218 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [ Vo. III. 
Gach seancha, gan seanchas, saobh. 
Gach fear dano nar aomh breg, 
Cumand eadar agus iad, 
A leabhrain bhig biadh go heg. 
Those verses furnish other examples of alliteration and correspon-_ 
dence in Carswell’s hymn. 
Lhuyd’s Arch@ologia Britannica, was published in 1707. There are 
appended to the preface several Gaelic poems in praise of Lhuyd himself 
and of his great work on Celtic philology. These verses composed, as 
they were, by the Priest of Kildalton have several of the beauties and 
peculiarities of Celtic prosody. 
“Tuigseach saoibhir do theagasg, 
Soilleir tarbhach seimh do ghloir, 
Lionmhur brioghmhur do shean fhocail, 
Sgiamhach, taitnambhach, ciallach mor.” 
Regarding Cambrian or Welsh poetry, Zeuss asserts that the old poems 
of the Welsh are almost of the same structure as the old Irish poems. 
There is this difference, however, that the final consonant which is almost 
a monosyllable and is always full, is continued through several verses 
according to the pleasure of the Cambrian poet, and that even in separate 
parts of poems greater freedom obtains in the continuation of verses. 
The contraposition or antithesis of Hemistichs does not exist as is the. 
case with Irish poetry. In his literature of the Cymry, (p. 475-476), 
‘Stephen writes “that the bards by fixing an artificial standard of versi- 
fied perfection, concentrated attention upon the words and neglected the 
spirit of their poems. The merits of their poems are rather historical than 
poetical. Bardism was on the whole unfavourable to extraordinary 
merit and true poetic excellence. The regulations of the bards have 
acted as dead weights upon imagination, and the metaphors and images 
of many of the Kymric poets display either a want of taste or of origin- 
ality.” He further writes (p. 486), “I have another quarrel with the bards, 
for not only do they display affectation in the ‘beginnings’ of their lines 
but they also display it in their ‘endings, the effect of both practices being 
the depreciation of the poetry and filling up of the lines with unmeaning 
. words.” Price, than whom there is no better authority on all matters 
affecting Welsh poetry states (vol. I, p. 209) “that the Welsh Bards 
rejoice in the Lyric, and when by chance they deviate but for a moment 
into the narrative, or Ballad, the style seems uncongenial with their spirit 
and they instantly quit it and return to their favorite strain.” (p. 313) 
After 300 years of Roman Dominion upon the departure of that people, 
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