Mr. Reginald Heber sometimes promoted, by his pen, the
harmless merriment of the bow meetings of his
neighbourhood. From the songs which he wrote for this
purpose, the above passage is selected for its imagery
and historical allusions. It was sung at Harwarden
Castle, in Flintshire, the seat of Sir Stephen Glynne,
Bart.
The Normans greatly dreaded the effects of the Welsh
arrows. William de Brensa, having convened a meeting of
the principal chiefs of South Wales at Abergavenny
Castle, under some colourable pretence, made them
purchase their liberty by swearing they would not, in
future, permit any of their fiollowers to travel armed
with the bow. "Ne quis gladium ferret viator vel arcum."
M. de Guigne's Hist. of Huns. D'Herbelot, Bib. Orient.
Albupharagius, Dynast. 221, 222.
It may occur to the reader that the more distant hordes
would not be likely to recognise Ismael's from any other
bow. But nothing was more easy. Orientals of rank have
short and pithy Arabic sentences --generally an extract
from the Khoran-- inscribed with their names upon the
horns of their bows, and also upon their arrows,
expressive of remote and steady flight. The Damascus
bladed scymetars are marked in this way. His Majesty
George the Fourth had exquisite swords of this
description among his splendid Oriental armoury, which he
once displayed to the Grand Signior's ambassador at our
court. On being presented with one of more than ordinary
beauty, the Turk hesitated, and bending over it, pressed
the hilt first upon his forehead, and then to his lips,
with indications of the profoundest respect. Being
questioned as to the cause of this singular ceremony, he
replied, that' by the inscription on the blade, he knew
it once belonged to the grandfather of the present
Sultan. It had been received with some other presents
from Constantinople.
"Strength to the arm that wields this blade in a
righteous cause, and death to him it reaches," is one of
the sentences occasionally found on Turkish swords.
Arabic characters are inscribed on the points of a very
elegant Persian bow in my possession.
In France, at the present day, the hunter carries a
fowling-piece at his saddle bow, with which even the fox
is shot when the dogs are running in to him at full cry.
is an old English proverb, meaning that merit belongs to
no exclusive rank or locality. I request the reader to
bear in mind, here, and in other passages from Welsh
annals and poetry, that the translations are rendered
literally.
Gwilym himself alludes to this, with the curious addition
that the girls, instead of attending to their devotion,
used to whisper at church that he had his sister's hair
on his head.--Maelog.
So expressed in the original, and worn either in
compliment to his mistress, or intended as a present to
her, which the gallantry of Gwilym renders probable. She
it was perhaps whom he invites to "the house of leaves,"
in one of his most graceful sonnets, commencing,--
Maid of dark and glossy tresses,
Humbly I request,
In Dol Aëron's green recesses,
Thee to be my guest, &c. &c.
When James the First, in his progress from Scotland, came
to Rippon in Yorkshire, the townsmen presented him with
a gilt steel bow, and a pair of spurs of native
manufacture. But that is quite a different affair.
The interior, as well as the outside, of Welsh country
dwellings, is kept most assiduously whitewashed. The
occupants extend this care even to the gates and stone
stiles of their vicinity.
Maelog observes, that, in the original, the imagery is so
rich and diversified, it is almost impossible to give a
close translation. The preceding, therefore, must be
considered in the light of an imitation, an expression of
the leading ideas, rather than as a complete and accurate
translation.
Of similar character are some stanzas addressed to the
wind, commencing:--
Bodiless glory of the sky,
That, wingless, footless, strong, and loud,
Leap'st on thy starry path on high,
And chauntest midst the mountain cloud;
Fleet as the wave, and fetterless as light!
Traces of this custom may still be seen in the Cwrw bach,
or private drinking matches of the Welsh peasantry. Their
liquor is, of course, of a homelier description-- the
bonnie nut-brown ale.
To the kindness of the Rev. Thomas Price, of Crickhowel,
Breconshire, a name long familiar to the admirers of
ancient British lore, I am indebted for this remarkable
passage. The original MS is in the library of the London
Welsh School.
