51 



Wfya first fouttkir palraeslMg ? 



fp^jHE traditional Founder of Malmesbury, according to the 

 21 |H Primitive British Records, was Dunwal Maelmutius or 

 Malmud, 1 King Paramount of Britain whose era is fixed 400 years 

 before the Christian era. I find by references to various authorities 

 that he was the son of Cloten, Duke of Cornwall, that he succeeded 

 his father in that Dukedom 400 B.C., that he married Corwena, 

 daughter and heiress of Albyn, now Scotland, and in 408 B.C. 

 after defeating his competitors, Hymner, Rhyddoc and Staterius, 

 ascended the throne of the whole island. By his wife Corwena he 

 had two sons, Belinus who succeeded him, and Brennus the Con- 

 queror and Captor of Rome and Founder of the Cisalpine or Celtic 

 Empire of Italy. The Roman writers, Livy, Justin, Yarro, and the 

 Greek historian Polvbius, concur in assigning the foundation or 

 reconstruction of all the principal cities in Northern Italy, Mantua 

 excepted, to this Brennus or his brother Belinus, specifying by 

 name— Genoa, Milan, Brescia, Yerona, Como, Trent, Bergamo 

 and Yicentia. Analytic historians such as Niebuhr, Arnold, 

 Mommsen, have come to the conclusion, grounded on a wide field of 

 evidences, that if the main body of these early Invaders of Italy 

 were Gauls, their leaders were British or Cymric. In this conclu- 

 sion we cannot but agree, having before us in addition the positive 

 statement of Richard of Cirencester, derived from original author- 

 ities, — " All the regions south of the Thames, were according to 

 ancient records occupied by the warlike nations of the Senones. 

 These people under the guidance of the renowned King Brennus 

 penetrated thro' Gaul, forced a passage over the Alps hitherto 

 impracticable and would have entirely razed Rome had not the 

 Fates averted the threatened calamity." [Ancient state of Britain.] 



1 Pronounced " Malmeed"— " u" having the sound of "ee" in British, 

 Malnieedsbury" thus glides naturally into the contraction— Malmesbury. m 



e 2 



