ANTIQUITIES. 



873 



i 



at the departure of those foreigners 

 it had recovered its ancient reputa- 

 tion amongst a people, who were 

 still pertinaciously attached to their 

 national usages and superstitions. 

 And May was the season appointed 

 for the meeting, because it was the 

 solemn anniversary of the British 

 mysteries. 



To most readers it must appear 

 singular, that in an age when Bri- 

 tain was nominally christian, the 

 bards should speak with veneration 

 of a heathen temple, in which hea- 

 then rites were still celebrated; the 

 fact, however, is recorded against 

 them in their own compositions. 

 It may, indeed, be urged as an ex- 

 cuse for our present author, that he 

 describes the ancient, rather than 

 the actual solemnities of the place ; 

 and that during the great bardic 

 festival, some ancient rites may 

 have been admitted, which were 

 not, at that time, in general esta- 

 blishment : but I do not mean to 

 be his apologist. Whatever Aneu- 

 rin might have called himself, it is 

 evident, from the warmth of his 

 language, when speaking of those 

 mystical characters, Hu, Ked, 

 Llywy, and the rest, that they were 

 objects of veneration to him ; and 

 so, I am persuaded, they were to 

 the body of the British nation, whose 

 profession of Christianity was cer- 

 tainly very imperfect. 



The bards were generally their 

 priests; and these, as it appears 

 from their own works, were deter- 

 mined bigots to the ancient super- 

 stition. Many of the populace of 

 this age were also disciples of Pe- 

 lagius, whose great aim it was to 

 blend the heterogeneous tissue of 

 Druidism with a few shreds of 

 Christianity. Could a people, who 



had profited so little by the light 

 of the gospel, complain of the act 

 of Providence, in depriving them 

 of their dominion and theij coun- 

 try? 



Ancient British Coins. \_Froni 

 the same.^ 



The old Britons, as their own 

 writings testify against them, in an 

 age of the greatest public calamity, 

 and after the gospel had been pub- 

 lished in their land, neglected the 

 worship of the true God, and sought 

 protection from heathenish rites, 

 charms, and incantations. These 

 vanities deceived them ; their crimes 

 were justly punished, and they lost 

 their political existence. 



As to the nature of the charms 

 to which they had recourse, I 

 have shown, from Thaliessin, that 

 they had certain magical figures of 

 horses impressed upon small pieces 

 of gold and silver, which were de- 

 livered to the deluded people, as 

 pledges of supernatural assistance; 

 that these figures weresacred to the 

 gods of heathenism, were deemed 

 efficacious for the defence of the 

 country, and were precisely of the 

 same form, as the monsters which 

 we find upon the ancient British 

 coins. 



To this I have added Aneurin's 

 account of a talisman, for the pro- 

 tection of the patriotic warrior, 

 and the destruction of the foe. This 

 talisman had those very symbols 

 which we discover on the coins, 

 and they were so adjusted as to 

 constitute the figure of a horse, 

 of the same monstrous form which 

 the coins exhibit, and with the 

 same accompaniments. This talis- 

 man 