The common Welsh word for the feathers of arrows, and
that used here, is bon-cawiad; compounded of bon, the
butt end, and cawiad, a whipping or lapping round. The
same word cawiad, and the verb cawiaw, are used for
whipping on a fish-hook, so that the meaning cannot be
mistaken. Previously to gluing on the feathers, the
arrow-makers, Flemish as well as English, wind a small
portion of green or scarlet floss silk round the butt end
of the stele, for the breadth of a quarter of an inch,
exactly where the two extremities of the feather will
lie. Its use is to afford a firmer hold. They also wind
several turns of the same over the upper end of the stem,
pared away fine, in order to prevent its catching the
archer's flesh. This custom is very ancient, and affords
a full interpretation to the phrase, "green silk
fastening."
The Orientals wing their arrows by sewing on the feathers
with fine threads, stripped from the tendons of deer and
other animals. But this plan has never, to my knowledge,
been adopted in Europe. It is very insecure, and the
delicate fibres of the feather suffer by the operation.
If we imagine a thread of green silk to have been so used
by the Welsh, here is another explanation. The other
parts, however, so much resemble the English arrow, that
it seems highly probable the allusion is as I have stated
it to be.
Caradoc of Llancarvan, the author of this history, wrote
about the year 1140, only twenty years afterwards. He
consequently must have been minutely acquainted with all
the details of that event.
I may here remark that Ossian, describing the hue of
health upon one of his hero's cheeks, compares them to a
"red yew-bow." Does not this say something for the
authenticity of the poems? The comparison would never
suggest itself to any but an archer, which Macpherson was
not.
Will the reader digress a few moments from the subject in
hand, to peruse the following exquisite address of Gwilym
to his mistress. The constancy of his affection, united
to the glowing harmony of his versification, have justly
earned for him the appellation of Cambria's Petrarch.
All my life time I have been
Bard to Morvyth, "golden mein!"
I have loved beyond belief;
Many a day to love and grief
For her sake has been a prey,
Who cloth wear the moon's array !
Pledged my truth from youth till now,
To the girl of glossy brow.
Oh, the light her features wear,
Like the bursting torrents glare !
Oft by love bewildered quite,
Have my aching feet all night
Stag-like tracked the forest shade
For the foam complexioned maid,
Whom with passion firm and gay
I adored mid leaves of May !
Mid a thousand I could tell
One elastic footstep well!
I could speak to one sweet maid--
(Graceful figure !) by her shade
I could recognize till death,
One sweet maiden by her breath!
From the nightingale, could learn
Where she tarries, to discern;
There, his noblest music swells
Through the portals of the dells !
When I am from her far away,
I have neither laugh nor lay !
Neither soul nor sense is left,
I am half of mind bereft,
When she comes, with grief I part,
And am altogether heart !
Songs inspired, like flowing wine,
Rush into this mind of mine;
Sense enough again comes back
To direct me in my track !
Not one hour shall I be gay,
While my Morvyth is away !
Great numbers of Welsh served at Cressy and Poictiers,
and it is some where said that a considerable portion
consisted of archers. Among those who distinguished
themselves at Poictiers, was a gentleman of North Wales,
called SIR HOWEL Y VWYAL, "Sir Howel of the Battleaxe."
By the Welsh, he is said to have been the identical
person who captured the French king, and this remarkable
tradition is confirmed by a passage in the Harleian MS.
No. 2298. "Sir Howell y Fwyall, ab Einion, ap Gruffith,
ap Howell, ap Meredith, ap Einion, ap Gwgan, ap Meredith
Goch, ap Collwyn, ap Tangno, called Sir Howell y Fwyall
or Sir Howell Pole Axe, from his constant fighting with
that warlike instrument. It is said he dismounted the
French King, by cutting off his horse's head at one blow
with his battle-axe, and took him prisoner; and that as
a trophy of victory, he bore the arms of France, with a
battle-axe in bend sinister argent." [1] However this may
have been, his velour and conduct on that occasion
induced the Black Prince to reward him with the
constableship of Chester and Cricketh castles, with the
rent of Dee Mills[2] in Chester, and other matters of
profit. He also bestowed a mess of meat to be served up
before his battle-axe, or partisan, for ever; which was
afterwards to be carried down, and given to the poor. The
following lines commemorate the event:--
Seiger fy feigyr fwyall,--doeth pon gar bron y Brenin
Gwedy'r maes, gwaed ar ei mîn; ei dysaig a'i dewiswr
A'i diod oedd weed a dwr."
