Proceeding (chap. 20) towards Cardigan, we meet with the mansion of Blaen y pont; the picturesque situation, the extensive tin manufactory of the village of Pont Llechryd; and an ancient monument in the parish of Llangoedmor. Cardigan is described; a history of its castle is given; and memoirs of Mrs. Catharine Philips the poetess are introduced. Biography and poetical criticism seem the favourite subjects of our author, who takes every opportunity of introducing them into his narrative. In this class of literature he also excels, and evinces in all his remarks, a cultivated mind, and a classical taste. land, and so greatly improved c guage and composition. We er part of this as a very favourable spe of Mr. Malkin's style, and as terc characterize the bias of his mind subjets. sixteenth century," observes our the study of classical literature into Ea The general history of Pembrokeshire, second daughter of Gerald Fi.zgerald, which is the subject of chap. 21, is intro- and Elizabeth. Surrey proclaimed here Kildare, and cousin to the princesses duced by a dissertation on a colony of through Europe as a son of chivalry, a Flemings established in this county in victorious in a knightly appeal to the the twelfth century. Reflecting on this arms of which the grand duke of Ta subject our author digresses to the consi- permitted the decision at Florence, t deration of the intermixture of various ginal seat of her ancestors. But Su nations which in different ages has taken not devote all his time to vanity and le place in Britain. We have then the his- nor was it in the field of gallantry ar tory of the county, prefaced by another had laboured in the more solid depar= he displayed the powers of his mi quotation from Drayton, with remarks of literature; and nature fitted him on its salubrious air, population and press with ease and render with in buildings. Pembrokeshire is about equal- what study had enabled him to und ly inhabited by English and Welsh, who, He translated the second and fourth b according to Mr. Malkin's statement, the Eneid into blank verse. This b are perfectly estranged from each other extremely scarce, and highly valuab in manners, arts, agriculture, marriages the first composition extant, in that as a curiosity, and a work of merit; for and language. The 22nd chapter contains a brief account of St. Dogmeal's priory; beheaded eight years before the com sure, in the English language. Surre whence the author makes an excursion ment of Phayer's general translation by water to Kilgerran castle; the situa- that his attempt claims a long priorit tion and ancient history of which are point of time. But it was not printed uli particularized; with memoirs of Dr. when Phayer had finished his first four bo Thomas Phayer (resident here) who in and was rapidly proceeding with the the sixteenth century translated the three. Sir Thomat Wyat the elder, the greater part of the Eneid, but died be- temporary and friend of the accompli fore the work was completed. Our auSurrey, affected the same taste and pursi thor here takes occasion to trace the the first book of the Eneid, in Alexan He began to translate the song of loos circumstances which at that period in-verse, but left it unfinished; and his ru troduced classical literature into Eng- were never collected or printed, tilf via a Med by Tottell to the songs and sonnets mi his rival in the field of the muses, the first tion of which did not appear till either year 1557 or 1559. Though, therefore, rat's and Surrey's versions from Virgil are aerally considered as the first regular transions in English of an ancient classical et, Phayer steps in with his more extended lertaking, before their performances were cessible to the public at large, and may at st divide with those authors the merit of nging his countrymen acquainted with the cealed treasures of the Mantuan muse. ath respect to the execution of the work, testimonies have been various and discor the eighth syllable; yet Phayer either did not feel, or disregarded that musical propriety. His pauses are so indiscriminate, that it is frequently impossible to preserve any thing like measure, and at the same time maintain the punctuation of the sense, or even the in tegrity of the words themselves. It must, I apprehend, be admitted, that he was far inferior in numbers, and the knowledge of his art, to these early refiners of our language. Yet, whatever may have been his comparative excellence, he confessedly ranked high among the men of wit and genius in his day." In the following chapter is described the village of Kenarth with its salmonJeap and fishery; also Nevern with a ca tholic cross, which Mr. Malkin considers as a remarkable piece of antiquity. He then proceeds to describe the mansion of Llwyn Gair, and the town and castle There being little worthy of observaof Newport, with the adjacent cromlech. tion in the country between Fiscard and St. David's; the author in chapter 25 gives a copious description of that city and cathedral, their ancient history and present state, the legendary account of the saint, and memoirs of the most emi nent of the bishops of the see. The 26th chapter briefly noticing a few small villages, &c. gives a general view of the country between Cardigan and Haverford West, with memoirs of the Stepneys of Pendergrast. Haverford West. is described; with the life of John Gam bold an eminent Moravian bishop, who died there. By some it has been represented as ficiently to be commended for its skill learning; while the sarcasm of the criin