He begins, by describing the extent and geography of Brecknockshire, then follows an account of events connected with it, during the times of the Romans, to A. D. 450; and from that period to modern times. The language, manners, laws, popular opinions, commerce, and other particulars, take their due place: and an Appendix contains returns of the population, atmospheric tables, genealogies, and other documents. Mr. Jones also pays a laudable attention to the Natural History of his county and that not only as an historian, but as an attentive observer of nature. : We have, occasionally, bestowed some We proceed, however, to consider this as in obtaining correct notions of performance, especially the first volume be ancient inhabitants of our Island, of of it, in which the author is under a kind eir manners, sentiments, conduct, and of necessity of adapting the history of the neral disposition. Our pages have wit-country at large to this county in particular: essed to a part of this: and may hereafter For the present, however, content ourselves with acknowledging obligations to the worthy author of the k before us, for enlarging our acquain ace with the County of which he is the torian. The three volumes contain a ety of information, connected with the ory, productions, and present state, of County of Brecknock: with occasional 3 for improvements, in various places. well know the labour required by han undertaking; the indefatigable earch and even anxiety to ascertain s, and accompaniments of facts, the imtance of which is not visible to every yet if mistaken, and the mistake is fered to continue, they are not only of ve when detected, but are injurious general history. Truth is of so great portance that every endeavour to display badvantage is laudable; and few writers e more favourable opportunities of vinating truth than those who trace the tory of a county. The general ignoe of the ancient British language ich prevails among our historians, has vented them from deriving much | owledge from sources that were open Inative of the Principality and Mr. ges avails himself of his intimacy with mother tongue to explain many diffiwords and phrases, which though deed from our forefathers, are now almost meaning. Some of these perplex the nest auditors of certain of our law proedings, who can scarcely believe their are safe when exposed to the battery composition of English, Latin, Norman ench, and other dialects, fired off with volubility of a good speaker at the bar. at the people should understand the to which their obedience is demanded, so evidently a just proposition, that no gument can render it stronger: this y might do originally but to say that understand them at the present time, to do more than justice to the present lightened age. We might allude to er particulars which originally were anded on good sense, or on existing cirstances; but for which the most ingent are now perplexed to assign a reson or cause. In Panorama, Vol. III. p. 564, we gave an extract from this volume, in which the natural sagacity of the sheep was noticed. A no less powerful instinct in fishes, especially the salmon, is well known: but the destructive consequences of suffering the fry to be destroyed by illicit depredators are scarcely known, or if known are little attended to. The trout of the Usk are in season from the begining of March to the middle of July, but poachers take them at all times, by a perch net; and, not contented with the destruction they occasion by that means, they throw unslaked lime into the brooks where they resort to deposit their spawn. This destroys them by myriads; and to little profit, for the fish thus obtained are scarcely eatable. In like manner, the salmon which resort to the rivers (-the young fry are partial to the stream which gave them birth, and when grown they always frequent the haunts of their youth) are not deterred by ordinary difficulties; "but when they have made their way against the swiftest currents, and have successfully overcome the force of cataracts, they are still frequently unable to escape from man, their greatest and most indefatigable adversary. Upon their approaching the source of rivers where the streamr is shallow or diminished, their pursuer watches them near a narrow gulley and either in the day time, or by burning a bundle of straw at night, by the light of which they are attracted, strikes them with a spear formed for this purpose, and drags them from their element at a time when the flesh is nauseous, if not un wholesome; although the death of a single fish is frequently attended with the destruction of millions in embryo, which would otherwise have contributed to the common stock of the adjacent country." Laws to prevent this cruel practice are not wanting; but they are disregarded. Mr. Jones not only advises the preservation of fish, but recommends the increase of them, by converting the waste acres of this county into ponds; which would yield a ready supply of fish for the table, and the market." A never failing annual crop without the trouble of sowing or the expence of seed:"-" they lack,' says he, neither labour nor manure.' 