cording to the practice of that period. This style of orthography, in proper names, seems to have been universal among our old Latin writers, as may be seen in the works of Gildas and Nennius, &c.; where such words as Gwrtheyrn, Cyndeyrn, &c. are changed into Vortigern and Kentigern, or some such form, &c. For instance, in Gunn's Nennius, we have a transcript of that author made from an ancient мs. in the Vatican, of the tenth century, in which this style of orthography is found; e. g. "Gurthegirnus autem regnabat in bryttannia;" and again "Briacat; filius pascent; Pascent filius guorthegirn; Guorthegirn filius guortheneu, &c." But when these names are found in Welsh compositions, they are always written as pronounced, according to the orthography of that language, as may be seen in the old chronicle of Tysilio. "Ac yn y dived vedy na by undeb rydynt y dayth Gvrtheyrn Gvrthenau, &c." This introduction of the quiescent G seems to have been adopted by the Irish and Gaelic writers still more generally than the Welsh, as we find it not only in their Latinized names, but even in their Celtic compositions, together with several other consonants which at present have no oral power whatever. At what period this system was adopted, or for what purpose, whether it was merely an etymological index, and never affecting the sound of words, or whether, by a change in the pronunciation of the language, these consonants have gradually lapsed into a quiescent state, and become entirely mute, must be left to Gaelic scholars to determine.

Who this Cattawc was remains to be ascertained. There were two of the name who are recorded among the ancient British saints: Cattwg ap Gwynlliw, who lived in the sixth century, and Cattwg ap Brychan in the fifth, and who died in France, probably in Brittany. There were also at least two saints named Teyrnawc about the same period. Several churches in the Principality are dedicated to St. Cattog, but to which of the personages bearing that name the honour of having founded them belongs, may not in every case be easily determined. The church of Llangattock Crickhowel, in Breconshire, is said to be dedicated to the son of Brychan; but the authority is too vague to be much relied on. On the other hand, as the parish adjoins that in which this ancient monument lay, it is not unreasonable

Kadawc ap Brychan yn ffrainc y Gorwedd-Bonedd

y Saint.

to suppose that the church was founded by CATTAWC AP TEYRNAWC.

Should any of our readers who may chance to visit the celebrated vale of Crickhowel, in South Wales, feel an inclination to examine this very interesting ancient British monument, we have the pleasure of informing them that they may now extend their excursion through the beautiful valley of Cwmdu to the banks of the Wye, along the new road lately opened through that country; for which the Principality is indebted to the munificence and public spirit of John Hotchkis, Esq., of Lanwysc villa, Crickhowel, who almost entirely at his own expense began and completed this undertaking, by which a new and exceedingly picturesque tract of country is opened to the traveller, and a junction effected between the two most beautiful valleys in the kingdom, those of the Usk and the Wye.

[The retention of quiescent letters in the Celtic dialects is necessary to preserve the root, and trace the etymology. The learned Edward Lhuyd was of opinion that all consonants were originally sounded, and the structure of the language bears him out. Tighearnach, a name formerly common to Scots and Irish, is pronounced Tiernach. Donald, in Gaëlic orthography, Domhnal, mh having the sound of v, was anciently written Dovenald, &c.-EDITORS.]

SONNET.

Too oft is memory's landscape but a field

Of scanty stubble: oft a barren sand,

Which will, tho' nurtured by the craftiest hand,

Tho' cheered by sun and shower, no produce yield,

Save a few thistles,-not a shrub to shield

Young schemes from blighting, ere they've time to stand.
But he, who can look back upon a land,

With crops of his own sowing there revealed,

mind

Whose good intentions have been well matured
whose young
By many a year of labour;
Has been to passion's dread allurements blind,
May deem his earthly happiness secured,

Nor fear the harrowing sting of fell remorse,
Checking the wanton in his headlong course.
Dolgelly.

GLAMORGANSHIRE LEGEND, OF THE LORD OF
DUNRAVEN CASTLE.

BY THE RURAL DOCTOR.

CORNWALL and Wales more than other maritime parts of Great Britain seem to have incurred the stigma of the revolting crime of wrecking, while, of all other crimes, the annual register of both countries, but especially the latter, is happily distinguished for the lightness both in number and dye. But this is not the only anomaly that strikes us on the subject. The character of the wrecker-the merciless being who preys upon the victim of a frightful calamity, depriving him not only of what the devouring element may have left to him, but sometimes of life itself, presents traits as anomalous as that just mentioned. It cannot be denied that this species of robbery exceeds in cruelty the ordinary crime of land robbers. The impulse to aid the struggle for life of a fellow-creature; the desire to save, and the delight in the saving, seem so nearly instinctive in us, and common to the worst as well as the best men, that one would be led by mere reasoning to expect something of visible monstrosity, some incarnation of the diabolical nature, in the being capable of resisting it, so far as not only to withhold a helping hand, but raise a murderous one; or make lawless prize of the remnant of worldly goods, so painfully saved by the most destitute of forlorn creatures. Yet, strange to tell, the people thus breaking at once through law and the common feelings of humanity, are not like the burglar or highway robber; men secretly or openly aliens to their species, prowling without the pale of society, but rustic dwellers in districts, exemplary for the infrequency of all other atrocious crimes. Some twenty-five years ago, the clergyman of the remote fishing village of Aberayron, Carnarvonshire, wrote: "On no part of the British coasts have more disasters by sea occurred, than on this, nor more instances of inhumanity to the survivors." Yet the writer of this has repeatedly traversed the coast referred to, (that of the promontory of Llyn,) at a late hour, and slept under the reeded roof of more than one cottager on the maritime hillsides of that narrow projection of the county, with two boys, too young to avail in selfdefence; fearlessly and without cause of fear, although these very cottagers, some of them at least, issuing from their

