defeat of Mynydd y Pwll Melyn. From that time he acted chiefly on the defensive, or meditated nothing more than marauding excursions: his followers were daily forsaking him, and he was at length obliged to seek refuge among the mountains, from whence he never emerged to perform any exploit of consequence. Notwithstanding his ill fortune, however, he was still considered so terrible an enemy, that Henry the Fifth condescended to propose terms for a cessation of hostilities, and a treaty to this effect was concluded a short time before his death,—which happened on the 20th of September, 1415,— and afterwards renewed with his son Meredydd, on the 24th of February in the year following*. The most prominent features in the character of Owain Glyndwr were boldness and activity, ambition, bravery, and no small portion of military skill. Hospitable to profuseness†, the patron and liberal encourager of bards,-eager and faithful in his friendship—unforgiving and revengeful in his enmities-patriotic, enthusiastic, and irascible-in him were combined all the characteristics of the warm-hearted Cambro-Briton; and his gallant spirit, undaunted and unsubdued to the last, achieved those exploits, which are familiar at this day to * This contradicts the general opinion that the Cambrian Patriot died in extreme distress; it was immediately after the defeat of Mynydd y Pwll Melyn that he experienced those calamities usually attributed to a later period of his life, and we have every reason to suppose that he died, weakened, indeed, in spirit, but unsubdued. [He died in Herefordshire, at the house of one of his daughters: Rapin says, that he did not die till the year year 1417, but the Welsh accounts, to be preferred in this case, place the event in 1415, as above stated.-ED.] + Speaking of his hospitality, one of the old Welsh poets (Iolo Goch) relates, that within his mansion were nine spacious halls, each furnished with a ward-robe containing clothing for his retainers; on a verdant bank, near the castle, was a wooden building, erected on pillars and covered with tiles, it contained eight apartments, designed as sleeping-chambers for such guests as graced the castle with their company; in the immediate vicinity was every requisite for the purposes of good eating and drinking; a park, well stocked with deer, a warren, a pigeon-house and heronry, a mill, an orchard, and a vineyard, with a preserve well filled with pike, trout, and salmon. The hospitality of the Chieftain was so boundless, says the bard, that no one could hunger or thirst in his house. The Rev. Evan Evans in his "Dissertatio de Bardis," thus speaks of Owain's liberality to the then persecuted race of poets; "Hoc ævo multi claruere Bardi, inter quos Iolo Goch, (Iolo the Red) Oweni magnificentiam et victorias ad sydera tulit; fuit enim Owenus Bardorum fautor et Mæcenas, et eos undiquâque ad aulam liberalitite provocabat." p. 89. the mountain peasant of Merionethshire. He was deeply imbued, too, with the superstition of the times. The fearful omens, which were supposed to have happened at his birth, had, no doubt, considerable influence on his future life. At his nativity, he informs us, The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes; The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds I am not in the roll of common men. Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea, That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,- Shakespeare, indeed, has glowingly delineated the portrait of this extraordinary man. His belief in supernatural agency,nay more, his exulting boast that he could "call spirits from the vasty deep," and his ill-constrained choler at the taunts of the provoking Hotspur, are admirable illustrations of what we may suppose to have been the character of the Cambrian Chief; and, although, in this enlightened age, we cannot but regard with detestation the cruelties he often committed on those who fell into his hands, yet we must admire his heroism, and admit that his incitement to arms, in the first instance, was a just and powerful extenuation of the illegality of his conduct. But it is of little importance now, whether he was justified or not in the course he pursued. Years have rolled on, and repaired the ravages which he committed;-the bones of his brave warriors have mouldered into dust, and no traces of his valiant exploits remain, save such as tradition will supply in the minds of his admiring countrymen*. MERVINIUS. * The Vaughans of Nannau, Hengwrt, and Rug, in Merionethshire, all branches of one family, are lineally descendants of Glyndwr ; and Gruffydd Hywel Vaughan, Esq. of Rug, possesses now a large portion of those domains which once belonged to his ancestor. This gentleman has also in his possession an elegant and highly-prized memorial of the Chieftain: it is a EXCERPTA. LANGUAGES OF BISCAY, IRELAND, AND THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN. OUR readers will not perhaps have forgotten the principle, upon which we proposed to publish an occasional article under the head of EXCERPTA, as explained in p. 101 of the last volume. This was more particularly to preserve, in a work appropriated to their reception, such fugitive essays as were before only to be found amongst an heterogeneous mass of uncongenial matter: among other works of this description, the Magazines, and particularly the more early ones, occupy a prominent place, and from which therefore we derive our best hope of these occasional gleanings. The following excerptum, it will be seen, is taken from the source alluded to, and GWILYM is entitled to our best thanks for this second instance of his friendly readiness to promote our views. With respect to the excerpt itself, the opinions of the writer may be considered somewhat problematical; and certainly the instances he adduces of the consanguinity of the various languages are not always sufficiently conclusive, to say nothing of the verbal inaccuracies into which he has occasionally fallen, But the subject