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rogant wretches fhould we be?-How independent even of heaven itfelf! Alas, with all these checks are we not fufficiently headftrong, prefumptuous and vain: and instead of being as the folemn poet of the night finely calls us, the penfioners of an hour, do we not feem proudly to think that time and space are our vaffals, and that inftead of being in a few years, poffibly in a few moments, vanquished ourselves, is not the creft uplifted as if we could put all things under our feet?

LETTER XVII.

TO THE SAME.

ANCIENT manners are lefs worn

away by time, and the varying modes of life in Wales, than in most other countries. There is a harper in almoft every village, and more than a bard to every mountain. The poetical enthusiasm has defcended from the earliest to the latest generation, with no lofs of its original fervor, at leaft; for the Cambrian poets have monthly meetings and annual festivals, on which there is a ftrife in rhime which makes the very rocks poetical. I received a card of invitation to one of thefe, and was much amufed with the novelty of the ceremony. About a hundred and thirty bards

affembled

affembled at a public houfe, in the village of Penmorva, in Merionethshire. Twelve judges were appointed to decide of the fuperiority of the poems, the fix beft of which were to have prizes, the one an arm-chair, decorated with the enfigns of Apollo; a fecond a chaplet of laurels befpread with gold leaf, and so on: only five-and-twenty bards were to recite, and each recitation not to exceed twenty minutes. This I foon found was a very proper restric tion, for had the poefy been equal to the vehemence of delivering it, had the fenfe echoed to the found, Phoebus himself might have been proud of his votaries. It was, however, a very merry affociation; and though only half a dozen could obtain prizes, every man went away about day-light, well fatisfied with others and with himself; for if each happy candidate was pleafed with prefent fuccefs, each unlucky one was whifpered to by his felf-love, that the next meeting would atone for the disappointment. Thus,

"Not a vanity is given in vain."

and we are to be convinced of every thing but our want of merit in the art we cultivate. This good opinion of ourselves is not only to be reckoned amongst the painted clouds that beautify our days, but incites us to industry and emulation in the fcience or occupation we purfue.

The

The bards of old are too famous, and you are too well read in their ftory, as it has been given in modern and ancient performances, to ftand in need of much information. Old Caradoc (Craddock) of Lancarvon, whofe book was originally written in British, and published in English, by Doctor Powel, as it is quaintly called, has furnished the beft, as well as the earliest account of them; and it appears that one of the ancient Princes of Wales, named Gruffydth (Griffith) ap Conan, who died about the year 1136, to the grief and difcontent of all his fubjects, amongst other wholesome laws and statutes enacted in his time, reformed the diforders and abufes of the Welch minstrels.

Of these minstrels there were three forts; the first compofed feveral fongs and odes of various measure, wherein, says Craddock, appeared not only the poet's fkill, but also a vein, which the Latins call Furor Poeticus. These of the first order likewife kept the records of the gentlemen's arms and pedigrees (a very facred trust amongst these defcendants of Cadwallader in former times) on which account they were held in great veneration both by their brother poets and by the people. The next were fuch as played upon instruments of mufic, chiefly the harp and the crowd, the latter of which

Prince

Prince Griffith, who defcended from Irish parents, and was born in Ireland, brought over with him from that country; and who, not contented with giving his Welch subjects the inftrument, fent over for fome of the best performers upon it; and, although the Welch contend for the honour of the invention, it seems to belong principally to thofe very Hibernians. The laft fort of Welch minftrels and bards were to fing to an inftrument played by another. Each of thefe, by the fame ftatute, held their feveral rewards and encouragements allotted them their life and behaviour was to be spotlefs, otherwise their punishment was very, fevere, every one, on proof of a well-founded complaint, having authority to correct them, even to a deprivation of all they had. They were also interdicted entering any man's house, or to compofe any fong upon any one, without the fpecial leave and warrant of the party concerned.

These regulations gave virtue to amusement, by adding morality to mufic and poetry. It must be confeffed, that, although (the harmony, as well focial, as vocal and inftrumental, ftill remains in a certain degree, the morality, fo far as fobriety and temperance is a part of ethics, is a little the worse for wear. The or

gies of Bacchus generally finish those of Apollo at the feftivals of the modern Welch minstrels, who, after the poetic trials of the day, eat and drink like so many aldermen at a turtle feast. Formerly bard and minstrel united in the fame perfon, at least frequently: at prefent, the harper and the poet are, for the most part, diftinct. The poet, like the harper, is still welcome wherefoever he goes; they both migrate in a pleasant wandering kind of life, from one place to another, making fometimes a circuit of their neighbouring hills and vallies, and fometimes of the whole principality. They travel with the harp at their backs, or their works in their pockets. They enter a houfe without invitation, and are confidered as one of the family while they ftay, which is feldom lefs than a week at a time. If any little domeftic incident happens while they are inmates, it is celebrated on the spot if the event be fortunate, the bard greets it by a gay and spirited impromptu ; and the harper hails it with his most lively ditty. If it is distressful, they commemorate it by an extemporaneous elegy, and attempt to foften it by foothing founds. The marriage of children,. the death or fickness of parents, a fair profpect of harvest, an untimely froft, and, in fhort, almost every change and chance of hu