Fuller's time was, that he had transed the Latin Virgil into an English EnThis judgment may, however, be ught harsh; since the measure of critiis only to be applied to the standard of me, and not regulated according to the rovements of later periods. A writer may ewell deserved the panegyric of his conporaries; that he cannot challenge the e of succeeding ages, may be owing to unstatees over which he had no conIt is in versification that these three ly translators will best admit of compariand it is by comparison that their memust be estimated. The measure of rey is unquestionably the most suitable, it is tuned with a purity of rhythm which ply justifies the tribute of Warton to the and expression of the author. In the ufancy of our higher poetry, when the tility of sustaining harmony without le was new to our language, he carried it at once to a degree of refinement, surpristo those who know the difficulties of the Milford Haven (chap. 27) the author In proceeding from the latter town to and searcely exceeded by the maturer ice and more musical proficiency of a passes some small uninteresting places, age. Wyat wanted the judgment of and gives a descriptive sketch of the ruins friend Surrey in the choice of metre, as he of Hubberston priory. Milford Haven essedly fell below him in melody of ca- is described; its ancient history is satise and facility of expression. The Alex-factorily narrated, with memoirs of sir an couplet, consisting of twelve sylla- Rice ap Thomas, who signalized himin the first line, and fourteen in the se- self towards the end of the fifteenth applied as it is by us to lighter poetry, century, for his opposition to the usurubdivision into four, is considered as ill uated for the dignity of epic; though pation of Richard. aps we have no right to condenin a which our own deviation may only have ed to render incongruous. He underd, however, the principles of his own vertion. He daly observed the pauses on ith of the first, and the eighth of the nd, so that all his couplets might be ared in quatrains with very little difficulty. Phayer appears to have been deficient in mess of ear, and correctness of modulation; erse tuns in equal couplets of fourteen des in each line, which we now confine ric composition, and divide into quatrains ght and six alternately. The genius of metre, therefore, requires a pause upon prac The following chapter describes Picton castle; Slebitch, formerly a comman dery of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem; High Tor Wood, and the noble castle of Carew; with a particular account of the tournament held there by sir Rice ap Thomas. Arriving at Pembroke, the author give a copious history of the castle, its ancient lords, and the successive earls of Pembroke; with the present state of the fortress and town. The picturesque features of the former, observes Mr. Malkin, "are of the first aquatic beauty, and are seen to the highest advantage by taking a boat from Milford to Pembroke." The principal objects of our author's attention in the next chapter are Mr. Mirehouse's agricultural improvements; the Castles (two rocks so called) and the Eligugs, a remarkable species of migrating birds. To these are added some particulars of the life of Girald, the celebrated historian of the twelfth century; also an account of Lamphey park and palace, and the town and castle of Tenby. The remaining portion of this volume comprises the histories and descriptions of the county of Carmarthen, and the western part of Glamorganshire. In this we have an interesting and captivating account of the beautiful scenery which environs Dinevour castle, and Briton Ferry: near the latter place is Baglan-hall, which was frequently visited by the poets Mason and Gray. The former, when he left this district, wrote an elegy descriptive of the Welsh churchyard, a copy of which Mr. Malkin obtained from bard Williams, and has printed it, with a few illustrative notes. In the vicinity of Bridgend, Glamorganshire, is the birth-place of the late celebrated Dr. Price, a list of whose works Mr. Malkin subjoins, and concludes his account of him in the following terms: "Such were Dr. Price's writings on subjects the most important, in a style of luminous simplicity, the result of profound knowledge, and a clear conviction of the truth. I might enlarge from the best opportunities of observation on his personal character; but such testimony would weigh little with strangers of opposite opinions, who have been pleased to represent him as a firebrand in society; and it is not wanted either by those who approved his principles, or were acquainted with the tenor of his life." The interesting tract of country that Mr. Malkin has undertaken to describe, and whose history he attempts to lope, must be our apology, if apci necessary, for the length of this Having never before found the ra this author in the list of topograp presume that the present volume is attempt in this department of litera As such, it is a highly créditable men of his taste, knowledge and lear His style is generally good, ofic gant, and many of his descripti strikingly characteristic of the cou but his predilection for the old post chroniclers has occasionally begi judgment, and disfigured his bor A volume like the present is complete without an index: and lue has been greatly enhanced b of good plates. Those by Mr. La are tasty and pleasing as artist's ske but they want that detail, keeping effect, which render views valuab portraits of places. The noble and resque castles of South