whilst he supposes the former to have been composed either by Gwalchmai or Kynddelw. The Gorddodau are attributed to Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch.

The "Destiny of Great Britain" usually attributed to Golyddan, towards the close of the seventh century, is likewise by our author transferred to the middle ages.

Meugant is permitted to retain possession of one of the two poems usually assigned to him, whilst the other is supposed to have been composed in the early part of the reign of Owain Gwynedd since its language is comparatively modern, and the said monarch mentioned in it by name.

The fame of Aneurin must rest wholly and solely upon the earliest of modern heroic poems-the Gododin. The verses of the months are not his though they were attributed to him as early as the fifteenth century. In these stanzas mention is made of Saints Breda and Bernard, the latter of whom was born in 1091, died in 1153, and was canonised by Pope Alexander III. in 1174—which brings them down to the twelfth century. Mr. Stephens is certainly wrong in supposing that the couplet in the September stanza,

A royal daughter was born

Who will deliver us from our grievous captivity,

refers to Gwenllian the offspring of Llywelyn and Eleanor de Montford. The allusion is assuredly to the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which falls on the 8th of this month. We should have accordingly rendered the passage,

A royal maid was born,

Who delivered us from our grievous captivity, captivity, that is, of a spiritual kind.

A set of triplets are taken from old Llywarch; and two sets more from his son, y Mab Clav.

The succeeding section is taken up with prose literature. We have no space to follow our author in his critical and sensible remarks on the Chronicles, Geoffrey, Walter Mapes, Caradoc, Liber Landavensis, and the mental idiosyncrasy of the Kymry.

Chapter III., section 1, presents us with a historical survey of Welsh literature from A.D. 1080 to 1322. Mr. S. here recurs to the alleged massacre of the bards by Edward I., and adduces additional argument to disprove it. The tale about Scolan and the burning of the MSS. in the Tower of London is likewise cleverly explained and disposed of. The state of Cambrian manuscripts is examined, and specimens of popular songs are given.

In section 2, Welsh poetry from A.D. 1240 to A.D. 1284 is considered, and extracts are given from the compositions of Llygad Gwr, Einion ab Madawe ab Rhahawd, y Prydydd Bychan, Hywel Voel, Bleddyn Vardd, and Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch. The last named's

Elegy on Prince Llywelyn is a noble composition, full of poetry and historical value: as our author observes, it is worthy of the occasion which called it forth, and forms a fitting wail on a hero's fall."

The religious poetry of the bards forms the subject of the next section; nor does Mr. S. omit all notice of prose composition, specimens of which from the petition of the Cambrian princes in favour of Giraldus, are inserted. Moreover Mr. S. states it as his belief with reference to the letters which passed between Archbishop Peckham, and the princes Llywelyn and David ab Gruffydd, and the men of Snowdon, "that in manly reasoning, eloquent indignation, and combined wit and logic, the letters of Prince Llywelyn, the men of Snowdon, and Prince David, far excel those of the archbishop."

A learned dissertation on the Mabinogion follows, in which their origin, history, and influence are clearly traced.

It is to be regretted that Mr. S. has not devoted a larger space to the consideration of the Triads, though perhaps they lie beyond the period of his essay.

In his interesting section on the Welsh language; we think that Mr. Stephens is rather too dogmatic in reference to the verbal termination ynt in the

passage,

"Ni ddodynt, nid ydynt, nid ynt parawd." He should have satisfied us that the last verb is really in the future, and not in the present tense.

The second section of chapter IV. treats of Welsh poetry, from A.D. 1280 to A.D. 1350, and here we are introduced to Gwilym Ddu, Rhys Goch, Davydd ab Gwilym, and a host of other bards, who flourished at that period.

The volume is closed with some general criticism on the bardic poems of uncommon interest and value to all students and admirers of the literature of Wales.

The plan of the whole work is judicious; the style copious, vigorous and often eloquent; the arguments are fairly chosen, and such as generally carry the readers with them; whilst the translations of the numerous extracts given are for the most part faithful and elegant. We heartily recommend the volume.

CLAUDIA AND PUDENS. AN ATTEMPT TO SHOW THAT CLAUDIA, MENTIONED IN ST. PAUL'S SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, WAS A BRITISH PRINCESS. By JOHN WILLIAMS, A.M., Oxon., Archdeacon of Cardigan, F.R.S.E., &c. Llandovery, W. Rees, 1848.

Difficult subjects cannot be properly grasped by other than gigantic minds; we were therefore extremely pleased to find prefixed to the present pamphlet the name of the Venerable the Archdeacon of Cardigan, who is in himself a host, and has never wielded his pen without effect. Mr. Williams has treated the question under consideration with his usual ability and success. The following is a summary of his line of arguments :

