OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE. 309 



and tens of thoufands in the wilds of Wales, who 

 have learned the language of their parents, and 

 of their country, as naturally and as innocently 

 as they fucked their mother's breads, or breathed 

 the common air : thefe have neither opportunity nor 

 inclination to learn any other tongue. This is the 

 impregnable fortrefs of the Welfh language, where 

 a rivetted, cordial antipathy againjl the Englijh tongue^ 

 caufed by the cruelties of Edward /., a^id of the ^ 

 Lancajlrian family, dwells as commander in chief. 

 Storm this garrifon, and overturn Snowdon from its 

 bafe*!'* 



* Of the truth of the cruellies faid to have been infllfted by- 

 Edward I. on the bards, further than profcrlbing the profeflion 

 of bardifm, there feenis great doubt. Allowing, however, all 

 that have been alleged to him, in their fuUeft extent, to be true, 

 thefe cruelties cannot furely be adduced as jufl; caufe for obferva- 

 tions fo illiberal as the above againfl; the prefent Englifh, living 

 five hundred years after the fuppofed date of thefe events. In 

 the lower orders of the Welfh, fuch prejudices Inlght be over- 

 looked, from their ignorance, and the want of knowing better: 

 but from an intelligent writer, and a clergyman, thefe, and remarks 

 like the following, though too Illiberal to wound our feelings, 

 are certainly inexcufable : — '' This mode of burlefquing the 

 Welfh (for the wrong pronunciation of fome Englifii words) 

 originated in the ridicule with which the Saxon viftors treated 

 their conquered vaflals ; and Vv'hich is ftiil carried on, in fpite of 

 reafon and liberality, by tht folly and ignorance of the defendants of 

 our once infull'ing foes " 



The *' booriflinefs" of the Englifh peafantry *' has no rival, 

 and of their ignorance a clergyman of their own gives us 

 SATISFACTION, who, a few years ago, on coming to his parifh, 



X 3 within 



