A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 301 



tion were prefcribed, and obferved with 

 fuch fcrupulous exaclnefs, that a line 

 not perfectly alliterative was condemned 

 as much by the Welfh grammarians, as 

 a falfe quantity was by the Greeks and 

 Romans. 



This language, the Cornilh,* and 

 Breton, or Armoric,-f have an uniform 

 agreement with one another, in gram- 



* The natives of Cornwall, and part of Devonfhire, began 

 to lofe their old Celtic dialed in the reign of Elizabeth, and 

 1 believe it is now entirely extincl. 



t Little Britain, now called Bretagne, in France, was 

 called, in Csefar's time, Ar-y-mCr-ucha' ', that is, " On the -V" 

 " Upper Sea." It was afterwards inhabited by Briror.s; "{-^t^t ***-***} 

 for, about the year 384, an hundred thcufand Britons, wirh o ./ , / / "^_ t 



a numerous army of foldiers, went out of this ifland, under , /*-//, 



. . // \3tt'~"t "s f ~ 



the command of Conan, Lord of Meriadoc, now Denbigh- J I 



land, to the afliftanceof Maximus the tyrant, againft the Em- 

 peror Gratianus. They conquered the country of Ar-y-mor- 

 ucha'; and for this fervice, Maximus granted to Conan and 

 his followers, that country to dwell in ; from whence, there- 

 fore, the Britons drove out all the former inhabitants, aud 

 formed there a kingdom, which continued in their pofterity 

 for many years, and where the Welfh language is fpoken,even 

 to this day. Dyck j PrifOefoedd, by Theophilus Evans, 

 Carafe's Hifloiy of Wales, by Wynne, p. 8 ; and Lcivit'i Hif- 

 tary of Great Britain, p. 143 ; quoted in fsntt't Weljb Bards t 

 p. I. 



mar, 



