Cambria

“ Where buried friends of sacred memory sleep.
The wandering harper, too, in plaintive lays,
Declares the glory of departed days;
And, Cambria, still upon thy fertile plains,
The power of hospitality remains. ”

“ To his eldest son, Locrinus, he gave that part of the island which lies between the rivers Humber and Severn, and which from him was called Loegria. To his second son, Albanactus, he gave the lands beyond the Humber, which took from him the name of Albania. But to his youngest son, Camber, he bequeathed all that region which lies beyond the Severn, and is called after him Cambria; hence the country is properly and truly called Cambria, and its inhabitants Cambrians, or Cambrenses. ”

“ To their country, and her did they free;
We now live beneath a meek power,
And feel the full blessings of peace,
While on us abundantly shower,
The mercies of Heaven with increase.
p. 91THE EISTEDDFOD,
By Mrs. Cornwell Baron Wilson. {91}
Strike the harp: awake the lay!
Let Cambria’s voice be heard this day
In music’s witching strain!
Wide let her ancient “soul of song,”
The echo of its notes prolong,
O’er valley, hill, and plain!
Minstrels! awake your harps aloud,
Bid Cambria’s nobles hither crowd,
Her daughters fair, her chieftains proud,
Nor shall the call be vain! ”

“ The men of Cambria were thrown on the defensive by the great force directed against them. Caradoc manœuvred among the mountains, harassed the Roman line of march, cut off detachments, but was at last brought to bay in A.D. 50. All that could be suggested to counterbalance the superiority of the Romans in everything but mere numbers he did. He posted his army behind a roaring mountain torrent, with both flanks protected by craggy heights, and his centre covered by ‘sangars’ of piled stones. The wild warriors of Wales swore by their gods to conquer or die. ”

“ God made the country, and man made the town.
In tracing the beauties of old Cambria through its length and breadth, but few spots have given a more pleasing idea of its graces than those seen from the summit of Holyhead Mountain, which is nearly 800 feet above the level of the sea. Though it cannot boast of the wonders of the untrodden glaciers of Switzerland, the mighty Alps, the stupendous Andes, and the Himalaya of other hemispheres, still the mountain partakes sufficiently of the magnitude to impress the beholder with feelings of awe and admiration. ”

“ Anglesea, the Mona of the Romans and the Mon [1] or Ultima Thule of its still more ancient occupants, is the most western county of North Wales. Its shores are washed on the north, west, and south by the waves of the Irish sea, while the Mænai strait insinuates itself between this shire and Caernarvon. Here the beautiful scenery associated with the name of Cambria is only to be enjoyed in the distant prospect, the level, unwooded surface of the island presenting nothing of pictorial or romantic interest. ”

“ Their build, their coloration, are not Celtic. In the fifth century Cambria was invaded from Strathclyde by the sons of Cunedda; fair-haired, white-skinned Britons, they conquered the North and penetrated a certain way South; but the South was already occupied by a [4] body of invading Irish. When pressed by the Saxons, then the retreating Britons poured into Wales; but the substratum of the population was alien in tongue and in blood and in religion.
It was the same in Dumnonia—Devon and Cornwall. ”

“ The village of Beddgelert, the Goodesberg of Cambria, is situated on a little plain reposing amidst wild and awful mountains, and adorned by the conflux of two bright streams, the Glaslyn and the Colwyn. The agreeable and fascinating character of the scene is more immediately and vividly impressed upon the traveller who approaches it from the Caernarvon hills. ”

“ The bottom is a small grassy plain, dotted with trees, which has obtained the appellation of Beauty sleeping in the lap of Terror. The mountains that surround the vale have a wild and rugged appearance. As I proceeded along the road towards the head of the valley, a horn was sounded from the mountain, and I perceived a Welsh girl standing upon a projecting eminence: bare headed and bare footed was this nymph of Cambria; her cheeks were swelled out with her occupation, and she looked like a female Boreas, bursting with the wind she was sending forth by degrees to alarm the world. ”

