Note 48a — SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT WELSH POETRY.

Afan Ferddig, was the Bard of the famous Cadwallon, son of Cadfan king of Britain. I have got a fragment of a poem of his composition on the death of his patron Cadwallon; and as far as I understand it, it is a noble piece, but very obscure on account of its great antiquity; as are the works of all the Bards who wrote about this time. It is as difficult a task, for a modern Welshman to endeavour to understand those venerable remains, as for a young scholar just entered upon the study of the Greek language to attack Lycophron or Pindar, without the help of a dictionary or scholiast. How Mr. Macpherson has been able to translate the Erse used in the time of Ossian, who lived a whole century at least before the earliest British Bard now extant, I cannot comprehend. I wish some of those that are well versed in the Erse or Irish language, would be so kind to the public, as to clear these matters; for I can hardly believe that the Erse language hath been better preserved than the British.