will still be allowed to be extremely curious and well worthy the investigation of the Celtic student. It has, indeed, already undergone the partial, though, we think, prejudiced, examination of the learned Gen. Vallancey*; but much case, containing a dagger, knife and fork; the three are in the same sheath but each in a separate compartment, richly ornamented with silver; the knife and fork are rather slender, and the dagger is about 17 inches long, 12 of which constitute the blade, which tapers to a point; at the end of the handle is the family coat of arms-a Lion rampant, and three Fleur-de-lis, very curiously and neatly engraved. The principal part of the handle is inlaid with black and yellow wood and hooped with silver; the haft is a piece of the same metal: the knife and fork are obliged to be sheathed first, when the hilt of the dagger covers them, consequently the latter must be drawn first. In these days of form and ceremony it is some consolation to know, that the worthy proprietor of Nannau, Sir Robert Vaughan, has not departed, as far as hospitality is concerned, from the steps of his heroic ancestor; long may he live to exercise that benevolent hospitality which so well becomes the genuine Welsh gentleman! * See his "Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language," in which he strenuously denies the existence of any affinity between the Irish and the Biscayan: but this treatise, it must be owned, is full of hypotheses.-ED. remains to be done, and it is scarcely necessary to add, that the CAMBRO-BRITON will always be open to any judicious speculations upon the subject. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CAMBRO-BRITON. SIR,-In the second volume of the CAMBRO-BRITON, page 350, you favoured me by the insertion of a curious excerptum ; the following, which is from the same source, you will probably deem not less interesting, and worth re-printing in your valuable Miscellany. London, August 27th, 1821. Your's, &c. GWILYM. "To the Editor of the Gentleman's Magazine.” August 8th, 1759. "Mr. URBAN,-In the Magazine for last September, p. 436, you gave us an account of a book entitled "Some Enquiries concerning the first inhabitants, language, learning, and letters of Europe," and some remarks on an anecdote, which you then extracted from it, appeared in your next Magazine, p. 482: the design of the anecdote was to prove a most surprising likeness, or rather sameness, in the language of Biscay and Ireland, and that of the remarks to insinuate that they had probably no resemblance at all. Neither the enquirer, however, nor the remarker, was sufficiently acquainted with the subject to give a satisfactory account of the matter; this I am the more surprised at, as it is a point long since determined by writers, whom I don't see how the enquirer could avoid consulting, if he intended to prosecute his enquiries with success. "No books can promise greater assistance to a person, who has chosen, for his subject, the first inhabitants, language, learning, and letters of Europe, than those which treat professedly of some one or more of the ancient languages of Europe; but, if the enquirer had been acquainted with many of these, he could scarcely have been at a loss for the affinity which exists between the languages of Biscay and Ireland. Among the books, which he ought to have been no stranger to, on this occasion, I shall only mention Mr. Edward Lhuyd's Archæologia Britannica, (printed at Oxford in 1707,) as this one volume says enough of the languages in question to have prevented the appearance of the anecdote. "For my part, I am so little used to speculations of this nature, that I should never have interfered in the present dispute, if any person, tolerably qualified for doing it, would have set the matter in its true light; but, as I have hithero expected this in vain, I now venture to send you the following hints. "Mr. Lhuyd justly observes (Arch. Brit. p. 269.) that there is nothing in which languages more generally agree than in the ' numbers, and yet, (says he) except in one or two words, we find no ⚫ agreement, from 1 to 10, in the Basque, or Cantabrian, with any 'other European language;' a sufficient proof that the languages of Ireland and Biscay are not much alike as the anecdote supposes. "What likeness there really exists between them Mr. Lhuyd has, in his preface, attempted to discover; it was his opinion, that the present Irish are partly descended from a Spanish colony, and he has endeavoured to support it by observing, that on perusing the New Testament, and some MS. papers, written in the Biscayan tongue, he was satisfied of the affinity of one part of the Irish with the ancient Spanish. On this occasion he selects 100 Irish words and compares them with as many Biscayan, which he supposes to agree so well with them in sound and signification, as to render it probable, at least, that they have the same original. "As no one can be a proper judge of this specimen of the likeness of the two languages, who is a stranger to the book in which it is found, I refer those who are desirous of seeing it, to the book itself: on the whole, however, it appears from it, that the resemblance in question is a distant one, and (in my opinion) such as might be easily accounted for, without supposing a colony from Spain to have settled in Ireland. Certain I am, it is such, as proves it far enough from possible, for a Biscayan and an Irishman to understand each other, who are unacquainted with any but their respective languages. Nor do I think it evident, that the language of Biscay is remarkably nearer to the Irish than the Welsh, Cornish, or Armoric. “In one or other of the languages just mentioned I have endeavoured to find words which are probably of the same original with the Biscayan words proposed by your correspondent C. D. Whether I have succeeded or not every reader must determine for himself, and he will also be able, from the specimens here given, to form some kind of judgment how far the likeness is |