“ O Cambria! thus thy prophet bard, thy Taliesin sung,
The path of unborn ages is trac’d upon my soul,
The clouds, which mantle things unseen, away before me roll.
A light, the depths revealing, hath o’er my spirit passed;
A rushing sound from days to be swells fitful on the blast,
And tells me that for ever shall live the lofty tongue,
To which the harp of Mona’s woods by Freedom’s hand was strung.
p. 87Green island of the mighty! {87a} I see thine ancient race
Driv’n from their fathers’ realm, to make the rocks their dwelling place! ”

“ The 'Cambria,' a long way astern, signalled to the steamer to come and tow her in. The 'Sappho' had been altered in various ways since she sailed the match round the island in 1868, and was obviously a very much improved vessel, the 'Cambria' being no match for her except in short turnings to windward.
On July 4 the 'Cambria' and the 'Dauntless' started for a race across the Atlantic to New York. The 'Cambria' took the northern passage, going as far north as latitude 55°; the 'Dauntless' a more southerly and a straighter course. ”

“ At first it was the dominating class alone, the free men of privileged blood, who were known by this name, those of the stock of Cunedda and his companions. The portions of Wales not occupied by them, such as the south-east, Brycheiniog, Glywysing, Gwent, &c., must still have been held by Brittones or Britanni, Scotti, and even Romani, but by the twelfth century we find the general name of Cymry (Lat. Cambria) being accepted by all. ”

“ He was the last of the great poets of Cambria, and with the exception of Ab Gwilym, the greatest which she has produced. His poems which for a long time had circulated through Wales in manuscript were first printed in the year 1819. They are composed in the ancient Bardic measures, and were with one exception, namely an elegy on the death of his benefactor Lewis Morris, which was transmitted from the New World, written before he had attained the age of thirty-five. ”

“ Cambria, Lloegria and Alban, and the rank of sovereignty belongs to each of the three. And under a monarchy and voice of the country they are governed, according to the regulations of Prydain, the son of Aedd the Great; and to the nation of the Cambrians belongs the right of establishing the monarchy by the voice of the country and the people, according to rank and primeval right. And under the protection of such regulation, royalty ought to exist in every country in the Isle of Britain, and every royalty ought to be under the protection of the voice of the country. ”

“ Oh, that is Caerphilly Castle, the oldest fortress in Cambria. Do you not know it?'
'No, but I mean to go there when the tailor comes to make me some proper clothes. The packman let me have the cloth for the stockings I have knitted, look you.'
'Um, ah. So you are in a hurry to discard the ancient Cymric kilt are you?'
'They make one look so like a girl,' was William's shamefaced answer. [Pg 145]
'Yet there are grown men both in Wales and in Scotland who still cling to the kilt, and are proud of it. You will be for casting off the old Saxon smock-frock next.'
''Deed no, sir. ”

“ Its face to the sea is perpendicular. The Venetians fortified this height, and it is a perfect Gibraltar. A small garrison could defend it as long as the necessaries of life remained within. The anchorage is bad, the bottom being rocky; but it is a perfect harbour, being open to view only to the west and here a breakwater of rock runs across—on this breakwater the Cambria was lost. I communicate on my arrival with Mons. Le Ray of the brig Grenadier and Captain Maturkin of the brig Achilles, my colleagues for France and Russia. ”

“ Parry appeared but once in the character of an author. He died in the year 1818, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.
William Owen Pughe, D.C.L., was born at Ty’n y Bryn, in the parish of Llanvihangel y Pennant, county of Meirioneth, on the 7th of August, 1759. A man who is, by universal consent, pronounced the greatest literary character which old Cambria has ever produced at any period of time ”

“ On account of this armed expedition, the tribe of the Cambrians became so deficient in armed men, that the Irish Picts invaded them; and therefore Vortigern was forced to invite the Saxons to expel the invasion. And the Saxons, observing the weakness of the Cambrians, treacherously turned their arms against them, and by combining with the Irish Picts and other traitors, they took possession of the lands of the Cambrians, and also their privileges and their crown. ”

