His subordinate ministers, the masters and disciples of vocal and
instrumental music, visited, in their respective circuits, the royal,
the noble, and the plebeian houses; and the public poverty, almost
exhausted by the clergy, was oppressed by the importunate demands of the
bards. Their rank and merit were ascertained by solemn trials, and the
strong belief of supernatural inspiration exalted the fancy of the poet,
and of his audience. [157] The last retreats of Celtic freedom,
the extreme territories of Gaul and Britain, were less adapted to
agriculture than to pasturage: the wealth of the Britons consisted in
their flocks and herds; milk and flesh were their ordinary food; and
bread was sometimes esteemed, or rejected, as a foreign luxury. Liberty
had peopled the mountains of Wales and the morasses of Armorica; but
their populousness has been maliciously ascribed to the loose practice
of polygamy; and the houses of these licentious barbarians have been
supposed to contain ten wives, and perhaps fifty children. [158] Their
disposition was rash and choleric; they were bold in action and in
speech; [159] and as they were ignorant of the arts of peace, they
alternately indulged their passions in foreign and domestic war.
The cavalry of Armorica, the spearmen of Gwent, and the archers of
Merioneth, were equally formidable; but their poverty could seldom
procure either shields or helmets; and the inconvenient weight would
have retarded the speed and agility of their desultory operations. One
of the greatest of the English monarchs was requested to satisfy the
curiosity of a Greek emperor concerning the state of Britain; and Henry
II. could assert, from his personal experience, that Wales was inhabited
by a race of naked warriors, who encountered, without fear, the
defensive armor of their enemies. [160]

[Footnote 156: At the conclusion of his history, (A.D. 731,) Bede
describes the ecclesiastical state of the island, and censures the
implacable, though impotent, hatred of the Britons against the English
nation, and the Catholic church, (l. v. c. 23, p. 219.)]

[Footnote 157: Mr. Pennant's Tour in Wales (p. 426-449) has furnished me
with a curious and interesting account of the Welsh bards. In the year
1568, a session was held at Caerwys by the special command of Queen
Elizabeth, and regular degrees in vocal and instrumental music were
conferred on fifty-five minstrels. The prize (a silver harp) was
adjudged by the Mostyn