ANTIQUITIES. 



895 



ins of the ancient Welsh kings, 

 tlicreis one from a coin of Bleiddyd, 

 or Bladud, king of Britain, about 

 nine hundred years bsfore Christ. 

 I'his i3 now lodged in the Cotton 

 nuiscurn. There are others of 

 Manogaii, about a hundred and 

 thirty years before Christ ; of 

 Cynvelyn, or Cunobelin, kinp^ of 

 u- Cassiveliauni, at the commence- 



ent of the christian sra, Sec. 



In the reign of Henry VIII. a 



bleof metal, apparently of lead 

 .iiid tin mixed, was discorered at 

 Ambresbury in Wiltshire, inscribed 

 with many letters, but in a character 

 so uncoranioD, that neither Sir. 

 Thomas Eliot, nor Mr. Lily, the 

 master of St. Paul's school, were 

 able to understand them. It was 

 inconsequence neglected; it might 

 otherwise have led to some impor- 

 tant discovery. 



Previously to the arrival of the 

 Romans into these islands, the 

 Welch, then the British language, 

 was the only language in use. From 

 the Romans some new words were 

 added to its dictionary. After the 

 expulsion of the inhabitants by the 

 iiaxons, it fled with them to the 

 niouniains, receiving, however, a 

 few additions from tliis people. In 

 the Highlands of Scotland, Wales, 

 Ireland, and Cornwall, it continued 

 to be used for many centuries, in 

 exclusion of every other language. 

 In many parts of North Wales it 

 continues yet to be spoken in its 

 original purity. The iOnglish have, 

 indeed, for a few centuries, been sck 

 much encroaching ujxjii this coun-' 

 try, as to have rendered their own 

 the fashionable language, and, in 

 general, the only language spoken 

 by the higher orders of the people. 

 Attempts have also been made to in- 

 troduce the English tongue into 



3 



general use among the lower classes, 

 but hitherto with no great success. 

 English charity-schools have for 

 many years been instituted in various 

 parts of the principality, but these 

 seem to threaten nothing serious 

 against the languages of the coun- 

 try. The little that the children 

 learn from instructors who them- 

 selves know but little, is soon after- 

 wards lost inthe natural preference 

 they have to their own tongue, and 

 the little occasion that they have to 

 speak any other. To say that the 

 majority of the Welsh are entirely 

 ignorant of the English language 

 would be wrong, for in those parts 

 of Flintshire, Denbighshire, and 

 jMontgomeryshire, adjacent to the 

 English counties, tiiey speak it 

 very lluently. It is in Anglesea, 

 and the mountains of Caernarvon- 

 shire and Merionethshire, where 

 the greatest ignorance of it is to be 

 observed; but hf»re, in the great 

 roads, I had commonly English 

 answers to my questions ; and even 

 in more obscure situations, by a 

 little perseverance, or by the exhi- 

 bition of money, I have obtained 

 the answers I sought for. 



A late Welsh writer has remarked 

 that, " some advocates for the 

 " abolition of the Welsh tongue are 

 " vain enough to prognosticate a 

 " near approaching day, when it 

 " will be numbered with the dead 

 " languages. They sec some few 

 " families on the borders, and 

 " about a dozen innkeepers upon 

 " the post-roads, who speak Eng- 

 " lish only ; but there are thousands 

 " and ten§ of thousands in the 

 " wilds of Wales, \yhohave learned 

 " the language of their parents, and 

 " of their country, as naturally and 

 " as innocently as they sucked 

 " their mother's bn asts, or 



" breathed 



