* 



[ 3«« ] 



" ftream of Garthen. Dark envy and detraction will not fufFer 

 " his praife to be celebrated. If it is his defert, timid caution 

 " avaunt. If any ftrait, beautiful, and brave offspring of Cy- 

 «< nan's lineage u was ever bred, this muft be he. Beware the 

 " feoff of thofe who have before detracted ; if I Ipeak of him it 

 <s muft be to his honour." 



Compofed by Rees Goch (or Rhys the Red) of Eryri *, 



This is the moft ancient fong I can find extant which is acl- 

 drefled to any of my anceftors ftnee the raigne of Edward the 

 Firft, who caufed our bards all to be hanged by martial law y , as 

 ftirrers of the people to fedition, whofe example being followed by 

 the governours of Wales, untill Henry the Fourth his time, Was 

 the utter deftrucrion of that fort of men. Sithence, this kind of , 

 people were at fome further libertie to fing and to keep pedegrees, 

 as in ancient time they were wont , fince which we have fome 



11 The exprefflon iaith in the original fignifies properly tongue : thus 

 lingua Walenfium in fome old records fignifies the Weljh nation. For 

 more ample fatisfadtion, however, on this head, the reader is re- 

 ferred to Hurd's learned and ingenious Dialogues, vol. ii. p. 1 7. where 

 he inftances the ufe of the word laga, which fignifies both a law and a 

 country. 



3 This Bard is placed by Llwyd in his Archaologia in the 15th cen- 

 tury, about 1420. He ftiles him Rys Goch o Eryri, or of the Snowdon 

 mountains. It lhould feem that the inhabitants of this country have long 

 been much addicted to poetry, as a rock is fhewn by the fhepherds, 

 pretty near the fummit, under which, if two perfons Deep on a midfum- 

 mer's eve, the one will wike out of his fenfes, and the other a poet. 



y Edward the Firft hath been alfo accufed of having deftroyed all 

 the ancient records and writings in Scotland, after his conqueft of that 

 kingdom. See this however very ably refuted by Sir David Dalrymple, 

 in his Examination into the fuppofed antiquity of ths Regiam Majeflatem. 

 Edinburgh, 1769, 4to. 



light ' 



