( 3'i ) 



CHAP. XXV. 



flKETCH OF THE HiSTORY OF THE WeLSH BaRDS 



AND Music *. 



Aciount of the Druids, their Fun8ions, Manners-, 4inJ CuJIomt. — 

 Their Extermination by the Romans. — The fubfequent State of 

 Poetry and Mufic. — The Reformation effeBtd by Grij^th af 

 Cy$um, IM the Twelfth Century. — The Claffes of the Bards. — 

 The Eifteddfody or Triennial AJembJy. — The Degrees « Poetry 

 and Muftc. — The Privileges and Reveams of the Bards.— Their 

 fuppofed Mqffacre hy Order of Edward I. — Their Hiftory 

 eontlnutd from thence to the prefent Time. — Account of the Wtljk 

 Mufical Injlruments. — The Harp. — The Crwth. — The Pihcorn. 

 — Obfer vat ions on the Weljh Mufic. — Objedions to the Laws of 

 Counterpoint being known among the ansient Bards; and the 

 generally fuppofed jintlquity of the prefent national Tunes. — Chih 

 raSer oftheprtfent Weljh Mufic. 



Fr<5m all the authentic memorials extant refpe£t- 



ing the ancient Britilh bards, it appears that in the 



early periods they conftituted that order of men 



denominated by the Latin writers Druids, They 



were divided into three principal claffes of druid, 



hardy and ovate t- 



They 



* This fubjeft win be found more cxtenfively Hluftrated in 

 Mr. Jones's two works, '* The Mufical and Poetical Reh*c8 of 

 the WeHh Batds," and " Th< Bardic Mufeum." 



f Denominated in WcHh dcrwydd, bardd, and ovydd.*— 

 £)«rwydd figniiici the body of the oaky and, figuratively, the 



X 4 man 