Wales, w abbies and antiquities, present a f interesting subjects to the artist an tiquary but as these two chan are seldom combined, it very raren pens, that a topographical work t ciously illustrated. Good maps. correct views, are not only very ble appendages to book of this clas are valuable and necessary au They furnish satisfactory docume which the mind can repose with ves and pleasure; whereas the best d tions rarely afford decided and ing ideas. The mind in forming from verbal delineations is fict deceived, as ocular demonstrati s rarely realizes the pictures of t Hence, the utility of corned viess be universally acknowledged, evil tendency of bad and incorrect must be censured by every ada taste, science and truth. ART. XI. Antiquities of Ireland; by EDWARD LEDWICH, LL. D. 4to. P Second edition. DR. Ledwich has very laudably employed himself in clearing away the rubbish which so many of his country men have laboured to heap together. His first essay is on the romantic history of Ireland. Of all the fables, which were ever palmed by impudence upon ignorance for truth, the fabulous history of Ireland is the most incongruous. They tell us, that, in the year of the world 2909, the art of enamelling metals was discovered by the civilized Irish, that king Eochaioh the second was named Faobhar-glas, of the gr because the points of his javelins the blades of his swords were col green. His predecessor, Eadhya, called the silver king, because, like Solomon, he used to reward his s with shields of pure silver, and silver chariots and horses. So l ble were they in these days, that is ty was regulated by law, the Biatachs keepers of houses of hospitality were e third order of the state. Each Biach was to possess seven town lands, ch of which comprehended seven ugh lands, and he was to be master a hundred and twenty herds, each staining a hundred and twenty cows; house was to have four roads to it, at travellers might approach from all arters, and a hog, and an ox, and a p, were always to be ready for the anger. Of these houses of hospita›, there were eighteen hundred in the o Munsters, consequently there were enty-five million, nine hundred, and anty thousand cows there; facts, says Halloran, which, in the present age of Thonism, might be well doubted, had not modern evidence to corroborate Now, as Ireland is computed to tan 27,457 square miles, the board agriculture would, doubtless, handly reward Mr. O'Halloran, or any his brother historians, for communirg the system of pasturage, by which 20,000 cows were supported in only of its provinces; nor would the ophical world be less interested in ng the theory of the infinite compresty of matter so usefully reduced to ctice. The same historians tell us, this very people, highly civilized as were, mixed up the brains of their mes with mortar, to preserve them phies; used balls of brickdust and for their slings, and fed one of princesses upon childrens flesh, to e her the sooner marriageable. Ledwich has been deceived by ron's groundless theory of the ori o romance, and supposes that the Actions were derived from Arabia, gh Spain. Ireland, in the sixth and succeeding es, possessed a literary reputation, his proved by indisputable evidence. er political constitution, municipal laws, the prevailing studies of the times, were Il calculated to advance letters or improve ty. It cannot, therefore, be doubted, that romantic history was a favourite subaud much cultivated by a people thus stanced. But of this, no monument antecedent to the age of Nennius, A. D. 880. That it was much earlier, muse appear from his having consulted the mos skilful Irish antiquaries; who told him the fable of Pharaoh's son-in-law, his expulsion from Egypt, his travels through Africa and Spain, and from thence to Ireland. Nennius's judgment of this fiction is decisive, when het declares, that there was no sure history of the origin of the Irish. A learned and very ingenious writer has carefully examined and fully confuted the notion of the Hispanian exrraction of the Irish; had he turned his thoughts to the origin of the fable, nothing more could have been said at once, to subvert it, and set the foolish fiction for ever at rest. The following hints are offered, in some sort, to supply their omission. Spain, the centre of oriental fabling, always enjoyed a celebrity above that of any European country; the Irish, therefore, esteemed it a matter of the greatest importance to exhibit a clear deduction of their ancestors from thence, and which their native writers, in every age, have zealously inculcated.. beginning of the eighth century, (observe, When the Arabians entered Spain, in the Nennius lived in the ninth), with the revival of Greek literature, they introduced a knowledge of the sciences and arts, before but little studied, and in many parts of western Europe not known. From the earliest period they cultivated magic, they extolled their ties of bodies; their skill in metallurgy, in intimate acquaintance with the occult qualioptics, in vitrification, and in precious stones and medicine, supported their high pretensions, and astonished and confounded the incredulous. Nor were they less distinguished for a vein of romantic fiction; here they displayed an exuberance of fancy in the creation of imaginary beings, in the wildness and va riety of their adventures, and in the extravagance of their fables, all springing from their sophy. A brilliancy of thought, and porp modes of thinking, and their peculiar philoof expression, at once captivated and