186 Wranglers and Optimis at Cambridge....Poestry of Hywel. [March, 
which the king had newly ere&ted; and to 
detain them ibere in confinement, till ibe 
foould have completed all the decorations 
which if wanicd from their art. 
It is alfo generally fuppofed, that th 
WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE Was, in the 
fourteenth century, exercifed almoft ex- 
clufively by the Italians of Florence, 
Genoa, and Venice; by thé Moors of 
Spain; by the Flemings inhabiting the 
Netherlands. Englifh wool, too, was 
then ufually exported in a raw, un- 
wrought ftate, to the continent. Yet, 
it appears from a paper in Rymer, that 
the merchants of England, in the four- 
zeenth century, traded to the fhores gf the 
Baltic; and that Exglifh broad cloth was 
one of the articles which they exported 
thither, while corz, among other things, 
was fometimes imported in return. 
Your’s, &c. 
March 1, a oN 
1797. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Wo I was an under graduate of 
the univerfity of Cambridge, my 
friends, who were not very fond cf the 
ftudies of the place, ufed to cover their 
indolence by declaring always, that they 
were too much attached to the claffics, 
to pay any attention to the mathematics. 
T might have run on with them in the 
fame career of idlene(s and diffipation, 
if, fortunately for me, one of my {chool - 
fellows, who had already gained fome 
gold medals, had not convinced me by 
his practice, that the two ftudies might 
go hand in hand together. As I ad- 
vanced to my Soph’s year, this conviétion 
was daily ftrengthened: for though at 
our college we had a confiderable num- 
ber of claffical le€tures, I did not find 
that my mathematical ftudies prevented 
me from making a worfe figure than my 
neighbour ; or, rather, J might fay, that 
if 1 did not make a great progrets in 
fcience or literature, fll J was progref- 
five in both, whilft my claffical gentle- 
men, who fcorned the mathematics, 
were evidently regreffive in the know- 
ledge which they brought with them 
from {chool. Before I took my mafter’s 
degree, I faw clearly, that all this talk 
about the ¢laffics, was 2 mere pretext for 
idlenefs: that the term meant little more 
than common fchool-boy knowledge; 
and that the fame talents which en&bled 
aman to rife to a high degree, would 
{pur him on to a confiderable proficiency 
in the other parts of his education. 
Thefe thoughts, after a confiderable 
interval, occurred to me again, on a vilit 
to my guendam alma mater, when the 
fubjeét, on fome oceafion or another, was 
brought forward: and as the univerfity 
calendar was then in my friend’s room, 
and which, till that time, J] had never 
feen, Lappealed to it, to prove, that we 
fhould find a greater number of claffical 
medallifts amongft the higher, than the 
lower mathematicians. We made the 
trial, and this is the refult -— 
Since there are two claffical medallifts 
every year, there have been in forty-one 
years, from 1755 to 1796, inclufive, 
eighty-two medallifts. 
Of thefe, fifty-one were wranglers ; 
—thirty-one were fenior optimis; 
confequently, the proportion in favour 
of the wranglers 1s fo great, that we 
may lay it down as a polition, that the 
mathematical ftudies of Cambridge are 
not unfavourable to claffical literature. 
Thave not the leaft doubt, that I could 
prove the fuperiority of Cambridge, to 
its fifter, Oxford, in thefe latter ftudies ; 
but I hope, that the above ftatement 
may prevent fome Frefh-men from neg- 
lecting thofe ftudies which Cambridge 
has very properly feleéted, as the bef 
means of forming the minds of youth. 
Your’s, A. S. 

To ihe Editir of tbe Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
yo were pleafed, laft month, to give 
a place to a fhort compofition, by 
one of the royal bards of Wales; the 
following is another, by the fame author, 
which is at vour fervice, 
From your humble fervant, 
MEIRION. 
Hywel, ab Owain, a gant yr awdyl hon. 
Caravi gaer valc-waith o’r Gyvylci, 
Yni bylca balc-lun vy hun yndi 5 
Enwawg draferthawg a draiz izi; 
Anwar don lavar a levawr wrthi. 
Dewis-le lywy, loew gyddeithi 
Giaer, g'oew ei dwyre o du gweilgi; 
A’r wraig alewyg¢ ar eleni 
Viwyzyn, yn ynial Arvon, yn Eryri, 
Ni dirper bebyll; ni fyll bali, 
Neb a rwy garwy yn vwy nozi; 
Pel cwaerai ei buz er barzoni, 
Nebawd nofwaith y byzwn nefav izi. 
THE TRANSLATION. 
Hywel, tke fon of Owain, fang this verfe. 
I love the caftle, of proud workmanfhip, in 
the Cyvylci, where my own affuming form is 
wont to intrude; the high of renown, in full 
buftle, feek admittance there ; and by it, {peaks 
the mad refounding wave. 
it 
