taken up by the gentleman, for nothing but the great pleasure of catching the rheumatism! As to hunting, if it be the natural aim of a reasonable creature to drown thought, that is, reason, then is the hue and cry of hunting, the spectacle of many men at full speed, assuming the character and emulating the ferocity of dogs to their very yell, with no object but a wretched hare or a fox, neither of which they care a rush about, yet ravaging the poor man's fields, like an enemy, for the sake of it; then, I say, is hunting, and its mischief, and frantic uproar, a rational amusement. And here, if I be charged with presumption in arraigning fieldsports, the delight of many a wiser man than myself, I can only say that I had a mind thereby to countenance myself in a sort of supine enjoyment, the very essence of which is peace; the breach of which of the peace of nature, is the very essence of the hunter's bliss. A letter really written on a mountain ramble, may hope to be pardoned for a little rambling. Mine has rambled with a vengeance; but, lest it should grow mountainous also, I must defer the conclusion of our week's journey of discovery till another occasion, it being my object to visit only those few little-explored vallies and recesses of the Welsh mountains which preserve primitive habits of life, and present beautiful natural objects. For myself, as your present and possibly future correspondent, I call myself "Rural Doctor," for sundry reasons. I am a doctor, and I prefer to practice on a rural population, and I have a sort of passion for rural things; yea, to the milkmaid; nay, cow girl; nay, downward to the rural tripod she sits on, by her cow, in the Wye side meadow in the morning. I desire thereby to be distinguished from my bustle-loving brethren of a city: for, whereas, they love the "otium cum dignitate," (that is, lolling in a chariot,) I prefer the "otium sine," to wit, sitting by the hour in a green tree, or under a dead one, when the moon hangs at midnight over the Wye, and the autumn leaves go hurrying down its flood: or I might steal a pun, and say, that I love to lie by a brookside, and my learned brothers by a bedside. Ergo, pocketing my diploma, (albeit, not of Aberdeen,) I forego without a sigh all those glories of M. D. consequence with which many an Aberdeen Doctor Medicinæ round me awes my simple neighbours, and (pleased to do good where I can,) enjoy "my hollow tree and liberty:" I am not the least ashamed to have time to eat my dinner, and even write an epistle to the Cambrian Quarterly, instead of a prescription. Though not far beyond what ancient writ assigns as half the age of man, I have antedated the most grievous ill of extreme age, to be left alone in the world, to have outlived all friends. Where I and mine, therefore, pitch our tent, our little world is formed around us at once: I have no distracting ambisoul from away my mountains back tions or anxieties, to draw my to the world I have forsaken, and which is to me, indeed, no more, -a dream that is past. My profession I leave behind me on my leaving home, thenceforth I am a sort of peripatetic philosopher in a small way, my little boys are my disciples; I point out to them the latent principles of the picturesque, so far as I am able, and strive to instil a taste for innocent and peaceful enjoyments. It is scarcely possible that any stranger can imagine the squalid semi-barbarism and poverty I have described, to be characteristic of the lower orders in Wales generally. On the contrary, in few mountainous regions (and be it known, that I have seen and trod Alps, Apennines, and Pyrenees some sixteen years ago,) are such happy scenes of home comfort, as well as hospitable urbanity, its to be found as in the Principality. Yet is it somewhat melancholy to observe the traits of decay and desertion so manifest among beauties: not only the castles, of the remains of Welsh as well as feudal, present this aspect, but the mansions of more recent erection and consequence, stand dwindled into ruinous farm-houses, from the extinction of families; that extinction accelerated by the suicidal sort of internal war, waged by the opulent, who can command it, against longevity. I allude to the accursed scourge of intemperance, self-inflicted by the gentry; the heads of families being taken off in rapid succession, at an early age, by the fire, incessantly plied, of alcohol, in all forms; no less destructive than real war with its fire and sword, when it is considered that the ravage of the one is partial and temporary, of the other universal, silent, ceaseless. I am, gentlemen, Yours very truly, The RURAL DOCTOR. MY NGHARIAD, Gwyw calon gan hiraeth.-DIAR. Mae Nghariad yn wen; ail gwynder y lili, Mae Nghariad yn serchus, ac er vy moddloni, Mae Nghariad yn gywir; ei geiriàu á gredav, Mae Nghariad yn vedrus; gwybodaeth sy ganddi, Mae 'n caru diwydrwydd, mae 'n vwyn ac yn hawddgar, Rhydychain. TEGID. Translation. MY LADY LOVE. My Lady Love is beauteous, she the lily doth outvie, Oh! peerless is my Lady Love! delighting old and young, My love, she's all sincerity,-oh! who can doubt her vow? Accomplished is my Lady Love, few may with her compete, * Beri, plural of bar, a spear. Ar ladd lladd llachar ar bar beri.