Note {76} — PART III. THE PATRIOTIC.

The captive Welsh nobles, either hostages or prisoners of war, who were detained in the Tower of London, obtained permission that their libraries should be sent them from Wales, to amuse them in their solitude and confinement. This was a frequent practice, so that in process of time the Tower became the principal repository of Welsh literature. The present poverty of ancient Welsh manuscripts may be dated from the time when the history and poetry of our country received a fatal blow in the loss of those collected at London, by the villainy of one Scolan, who burned them.