THE BRITISH CRITIC, CRITIC, For JULY, 1811. Exultat levitate puer, gravitate Senectus, Here eager youth and folemn age appear, ART. 1. A Hiftory of the County of Brecknock. In Two Volumes. Containing the Chorography, general Hiftory, Religion, Laws, Cuftoms, Manners, Language, and System of Agriculture ufed in that County. By Theophilus Jones, Deputy Registrar of the Archdeaconry of Brecon. 4to. 71. 9s. 6d. Brecknock, printed; London, J. Booth, 1805 and 1809. WORKS of a defcription like the History of Brecknock fhire by Mr. Jones, have in our judgment at least, a peremptory claim upon the public for protection and encouragement. They cannot be profecuted to their fuccessful termination without great expence, laborious exertion, and much careful refearch; they involve matters of univerfal importance to every branch of science, and contain objects of general interest and curiofity. The public, however, feem, in a great degree, to be duly fenfible of the obligation; for, notwithstanding the unavoidable increase *N.B. The fecond volume may be bound in two, and has two title pages for that purpose. B BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVIII, JULY, 1811. of of price annexed to fuch productions, as Shaw's Staffordfhire; the Hiftory of Leicesterfhire by Mr. Nichols; of Monmouthshire by Mr. Coxe; the works of Manning, Lyfons, and others are, after no long interval, exhaufted, and called for in fecond editions. This work by Mr. Jones was commenced fo early as 1805; the fecond volume was printed in 1809. Both together comprehend every fubject of intereft in the county which it is attempted to defcribe; peculiar cuftoms, manners, laws, agriculture, &c. and are embellished with numerous engravings by Bafire, from drawings of Sir Richard Hoare. The preface to the first volume is written with confiderable vigour, and explains the difficulties incident to fuch an undertaking as this before us, from various and often from oppofite caufes. When the neceffary enquiries for informa-. tion are circulated, important matter is fometimes withheld; because that which is familiarly known in one district, is erroneously conceived to be of univerfal notoriety; other materials, from a mittaken conception of their value, are withheld till loft or rendered useless by the ravages of cafualty or time. The work properly commences with the ancient and prefent Hiftory of Brecknockshire, and exhibitsa very honourable monument of the author's elaborate refearch, particularly in what relates to the early establishment of the Romans in this county. From this portion of the work, as it dif plays the various talents of the author, we fubjoin an extract. "Cenai, Ceneu, or Keyna is the patronefs of Llangeney, in Brecknockshire; of this fainted lady, Creffy (the Coryphæus of monkifh hiftory) treats at large, and as her church, as well as the place of her habitation during the latter part of her life, are fo well known and afcertained, fhe has fome claim upon our attention as an old acquaintance and domiciliated countrywoman. I fhall therefore make a short extract from the ponderous folio of this writer: fhe (St. Keyna, fo he calls her) was of royal blood, being the daughter of Braganus, prince of Brecknockshire. When the came to ripe years, many nobles fought her in marriage; but the utterly refufed that ftate, having confecrated her virginity to our Lord by a perpetual vow; for which caufe, fhe was afterwards by the Britons called Keyn wiri*, that is, Keyna the virgin: at length, fhe determined to forfake her country, and find out fome defert place where fhe might attend "Ceneu, forwyn or vorwyn." to contemplation. Therefore directing her journey beyond Se. vern, and there meting a woody place, the made her requeft to the prince of that country, that the might be permitted to serve God in that folitude. His anfwer was, that he was very willing to grant her request, but that the place did fo fwarm with fer. pents, that neither man nor beaft could inhabit it: but the con tantly replied, that her firm truft was in the name and affiftance of Almighty God to drive all that poisonous brood out of that region. Hereupon the place was granted to the holy virgin, who prefently proftrating herfelf to God, obtained of him to change the ferpents and vipers into ftones, and to this day, the ftones in that region do refemble the windings of ferpents through all the fields and villages, as if they had been framed fo by the hand of the engraver. Camden, who notices this ftory in his account of Somersetshire, fays, that the place is now called Keynfham, between Bath and Bristol, where abundance of that foffil, termed by the naturalifts Cornu Ammonis, is frequently dug up: he is not quite an infidel, though not perfectly convinced of the truth of the origin and cause of these petrifactions of ferpents, but calls them miracles of fporting nature, and feems to exprefs fome degree of furprize at one which he faw dug up from a quarry near the place he has been defcribing, which (fays he) repre fented a ferpent rolled up into a fpire; the head of it ftuck out into the outward furface, and the end of the tayle terminated in the center.' A fimilar miracle is related of St. Hilda, at Whitby, in Yorkshire. But to return to our holy virgin: Creffy proceeds to tell us, upon the authority of Capgrave, that after many years spent