11*4 



It is written in the triadic form of the old Welsh Bards. It 

 is divisible into well marked sections, in which either the slain 

 chieftains are apostrophized, or the places in which the loss of 

 themselves, and their companions in arms, will be most felt and 

 mourned. It is evident that, in the estimation of the bard, his 

 friend Kyxdelann was the soul of the British cause, not only 

 from his capacity as a leader, but from his military power and 

 resources. It is not easy to determine with precision some of 

 the localities mentioned, as the Vicomte de la Yillemaequ6, 

 from whose ^' Bardes Bretons" my text is taken, remarks, but 

 when we ehminate those which clearly refer to the bereaved 

 possessions of the slain monarch, in his proper kingdom, we 

 must naturally look for the others, in the vicinity of the 

 conflict. 



It must be observed, that nothing is said in the poem, of the 

 result of the battle of Dyrham, in the capture by the Saxons 

 of the great British strongholds, Gloucester, Cirencester, and 

 Bath; these we only learn from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. 

 The bard seems to have been so entirely overwhelmed by his grief, 

 for the loss of his nearest and best friends and protectors, that he 

 could think of nothing else, and as from the context, it is clear 

 that the remnant of the British forces retreated to Basing, (Basa) 

 in Hampshire, where the remains of the slain Prince, with those 

 of other leaders were interred ; it would probably have been 

 many days before these crushing consequences of the defeat 

 could have become known to him. From the fact of Basing-* 

 church being mentioned, as the burial place of the chiefs slain, 

 it would appear that the rout of the British must have been 

 complete, and the flight from the field of battle of the most 

 precipitate description, as its direction, proves that they had 

 been obliged to abandon communication with their bases of 

 operations, the three cities above-mentioned. The outburst 

 of grief of the bard, being a purely personal expression of 



* That is, assuming Basa to mean Basing. It cannot mean a river, as 

 supposed by Pearson, because the words of the Dirge tell us, that : — " The 

 Churches of Basa are in deep mourning to-night, on receiving the remains 

 of the pillar of the battle ; of the heart of the men of Argoed." 



