and eminences around, by priests, carrying sacred torches, All the household fires were previously extinguished, and those who were thought worthy of such a privilege, were allowed to relight them with a flaming brand, kindled at the consecrated cairn-fire. Note 6, page 585, line 11. 'Twas then the captives of Britannia's war. The French prisoners, taken in the wars with Napoleon, were confined in a depot on Dartmoor. Note 7, page 588, line 7. It lives in those soft accents to the sky. In allusion to a plan for the erection of a great national schoolhouse on Dartmoor, where it was proposed to educate the children of convicts. WELCH MELODIES. INTRODUCTORY STANZAS.-THE HARP OF WALES. INSCRIBED TO THE RUTHIN WELSH LITERARY SOCIETY. HARP of the mountain-land! sound forth again, Thy tones are not to cease! The Roman came Thy tones are not to cease!-The Saxon pass'd, But thou wert heard above the trumpet's blast, Those were dark years!-They saw the valiant fall, The hearth left lonely in the ruined hall Yet power was thine--a gift in every chord! Call back that spirit to the days of peace, Thou noble Harp!-thy tones are not to cease! DRUID CHORUS ON THE LANDING OF THE ROMANS. By the dread and viewless powers O'er our shadowy coast which broods? By the altar and the tomb, Shun these haunted solitudes! Know ye Mona's awful spells? THE GREEN ISLES OF OCEAN.* WHERE are they, those green fairy islands, reposing The mighty have sought them, undaunted in faith; *Ynys Dywyll, or the Dark Island, an ancient name for Anglesey. †The "Green Islands of Ocean," or "Green Spots of the Floods," called in the Triads "Gwerddonan Llion," (respecting which some remarkable superstitions have been preserved in Wales,) were sup posed to be the abode of the Fair Family, or souls of the virtuous Druids, who could not enter the Christian heaven, but were permitted to enjoy this paradise of their own. Gafran, a distinguished British chieftain of the fifth century, west on a voyage, with his family, to discover these islands; but they were never heard of afterwards. This event, the voyage of Merddin Emrys with his twelve bards, and the expedition of Madog, were called the three losses by disappearance of the island of Britain-Vide W. O. PUGHE's Cam brain Biography, also Cambro-Briton, vol. i. p. 124. Where are they, the high-minded children of glory In the fields of their country they found not a grave. THE SEA-SONG OF GAFRAN.* WATCH ye well! The moon is shrouded Storms are gathering, stars are clouded, 'Tis no night of hearth-fires glowing, In the dwellings of our fathers, Now the festive circle gathers, Now the rush-strewn halls are ringing, Save to us, our night-watch keeping, While the very sea-bird sleeping, Think of us when hearths are beaming, THE HIRLAS HORN. FILL high the blue hirlas,† that shines like the wavet * See note to the "Green Isles of Ocean." † Hirlas, from hir, long, and glas, blue or azure. "Fetch the horn, that we may drink together, whose gloss is ke the waves of the sea; whose green handles show the skill of the artist, and are tipped with gold."--From the Hirlas of OWAIN CY FEILIOG. And bear thou the rich foaming mead to the brave, Fill high the blue hirlas! O cup-bearer, fill For the lords of the field, in their festival's hour, Fill higher the hirlas! forgetting not those Who shared its bright draught in the days which are fled! Though cold on their mountains the valiant repose, Their lot shall be lovely-renown to the dead! While harps in the hall of the feast shall be strung, While regal Eryri with snow shall be crown'dSo long by the bards shall their battles be sung, And the heart of the hero shall burn at the sound The free winds of Maelort shall swell with their name, And Owain's rich hirlas be filled to their fame. THE HALL OF CYNDDYLAN. THE Hall of Cynddylan is gloomy to-night; "Heard ye in Maelor the noise of war, the horrid din of arms, their furious onset, loud as in the battle of Bangor, where fire flash ed out of their spears."-From the Hirlas of OWAIN CYFEILIOG. "Fill, then, the yellow-lipped horn-badge of honor and mirth.' -From the same. Maelor, part of the counties of Denbigh and Flint, according to the modern division. "The Hall of Cynddylan is gloomy this night, I must weep awhile, and then be silent. The Hall of Cynddylan is gloomy this night, Be thou encircled with spreading silence! The Hall of Cynddylan is without love this night, The beam of the lamp from its summit is o'er, Nor let e'en an echo recall what hath been! The Hall of Cynddylan is lonely and bare, No banquet, no guest, not a footstep is there! Oh! where are the warriors who circled its board? -The grass will soon wave where the mead-cup was pour'd! The Hall of Cynddylan is loveless to night, Since he is departed whose smile made it bright! THE LAMENT OF LLYWARCH HEN. [Llywarch Hen, or Llywarch the Aged, a celebrated bard and chief of the times of Arthur, was prince of Argoed, supposed to be a part of the present Cumberland. Having sustained the loss of his patrimony, and witnessed the fall of most of his sons, in the unequal contest maintained by the North Britons against the growing power of the Saxons, Llywarch was compelled to fly from his country, and seek refuge in Wales. He there found an asylum for some tinie in the residence of Cynddylan, Prince of Powys, whose fall he pathetically laments in one of his poems. These are still extant, and his elegy on old age and the loss of his sons, is remarkable for its simplicity and beauty.-See Cambrian Biography, and OwEN'S Heroic Elegies and other poems of Llywarch Hen.] THE bright hours return, and the blue sky is ringing Why smile the waste flowers, my sad footsteps surrounding? My spirit all wrapt in the past as a dream! Mine ear hath no joy in the voice of the singer,* Since he that own'd it is no more Ah Death! it will be but a short time he will leave me. The Hall of Cynddylan it is not easy this night, On the top of the rock of Hydwyth, Without its lord, without company, without the circling feasts!" See OWEN'S " Heroic Elegies of Llywarch Hen." "What I loved when I was a youth is hateful to me now." * * * * |