--Gwalchmai, + Rhosyn, rose. HAL. TOUR THROUGH BRITTANY. (Continued from vol. iii. p. 185.) AMONG the various recollections of Breton chivalry, few are cherished in that country with greater delight than those connected with the combat des Trente, or, as it is sometimes called, the bataille des Trente, in which thirty Breton knights and attendants entered the lists, in mortal combat, against the same number of English. The particulars of this celebrated encounter are as follows: During the Breton war of the succession, between John de Montfort and Charles de Blois, in the reign of our Edward the Third, A.D. 1350, while De Beaumanoir, a Breton knight, commanded the forces of De Blois, at the castle of Josselin, and the Earl of Pembroke, who had been sent over from England, by King Edward, with a body of men, to the assistance of De Montfort, was stationed at Ploermel; it appears that the English troops, under the sanction of Pembroke, and contrary to the conditions of a truce then established, were in the habit of committing many excesses in the neighbouring country, ill-treating the unarmed peasantry, and exercising much cruelty and oppression towards such as fell into their power. Beaumanoir, indignant at these proceedings, went with an escort to Josselin, and remonstrated with Pembroke upon the unworthiness of such conduct; but that nobleman, instead of attending to his arguments, treated him with considerable haughtiness; whereupon, Beaumanoir, with all the good breeding which characterized the gallant and gentle knights of that day, proposes that the difference may be settled between themselves, and that a day be appointed on which they shall meet, with an equal number of followers, and decide the dispute by an appeal to arms. To this the haughty Pembroke immediately consents; and accordingly, upon an appointed day, a tournament of thirty against thirty, takes place on the field of Mie-Voie, half-way between Josselin and Ploermel, in which the Bretons are victorious. Froissart, in referring to this combat, says, it was undertaken by these champions for the love of their mistresses; and that he had, afterwards, seen at the table of Charles the Fifth, king of France, a Breton knight, named Yewains Charruel, who had been in the combat des Trente, and whose hacked and scarred visage satisfactorily shewed that the day had been well fought. This celebrated rencontre has always been a favorite subject of traditional record among the Bretons; and there are several families still in existence in Brittany, which claim a descent from some of the principal persons engaged. I have had the honour of meeting one gentleman who was an acknowledged descendant of Beaumanoir himself, and who was by no means insensible to the merits of his illustrious ancestor. In addition to the traditions of the Bretons, and the local testimonies of Mie- Voie and the adjacent territory, this occurrence has been frequently noticed by historians. But the fact has been lately corroborated by a discovery, in the Bibliothéque du Roi, of a contemporaneous manuscript, containing a poem, in old French, descriptive of the event. This manuscript was discovered a few years ago by M. de Freminville and M. de Penhouet, in their antiquarian researches relative to Brittany. It is written on vellum, in 4to., and contains upwards of five hundred lines; and has been handsomely printed, at Paris, by Crapelet, with a facsimile of the original, and explanatory notes, together with the armorial bearings of the Breton champions. The following extracts will serve as specimens: 66 Cy_comence la bataille de FFF englois et de FFX bretons qui fu faite embretaigne, I an de grace mil trois cens Cinquante le sammedi debant letare herusalem." "Here commences the battle of the Thirty English and the Thirty Bretons, which took place in Brittany, in the year of grace 1350, on the Saturday before Lætare Jerusalem." "Seigneurs or fastes paix ch`lrs et barons Heraulx menestreelx et tous bons compaignons "Nobles give attention; knights and barons, bannerets,† bachelors, and all noble persons; bishops and abbots, religious men, heralds, minstrels, and all good companions; gentlemen and bourgeois of every nation; listen to the romance which we will relate to you; the history is true, and the expressions [ditties] good; how thirty English, bold as lions, combated one day against thirty Bretons." A festival of the church of Rome, 27th of March, 1351, according to the new style. Bannerets, knights who had a sufficient number of vassals to form a company, and entitle them to bear a banner in the field. Bachelors, students in arms or arts, gentlemen who had not received the order of knighthood. |