Who first founded Malmesbury ? 



57 



castle retains his name, I am satisfied for my part with such agree- 

 ment of monumental, philological and documentary evidence. I 

 consider the old British King, the Justinian of Antiquity, to be 

 the first Founder of this town, and to have first built upon this site ; 

 others continuing to build on the ruins of his structure, on the 

 ruins of the Roman — of the Saxon: as I venture to say many of the 

 houses in modern Malmesbury have since been built out of the ruins 

 of the Norman Abbey and its outhouses. 



Having attempted to do justice to Malmud as a Founder of Cities, I 

 have a word to say about him as a Founder of Constitutions. There 

 are extant in the British language some very curious epitomes of 

 British History drawn up in the Druidic Form of Triads, and 

 therefore called " The Triads." There are other Triads of Poetry, 

 of Bardism, of Proverbs, of Religion, of Law, but it is the Historical 

 which bear upon our present point. There are certain of these in 

 which Malmud enacts a prominent part in more than one capacity. 

 I cite one or two illustrations. " There are three pillars of the 

 nation of the Isle of Britain — the first two mentioned are ; Hu the 

 Mighty, its first colonizer, and Prydain from whom it derives its 

 name ; the third is Dunwal Malmud, who codified the Laws, Maxims, 

 Usages and Privileges of the Country and its Isles." Another 

 Triad runs thus — " The three Founders of the Monarchic system 

 in Britain — the first Prydain, the second Dunwal Malmud, the 

 third Brennus or Bran son of Lear — on the systems of these three 

 rested the Monarchy of Britain." A third mentions Malmud as 

 one of the three Benefactor Sovereigns, or as the Greeks would 

 term them — "Euergetai" of the Isle of Britain, in being the 

 Founder of its Institutes — and a fourth, as one of its Three Primary 

 Inventors. I consider these singular matter-of-fact Triads con- 

 firmatory evidence that Malmud was not a myth, but a real 

 character, a substantial hero of flesh and blood, playing a very 

 important part in the Early History of our Island. 



And I must not conclude without giving a specimen of his Laws 

 and Legislation. These Laws are a codification, in the above 

 Druidic fashion of Triads, of the usages, faith and practices, which 

 were brought into this Island by our first British ancestors from the 



