302 
off as sparks, from vastly larger satel- 
litic bodies, which still continue their 
course: to which bodies, observation 
and sound reasoning- can assign no 
other or more recent origin, or prin- 
ciple of motion, than belong to the 
several other satellites and planetary 
bodies of the solar system. 
The inaugural lecture of professor 
Buckland, which drew forth Mr. Cum- 
berland’s remarks, has appeared to me 
liable to severe objections, different 
from those noticed by Mr. C., some of 
which I have stated in Dr. 'Villoch’s 
Phil. Mag. vol. 56, p. 10. ; 
Joun Farey. 
Howland-street, Jime 8, 1822. 
. —>_—- 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTERS ON WALES, 
From Griffith Tudor, at Festiniog, to his 
friend Franit Wilmot at Oxford. 
LETTER II. 
_ Welsh Poetry—Its general Peculiarities— 
Poetical Triads. 
Y peaR Frank,—As I know 
your partiality for the Muse, 
in whatever form she may appear, and 
from whatever clime she may come,— 
whether from the Tiber or the Thames, 
—I shall. offer no apology for com- 
mhencing my proposed plan with some 
account of this fascinating personage, 
as she has chosen to exhibit herself 
amongst our Cambrian hills. And 
here I must forewarn you not to adopt 
your notions of our mountain goddess 
from those you have imbibed of her 
sisters in other countries, ancient or 
‘modern; for there is none of them with 
whom she can be exactly assimilated. 
Less majestic than the Greek or Ro- 
man, less luxuriant than the Oriental, 
and more exact than the English 
muse, her charms are peculiarly her 
own, but not on that acvount less wor- 
thy of admiration. 
Non, si priores Mzonius tenet 
Sedes Homerus, Pindaricz latent, 
Cexque, &c. 
Here then, you sce, in order to soothe 
your prejudices, f have again the mo- 
desty to admit* the inferiority of the 
muse of Cambria to the same lady, 
when anciently attired in all the sim- 
ple grandeur of the Meonian garb. 
But is it any disparagement to the 
poetical fame of my country, that it 
has produced nothing to vie with the 
strains of that mighty bard,—of whom, 
* See the former Letter. 
Tudor’s Letters on Wales. 
[Nov. 1, 
in the words of the author just quoted, 
we may so justly say— 
Nil majus generatur ipso, 
Nec viget quicquam simile aut secundum. 
To enable you to form a proper idea 
of the poetry of Wales, it is necessary 
I should first inform you, that the 
Cymry} (for such is the name by 
which the Welsh have ever distin- 
guished themselves,) were formerly in 
possession of a singular institution, 
known by the name of Bardism, which 
appears to have grown out of the still 
more ancient system of Druidism. 
The bards, indeed, formed originally 
one of the orders of the Druidical in- 
stitution; and when, in process of 
time, that political fabric had been 
deprived of its primitive importance, 
they seem to have established a dis- 
tinct society among such of the an- 
cient inhabitants of this island as had 
sought an asylum in Wales. Some 
memorials of the regulations to which 
this new establishment was subject, as 
well as of its singular tenets, still sur- 
vive; but they are for the most part so 
intermixed with the metaphysical in- 
terpolations of later times, that it has 
become scarcely possible to distinguish 
the genuine from the spurious. Of 
one. thing, however, I am enabled to 
speak with certainty; and this is,— 
that poctry formed an especial object 
of the care and cultivation of the bards, 
whose name has accordingly become 
synonimous with the sons of song. 
Hence the art was made subservient 
to a strict discipline, and a peculiar 
system of rules; and it cannot be 
deemed surprising, if the effusions of 
the ancient Welsh poets were also im- 
pregnated with the mystical doctrines 
of bardism. This was in fact the case, 
as may be proved by some of our ear- 
lier poems still extant, the subjects of 
which, however intelligible the lan- 
guage, are lost in a hopeless obscu- 
rity. But it was not to the themes of 
the Musc that the influence of bardism 
was confined; for the bards, consider- 
ing poetry to form an essential part of 
their institution, are known to have 
exerted all the powers of their genius 
in its artificial embellishments, so as 
to render it the more appropriate me- 
dium of the doctrinal or historical lore 
which they thus treasured. To this it 
must be ina great measure ascribed, 
that Welsh poetry possesses a richer 
store of metres than was perhaps ever 
+ Pronounced Kumry. < 
known 
