and may defend yourself, for standing in such company; but I am heartily sorry for poor Hugh Morris. If he knows of this, that he must stand in spite of his teeth, in company with people that were not worthy to carry the feathers of his quill; and the room which his poem should have filled up, taken by persons as far below him as a Crythor Crwth Trithiant is below Corelli or Vivaldi.
Let me have your opinion upon the names of the parishes as soon as you can.
I am,
Yours sincerely,
Lewis Morris.
Penbryn, Dec. 20, 1759.
The same to the same.
Dear Sir,
I received your kind favour by Dewi, with the remainder of the Gododin, and some of the Gorchanau. Be so good as to let me know from whence these have been copied, and whether I can depend upon their being correct. I suppose it is your mistake in writing Breint mab Bleidgi, for Bleidig. It seems the Gododin was not one entire piece, but was written in distinct odes; or else what means the preface to the Gorchanau? But where are the distinctions in the copy? I wish we had a correct one: I can make little or nothing of this.
David Jones tells me of a Llanerch copy of Brut y Brenhinoedd, in folio on paper, written by Edward Kyffin, for John Trefor, of Trevalun. I wish I had the beginning and ending of it, as I took off the vellum book, that you brought here; and if you would do the same by the other copies there, I should be glad to see it. By this management we shall be able to distinguish between Galfrid’s, Walter’s translation, and Tyssilio’s original.
I thank you for the inscription at Llanfor, and that at Foel-las. I dare determine nothing about them as yet; only that Mr. Edward Llwyd’s reading is only the froth of a fertile brain. When you copy inscriptions, cut a bit of chalk into a pencil, and trace the letters. In old inscriptions there are often natural lines in the stone; and sometimes lines worn out, which must be supplied with chalk. I suspect you had no chalk at Llanfor; and that your ENIARCH may be Llywarch, or LYVARCH. I wish I could see it. Are you sure, there is not part of it covered still with lime?
I thank you also for John Owen’s Elegy—a good one—I had got it from the navy office; and also Mr. W. Wynne’s.