“ Notwithstanding the great power by which the Cambrians were overthrown, and the healing measures subsequently pursued to obtain a willing submission to their conquerors, the draught appears to have been imbittered by the introduction of some ingredient not easily detected by historical analysis; for, as a people, the ancient Britons are still totally distinct from the parent state in customs, manners, dress, in feelings, and in language. ”

“ It would be expecting more than human nature to suppose that the Cambrian chieftains and barons would remain peaceful and quiet on seeing their estates seized by lords Marchers. Moreover, the greatest oppression was practised by minions of King Henry, and for the most trivial offences the proud barons of Wales were subjected to cruel and extreme punishment. ”

“ The tale of Cadwgan is a real picture of Cambrian life. The story of Saint Winifred is founded on an old Welsh legend. A marvellous work has recently been written by one of England’s greatest novelists; it is not impossible that the idea of the “Coming Race” had its origin in the tale of Elidorus.
In this work I have avoided the literary paths trodden by previous Cambrian authors: writers who, in their own sphere of literature, have left behind them imperishable names. I believe that the mine of wealth I have endeavoured to explore is new, while virgin is the soil. ”

“ They form some of the surest grounds of national strength and permanence; and they are some of those old and venerable things which, as true conservatives, we are by no means desirous to see obliterated or injured. As, however, it is obviously impossible that the whole literature of the Anglo-Saxon race should be translated into Welsh, it is essential to the Cambrians that they should no longer hesitate as to qualifying themselves for reading, in its own tongue, that literature which is exercising so great an influence over a large portion of the globe ”

“ When the solemn obsequies connected with the funeral of the deceased prince were over, the Cambrian barons and chieftains met in a national congress, and unanimously elected Prince Llewelyn-ap-Gruffydd and his brother Owen as joint sovereigns of Wales. The decision of the barons was hailed with the liveliest satisfaction by the Cambrian people. The reason of the existence of this feeling in p. 331favour of the two princes is obvious. Their father had been the idol of the Welsh. ”

“ Before it the Campagna stretches away to the sea and to the north, the horizon there brokenly outlined by the low Volscian and Ciminian Hills. Not so towards the sea; in the near distance a castle or a single tower breaks the plain, midway Rome shimmers like a net of pearls thrown down across the Tiber; but the west is the empty west always, left to the sun and the wind, with the wide heavens above, and that one long sword of light laid on its farther bound where the tideless Mediterranean laps against the shore. ”

“ Looking at cities and villages so purely Umbrian, some spread among cornfields close to a swift clear river, others set upon heights which nearly touch the sky on stormy days, we forget that beyond these hills and mountains encircling the big valley of Umbria stretch other lands as fair. We forget, because it is a little world which during long centuries has been set apart from all else, and where man has but completed the work of nature herself. ”

“ The autumn sun is declining over the fields and oak-woods and vineyards of Umbria, where—in the wide undulating valley, inclosed by high rounded hills, bleak or dark with ilex, each with its strange terraced white city, Assisi, Spello, Spoleto, Todi—the Tiber winds lazily along, pale green, limpid, scarce rippled over its yellow pebbles, screened by long rows of reeds, and thinned, yellowing poplars, reflecting dimly the sky and trees, the pointed mediæval bridges and the crenelated towers on its banks ”

“ All is ascetic, yet tender, save where, far off on the plain, the low red wall of a city lies like a sword across the land. In the distance Umbria, with its clean, pale landscapes, so significant and lucent under the quivering dome of white, seems less of earth than Heaven, almost breathlessly impersonal, a country more for angels than for men; but nearer at hand she smiles at you, like some saint turning from the ravishments of contemplation to encourage a fellow-being whose vision is not clarified to behold what she has seen. ”

“ As the night gloom deepens, and the moon ascends the sky, these buildings seem to form the sombre foreground to some French etching. Beyond them spreads the misty moon-irradiated plain of Umbria. Over all rise shadowy Apennines, with dim suggestions of Assisi, Spello, Foligno, Montefalco, and Spoleto on their basements. Little thin whiffs of breezes, very slight and searching, flit across, and shiver as they pass from Apennine to plain. The slowly moving population—women in veils, men winter-mantled—pass to and fro between the buildings and the grey immensity of sky. ”