ROBERTS’S EARLY HISTORY OF THE CYMRY, OR ANCIENT BRITONS. 
. 
of England (Lloegyr), and Wales (Cymru), 
until they were expelled by the second race 
of Celts (or Cymry), and driven into Ire- 
land. In favour of this assertion, he says, 
that many local names, even in Wales, and 
South Britain, are Gwddelian, and not to 
be interpreted by the Cymraeg, or Welsh. 
** Many persons, wholly unacquainted 
with the Celtic dialects, have adopted this 
opinion, broached by a native of Wales, in 
its full latitude; and some, in support of a 
system, have even urged that there are but 
few terms, common in the two languages. 
«© However disagreeable it may be to de- 
rogate from the credit of a respectable anti- 
quay, it is a duty weowe to truth, to prove 
, that the system of Llwyd is essentially wrong. 
Ist, He instances the names Wysg, Llwch, 
Conwy, Ban, Trum, Llechlyyd, as only 
to be explained in the Irish pues e; an 
unfortunate selection! But each of these 
words is common in the Welsh, nay, more 
common, and of more various acceptations 
than in the Irish. 
** With respect to Wyse, its abstract, or 
general import, is preserved in Welsh, 
whereas it appears in the Irish only as the 
term for water ; but in Welsh, it is used as 
* anoun, implying a tendency downwards, or 
to a level, as a stream or current: as, 
<* Od oes prydydd wydd di wysg, 
O Gymro hen digamrwysg, 
Attebed vi 
John of Kent. 
«¢ Tf there is a poet, possessed of knowledge 
without bias, 
An old Welshman free from perverseness, 
Let him answer me. 
«© Liweh is equally common in Welch as 
in Irish. It is one of those generic words 
preserved in most languages, and proves no- 
thing; it is the English lake, the French 
lac, the Italian lago, and the Latin lacus. 
— In Welsh, it strictly means an inlet, which, 
compounded with another word, becomes 
Liych; Llyn, also, in Welsh, is a term for 
a collection of water, or lake. These two 
words joined together, make the Welsh- 
name for the Baitic sea, Llychlyn, that is, 
the Inlet lake. 
‘© The compound Conwy is changed by 
Llwyd into Cynwy. In either case the com- 
onent parts of the word are more common 
in the Welsh than in the Irish. It is 
formed of Con, what bolts straight forward, 
orruns to a point, and Gwy, in composi- 
tion Wy. The first of these is not in-the 
Trish ; but Gwy, a stream, is common in 
both languages. To make Irish of Con, 
slwyd turns it to Cyn, because Cean, as 
Agt. If. Sketch of the early History of the 
700, before Christ, to A.D. 500. By the 
TO Mr. O. Jones, by whose patriotic 
liberality the publication of so many an- 
227 
written in that tongue, implies a head: and 
so it does in Welsh: besides, it has various 
other acceptations, unknown in Irish, and 
it is the root of a great multitude of words, 
The primary acceptations of Cyn, in Welsh, 
are, substantively, the first, or foremost 
part; adjectively, first, chief, or foremost ; 
prepositively, before; adverbially, ere, sooner 
than ; also a prefix of general use in compo- 
sitions. 
«* The next word is Ban. It is singular 
that Liwyd should have forgot that it was 
Welsh; for it was one of the most commop™ 
words, and of general acceptation. It ime 
plies a prominence, a height, what is con- 
spicuous, and is the name of several moun- 
tains; ban hydd, the antler of a stag; ban 
ennill, the head, or division of a stanza; 
an cowydd, the distich ofa poem, It is 
also an adjective, conspicuous, high, lofty, 
as, illas ban, 2 loud voice. Its the root of 
a numerous family of words. 
«© The word Trum, a bick, or ridge, is 
common in the Welsh and the Irish. Tram 
y mynydd, ridge of the-mountain; trun y 
ty, roof of the house; trum grwn, the ele- 
vated part of a ridge of ploughed land; rhych 
athrum, furrow and ridge. It is also the 
root of many derivatives. 
«« The last example is Llechlwyd, a com- 
pound word, literally implying a grey flag; 
a term equally familiar in Welsh, with grey 
flag in English. 
** Such are the words brought forward by 
Llwyd as not Welsh. But this singular per- 
version is the less surprising, as Llwyd, 
though a man of considerable learning, was 
of a warm and visionary temper, and a great 
builder of systems. 
** Jn regard to the second point, that 
there is little similarity between the Trish 
and Welsh, we have reason to assert, that 
out of 25,000 words in the Irish dictionary, 
8,000 are decijediy common words in Welsh 
Most of the general prefixes and termina- 
tions of the different classes of words, which 
the Irish have, are also used in Welsh, be- 
sides various affinities of idioms and con- 
struction,” © 
This book tends more to affect Mr. 
Pinkerton’s reputation for fairness of 
citation than for sagacity of inference, 
and to make him pass for a dashing, but 
not for an injudicious, antiquary. It 
throws little new light on any of the 
topics agitated ; it withholds much old 
light, groping in mist and stumbling at 
difficulties, which were long ago re- 
moved by Schloetzer, whose Northern 
Hfstory appeared in 1771. 
Cymry, or Ancient Britons, from the Year 
Rev. P. Rozerts, 4. M.  8vo. pp. 176. 
cient records of the Welsh has lately 
been la not only the British but 
