On
Which Account There Is An Old British Proverb, "MON MAM CYMBRY,"
That Is, "Mona Is The Mother Of Wales." Merionyth, And The Land Of
Conan, Is The Rudest And Least Cultivated Region, And The Least
Accessible.
The natives of that part of Wales excel in the use of
long lances, as those of Monmouthshire are distinguished for their
management of the bow.
It is to be observed, that the British
language is more delicate and richer in North Wales, that country
being less intermixed with foreigners. Many, however, assert that
the language of Cardiganshire, in South Wales, placed as it were in
the middle and heart of Cambria, is the most refined.
The people of Cornwall and the Armoricans speak a language similar
to that of the Britons; and from its origin and near resemblance,
it is intelligible to the Welsh in many instances, and almost in
all; and although less delicate and methodical, yet it approaches,
as I judge, more to the ancient British idiom. As in the southern
parts of England, and particularly in Devonshire, the English
language seems less agreeable, yet it bears more marks of antiquity
(the northern parts being much corrupted by the irruptions of the
Danes and Norwegians), and adheres more strictly to the original
language and ancient mode of speaking; a positive proof of which
may be deduced from all the English works of Bede, Rhabanus, and
king Alfred, being written according to this idiom.
CHAPTER VII
Origin of the names Cambria and Wales
Cambria was so called from Camber, son of Brutus, for Brutus,
descending from the Trojans, by his grandfather, Ascanius, and
father, Silvius, led the remnant of the Trojans, who had long been
detained in Greece, into this western isle; and having reigned many
years, and given his name to the country and people, at his death
divided the kingdom of Wales between his three sons. To his eldest
son, Locrinus, he gave that part of the island which lies between
the rivers Humber and Severn, and which from him was called
Loegria. To his second son, Albanactus, he gave the lands beyond
the Humber, which took from him the name of Albania. But to his
youngest son, Camber, he bequeathed all that region which lies
beyond the Severn, and is called after him Cambria; hence the
country is properly and truly called Cambria, and its inhabitants
Cambrians, or Cambrenses. Some assert that their name was derived
from CAM and GRAECO, that is, distorted Greek, on account of the
affinity of their languages, contracted by their long residence in
Greece; but this conjecture, though plausible, is not well founded
on truth.
The name of Wales was not derived from Wallo, a general, or
Wandolena, the queen, as the fabulous history of Geoffrey Arthurius
(15) falsely maintains, because neither of these personages are to
be found amongst the Welsh; but it arose from a barbarian
appellation. The Saxons, when they seized upon Britain, called
this nation, as they did all foreigners, Wallenses; and thus the
barbarous name remains to the people and their country.
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