account of his great exploits, as Nennius represents, and who often led the Britons to battle against the Saxons in the sixth century, there ought not to be any doubt; for he is mentioned by Llowarch, Merddin, and Taliesin, poets who were his contemporaries; and he is also often recorded in the Triads, documents of undoubted credit: but neither by the poets, nor in the Triads, is he any ways exalted above other princes, who held similar stations in the country." Arthur was not only celebrated for his valour as a warrior, but for every trait forming the character of a great prince. He is particularly held up to our view as possessing great zeal for the Christian religion, the defence of which, against the Pagan Saxons, was used as a powerful argument to animate the courage of the Britons. Sir Richard Blackmore has made fine use of this in his poem of ARTHUR ;* and the interview between this hero and Howel the Armorican king is well conceived. As to the real state of religion in Britain, during the reign of Arthur and his father, we shall have shortly to revert to that subject; but we must not be too forward to decide on that head, from the ferociousness which appears to have marked the character and proceedings of many of the Britons of those times. True religion is too rare in every age; and the present manners of a British populace, as well as of their superiors, might make our religion appear as questionable as that of the Britons of the sixth century. The turbulency of those times afforded little room for the exercise of religion, in all its benign tendency and amiable qualities. * Whatever may be thought of the general merit of that work, the author has succeeded admirably in distinguishing between the Britons and their forces, ranged under their various tribes; and the Saxons and their auxiliaries, on the other hand. As to the real character and achievements of Arthur, we way easily perceive that he was not always the invincible hero. Of the battles which, according to Nennius and others, he is said to have fought, we have reason to doubt whether this hero was at all present at several of them. We must look for the scenes of his battles either on the borders of the Severn, or in Cumberland. His nephew Modred was in fact his rival, and appears to have had many adherents, although our ancient records represent him as an arrant traitor. Arthur, by his valour, raised himself to notoriety; but, in the latter part of his life, he seems to have lost the confidence of several of his former friends. The Silurian princes claimed ascendancy over the chiefs of the Cymry; and the exigency of the times elevated Arthur to a post of high honour, of which in general he shewed himself worthy. The Cambro-Britons and the Cornish Britons equally revered him but he sometimes used his influence to aggrandize himself; and this awakened a spirit of jealousy, which ultimately proved fatal to him. : Mr. Turner has collected certain notices respecting Arthur, that cast some light upon his personal character, and accord with the manners of the age in which he lived.* Meeting with a prince in Glamorganshire, who was flying from his enemies, Arthur was at first desirous of taking by force the wife of the fugitive. But he was persuaded to refrain from the injustice, and to assist the prince to regain his lands. Arthur is also stated to have plundered St. Paternus, and to have destroyed a monastery. "These incidents," says the Anglo-Saxon historian, "suit the short character which Nennius gives of him, that he was cruel from his childhood." * See Turner's Anglo-Saxons, Vol. I. c. 2. Arthur appears to have been unfortunate in his domestic connexions, for the unchastity of his wives is recorded in the Triads; and from a life of Gildas by Caradoc of Lancarvan, it appears that Melvas, the king of Somersetshire, carried off Arthur's wife, by force, to Glastonbury. Arthur, with his friends, whom he collected from Cornwall aud Devonshire, assaulted the ravisher. The ecclesiastics interposed, and persuaded Melva to return her peaceably. Arthur received her, and both the kings rewarded the monks for their useful interference. This shews Arthur to be a man of only "moderate greatness." That Arthur was not always the patriotic warrior, appears from his contests in the north, where, in an engagement, he killed Hoel, a native prince, and triumphed as having slain his most powerful enemy. "Thus Arthur," to use the words of Mr. Turner," by his wars with his own countrymen, as much assisted the progress of the Saxons, as he afterwards endeavoured to check it, by his struggles with Kerdic." As to Arthur's greatest achievement, the battle of Badon Mount, this victory only stopped the progress of Kerdic, and gave repose to the Silurian territory. But Arthur was not able to retaliate on the foe, and Kerdic retained the conquests he had made. Arthur is represented by the Bards, his coevals, very differently from what is advanced respecting him by the romancing Geoffry. Neither Llowarch nor Taliesin say extravagant things of this hero; nor do they ever speak of him as king of all Britain. The continual and rapid conquests of Kerdic, of Ella, and of other successful warriors among the Saxons and Angles, totally disprove the accounts of Geoffry. And yet he, upon the whole, was the most gallant of all the British princes; and his name deserves to be enrolled among the ancient heroes of the Isle of Britain. Settlement of the Angles in the North. THE Britons of Wales, and of the north, being at variance among themselves, and having lost two of their greatest men in the battle of Camlan, Arthur and Modred; there was a favourable opportunity for landing a foreign force on the banks of the Humber. It was at this critical juncture that a potent chief, of the name of Ida, landed on the Northumbrian coast, with a numerous body of Angles, conveyed in forty vessels. The former invaders were either Jutes, or Saxons. The name of Saxon has been frequently given, in an indiscriminate manner, to the various tribes that invaded Britain from the north of Germany; but Bede and others have given the general appellation of Angli to all that settled in the island during the fifth and sixth centuries. The last name is retained in Anglia and England; while the native Welsh and Irish retain the name of Saxon, and apply it to the inhabitants of those parts of the kingdom, supposed to be descended from the German tribes. That part of the island which lies between the Humber and the Clyde was occupied by Britons; but they were divided into many states. The country nearest the Humber was anciently called Deivyr, and this was by the conquerors called Deira; north of Deivyr was Bryneich (signifying mountainous tracts) which was latinized into Bernicia. We have in the Triads the names of three sovereigns of these territories, Gall, Dyvedel, and Ysgavnell. Reged, the territory of Urien the applauded patron of Taliesin, lay to the north of the Humber. Nearer to the Clyde we have the names of three other British chieftains, Rhydderch, Gwallog ap Llëenog, and Morgant. Llowarch Hen, the Bard, was prince of Argoed. Aneurin, the Bard, was lord of Gododin, or Otadinia, a district rather northward of the Tweed. A chieftain of the name of Mynyddawg ruled near the friths at Eidyn; "which has been conjectured," says Turner," to be the origin of Edinburgh, or the burgh of Edin." Cunedda was also a wledig, or sovereign, in some of these regions; and Caw, the father of Gildas, was another. These, when overpowered by the Anglo-Saxons, removed into Wales. One county in the North, that of Cumberland (Gwlad y Cymry), still contains in its name an acknowledgment of its ancient population. Whether that was included in the kingdom of the Cymry Ystrad Clwyd, or the Strath-Clyde Britons, admits of some doubt: that territory, it seems more probable, included only the country contiguous to the Clyde; and its capital was Alclyde, the present Dunbarton, or more properly Dunbritton. Ystrad Clwyd, literally translated, is Clydesdale; the princes of which, at one time, held an intimate intercourse with the lords of Dyffrin Clwyd, or Cluyde, the Eden of North Wales: "Where mountain over mountain peeps the head; The inhabitants of these northern territories appear to have made, for some time, a firm stand against their invaders. Urien, the prince of Reged, and his sons, and the valiant Owen in particular, signalized themselves in various battles fought with Ida; and especially in that bloody fight at Argoed Llwyvaen, where the enemy met |