Short History of Wales , livre ebook

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67 pages

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. This little book is meant for those who have never read any Welsh history before. It is not taken for granted that the reader knows either Latin or Welsh.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819947103
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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INTRODUCTION
This little book is meant for those who have neverread any Welsh history before. It is not taken for granted that thereader knows either Latin or Welsh.
A fuller outline may be read in The Story of Wales,in the “Story of the Nations” series; and a still fuller one in TheWelsh People of Rhys and Brynmor Jones. Of fairly small and cheapbooks in various periods I may mention Rhys' Celtic Britain, OwenRhoscomyl's Flame Bearers of Welsh History, Henry Owen's Gerald theWelshman, Bradley's Owen Glendower, Newell's Welsh Church, and ReesProtestant Non- conformity in Wales. More elaborate and expensivebooks are Seebohm's Village Community and Tribal System in Wales,Clark's Medieval Military Architecture, Morris' Welsh Wars ofEdward I. , Southall's Wales and Her Language. In writing localhistory, A. N. Palmer's History of Wrexham and companion volumesare models.
If you turn to a library, you will find muchinformation about Wales in Social England, the Dictionary ofNational Biography, the publications of the Cymmrodorion and othersocieties. You will find articles of great value and interest overthe names of F. H. Haverfield, J. W. Willis-Bund, EgertonPhillimore, the Honourable Mrs Bulkeley Owen (Gwenrhian Gwynedd),Henry Owen, the late David Lewis, T. F. Tout, J. E. Lloyd, D.Lleufer Thomas, W. Llywelyn Williams, J. Arthur Price, J. H.Davies, J. Ballinger, Edward Owen, Hubert Hall, Hugh Williams, R.A. Roberts, A. W. Wade-Evans, E. A. Lewis. These are only a few outof the many who are now working in the rich and unexplored field ofWelsh history. I put down the names only of those I had to consultin writing a small book like this.
The sources are mostly in Latin or Welsh. Manyvolumes of chronicles, charters, and historical poems have beenpublished by the Government, by the Corporation of Cardiff, by J.Gwenogvryn Evans, by H. de Grey Birch, and others. But, so far, wehave not had the interesting chronicles and poems translated intoEnglish as they ought to be, and published in well edited, not tooexpensive volumes.
OWEN EDWARDS LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD.
CHAPTER I—WALES
Wales is a row of hills, rising between the IrishSea on the west and the English plains on the east. If you comefrom the west along the sea, or if you cross the Severn or the Deefrom the east, you will see that Wales is a country all by itself.It rises grandly and proudly. If you are a stranger, you will thinkof it as “Wales”— a strange country; if you are Welsh, you willthink of it as “Cymru”— a land of brothers.
The geologist will tell you how Wales was made; thegeographer will tell you what it is like now; the historian willtell you what its people have done and what they are. All threewill tell you that it is a very interesting country.
The rocks of Wales are older and harder than therocks of the plains; and as you travel from the south to the north,the older and harder they become. The highest mountains of Wales,and some of its hills, have crests of the very oldest and hardestrock— granite, porphyry, and basalt; and these rocks are giventheir form by fire. But the greater part of the country is made ofrocks formed by water— still the oldest of their kind. In thenorth-west, centre, and west— about two-thirds of the wholecountry, — the rocks are chiefly slate and shale; in the south-eastthey are chiefly old red sandstone; in the north-east, but chieflyin the south, they are limestone and coal.
Its rocks give Wales its famous scenery— its ruggedpeaks, its romantic glens, its rushing rivers. They are also itschief wealth— granite, slate, limestone, coal; and lodes of stillmore precious metals— iron, lead, silver, and gold— run throughthem.
The highest mountain in Wales is Snowdon, which is3, 570 feet above the level of the sea. For every 300 feet we goup, the temperature becomes one degree cooler. At about 1, 000 feetit becomes too cold for wheat; at about 1, 500 it becomes too coldfor corn; at about 2, 000 it is too cold for cattle; mountainponies graze still higher; the bleak upper slopes are left to thesmall and valuable Welsh sheep.
There are three belts of soil around the hills—arable, pasture, and sheep-run— one above the other. The arableland forms about a third of the country; it lies along the seaborder, on the slopes above the Dee and the Severn, and in the deepvalleys of the rivers which pierce far inland, — the Severn, Wye,Usk, Towy, Teivy, Dovey, Conway, and Clwyd. The pasture land, theland of small mountain farms, forms the middle third; it is a landof tiny valleys and small plains, ever fostered by the warm, moistwest wind. Above it, the remaining third is stormy sheep-run, widegreen slopes and wild moors, steep glens and rocky heights.