16 The history of King Offa, that ferocious enemy of the Welsh, and of his dyke, of which considerable remains may be traced at this day, is interesting to every Briton; and is given by Mr. Jones with considerable particularity. He has also inserted, a copy of an antient Welsh tune composed on occasion of the last great battle between these adversaries, in which the confederated Welsh were totally defeated, and their leader slain. "There is something so peculiarly plaintive and elegiac in these notes, that when it was played on the harp to the late Col. Chabert (a Swiss gentleman, who came to reside in Brecknockshire) it brought tears into his eyes, while he observed that he was sure it commemorated the defeat of a great army." We approve of such insertions, as they enable us to form a much better judgement of the skill and proficiency of former times than mere general epithets or observations. We are, however, sorry to learn, that although the tune is preserved the words of the Ode to it are lost. In the course of this history we meet with various personages, of characters more interesting to their neighbours and contemporaries than to the world at large. Of some of them Mr. J. cannot decide whether they were good or bad, on the whole. They seem to have mingled great virtues with great vices. Opposite ex. tremes, it appears, met in them; and we sometimes cannot but admire those very men, whom at other times, we are obliged to detest. The inroads made by our English monarchs on the Welsh, the fierce resistance made by the valiant defendants, the various turns of events, till at length Wales be came an integral part of Britain, are narrated by our author. The retre the famous Duke of Buckingham, confederate of Richard III. in his a sition of the crown, is related at lea together with his conference with M Bishop of Ely; which Mr. J. has tracted from Stowe. Mr. J. how relieves the memory of Richard those excessive villainies with which | been loaded by writers of the Lancas party. He expresses also his “fire sent" to the opinion that Perkin War was the real Duke of York,-an opi which we believe was first strongly tronized by Harley Earl of Oxford, certainly had bestowed great diligen consulting the Historians, and authe of the times. The politics of Breck were versatile during the civil wars o seventeenth century. Cromwell ha credit of having destroyed all the e of the county, although he never w it: and though it is said, that he bat and pulled down the castle of Breck yet it appears from a MS. in the B Museum, written by Mr. Simmons, posed to have been an officer in the army, that the inhabitants of Breck themselves, "very prudently destroye castle as well as the walls of the to prevent their being saddled with maintenance of a garrison, or beco a temptatiou for a siege." The ! spirit of prudence animated the mot resistance to the prevailing party. of the methods taken to distress the liament," says our author, was curk it seems the blacksmiths in this cot fled with their neighbours, their w and children into the woods on the pearance of the troops, having first! stroyed or rendered useless their bella so that when a horse lost his shoe, it c not be supplied." The people staunch royalists: when their rev were suppressed in one place they br out in another; and when after g exertions they were subdued, they co not restrain their heart burnings and co plaints from shewing themselves in son thing more than words. The Religion of the early ages is at times an interesting subject of inqui Druidism was, beyond denial, the ea religion of Britain; but what Druidi was is not so easily admitted. Juli Cæsar has usually been deemed good a sarity on this subject; but Mr. J. will admit his pretensions. He observes, justly, that Cæsar had few, if any, rtunities, for acquiring personal know-of the doctrines and rites of the sh Druids. The utmost be could w was by the reports of others: and ther they were correct, or he underod them correctly, may be doubted. en he says, the doctrines of the Bards Gaal were received from Britain, he inly has exalted some minor instance general principle. There is every en to think that the Continent originfurnished this island with inhabitants, with the worship which they received their ancestors. that as it may, our author ridicules notion of human sacrifices being ofd by the Druids. He finds a direct sdiction of such inhumanity throughthe remains of their institutions with ch we are acquainted; and no trace er by precept or allusion to the custom. even thinks the famous druidical aprances on Anglesey were intended ely to frighten Suetonius Paulinus : that little credit is due to Romans who attack women with dishevelled hair, inoffensive unarmed men, after a vicbloodless on the side of the conquerHe scouts the wicker image of ames, filled with men for immolation; laughs at Mr. King's attempt to supthe hypothesis which finds altars for slaughter of men in all the Cromlechau, Jerever extant. He, with Borlase thinks em sepulchral; and considers the reasonof that learned antiquary on the subEt, as irresistible. The system and orders of Druidism Mr. nes describes, according to the princiles explained by Mr. Owen, which our eaders have seen in Panorama, Vol. III. 165. He admits that no trace of the murer of the Bards by Edward I. is discoverble in the early Welsh poems or chronides. He dismisses in few words the subct of the introduction of Christianity: inclines to the Welsh Triads which menhon Brân-fendiged,i.e. Brennus the blessed, who became a hostage for his son Caraclacus at Rome about