in this folitary place, and the fame of her fanctity every where divulged, and the many oratories built by her; her nephew Saint Cadoc, performing a pilgrimage to the mount of St. Michael, met there with his bleffed aunt St. Keyna; at whofe fight, he being replenished with joy, and being de firous to bring her back to her own country, the inhabitants of that region would not permit him; but afterwards, by the ad'. monition of an angel, the holy mayd returned to the place of her nativity; where, on the top of a hillock, feated at the foot of a high mountain, the made a little habitation for herself, and by her prayers to God, obtained a fpring there to flow out of the earth, which, by the merits of the holy virgin, afforded health to divers infirmities.' She is faid to have departed this life on the eighth day of the Ides of October, A.D. 490, and to have been buried in her own oratory by her nephew St. Cadoc. Sometime previous to her death, we are told, fhe had a profpect of her eter nal happiness in a future world in a vision; being miniftered to "The idea of nature's working or fporting a miracle, is certainly Camden's own; though it must be admitted that the fports of nature are sometimes moft whimsical.” and comforted by angels: to her nephew St. Cadoc, the thus prophefied: this is the place above all others beloved by me; here my memory fhall be perpetuated; this place I will often vifit in fpirit, if it may be permitted me, and I am affured it fhall be permitted me, because our Lord hath granted me this place as a certain inheritance. The time will come when this place fhall be inhabited by a finful people, which, notwithstanding, I will violently root out of this feat. My tombe fall lye a long time unknown until the coming of other people, whom by my prayers, I fhall bring hither; them will I protect and defend, and in this place fhall the name of the Lord be bleffed for ever.' Thefe good ftrangers are not yet arrived, as her tomb has not hitherto been discovered; though the well of St. Ceneu is known and the fituation of her oratory may be traced, but a description of them is referved to that part of this work which relates to the paro chial hiftory of the county. "Dwynwen, the youngest daughter of Brychan, according to the MS. in the British Mufæum, though omitted by Llewelyn Offeiriad, was a faint of such celebrity, that the shade of David ap Gwylym, frowning while I hefitate, imperiously requires me to notice her, as fome atonement for the filence of Llewelyn the prieft, who for this inftance of his inattention will be configned to eternal infamy, unless he avails himself of the benefit of clergy. A church, from her called Llanddwyn*, was built and dedicated to the faint in the ifle of Anglefea, in the year of Christ 590; fhe is the Welsh Venus, or goddefs of love. Dwynwen Santes, Duwies y cariad, merch Brychan !' holy Dwynwen, goddefs of love, daughter of Brychan, fays David ap Gwylym. Her fhrine was much reforted to by defponding fwains and love-fick maidens, who with many a fuppliant offering, intreated her propitious fmiles and folicited her interceffions and good offices with the objects of their affections. • These garlands ever green and ever fair, With vows were offer'd and with folemn pray'r A thousand altars in her temple fmok'd; A thousand bleeding hearts her pow'r invok'd.' "The bard of Glamorganshire + has a poem in invocation to Dwynwen, which has been tranflated by Owen, and is inferted in Jones's fecond volume of the reliques of the Welsh bards: not being at this moment in the fame predicament as the British poet, or feeling upon the subject, as he probably did, when he wrote it, it appears to me to be an unconnected rhapfody, and little better than nonfenfe, either in Welsh or English. not here, however, be understood to depreciate the writings of "Rowland's Mon. Antiq.” I would David ap Gwilym, or be fuppofed to be infenfible to the beauties or even the fublimity of most of his poems :, that upon thum. der can hardly be equalled in any language; and another upon the wind is not excelled by any compofition yet known to the public: I cannot refift the temptation of recommending it to the attention of my countrymen, accompanied with nearly a literal English translation. I once intended to have given it a me trical drefs, but that would only be an attempt to clip the wings of the wind, or to confine their flight with a cobweb. The poet employs this meffenger to convey his fentiments to his miftrefs. Yr wybrwynt helynt hy law, A gwrdd drwft, a gerdda draw, Uthr wyd mor aruthr i'th roed, bantri'r wybr heb untroed, A buaned yr 'hedy Yr awr hon dros y fron fri! Och wr! dos o Uwchaeron Yn glaer deg, yn eglur dôn Nag aro' di, nag, eiriach, Wind of the sky of fleetest Of awful found, who roam- The mighty one of the world, Most wonderful art thou; how marvellously extended thy circuit When thou comeft from the storehouse of the firma. ment, thou art footlefs, And yet how fwiftly doft thou fly At this hour over yonder Declare to the conftant Oh my man! Hie thee from With uninterrupted courfe * "In Caerdiganfhire. Och Gwr. This is a peculiarity of expreffion, which, though not improper in Welsh, will not bear trans lation." "This was his rival, and, unfortunately for him, the husband of his mistress Morfydd. It must be acknowledged that in these lines B 3 1 |