A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES 



Immediately after this event, thofe 

 who efcaped, fled from the country, and 

 fought refuge in the adjacent iflands of 

 X Ireland, the Ifle of Man and Bardfey, 

 places to which the Roman fword had 

 not at that time reached. The theory 

 of the Britifh muiic is faid to have 

 moved with them, and to have fettled in 

 Ireland, which, from that period, conti- 

 nued, for many ages, the feat of learn- 

 ing and philofophy. 



The Bards, having now loft their fa- 

 cred Druidical character, began to ap- 

 pear in an ^honorable, though lefs digni- 

 fied capacity, at the courts of the Britifh 

 Kings. The mufic, as well as the poe- 

 try, of Britain, no doubt received a tinc- 

 ture from the martial fpirit of the times; 

 and the Bards, who once had dedicated 

 their profeflion to the worfhip of tli2 

 . Gods in their Sylvan temples, the cele- 

 bration of public folemnities, and the 

 praife of all the arts of peace, and 

 who had reprefied the fury of armies, 

 4 pre- 