Serve up the feast before my gallant battle-axe,--this
came before the king, after the foughten field, with
blood upon its edge; its banquet and its choicest
beverage was then the streaming gore.
[1] And on the same manner of wyce, a poor archer might have taken a prynce or noble lord; and so, the armes of that prisoner, he may put to him and his heyrs.' '--Book of St. Albans, by dame Juliana Berners.
[2] "If thou hadst Dee Mills, thou wouldst spend all," is a Cheshire proverb, indicative of their profitable revenue.
The soldier armed with a cross-bow, was generally
accompanied by another, bearing a pavoise, or large
wooden shield, to protect him whilst charging and
discharging his weapon.
Near Dolgellan, Merionethshire, the seat of a highly
respected gentleman, Sir Robert Williames Vaughan, Bart.,
M.P. for the county, until his resignation of that
honour.
When the Nannau oak fell, it was, like Shakspeare's
celebrated mulberry-tree, preserved in various small
articles of taste and utility, picture frames made from
its wood, and enclosing an engraved portrait of the tree,
are usual in many respectable residences of the county.
The following anecdote of a domestic feud, in which a
similar expedient is resorted to, also furnishes a
deplorable insight into the manners of other times: --
"Enmitie did still continue betweene Howell ap Rys ap
Howell Vaughan, and the sonnes of John ap Meredith. After
the death of Jevan ap Robert, Gruffith ap John ap Gronw
[cosen german to John ap Meredith's sonnes of Gywnfryn],
who had long served in France, and had charge there,
comeing home to live in the countrey, it happened that a
servant comeing to fish in Stymllyn, his fish was taken
away, and the fellow beaten by Howell ap Rys his
servants, and by his commandment. Gruffith ap John ap
Gronw tooke the matter in such dudgeon, that he
challenged Howell ap Rys to the field; which he refusing,
and assembling his cousens John ap Meredith's sonnes and
his friends together, assaulted Howell in his owne house,
after the manner he had scene in the French warres, and
consumed with fire his barnes and his outhouses. Whilst
he was afterwards assaulting the hall, which Howell ap
Rys and many other people kept, being a very strong
house, he was shot out of a crevise of the house, through
the sight of his beaver, with an arrow into the head, and
slayne outright, being otherwise armed at all points.
Notwithstanding his death, the assault of the house was
continued with great vehemence, the doors being fired
with great burthens of straw; besides this, the smoake of
the outhouses and barnes, not farre distant, annoyed
greatly the defendants, soe that most of them lay under
the boordes and benches upon the floore of the hall, the
better to avoyd the smoake. During this scene of
confusion, only the old man Howell ap Rys never stooped,
but stood valiantly in the middest of the floore, armed
with a gleve in his hand, and called unto them, and bid
them 'arise like men, for shame, for he had known there
as grease a smoake in that hall upon a Christmas even.'
In the end, seeing the house could no longer defend them,
being overlayed with a multitude, upon parley between
them, Howell ap Rys was content to yeald him. self
prisoner to Morris ap John ap Meredith, John ap
Meredith's eldest sonne, soe as he would sweare unto him
to bring him safe to Carnarvon Castle, to abide the
triall of the law for the death of Gruffith ap John ap
Gronw, who was cosen german removed to the said Howell ap
Rys, and of the very same house he was of; which Morris
ap John ap Meredith undertakeing, did put a guard about
the said Howell of his trustiest friends and servants,
who kept and defended him from the rage of the kindred,
and especially of Owen ap John ap Meredith, his brother,
who was very eager against him. They passed by leisure
thence like a camp to Carnarvon: the whole company being
assembled, Howell's friends posted a horse-backe from one
place or other by the way, who brought word that he was
come thither safe; for they were in great fear lest he
should be murthered, and that Morris ap John ap Meredith
could not be able to defend him, neither durst any of
Howell's friends be there, for feare of the
kindred."--Miss Aghard's GwydirFamily.