"We know, on certain evidence, that in the year A.D. 67 there were at Rome two Christians, named Claudia and Pudens. That a Roman, illustrious by birth and position, married a Claudia, a stranger" or "foreigner," who was also a British maiden; that an inscription was found in the year 1723, at Chichester, testifying that the supreme ruler of that place was a Tib. Claud. Cogidunus; that a Roman, by name "Pudens, the son of Pudentius, was a land-holder under this ruler;" that it is impossible to account for such facts, without supposing a very close connexion between this British chief and his Roman subject; that the supposition that the Claudia of Martial, a British maiden, married to a Roman Pudens, was a daughter of this British chief, would clear all difficulties; that there was a British chief to whom, about the year A.D. 52, some states, either in or closely adjacent to the Roman province, were given to be held by him in subjection to the Roman authority; that these states occupied, partly at least, the ground covered by the counties of Surrey and Sussex; that the capital of these states was 66 Regnum," ," the modern Chichester; that it is very probable that the Emperor Claudius, in accordance with his known practice and principles, gave also his own name to the British chief, called by Tacitus, Cogidunus; that after the termination of the Claudian dynasty, it was impossible that any British chief adopted into the Roman community could have received the names, "Tib. Claudius;" that during the same period there lived at Rome a Pomponia, a matron of high family, the wife of Aulus Plautius, who was the Roman governor of Britain, from the year A.D. 43 until the year 52; that this lady was accused of being a votary of a foreign superstition; that this foreign superstition was supposed by all the commentators of Tacitus, both British and continental, to be the Christian religion; that a flourishing branch of the Gens Pomponia bore, in that age, the cognomen of Rufus; that the Christianity of Pomponia being once allowed, taken in connexion with the fact that she was the wife of A. Plautius, renders it highly probably that the daughter of Ti. Claudius Cogidunus, the friend of A. Plautius, if she went to Rome, would be placed under the protection of this Pomponia, would be educated like a Roman lady, and be thus an eligible match for a Roman senator; and that when fully adopted into the social system of Rome, she would take the cognomen Rufina, in honour of the cognomen of her patroness; and that, as her patroness was a Christian, she also, from the privileges annexed to her location in such a family, would herself become a Christian; that the British Claudia, married to the Roman Pudens, had a family, three sons and daughters certainly, perhaps six, according to some commentators; that there are traditions in the Roman Church, that a Timotheus, a Presbyter, a holy man and a saint, was a son of Pudens, the Roman senator; that he was an important instrument in converting the Britons to the faith in Christ; that intimately connected with the narrow eircle of Christians then living at Rome, was an Aristobulus, to whom the Christian Claudia and Pudens of St. Paul must have been well known; that the tradition of the Greek Church of the very earliest period record, that this Aristobulus was a successful preacher of Christianity in Britain; that there are British traditions that the return of the family of Caractacus into Britain was rendered famous by the fact that it brought with it into our island a band of Christian missionaries, of which an Aristobulus was a leader; that we may suppose that, upon Christian principles, the Christianized families of both Cogidunus and Caractacus should have forgotten, in their common faith, their provincial animosities, and have united in sending to their countrymen the word of life, the gospel of love and peace." (p. 50, &c.)

We regret that our limits will not allow us to extract specimens of the skilful manner in which the Archdeacon works out and establishes these several points, especially the geograhical position of the "some states give to Cogidunus" (p. 17), which struck us as being particularly ingenious, and withal convincing, irrespectively even of the sure testimony of the Chichester stone.

Archeologia Cambrensis.

NEW SERIES, No. II.-APRIL, 1850.

CASTRA CLWYDIANA.

No. I.

MOEL FENLLI.

THERE are few valleys in England or Wales more extensive or more luxuriant than that to which the river Clwyd gives a name. Spreading from the northwestern shore of Flintshire in a southernly direction into Denbighshire for about twenty-five miles in length, richly wooded, and plentifully rewarding the toil of the husbandman, it may perhaps be regarded as the garden of the counties in which it lies. The waters of the Clwyd wind along the midst of it, receiving tribute from various mountain streams, and, uniting in their course with the Clwydoc, Astrad, and Elwy, find their way into the sea at Y Forryd, on its northern extremity. the east, the vale is bounded by a chain of mountainsthe natural barriers of this part of Wales, running north and south-the summits of which command a very extensive view on the one side into Lancashire and Cheshire, and on the other of the interior alpine country of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire. Agriculture, with infant steps, has climbed high upon their sweeping sides, and upon them smile the cheerful homestead, and quiet cottage, beneath its shady clump of stunted trees, ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. I.

M

On

nurturing a hardy and industrious race a striking contrast to their heath-clad summits, which speak to us now of a time when a race, brave and more hardy, whose only toil was war, their home the camp, breathed their invigorating air.

The chain of encampments, six in number, which crown these heights, tell us of some mountain chief who here held his sway amidst his faithful band, hovering over the adjacent country, his ready prey; or of some victorious invader who, distrustful of the conquered, would here have kept himself aloof from treachery and surprise; or, perchance, mark the boundaries of some warlike tribe, protected thus by art engrafted on nature, against aggression.

Aided by the spirited liberality of some of our members resident in the neighbourhood of the Vale of Clwyd, I undertook, during the past summer, a series of systematic excavations, or, more technically, "diggings," in these encampments, with the hope of obtaining results which would throw light upon their history, and commenced, on the 21st of August last, with that on Moel Fenlli, the southernmost in the chain, situated about three miles to the east of Ruthin.

THIS ENCAMPMENT, the area of which measures in circumference about three-quarters of a mile, of an oval form, following strictly the contour of the ground, in length about 1500 feet, by about 800 feet in breadth, occupies the summit of a steep, conical mountain, about 1600 feet above the level of the sea, easy of access only on the east, guarding, on the north, the western extremity of a pass called Bwlch Pen Barras, and another pass on the south, named in the Ordnance map Bwlch Agricola -a nomenclature about which I have some doubts. It is fortified with a fosse and double agger' on all sides,

1 With a view to the classification of our camps in Wales, of which there appears to be some variety, the form of the fossæ, and structure of the agger, as well as the position and number of the gates, should be attended to. On Moel Fenlli the fosse alternates with the agger; an agger being next the area, and also outside the outermost fosse,