188 



In Norman times, when he was king, 



Whose praise for learning churchmen sing, (c) 



There lived upon the British border, 



By arms of late reduced to order, 



A prince of ancient power and fame, 



Of royal blood, Gryflfyn by name ; 



Gryffyn ap Rhys, ap Tudor, ap — 



No more I know, nor care a rap^ 



Suffice he traced his own descent, 



Far back to the Old Testament, 



And was by right divine, no doubt, 



More king than Henry, out and out. 



Time was all Brechin ^dj owned his sway. 

 From Mynydd Epynt down to Hay ; 

 But late, alas ! the Norman lance 

 Had pierced his broad inheritance, 

 And his fair cantrefs (e) all save one, 

 To Milo (f) or De Bruce ((/) had gone. 

 And e'en for that he had to bring 

 A tribute to the Englsh king. 

 And so it happed, that on a day. 

 Returning from the curia, (h) 

 Where for that purpose he had been, 

 He rode with Milo and Fitz Paine, 

 Deputed by their liege the king 

 Him safe towards his home to bring ; 

 His home by (i) Dolauoothe's glen, 

 Beneath the slopes of dark Maelen. 



Across the hills their journey lay 

 Whose summits look o'er castled Hay ; 

 And soon they came where, place of fear ! 

 Extends Rhosgoch's wild mountain Mere — 

 Rhosgoch, (j) whose quaking treacherous sod 

 No foot of traveller ever trod — 

 And there awhile our cavalcade 

 A halt to view the prospect made. 



Before them, bottomless and vast, 

 Stretched out the dim mysterious waste, 

 As neat a bog as you might see 

 In Erne (k) round Limerick or Tralee, 

 Without the cabins and the hogs 

 That give some life to Irish bogs. 



(it) Henry I. (Bcuclerc). (rf) Brechiniog. (f) Welsh divisions of a Principality. (/) Ear 

 of Hereford. (£•) Lord of Abergavenny. (A) Royal court. («') Carmarthenshire. (_;') Giraldus 

 tells the story of Llangorsc. (A) Ireland " lerne." 



