314 A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 



That the Britons ufed this alphabet, 

 in ancient times, beyond all hiflory, 

 feems extremely probable, even from an 

 expreffion of Caefar, in his defcription 

 of the Druids, " Greeds literis utuntur,"* 

 for feveral of the Saxon characters, are 

 the fame as thofe in the old Greek alpha- 

 bet. 



Many of the ancient Britifli manu- 

 fcrips are written in this character, as 

 part of Liber Landavenfis, and feveral 

 in North Wales. 



Mr. Edward Llwyd in one of his 

 prefaces to Archaeologia, has inferted 

 three ftanzas, of the ancient piftilh poe- 

 try, which he found in the Highlands 

 of Scotland, in this old character, or one 

 very like it. They were written orr 

 vellum, and he fuppofed them above a 

 thoufand years old. 



* Caef. Lib. VI. S. 14. 



Over 



