Witness the foss, the barrow, and the girth
Of many a long-drawn rampart, green and bare! 1822.
XII
MONASTERY OF OLD BANGOR[39]
The oppression of the tumult—wrath and scorn—
The tribulation—and the gleaming blades—
Such is the impetuous spirit that pervades
The song of Taliesin;[40]—Ours shall mourn
The unarmed Host who by their prayers would turn 5
The sword from Bangor's walls, and guard the store
Of Aboriginal and Roman lore,
And Christian monuments, that now must burn
To senseless ashes. Mark! how all things swerve
From their known course, or vanish like a dream;[41] 10
Another language spreads from coast to coast;
Only perchance some melancholy Stream[42]
And some indignant Hills old names preserve,[43]
When laws, and creeds, and people all are lost!
FOOTNOTES:
[39] "Ethelforth reached the convent of Bangor, he perceived the Monks, twelve hundred in number, offering prayers for the success of their countrymen: 'If they are praying against us,' he exclaimed, 'they are fighting against us'; and he ordered them to be first attacked: they were destroyed; and, appalled by their fate, the courage of Brocmail wavered, and he fled from the field in dismay. Thus abandoned by their leader, his army soon gave way, and Ethelforth obtained a decisive conquest. Ancient Bangor itself soon fell into his hands, and was demolished; the noble monastery was levelled to the ground; its library, which is mentioned as a large one, the collection of ages, the repository of the most precious monuments of the ancient Britons, was consumed; half ruined walls, gates, and rubbish were all that remained of the magnificent edifice." (See Turner's valuable history of the Anglo-Saxons.)
The account Bede gives of this remarkable event, suggests a most striking warning against National and Religious prejudices.—W. W. 1822. Appendix note.
[40] Taliesin was present at the battle which preceded this desolation.—W. W. 1822.
Taliesin was chief bard and retainer in the Hall of Urien, the great North England Cymric chief. He sang of Urien's and his son Owain's victories, in the middle of the sixth century. See Pitseus, Relationes Historicae de rebus Anglicis, 1619, vol. i. p. 95, De Thelesino. See also Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons (vol. i. book iii. chap, iv.).—Ed.