the worth and generous principles of your
renowned ancestors. The British Bards were received by the nobility and
gentry with distinguished marks of esteem, in every part of Wales, and
particularly at Gloddaith and Mostyn, where their works are still
preserved in your curious libraries. I hope, therefore, an attempt to
give the public a small specimen of their works will not fail of your
approbation, which the editor flatters himself with, from the generous
manner with which you treated him, particularly by lending him some of
your valuable books and manuscripts.

That you may long continue to be an ornament to your country, and a
pattern of virtuous actions, and a generous patron of learning, is the
sincere wish, of,

Sir,
Your obliged
Humble Servant,
EVAN EVANS.

PREFACE.

As there is a natural curiosity in most people to be brought acquainted
with the works of men, whose names have been conveyed down to us with
applause from very early antiquity, I have been induced to think, that a
translation of some of the Welsh Bards would be no unacceptable present
to the public. It is true they lived in times when all Europe was
enveloped with the dark cloud of bigotry and ignorance; yet, even under
these disadvantageous circumstances, a late instance may convince us,
that poetry shone forth with a light, that seems astonishing to many
readers. They who have perused the works of Ossian, as translated by Mr.
Macpherson, will, I believe, be of my opinion.

I mean not to set the following poems in competition with those just
mentioned; nor did the success which they have met with from the world,
put me upon this undertaking. It was first thought of, and encouraged
some years before the name of Ossian was known in England. I had long
been convinced, that no nation in Europe possesses greater remains of
ancient and genuine pieces of this kind than the Welsh; and therefore was
inclined, in honour to my country, to give a specimen of them in the
English language.

As to the genuineness of these poems, I think there can be no doubt; but
though we may vie with the Scottish nation in this particular, yet there
is another point, in which we must yield to them undoubted