A. D. 52,* as the first patron of it; but thinks it made no progress till about A D. 172, when Eleuterius the twelfth Bishop of Rome sent two holy men, named Elvanus and Med winus, at the desire of Lucius, King of Britain; to whose disciples, as well as to themselves, South Wales, especially, was greatly indebted. The murder of the monks at Bangor-by some attributed to Austin (Mr. J. hopes, untruly) gave the Saxon power and priesthood an insuperable advantage; and the British priesthood never afterwards could recover the respectability and interest they had lost. Mr. J. indeed seems to think that the sufferings of the Welsh clergy have continued to this day he hints at opprobium cast on them, by being obliged to receive strangers as their dignitaries; and ironically praises the policy of the English prelates, who sent bishops ignorant of the manners and language of the country, and forced to preach and to receive confessions through the medium of interpreters. This rule of the English court is founded in wisdom and sound policy; insomuch that it has been confirmed and acted upon up to this day-there is no knowing what mischief a bishop who can speak and preach in the British tongue may do among an irascible people, as the Welsh undoubtedly are: besides, the soil of that country is miserably and does not produce men of sufficient learning to intitle them to hold the dignity. poor We are afraid that too much of this inadvertence obtains among the inferior clergy, the labourers of the flock; for we have often been pained to hear accounts of an attempted congregation in Wales, in which, after a due period of bell-ringing, and waiting, Swift's "Dearly beloved Roger, the Scripture moveth you and "I" would be applicable. 66 We know not how to credit the assertion, that the Methodists are more careful to accommodate their hearers on this article; and that great part of their popula rity may be traced to this cause, as well as to their zeal. A complete view of the sects at present in activity in Wales, would present some curious (and not less interesting) features of the human mind. The Churches appear to date posterior to the Norman conquest, and our author thinks they were more frequently erected as compensations for murder, robbery, and other crimes, than from motives of piety. Alas, for such means of quieting conscience, and attempts by such means to bring good out of evil! We shall resume our consideration of this work; as it contains many particulars extremely well deserving of notice. The Orthoëpical Analysis of the English Language; or, an Essay on the Nature of its simple and compound Sounds, &c. with a new orthoëpical Alphabet, or universal Character, and an Analysis of the Dialect of Bedfordshire. By T. Batchelor, 8vo. Pp. 170. Price 7s. Didier and Tebbett, London, 1809. THIS is a difficult subject. To represent sound to the eye, is an undertaking little less arduous than to represent colour to the ear. Something of the kind has been repeatedly attempted, but it has made been repeatedly attempted, but it has made no lasting impression on the public mind. It has been regarded as a curiosity merely yet we acknowledge ourselves gratified with the attempt; and think, it may in time acquire utility. : Mr. B. favours us with a collection Bedfordshire phrases: those of other con ties should be collected, before a wor like the present, can be properly suppo ed. We doubt not, but what much our antient language might be recover by such a compilation; and, certain we should be more inclined to a fide in the pronunciation of our rusti than in that of our more polite, but m intermingled citizens We repeat that Mr. B.'s performani displays ingenuity. He acknowledges th he has availed himself of the labours others, in composing the present pamphl We recollect several attempts of the sai Newcastle on Tyne; another, that of description: the principal were-one Elphinstone, near London. We are aware that any permanent benefit resul from either of these attempts to the yo Mr. Batchelor is an ingenious man; and his speculations partake of his ingerians speculated pretty freely on their c under tuition: but the mature grame nuity. He first considers the organs of speech, and their offices: then the sounds they form; simple, compound, &c. He has not, in our apprehension, sufficiently distinguished such words as are truly English from others now found among us, but of foreign extraction. To what rules of pronunciation must we subject derivatives from the Greek, the Latin, the Italian, the French, &c.? Must we, with Mrs. Heidelberg, pro. nounce Val-de-sham, and Pos shay? Must we return to the days of Elizabeth? readers acquainted with Mr. B.'s, prin nections and consequences. To bring ples we insert the following specimen of Orthoëpical Examples in Printing and A nuscript Letters. PRUYD Yiy sanz of Pruyd, wih suwpursilius glans, On neytyurz iykwul tyildren luk askans. And uy wih kowld rigard yur kindrid kley? How wuydli distant from yuwr eym yuw stre Wud yuw yuwr riyul konsikwens inhans. Let Pruyd ey difurent karektur displey. Duw vertyuwus ansesturz ov nowbl burh Yuwr Pruyd infleym? Gow emyuleyt heyr wur Madam, there are two archers desiring Iz welh yuwr bowst? Then yuwrz hiy powr to see you Archers! I mean shooters. You mean suitors. To which dialect of our island must we conform to the Zummerzetzhire, where they boast of the zun and zoil ?