214 
fact of a second hatchet being turned up by the plough shortly afterwards. With- 
out entering for one moment into the mystic rites of Druidism, there can be no doubt 
but that the mistletoe was held by the Druids in the highest esteem. It was the 
Pren awyr, the etherial tree, the Pren puraur, the tree of pure gold, Pren ulchever, 
the tree of high summit, etc., which the Arch-Druid gathered with a golden 
hook, The mistletoe, trefoil, oak, and wheat, form the bardic emblems of the 
four seasons. The ancient Celtic bards Taliesin, Aneurin, Llywarch, Hén, 
Merrdin, &c., were themselves professed Druids, and in one of the old poems, 
“ Kadier Taliesin ” (the Chair of Taliesin), the mistletoe is specially mentioned as 
one of the ingredients of the celebrated ‘‘ mystical cauldron,” prepared with the 
most elaborate and careful ceremony at the feast of Ceridwen. From this 
‘cauldron ” Genius, Inspiration, Science, and Immortality were supposed to be 
derived. The mistletoe, ‘‘the tree of pure gold, contributed the fructifying 
quality,” says the poem, ‘‘ when that brewer gives it a boiling who presided over 
the cauldron of the five plants.” This power of promoting the increase of the 
species, or preventing sterility, thus alluded to by the bards, has ever been 
attached to the mistletoe, and may be traced to this day in the customs of the 
people. It was, however, the mistletoe growing on their sacred tree—the oak— 
which excited so strongly the veneration of the Druids, and, knowing this, 
modern bardic authorities are too apt to attach mistletoe oak to every druidical 
place of worship, as if it could be made to grow on oaks at pleasure. This is not 
the case, for no one has yet been able to make it grow on the oak. Herefordshire 
is the home of the mistletoe, and the oak has been termed ‘*the weed of the 
county ;” and yet there are but eight known examples of mistletoe oak in 
Herefordshire; and it may safely be added that there is not a single known 
example in all Wales, with Mona and Anglesea to boot. It is evident, at any 
rate, that modern bardic writers know little about it. If, therefore, you should 
wish to believe the tradition that bardie worship was practised on this hill, and 
mistletoe oaks did exist here, as may possibly have been the case, you are 
requested to do soon the authority of the bards rather than on that of the 
Woolhope Club. 
The formation of the hill into a military camp is the next point to be 
introduced to your notice, and here history and the existence of the fosses and 
ramparts come to the assistance of tradition. This camp is believed to be 
originally a British camp from the mode of construction of its inner portion, and 
it is supposed to be one of those formed by Caractacus ap Bran during his long 
struggle with the Roman general Ostorius Scapula. The excellent paper read 
before the Club on Coxwall Knoll a few months since by Mr. Burrough on the 
site of the last battle of Caractacus, introduced this subject to the consideration 
of the members. The course of Caractacus was then endeavoured to be traced by 
the existence of British camps, with camps of Roman construction in their 
immediate neighbourhood. Whilst the Silurian chieftain occupied this camp, 
Ostorius is believed to have occupied the hill you see on the north looking across 
the valley about three miles off called Caerneveh, Kersneh, or Carne Hill, now 
vulgarly called Corner Cop. The proof that this was so consists not only in the 
