n is made of certain _Wastours_, Master
Rimours (Rimers) and Minstrels, who infested the land of Wales, to make
commorths or gatherings upon the people there. Query the meaning of
this? I am afraid, lest I should be too troublesome with my queries,
and, therefore, reserve what you please to answer at any future hour;
only send me an account of your romances now, which will oblige, dear
Sir, your affectionate and faithful servant,

THOMAS PERCY.

_Easton Maudit_, _March_, 20, 1763.

* * * * *

The same to the same.

DEAR SIR,

I have been many months indebted to you for a very obliging letter. I
delayed to answer it, in expectation of seeing your curious Specimens of
the Ancient British Poetry, advertised, from the press before this time.
Permit me to enquire, what forwardness that intended publication (which
you gave me hopes in your last of seeing speedily printed) is in? From
the translations, you have already favoured me with a sight of, I
conceive a very favourable idea of the merits of your ancient bards, and
should be sorry to have their precious relics swallowed up and lost, in
the gulph of time; a danger which they will incur, if you, that are so
well acquainted with their beauties, and so capable of making them
understood by others, neglect this opportunity of preserving them. I can
readily conceive that many of their most beautiful peculiarities cannot
possibly be translated into another language, but even through the medium
of a prose translation one can discern a rich vein of poetry, and even
classical correctness, infinitely superior to any other compositions of
that age, that we are acquainted with. Certain I am, that our own
nation, at that time, produced nothing that wears the most distant
resemblance to their merit.

I have lately been collecting specimens of English poetry, through every
age, from the time of the Saxons, down to that of Elizabeth, and am
ashamed to show you what wretched stuff our rhimers produced at the same
time that your bards were celebrating the praise of Llewelyn with a
spirit scarce inferior to Pindar. Inclosed I send you a specimen of an
Elegy on the death of Edward I.--that cruel Edward, who made such havoc
among the Cambrian poets. I know not whether you will be able to
decipher these foul scrawls or distinguish them from the marginal
explications, with which I hav