—to that which prevails on the sides of the Severn, where we have heard the phrase, "ye canna' ha't yeet: for I hanna' done w'it?" Must we write the sound of the Gloucestershire How shall we hexpress its hunion we other words, in henunciation? The Warwickshire y, and the Newcastle burr in the throat, are other impediments to the orthoëpical Analysis of our language. bles! How prowd hiy fiyling tuw riliyv distres! Dr. Cartwright's Sonnets Our readers will determine for them selves on the advantages offered by the system: whether the sound of the word is really more intelligibly expressed by the proposed combination, and whether e word is more distinctly referred to its rook than by the ordinary mode: to which w have been accustomed from our childhood and which, as use is second nature, we shall hardly, in our age, be able to relinquish, has he not visited the church, the monastery, the cell-the ruins, we mean of such edifices and does not every mouldering stone witness the fact? Aye, and a great deal more. The author before us could find in June 1806, in "the sign of Alfred's Head, at a new inn, near Taunton, where the tradition is very prevalent, that in this neighbourhood King Alfred took shelter from his enemies, the Daues;" a corroborative proof of his conjecture as to the very spot where Alfred drank his noggin of ale so many centuries ago. The Life of Saint Neot, the Oldest of all the Brothers to King Alfred. By the Rev. John Whitaker, B. D. Rector of Ruan Lany horne, Cornwall. Pp. 390. Price 10s. 6d. J. J. Stockdale, London, 1809. WHETHER Britain abounds in saints the present day, is a question which meets with different answers, according to the party to whom it is addressed. We Lope, and trust, that the number of godly and pious persons among us is not small: the honours of saintship are rarely ferred; and surely not nemine conlicente. There is, in truth, great pruence in the standing regulation of the nish church, that a century at least must elapse, after the death of a saint, efore he can be placed in the calendar: seither is canonization to be obtained without securing the previous grade of beatification, and supporting with honour ail its inquisitorial terrors, including a ost malignant resistance on the part of The devil's attorney-general, who crossnamines the evidence as to birth, paren- Our author even ventures to annihilate age and education, life, character and be- a miracle, which is" as fresh in the aviour, with a dozen et cæteras. Now memory, and as lively upon the tongues his process is so little delightful to John of the parishioners (within our parish of Ball, that he calls it tyrannical; sends St. Neot's, in Cornwall), as any of his he attorney-general to the devil his maswritten miracles ;"-by affirming, that the er, twenty times a day-advertises a banishment of all the crows of his district ubscription for insulted virtue" in the into one inclosure, called the Crow-pound, public papers, and away fly guineas by is merely an English blunder, occasioned housands, impatient till admitted on the by misunderstanding the Cornish term, st. For aught we know, this may be crow, which signifies a hut, or dwelling, one reason why British saints are so rare : and has no reference to the bird, in Enthough, indeed, we must acknowledge glish called a crow. Now, for aught we that saintship does not appear to be the know, the same etymological examination order of the day in any country of Christ- might deprive the saint of another miedom at present. The Panorama has had racle; for it seems, that when his oxen he opportunity of recording but one sin- were stolen, he selected from a great herd le batch; and that was thought wonder- of stags, near the place, as many as were al and extraordinary. Compare Vol III, wanted for his ploughs. Were these serfs, 187. Since, then, our saints are so or vassals, misunderstood to be cerfs, or are, we cannot afford to lose one; and if stags: Or, were they labouring hinds, modern saints will not answer our purpose, which term applies equally to rustics and we must revive the legends of antiquity. to deer?-But we must forbear; for at These have many conveniencies: for in- this rate of proceeding we shall not have tance, as to miracles: if such were re- a miracle left, at which to bless ourselves, ported of a modern saint, we doubt whe-in England. However, we do believe her we should believe them; but, he is poor antiquary indeed, who will not uch for a few miracles, a thousand years d, on the authority of a learned aubor, whether minstrel or monk: besides, VOL. VI. Lit. Pan. June, 1809.] However, we are not to suppose that Mr. Whitaker has indulged any flights of fancy in recording the miracles of St. Neot: on the contrary, he has reduced them to the humble station of natural Occurrences. Instead of believing that the lock of the great door of the church descended three feet, that St. Neot, who was very short, night open it, he suggests that the saint fetched a stool to stand upon, and raised himself to the height of the lock. We admit, that this hypothesis is more natural: but then, we insist that it wants dignity. that the race of stags in the adjacent forest, has ever since borne a white circle about their necks, exactly in the place where their ancestors might have wor the yoke of the renowned St. Neot. |