer was given they did not come to themselves unless recalled by force from this apparent fpecies of madness; and when they recovered their reafon they did not, it is faid, recollect any of thofe things which in their ecftacy they had uttered. And if it happened that they were again confulted about the fame or any other thing, they would speak, it is X 4 true, true, but would exprefs themselves in other and far different words. This property was bestowed upon them, as they fancied, in their sleep; at which time it appeared to some of them as if new milk or honey was poured into their mouths; to others as if a written fcroll had been put into their mouths; and on their awaking they publicly profeffed that they have been endowed with these extraordinary gifts. This imaginary fpirit of divination has been in much ufe in the highlands of Scotland, and there known under the expreffive term of fecond fight.' Many other particulars respecting the customs and manners of the Welsh, borrowed by our author from Giraldus, are equally entertaining. But whether this CAMBRIAN GIRALDUS has not varnished the failings and imperfections of his countrymen, as well as fet off in the most favourable point of view their good qualities, may be reasonably questioned. Nay it may be alfo queftioned, whether the native, if he be a conftant and ufual inhabitant of any country, is the best qualified to obferve or difcern the character of his countrymen. In order to paint and properly distinguish these, a very general knowledge of other nations is neceffary. Such a knowledge Giraldus probably poffeffed in as high a degree as any of his cotemporaries; yet it would appear that it was very imperfect. It would require a general knowledge of nations and of human nature, equal to what BARCLAY has difplayed in his Icon ANIMORUM, to exhibit a just picture of any national character:-And here, by the way, we may regret that there has never yet been published any book of GEOGRAPHY in which the characters, and phyfical and moral circumstances of the different nations have been delineated with the views and accurate diftinction of philofophy. The characters of nations, ftamped on them at remote periods, have been retained in our very neweft geographical treatifes, amidft the conftant and multiplied changes that variegate the face of the world. No BARCLAY has arifen to paint living manners of the nations that now grow into importance, or fink into old age, or tremble, as it were, on the pivot that fufpends the rifing or falling fcales of kingdoms and empires. Although we may allow to our author that the delineations of Giraldus are pleafing in their native fimplicity, yet it ap-1 pears to us that they are neither wholly juft nor perfect: and this judgment we fupport by a proof with which our author, we prefume, will not be diffatisfied. Mr. Warrington himself has noticed the levity, fimplicity, credulity, and irafcibility of the Welsh nation. And, from the inftances he has recorded of thefe, he might have affirmed with truth, that their levity bordered on infanity, their fimplicity on idiotifm, their credulity on on that of children, and their irafcibility on the brutal animofity and rage of inferior animals. Our hiftorian, who, though not a Wellhman by birth, is more than half one by inclination and affection to his fubject, forbears to exprefs himself in fuch ftrong terms; or perhaps he did not draw the conclufion, in his own mind, which his premises would have fully justified. Our limits do not permit us to illuftrate by many inftances, which we might eafily do, the extreme folly and levity of the ancient Britons. We shall therefore confine ourselves to a few. The folly and crimes of Vortigern, who had waded to the Cambrian throne through blood, and endangered its fecurity by a timid, a treacherous and adulterous connection with the Saxon chief, Hengift, rendered himself an object of univerfal deteftation and horror, in confequence of which he was depofed from the throne by a general affembly of the ftates, and the crown was given to his eldest fon Vortimer, a youth endowed with every heroic and princely quality and virtue. This young prince, who had redeemed by his gallantry and good conduct the intereft and honour of the British nation, is murdered at the inftigation of his ftep-mother Rowenna, the Saxon queen of the depofed Vortigern. An affembly is called, in confequence of this event; and, by the fuffrages of the Welsh chiefs, Vortigern was re elected to the fovereign dignity;-Vortigern, who, a few years before, had been folemnly depofed from the throne, as a traitor to his country. HENGIST, who had been driven back into Germany by Vortimer, but who was a confidential friend, and acted in concert with Vortigern, embarked with four thousand Saxons under his command. • When the Saxons approached the British coaft, they found that the inhabitants, under the command of Vortigern, feemed fully determined to oppose their landing. Intelligence of this being privately fent by Rowenna to her father, the Saxon chief had recourfe to an expedient fuggelted by his wily and fertile imagination, as well as from a knowledge of the people with whom he had to act. In this artifice the weakness or the treachery of Vortigern was employed. Hengift fent to affure that monarch, that his purpofe in coming into Britain was not to offer any violence to the kingdom; but only to make a vigorous oppofition against his fon Vortimer, whom, he artfully pretended, he thought had been alive It was likewife propofed by Hengift, that an interview fhould take place between them, and that each of the chiefs fhould meet at the place appointed, attended by the most eminent of his train; and, in order to banish every idea of hoftile intention, it was artfully fuggefted by the Saxon, that both parties fhould appear without their arms. The propofal was agreed to by the king; the time of meeting was fixed for the May following; and the place ap pointed pointed for the interview was probably at Stone-henge upon Salisbury plains. In the mean time, Hengift, having affembled his chieftains, laid open to them his defign; that, under the colour of meeting the Britains for the purposes of peace, and to establish a lafting alliance, he intended to murder the chiefs who fhould attend Vortigern to the interview; that, by ftriking fo decifive a blow, he might cut the finews of future refiftance. At the fame time he gave orders, that his train who attended the meeting fhould carry knives concealed in their fleeves ; that when the fignal was given each of them should inftantly ftab the person who fat next to him; and he closed this infernal order by requiring them to behave like men, and to fhew no mercy to any perfon but to the king." Notwithstanding the many proofs the Saxons had given of their perfidy, the Britains, with a degree of credulity peculiar to themselves, fell into the fnare, and came unwarned to the place appointed for the interview; where, by the contrivance of Hengift, they were placed with his train alternately at the tables, under the pretence of confidence, and of a friendly intercourfe with each other. When the feftivity was at the height, and probably in the unguarded moments of intoxication, Hengift gave the fignal agreed on, Hem cour feaxes, or take your feaxes. At that inftant every Saxon drew out his knife, and plunged it into the bofom of the perfon who fat next to him. Above three hundred of the British nobility, the most eminent for their talents in the council or in the field, perished in this bloody caroufal. gern was fpared in the general carnage, though detained a prifoner by Hengift, probably with no other defign than as a cover to a fubfequent act of the British prince, which carries with it a ftrong appearance of bafenefs; for, in order to obtain his liberty, he made an affignment to the Saxon chief of the counties of Norfolk and Suffex, and also confirmed him in the poffeffion of his former territories.* Vorti. Although their natural fituation might have pointed out the eftablishment of a naval force as their most natural defence, and that prince Vortimer, though inferior to the Saxons in the number and fize of his vessels, had nevertheless, contending for the fate of Britain on its proper element, gained the advantage, and taken feveral of their fhips and difperfed their fleet, yet they almost uniformly afterwards neglected naval affairs, and trusted for defence to their exertions in the field, in which they were not a match for the Germans.-Their hofpitality was extreme, and their bravery equalled that of the moft impetuous nations. But when we reflect on the inftances of weakness juft quoted, out of multitudes more that might be produced, and that they were fo wholly deftitute of political wisdom as never to derive any substantial advantage, which their valour, chance, and the poffeffion of the country very frequently gave them, whether ought we to believe the Cambrian Giraldus when he says that the Welsh were a people of an acute and fubtle genius; and |
