WALES ILLUSTRATED, IN - SERIES OF VIEWS, Comprising the Picturesque Scenery, Towns. Castles, Seats of the Nobility & Gentry, Antiquities, &c. Driginat Accompanied by CAMBRIA. On SCENES like these the eye delights to dwell; WALES, whether considered with reference to the nature of the country, its picturesque scenery, geographical features, or rare productions, independent of its history, as a people whose circumstances, actions, and fate, stand single and unparalleled in the annals of the world, possesses peculiar interest, and is of the highest possible importance. Varied as is the face of it, with mountains, woods, rivers, lakes, and cataracts, it becomes particularly inviting to the artist, or the admirer of Nature; and the numerous vestiges of antiquity, which lead reflection back to the scenes and transactions of remote periods, are calculated strongly to arrest the attention of the historian and antiquary to a country long the asylum of freedom and religion; to a nation which, from the earliest period of its existence, was distinguished by independency of spirit,—which for ages defended the rights of Nature, and, as in the recent case of France, hurled defiance against the oppressors of mankind. Antiquaries have been divided in their opinions respecting the origin of the names Cambria or Wales, usually given to that portion of Britain situated to the west of the rivers Severn and Dee. The derivation, however, of the former is clearly deduced from the original inhabitants having been a tribe of the Celta or Gauls, known under the denomination of Cymbri and Cymri; whence the Romans, agreeable to the genius of their language, would call the country inhabited by such people, in Latin, Cambria. As to the latter term, which the Saxons appear to have applied to this territory, and also to Danmonium, which comprised Devonshire and Cornwall, the etymology is not so obviously manifest. It has been by some writers observed, that Walsh, in the northern languages of Europe, signifies a stranger, and the B Britons being totally unlike their conquerors, in speech and customs, were, from that dissimilarity, called Welsh, and their country, Wales. Others, dissatisfied with this opinion, suppose, from the apparent conformity in language and manners between these Britons and the Gauls, the Saxons gave them the same appellation. But the learned Sumner remarks upon this supposition, that the Saxon conquerors did not so designate them till they had expelled them beyond the Severn; that the Saxon verb weallan means, to wander; and that by this denomination they intended to brand them as fugitives. A more modern antiquary, however, contends, that the name was applied to the Britons much earlier than is stated by Mr. Sumner; for the Saxon chronicle mentions the Britons by the title of Brit-walas, or Britwalana, and frequently speaks of the troops under Hengist and Ella, almost at the commencement of the war with the Britons, as having routed the Wealas, Wylishe, or Welsh, in Kent and Sussex. The denomination of the Britons among themselves, as well as neighbouring nations, was popularly Gall or Wall. This appellation, which extended over all the British isles, and a considerable portion of the continent, has been frequently attempted to be explained by the philological critics both at home and abroad; but its meaning still remains veiled in obscurity. Cæsar and Tacitus deduce the origin of the Britons from the Gauls, from the vicinity of the two countries, and the similarity of manners and character; but a stronger argument is found in the national appellation of Gael and Gaul, equally assumed by both people. The great current of European population, obviously, for centuries, took a direction to the west; and the British Isles were evidently replenished from the adjacent shores of Gaul. When the first migration happened, or what, previous to the Christian era, was the state of society in Britain, is referable to a general description of the Island. Who were the inhabitants of Cambria, and what their national condition and character, at the period the Romans invaded this part of the country, are subjects for present consideration. It will appear, that the inhabitants of Wales were part of the aboriginal possessors, and whose numbers must have been greatly increased by those Britons, who, retreating before the victorious Romans, fled to this district, as a dernier resort, to preserve their independence. After the invaders had secured the central part of Britain, by forming stations, and appointing garrisons, and given to it the name of Britannia prima, they then turned their attention to the reduction of the unconquered portion, lying west of the Severn. When Ostorius, the Roman general, took a survey of this country, which he was sent with an army to subdue, he found it possessed by three tribes of people, denominated, from their respective districts, Ordovices, Silures, and Dimeta. The Ordovices at the Roman invasion were in possession of all the country comprised in the present North Wales, viz. the counties of Anglesea, Caernarvon, Montgomery, Merioneth, Denbigh, and Flint, except a small part of the latter adjacent to Bangor, occupied by the Carnabii, and all those parts of Shropshire situated to the south and west of the Severn. Camden attempts to derive their appellative distinction from the people having originally settled upon the river Devi, whence they were called Oar-devi, in British signifying Devi, and thence Ordevices: as the Amoricans were so denominated from inhabiting the sea-coasts; the Averni, upon the river Avernus; and the Horesci, on the banks of the Esk. But another and more probable etymology has been advanced by other writers. Bede mentions two British tribes under the names of the Huiccü, Wiccü, Vicü, and Vices; the one inhabiting Warwickshire and Worcestershire, and having for their capital Brannogenium, the city of Worcester; and the other, the country to the north-west of it, from which circumstance, or the mountainous state of their country, they received the appellations of Ard, or Ordovices, that is, the Northern or Upper Vices. The Silures possessed, according to Ptolemy, the district at present comprising the counties of Hereford, Radnor, Brecknock, Monmouth, and Glamorgan, and the small portion of Gloucestershire west of the Severn; and had for their capital Caer Gwent, in Monmouthshire. The name of this tribe has been a subject of much antiquarian research, after all which, Camden confesses, he could find no derivation that in the least corresponded with the nature of the people. The name, by some, has been derived from sil, aspicio, to look at, this people having been remarkable for their bold countenance. The etymology has also been sought in Esyllwg, a term implying an open country of downs, abounding with prospects; hence its inhabitants were denominated Gwyr Esyllwg, Gwyr Esyllyr, &c. &c. from their derivatives Syllyrwys. The Dimeta were situated west of the Silures, and their country in British called Difed, whence is evidently derived the Roman appellation; the Latins frequently softening the f, or v, into m, in words they adopted from that language. They possessed the country at present including the counties of Cardigan, Pembroke, and Carmarthen. Some writers have comprehended this district under that of the Silures; but Ptolemy places here a people, whom he denominated Dimeta; and both Gildas and Nennius, early British writers, designate and describe the country under the name of Dimetia. Such were the inhabitants of Wales, when the Romans first entered it with an hostile army. Respecting the condition or state of these Britons at the period in question, there has been a great discrepancy of opinion among the most learned of our writers. Some, without possessing that impartiality which should ever accompany the inquirer after truth, and in despite of the most unexceptionable authorities, treat these people as naked, illiterate, wretched savages, destitute of clothes, and without any shelter from the inclemency of the weather, but what they found in miserably constructed hovels or hollow trees; fierce by nature, rude in their manners, unacquainted with the arts, and at a vast distance from civilisation. Others, following the British history, describe them as a martial, potent, learned, flourishing, and trading nation, well known in other countries by their commercial and military relations; as a people who possessed a foreign trade, equipped large fleets, sent out powerful armies, and achieved numerous conquests abroad; and at home erected stately edifices, founded large cities, and instituted seminaries of learning, so as to obtain respect from surrounding nations. This may be and probably is a picture possessing too little that is real in its general outline, not sufficiently accurate in its figures, and far too high and |