THE WYNNS OF WYNNSTAY. 



I MEAN no disparagement to the title borne by His 

 Royal Highness Albert Edward when I say that the 

 real Princes of Wales for some generations back have 

 been the Wynns of Wynnstay. These Welsh magnates 

 might, indeed, if they chose, claim to be of royal descent, 

 for I believe they can trace their pedigree back at least 

 as far as the tenth century to ' Cadrod the Handsome,' 

 a Prince of Anglesea, and Owen Gwynnedd, a sovereign 

 of North Wales. I take this statement on trust, for he 

 would be a bold man who should venture to trace a 

 Welsh pedigree to its source. He would probably soon 

 grow as sick of his task as Charles Lamb did of that 

 ' Brucian enterprise ' of his boyhood, when, fired by the 

 adventures of certain explorers of the Nile, he set off 

 heroically resolved to devote a summer's day to 

 tracking the New River to its fountain-head, but collapsed 

 ignominiously somewhere about Tottenham. For, the 

 most patient and plodding of pedigree-hunters might well 

 be excused for ' throwing up,' when across the line of 

 descent there loomed such a portentous facer as the in- 

 cidental note, ' About this time Adam was born.' 



I am' willing, therefore, to take it for granted that 

 the Wynns are descended from ancient Cymric Kings. 



