ARCHAIC WORDS, ETC., OF MONTGOMERYSHIRE. "I could manage ought in th' working line, I wur such a country gaby." 53 Sawnee, noodle, a silly person. Both terms are used in much the same sense. They are epithets somewhat similar in meaning to nawf. If a distinction were to be drawn between these two words, perhaps noodle would imply a greater degree of intellectual incapacity than sawnee. Nevertheless, nawf, gawbee, sawnee and noodle are all loosely and promiscuously used. A person wishing to shew his disapprobation of another's doing, or wishing to persuade a friend from undertaking anything, exclaims: "Oh! yo canna be such a nawf!" The surrounding company joins in one with: "I never heerd of such a sawnee.' "What a noodle!" chimes in a third; whilst a fourth positively affirms, that the man is a "gawbee." With a few observations on the pronunciation of certain words, I shall bring this paper to a close. Father is pronounced as if written, fadder, a taking the sound of a, in fare, and dd, the sound of th in whether. This word, thus pronounced, is, both in meaning and sound, Saxon. Are is pronounced so as to rhyme with fair, dare, etc., as in the following stanzas: and: "If ladies are But young and fair They have the gift to know it." "Touch a Welshman if you dare, This word was so pronounced by the educated and upper classes in the last century; and we occasionally meet with a distinguished septuagenarian who adheres to this pronunciation. Calf is pronounced as if written cave; another version of this word is cauve. The writer is acquainted with a lad, who when reading the eleventh chapter of St. John, upon coming to the words, "It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it," supposed that the whole narrative given in that chapter was a silly hoax, and it was not without explanation that he perceived that the misapprehension was caused by an unfashionable pronunciation. ELIAS OWEN. Llanllechid, Carnarvonshire. (To be continued.) WELSH POETRY, ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE HISTORY OF LLANGURIG. BY HOWEL W. LLOYD. It was to be expected that the district of Arwystli, abounding no less in picturesque scenery, than in historical associations, lying in and about the majestic Plinlimmon, the cradle of Severn, Wye, and other illustrious streams, should have given birth to poets, whose genius, fired no less by the grandeur of their native scenery than by the love of country, always conspicuous in the breasts of mountaineers, should have left to posterity memorials worthy of such sources of inspiration. Accordingly we find several whose works, few of which have hitherto been committed to the press, are scattered among the manuscript collections in the principality, in the British Museum, and elsewhere. Research has brought to light some poems among them which are not a little interesting in connexion with the local history of Llangurig, whether regarded from a social, religious, or historical point of view. These it is now proposed to introduce to our readers, together with translations, accompanied by such preliminary matter as may be requisite for the purpose of elucidating the sense, which is not unfrequently obscure, and also their relation to the special subject of our history. The first in chronological order, with the exception, perhaps, of the author of a poem or two of uncertain date, which will be referred to presently more fully, is Ieuan Tew, called Ieuan Tew Hên, or Hynaf, who was born at Llanidloes, and is known to have presided at a "Gorsedd," or session of bards, held at Glamorgan in 1420. Twenty-four of his compositions are enumerated in the catalogue of the British Museum as extant in that collection, none of which, however, appear to relate to the subject of this paper. The next is Huw Cae Llwyd, said to have flourished from 1450 to 1480, and known to have presided at the Glamorgan Gorsedd in 1470, eight at least of whose poems are preserved in the British Museum. The third is Huw Arwystli, whose poems are exceedingly numerous, and whose period, though not yet precisely settled, would appear to have extended from the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII to nearly the close of that of Elizabeth. And lastly, we have his contemporaries, Sion Ceri, and Sir Ieuan of Carno, who, though not apparently natives of Arwystli, were denizens of its neighbourhood, and maintained intimate relations with its inhabitants. Of these we have one poem by Sion Ceri, another by Huw Cae Llwyd, and several by Huw Arwystli, most of which however have unfortunately reached us in a mutilated state, in which is presented a life-like picture of some of the principal features of the social and religious life of Llangurig in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Prior to any of these in order of time is the following by Ieuan Deulwyn, a poet who flourished from about 1460 to 1490, and is known to have presided at the Gorsedd of Glamorgan in 1480.3 It is entitled "an Elegy on Dafydd Fychan of Curig's Land," and relates apparently to an incident of warfare, which, if the period ascribed to the author be correct, must have occurred considerably later than the battle of Mortimer's Cross, fought in February, 1461, when Sir Owen Tudor, grandfather of Henry VII, was slain, and his half-brother, Henry VI, lost his crown. Perhaps it is to be referred to the revolt of Clarence and Warwick, 1465-70, which ended in the battle of Barnet, and in the course of 1 Williams's Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen, p. 241. 2 If the poem of The Four Brothers is correctly ascribed to him, he must have been living as late as the reign of Henry VIII. 3 Williams's Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen, p. 120. which was fought the battle of Danesmore, near Banbury, at which the Sir Richard Herbert, whose elegy by our bard is also extant,' was taken prisoner, and beheaded by the Lancastrians, together with his brother, Sir William, who, after the surrender of Harlech Castle, had been created Earl of Pembroke by Edward IV. As the poem has already been printed in Welsh,2 it is unnecessary to reproduce the original here. Davydd, with his brother feuan, are referred to as having fallen victims to an ambuscade on the Wye, and one of them is stated to have been buried in the churchyard of Llangurig. Elegy on Davydd Vychan and Ieuan of Curig's Land. In tears for whom is Powys found, And all the south the country round? Where two youths came, now come not one. From Curig's Land another missed! Her Son's fell wounds beneath the cross. 1 Printed in Rice Jones's Gorchestion y Beirdd, p. 135, Edition 1773. 2 Ibid., p. 139. See also Montgomeryshire Collections, vol. i, p. 390. |