delighted the reader. "The pleasing contagion quickly diffused itself through every people; the genial warmth of oriental fiction enlivened their songs: the monotonous and dismal tales of blood and slaughter were succeeded by more amusing and sprightly relations, by the heroic atchievements of gallantry, or the bland occupations of love; all these worked up with Arabian inventions and Arabian philosophy are visi- ble, as we shall sec, not only in our civil history but in our hagiography. The Armoric and Welsh bards very early attained eminence in romantic fabling; the Irish, who symbolized with them in I am obliged to speak of this author's work as authentic, because others have done so, I think it the patched production of various writers, or one of the supposititious per aces of the middle ages. lla tamen certa historia originis Scotorum reperitur. Nenn. p. 109. Ed. Bertram. Macpherson's introduction to the Hist. of Great Britain and Ireland. arton's Hist. of English Poetry, V. 1. Diss. 1. Warton, supra...... every article of religion, soon adopted the same taste, as did the Cornish poets. The connection between the Armoric Britons, the Cornish, the Welsh, and Irish, was for many ages intimate, so that a fondness for romanthe history was soon propagated here: even the numerous resort of foreigners to our celebrated schools facilitated the introduction of this species of writing." It is surprising that the many diffi. culties and inconsistencies in this hypothesis, should have escaped Dr. Ledwich's notice. If the fabulous history was invented in the sixth and succeeding centuries, much earlier than Nennius, how can it be traced to the Arabians, who did not enter Spain till the eighth? This anachronism alone would be fatal to the opinion, did there exist no other objections. There is not the slightest resemblance to oriental fiction in any of the early Spanish romances, whether in prose or verse, at this time, when Spain is supposed to have influenced the taste of all the bards and minstrels in Europe. It was precisely the last country in the world to which they would have thought of travelling, in so wretched a state were the only part of the inhabitants who could possibly have understood them. Nor is there the slightest proof, or the slightest reason to believe that the Welsh or Cornish poets ever travelled like the minstrels; where, indeed, should they have gone to be understood? for it is not to be supposed that they could compose their songs in any other language than their own. Many of the works of the Welsh bards, who flourished at this very period, still exist, and enough of them have been translated, to prove that their character is peculiarly their own. There is nothing like them to be found in any other country. The fabulous history of Ireland bears also equal proofs of originality; it bears no resemblance to the legends of any other people, and is perfectly characteristic of those whose prejudices and feelings it was designed to gratify. The same may be said of their hagiology. The editors of the Acta Sanctorum declare they cannot vouch for the lives of the Irish saints: those editors were in the habit of swallowing camels, and nobody has ever yet accused them of straining at gnats. Of the documents for the ancient his tory of Ireland, the public, we hope, will soon be enabled to form their own judgment. Dr. O'Connor is employed in translating and publishing them under the marquis of Buckingham's patronage. I Ledwich, rejecting all that has appea in O'Flaherty, Keating, O'Halloran, confines himself to such notices as car gleaned from the Greeks and Roma his etymology of the Latin and the sent names of the island are peric convincing: Cæsar, or his country called it Hibernia, because they beli it scarcely habitable from its colds Diodorus Siculus calls it Iris, G gives it precisely the same name, a is called Ir-land in one of the older gas, and Ire-land, by Alfred. Irish, being the Great Isle; and, Econtracted into Eri, in Teutonic, farther Isle. On the colonization of Ireland, Celts were the first and the most mu ous settlers, the Fir-bolgs, or Belge second. Dr. Ledwich thinks with Pinkerton, that these were a Gothic t and that from the intermixture of two, a mixt superstition, Celtic and thic, sprung up, which both British Irish writers very improperly call dic, for the druids were the priest the Celtes. On this distinction, he and on this alone, rests the true an curate explanation of the antiquit Britain and Ireland. But the que has been newly investigated by Mr. vies, who seems decidedly to have pr that the Belge were Celts. The nicians of general Vallancy, and his low dreamers, are shown to be Finn the book of Lecan, which is the orac these fabulists, they are expressly c Feinorce Muirituadh, Fenians of the thern sea. The later colonies we Gothic. The essay on the druids and the ligion is very unsatisfactory. The thor compares Cæsar's account of religion with the Roman, observing the parallel exactly agrees in every ticular. It is like one of Fluelles rallels. The druids presided over & affairs, took care of public and pr sacrifices, and were the interpreters ligion: so did the Roman priesth says Dr. Ledwich, and gravely q Dionysius Halicarnassensis as his a rity; that is to prove that priests were officers of religion in Rome as well Britain, and if he had gone all the w over he would have found the pat equally exact, every where. There strange confusion in this essay, for F hood and religion are considered as same thing. Dr. Ledwich seems 2 |