e _Musical Relicks_. I am convinced
of this, for by a lucky chance I am enabled to give the real legend
about Cylart, which is thus given in Carlisle's _Topographical
Dictionary of Wales_, s.v., "Bedd Celert," published in 1811, the date
of publication of Mr. Spencer's _Poems_. "Its name, according to
tradition, implies _The Grave of Celert_, a Greyhound which belonged to
Llywelyn, the last Prince of Wales: and a large Rock is still pointed
out as the monument of this celebrated Dog, being on the spot where it
was found dead, together with the stag which it had pursued from
Carnarvon," which is thirteen miles distant. The cairn was thus a
monument of a "record" run of a greyhound: the _englyn_ quoted by Jones
is suitable enough for this, while quite inadequate to record the later
legendary exploits of Gelert. Jones found an _englyn_ devoted to _an_
exploit of a dog named Cylart, and chose to interpret it in his second
edition, 1794, as _the_ exploit of a greyhound with which all the world
(in Wales) were acquainted. Mr. Spencer took the legend from Jones (the
reference to the date 1205 proves that), enshrined it in his somewhat
_banal_ verses, which were lucky enough to be copied into several
reading-books, and thus became known to all English-speaking folk.

It remains only to explain why Jones connected the legend with
Llewelyn. Llewelyn had local connection with Bedd Gellert, which was
the seat of an Augustinian abbey, one of the oldest in Wales. An
inspeximus of Edward I. given in Dugdale, _Monast. Angl._, ed. pr. ii.
100a, quotes as the earliest charter of the abbey "Cartam Lewelin,
magni." The name of the abbey was "Beth Kellarth"; the name is thus
given by Leland, _l.c._, and as late as 1794 an engraving at the
British Museum is entitled "Beth Kelert," while Carlisle gives it as
"Beth Celert." The place was thus named after the abbey, not after the
cairn or rock. This is confirmed by the fact of which Prof. Rhys had
informed me, that the collocation of letters _rt_ is un-Welsh. Under
these circumstances it is not impossible, I think, that the earlier
legend of the marvellous run of "Cylart" from Carnarvon was due to the
etymologising fancy of some English-speaking Welshman who interpreted
the name as Killhart, so that the simpler legend would be only a
folk-etymology.

But whether Kellarth, Kelert, Cylart, Gelert or Gellert ever existed
and ran a hart from Carnarvon to Bedd Gellert or no, there can be
little do