hovels at the tidings of a shipwreck, are understood to constitute the species of plunderers described by the term of wreckers; at least, I never heard of any separate gang or banditti engaged in this coward barbarity.*

**

A clue seems required to this paradox in human sentiment and action, to account for it. Perhaps the true one is afforded in that ancient law concerning wreck, which gives to the king in form, and in reality to the lord of the manor on which wreck is found, a property therein, including in that term whatever is thrown up by the sea, whether from a ship that has perished there, or the remains of the vessel, provided that no living thing be on board. In ancient char

* The language of our powerful correspondent here, we think, implies the exception to be the rule. We do not deny that examples of such cold-blooded atrocity ever did take place, but for many, many years past, we confidently say, never. We confess, instances of brutal indifference to the fate of shipwrecked seamen have in recent times occurred, but, how have they occurred? -by the Welsh showing that peculiar want of self-command which is an inherent characteristic of all the inhabitants of Britain, namely, a love of drink. Scenes of the grossest sensuality have therefore, during the period last spoken of, frequently taken place in Wales, but scenes of blood, we repeat, never; and in the moral turpitude of the two there is an immeasurable distinction. Stupified with spirits, it was no uncommon thing to see the dead bodies of a drowned ship's crew mingled with those of the swinish and insensible devotees to Bacchus, as well as those who had suffocated themselves by excessive drinking!

We cannot recollect an instance of one Welshman having been brought to justice for wrecking, but during the last century there were examples of the execution of strangers. It was our misfortune, nearly five years ago, to receive a statement, insinuating the commission of wrecking, in its most humiliating form, which had then lately occurred in South Wales. In consequence of our observations upon the commission of this sickening crime, which were very strong, the then honorable Member for Carmarthen took the matter into his consideration, and, after a most attentive investigation, the whole, as respected any charge of cruelty, proved false. Mr. Jones's letter to us was accompanied by a declaration that the imputed crime was wholly unknown upon the Welsh coast.

Our object, in writing this note, has been solely a wish to place the sentiments of the amiable writer, as well as our own, in a right view, namely, that no expressions of his are intended to cast a national stigma upon one of the most moral people in Europe, our Welsh peasantry.-EDITORS.

ters shipwreck is called wreche, werech, also seupwerp, that is, sea-upwerp, which comes of sea, and upwerpen (Sax.) to cast up. "Rex habebit wreckum maris per totum regnum, &c." Any living thing found on board, were it but a cat, redeemed the whole vessel or hulk, to be recovered by the owner, on demanding it within a year and a day. If no life were preserved at all, it fell at once to the lord. This law seems to recognise the principle of an alienation of property by agency of the elements, as if, whatever the fury of the deep wrests from its lawful owner, should become as it were masterless, and be claimable by the happier tenant of a less turbulent element, in the nature of a god-send, and may have its effect on ill-judging ignorance backed by cupidity.

Some cause must exist for the phenomenon, that the same poor people who would, on occasion of a neighbour's house tumbling down, or being consumed by fire, render every humane aid in saving him or his goods, do, on the very kindred catastrophe of a ship, equally a fellow-creature's home, come crashing down in ruins on the rock, or breaking to pieces on a beach, finish that tragedy the sea had left incomplete, and add horror to a horrible misfortune.

Let us hope that the boasted march of intellect, which perhaps has something to answer for on the score of introducing some crimes, as well as to boast in its prevention of others, will speedily banish this, most foul, strange, and unnatural, from our beautiful country; will teach the Welsh sea-side peasant, however poor, to regard the shivering shipwrecked man, and his trunk washed ashore, or his few clothes saved, with equal or deeper sympathy than he would the same sufferer, flying at midnight from his house in flames : that so primitive, peaceable a district, whose moral view, but for this one crime, would be as purely beautiful as its physical, a perfect landscape for the soul's eye of the philanthropist to repose upon, after the red and black horrors of guilt and retribution that revolt it in great capitals, may cast off this foul blot, and the detestable criminal-a wreckerexist but in name.

The lords of some maritime Welsh manors incurred, at a distant era, the occasional scandal of aggravating even this species of guilt; that is to say, of producing that calamity by which the common wreckers only profited when already produced by storm or sunken rock. Some of them have been charged with hanging out false lights for beacons, and by. other arts, procuring the wreck of vessels on their iron-bound