the works of all the Welsh poets there are some incidents mentioned, and facts recorded, which, in the hands of a skilful compiler, would greatly tend to elucidate the state of society, and assist in tracing the progress of civilization at different periods, from the earliest ages. Welsh poetry is a field that has not, as yet, been thoroughly traversed by any historian; which is greatly to be deplored, since it has been long and well authenticated that the bards are the only chroniclers, among the Welsh, in whom an implicit confidence may be placed; for it was incumbent on them, as a part of their office, "to make truth manifest, and diffuse the knowledge of it; and to perpetuate the praise of all that is good and excellent." See the Triads.

Had we a professor, the Welsh мss. which are now scattered all over the kingdom, might be published under his superintendence; so that our literature might be brought within the reach of the antiquary, and every student in the language.

There are now in Oxford professors of Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Anglo-Saxon, &c., but not of the ancient British language, although it may be classed, in point of antiquity and similarity of structure, with the Hebrew; for it is evidently of Oriental, and not of European, origin. And we can state, without fear of contradiction, that the Welsh language would prove of infinite assistance in getting up the Sanscrit, or in acquiring a knowledge of the Hebrew and its cognate dialects.

There is another and, we think, weightier consideration which should be mentioned, namely, the advantage that would accrue to students in the University, who may be looking forward to become pastors of the Established Church in Wales. To them, indeed, an intimate knowledge of the language is indispensable, but, through want of a professor, they enter college, and take their degree without ever, during their career of study, once thinking of preparing themselves for the arduous and responsible duty which must devolve upon them, when they are placed over a Welsh congregation. We can vouch for the truth of what we have here stated; and the Church of England has suffered materially from the circumstance to which we allude. There is, however, one pleasing reflection,-one which augurs well of future good to the church, namely, that the present Welsh prelates appear to be aware of this evil, and that they have determined to correct it by every means in their power. This is evident from the strict examination which, in one or two of the Welsh dioceses, the Welsh candidates have of late undergone in their native language. We rejoice at this circumstance; and when, in addition to this, we shall hear of a Welsh professorship having been established, our wishes will have been consummated.

Lady Jane Grey.

In the celebrated letter from Lady Jane Grey to her sister, the night before her execution, as it has lately been printed* from the manuscript on vellum, in the British museum, Harl. мs. 2370, the illustrious writer thus expresses herself,

"I have sent yō, good sust. K. a boke wh although it

be not rimid with gold," &c.

Now the editor of the modern English version of this epistle, not knowing very well what to make of the word rimid, has thought fit to change it into trimmed, and, accordingly, has thus rendered the passage;

"I have sent you, my good sister Katharine, a book

which although not trimmed with gold," &c.

But the word rimid+ is pure, genuine old British, and means bound; that is, "I have sent you a book, which, although it be not outwardly bound, &c." So, in Welsh, a bookbinder is called "Rhwymwr Llyfrau," from the verb rhwymo, which signifies to bind generally, as, for instance,

"Ac â phedawr rhafawg y rhwymid Olifer :"

And with four ropes they bound Oliver.

The Welsh History of Charlemain.

The word rhyme is evidently derived from rhwymo, to bind; since verse may well be said to be bound, or confined, by its rhymes, and very pretty poetical trimmings they make. Hence, also, rim, as signifying a border or margin; rime, hoar-frost, as that which encircles every thing it falls on; and, perhaps, also rimple, and rumple, (rimpull,) as meaning to pucker or to corrugate, that is, to pull out of its rims into a state of disorder that which before was plaited, or confined within its rhymes or bounds. Johnson deduces rhyme from oveμog, but this means rhythm, metre, rather than rhyme, a consonance of sounds; as the Greeks had no rhymes, but the Welsh poetry is remarkable for the astonishing reduplication of its rhyming consonancies.

GENTLEMEN,

Ich Dien.

ALTHOUGH there may be some presumption in my venturing into the field of antiquarian controversy between two such able dis

* "Lady Jane Grey and her Times," page 372. And see also "Memoirs of Lady Jane Grey," by N, H. Nicolas, Esq., 1832, p. 43, 44.

+ Rimid is not a Welsh word.

From llyfr, a book, we have the Saxon word loof; a book being composed of a number of leaves.

putants as your valuable correspondent Peris, and the learned author of the Dissertation on Ancient Armour, yet I cannot resist the temptation of hazarding a third conjecture on the origin and meaning of the Prince of Wales's motto, "ICH Dien.”

I fully agree with Sir S. Meyrick, in rejecting the vulgar error of considering this device to be the badge of the prince's conquest of the king of Bohemia, who, when vanquished in single combat, is supposed to have forfeited it, together with his armour, to the victor. Indeed, as a Welshman, I can never be persuaded that these monosyllables, as thus used, ever were of German origin, and, therefore, cannot subscribe to Sir Samuel's hypothesis, that they are the trophies of the prince's prowess over some unknown Teutonic knight, at some tilt or tournament of which we have no account in history. There is every strong probability to warrant the presumption that the armorial device of a prince of Wales should be Welsh, although the etymology of Peris, however ingenious, in deducing dien from dyn, a man, appears to me to involve a too forced conversion of the elementary letters of this word to authorise its reception, as has been already noticed by Sir Samuel Meyrick. I conceive the words Ich Dien or I'wch Dien, to be purely British, and their literal translation to be "To you Destruction," "For you Destruction." Or supposing the first word to have been spelled with an initial Y instead of an I, Ych Dien, it would then be "Behold Destruction." Or, again, taking the motto as it now literally stands Ich Dien, it would be "The shriek of Destruction," or "Howling Destruction." Ich, in the ancient British, means a shriek, and, with the usual prefix, ys may furnish us with the no very improbable root of the English word: so ichian, or ys-ichian, is to squeal, to squeak, to shriek.