From north-west to south-east the line of high hillsruns. In the north-west corner, Snowdon towers among a number ofheights over 3, 000 feet. At its feet, to the north-west, the isleof Anglesey lies. The peninsula of Lleyn, with a central ridge ofrock, and slopes of pasture lands, runs to the south-west. To theeast, beyond the Conway, lie the Hiraethog mountains, with lowerheights and wider reaches; further east again, over the Clwyd, arethe still lower hills of Flint.
To the south, 30 miles as the crow flies, over theslate country, the Berwyns are seen clearly. From a peak amongthese— Cader Vronwen (2, 573 feet), or the Aran (2, 970 feet), orCader Idris (2, 929 feet)— we look east and south, over the hillyslopes of the upper Severn country.
Another 30 miles to the south rises green Plinlimmon(2, 469 feet); from it we see the high moorlands of central Wales,sloping to Cardigan Bay on the west and to the valley of theSevern, now a lordly English river, on the east.
Forty miles south the Black Mountain (2, 630 feet)rises beyond the Wye, and the Brecon Beacons (2, 910 feet) beyondthe Usk. West of these the hills fade away into the broad peninsulaof Dyved. Southwards we look over hills of coal and iron to thepleasant sea- fringed plain of Gwent.
On the north and the west the sea is shallow; insome places it is under 10 fathoms for 10 miles from the shore, andunder 20 fathoms for 20 miles. Tales of drowned lands are told— ofthe sands of Lavan, of the feast of drunken Seithenyn, and of thebells of Aberdovey. But the sea is a kind neighbour. Its soft, warmwinds bathe the hills with life; and the great sweep of the bigAtlantic waves into the river mouths help our commerce. Holyhead,Milford Haven, Swansea, Newport, Barry, and Cardiff— now one of thechief ports of the world— can welcome the largest vessels afloat.The herring is plentiful on the west coast, and trout and salmon inthe rivers.
CHAPTER II—THE WANDERING NATIONS
By land and by sea, race after race has come to makethe hills of Wales its home. One race would be short, with darkeyes and black hair; another would be tall, with blue eyes and fairhair. They came from different countries and along different paths,but each race brought some good with it. One brought skill intaming animals, until it had at last tamed even the pig and thebee; another brought iron tools to take the place of stone ones.Another brought the energy of the chase and war, and another adelight in sailing a ship or in building a fortress.
One thing they had in common— they wandered, andthey wandered to the west. From the cold wastes and the darkforests of the north and east, they were ever pushing west to moresunny lands. As far back as we can see, the great migration ofnations to the west was going on. The islands of Britain were thefurthest point they could reach; for beyond it, at that time, noman had dared to sail into the unknown expanse of the ocean of thewest. In the islands of Britain, the mountains of Wales were amongthe most difficult to win, and it was only the bravest and thehardiest that could make their home among them.
The first races that came were short and dark. Theycame in tribes. They had tribal marks, the picture of an animal asa rule; and they had a strange fancy that this animal was theirancestor. It may be that the local nicknames which are stillremembered— such as “the pigs of Anglesey, ” “the dogs of Denbigh,” “the cats of Ruthin, ” “the crows of Harlech, ” “the gadflies ofMawddwy”— were the proud tribe titles of these early people. Theirweapons and tools were polished stone; their hammers and hatchetsand adzes, their lance heads and their arrow tips, were of thehardest igneous rock— chipped and ground with patient labour.
The people who come first have the best chance ofstaying, if only they are willing to learn; hardy plants will soontake the place of tender plants if left alone. The short darkpeople are still the main part, not only of the Welsh, but of theBritish people. It is true that their language has disappeared,except a few place-names. But languages are far more fleeting thanraces. The loss of its language does not show that a race is dead;it only shows that it is very anxious to change and learn. Somelanguages easily give place to others, and we say that the peoplewho speak these languages are good linguists, like Danes and Slavs.Other languages persist, those who speak them are unwilling tospeak any new language, and this is the reason why Spanish andEnglish are so widespread.
After the short dark race came a tall fair-hairedpeople. They came in families as well as in tribes. They had ironweapons and tools, and the short dark people could not keep them atbay with their bone- tipped spears and flint-headed arrows. We knownothing about the struggle between them. But it may be that thefairy stories we were told when children come from those far-offtimes. If a fairy maiden came from lake or mound to live among men,she vanished at once if touched with iron. Is this, learned menhave asked, a dim memory of the victory of iron over stone?
The name given to the short dark man is usuallyIberian; the name given to the tall fair man who followed him isCelt. The two learnt to live together in the same country. Thecon