That the word Dien, in Welsh, signifies destruction, violent death, or military execution, we have the authority of all the old writers. Thus, for instance, Taliesin has ni wyr perchen cnawd beth fydd ei ddien, and, in Dafydd Gwilym, we find Dien drwg a fo i'r dyn draw, where, by the by, we remark dien used in direct contradistinction to dyn.

Now it will be admitted, by every one, that in all periods of military history, from the Homeric heroes of the Troad, and the ancient Picts, who painted their faces to make their features hideously horrible, down to our modern guardsmen, with their tremendous whiskers and their all appalling mustachios; it has ever been the custom among warriors to endeavour to make their persons appear as terrific as possible to the enemy. But what could be more terrible in battle than this motto, emblazoned on the crest of the great captain of the age? It seems to hurl defiance and destruction on the proud battalions of braggart

France. Ich Dien! "Woe betide you!" "Death and howling Destruction await you!"

Again, as the word was sometimes written Diên, and sometimes Dihenydd, this Di-hen will account for the elongated e final on the monumental inscription, of which Sir Samuel Meyrick has so judiciously obliged us with a copy in your last number.

This version is much strengthened by the probability that the English prince would naturally seek to ingratiate himself with his new subjects, the Welsh, by gratifying their national pride in the adoption of an armorial bearing from their native language, and so strongly expressive of their characteristic impetuosity. If it be objected that a motto in an unknown tongue could not inspire an enemy with terror, because it would not be understood, I reply that, "Omne ignotum pro terribili."

"A plague on your Welsh etymologies of Ich Dien," cries a surly Saxon, at my elbow, "why the words are plain English, and mean nothing more or less than Itch Die'n, or Die in the Itch,' being a delicate hint from the prince to his new lieges to pay more attention to Cambrian cleanliness."

Such are the abortive attempts of low wit which sometimes are made to throw a portion of ridicule on the aboriginal etymologies of Britain; it has sometimes been too much the fashion to attempt to throw a portion of ridicule on these antiquarian exercitations; but they, at least, contribute something to our general stock of harmless amusement, and may serve to elucidate historic doubts. E. WILLIAMS.

I HAVE always understood from written and traditionary authority, that the hill rising in the east at Vennington, in Shropshire, and falling in the west near Forden, in Montgomeryshire, derived its Welsh name of Cevn Digoll from its having been the place of assemblage for the forces of Richmond, on the borders, previously to the battle of Bosworth; indicating, that all the Earl's supporters who had promised attendance, failed not in their allegiance, but rallied to his standard Di-Goll, without loss. is the generally received opinion regarding the name of the mountain; but I confess that a passage occurring in the Cambrian Biographies, written by the learned Dr. Owen Pughe, has produced conflicting doubts in my mind. In page 36 of that work,

This

in a notice of Cadwallon, son of Cadvan, I find the following remarks. "The battle of Digoll, fought between Cadwallon and Edwin, and which compelled the former to seek for safety in Ireland, is called one of the three discolourings of the Severn.' Now there is no other place at present called Digoll on the banks of that river; and if this mountain and the adjoining vale of Severn were the scene of action, it is clear that Cevn Digoll received its name long before the time of Henry Tudor, because the battle fought by Cadwallon took place as early as the sixth century. I know the late prebend John Jenkins, of Kerry, (no mean authority,) attributed the name to Richmond and his followers; indeed he had drawn up a paper embodying every gleaning of authority on the point; but as you possibly may never see it, and as the present inquiry is one of considerable interest to some friends of mine who reside in the neighbourhood, I beg to call the attention of the scholars of Cambria to the subject, more particularly the attention of the venerable gentlemen from whose work I have taken my quotation, to the following question: whether Keven Digoll received its name from the battle fought between Cadwallon ab Cadvan, and Edwin, king of Northumberland, in the sixth century; or whether from a much later event, the "gathering place" of Richmond and the Welsh in the fifteenth.

When you recollect that Edward Lhwyd, and nearly every other eminent scholar of our country, particularly recommended inquiries, such as the above, to be made, as the best and surest mode of correctly illustrating the history of Wales, I trust you will not deem the question contained in this letter entirely useless. Your obedient humble servant,

TREVNANT.

Unpublished Letters of Edward Lhwyd, of the Ashmolean Library, Oxford.

(Continued from No. XI., p. 375.)

DEAR SR.

No. XIV.

Oxf.; 7ber. 8, 94.

This is onely to return you my thanks for your last, of Aug. 25. I have this week sent up Montgomeryshire and Meirionydh.; being dun'd for them by Mr. Gibson. I am now satisfied we shall have pretty fayr play; for whereas I suspected all this while they would print but few notes or additions, I find by some counties I have seen, their additions are almost as large as