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.
Mr. Pegge, in a letter lately to Dr. Phillips, says that he has borrowed
a MS. of Mr. Davies of Llanerch, which Mr. Pegge has now in his study;
and which he says will be of good use to him. Pray what can it be? I
have converted Mr. Pegge from the Camdenian faction; and we shall by and
by see whether he is an ally of consequence. He is perfectly satisfied
with my defence of Tyssilio; and wishes to see a translation of his book.
Mr. Davies knows something of him I suppose.
I am glad your spitting of blood is over; take care, your life is
precious, whether you have a fat living or no. Dont despair; some men of
sense may take notice of you; though, even among the ancient Britons,
canonization went seldom out of great families, as appears by _Bonedd y
Saint_, which I have at last completed, as far as my materials reached.
I now plainly see that the Llanerch MS. of Bonedd is but a fragment; for
there is not a syllable of the Brychan family in it; and but very little
of the Caw family. I have reduced the whole into genealogical order; and
they take but a very narrow compass. I shall have some difficulty in
fixing the times of these saints; for there is some confusion among them,
occasioned by the blunders of transcribers.
They have been all hunting after the Llanerch MS. of _Bonedd_, even Dr.
Thomas Williams, and the Anglesea Man, as well as Thomas Wynne, and
Thomas ab Llewelyn, &c., and have stumbled in the reading of it, as now
plainly appears to me; and what, if I tell you, that you and I also have
slipped in one place: I am sure we have.
I am tired now, and have no more to say, but I cough a little less than I
did a week ago; and am likely to live till winter at least, unless some
unforeseen accident happens. It will be a hard battle if I hold out all
the winter. You are now in your bloom of body and spirit; do not lose a
moment; you will be sorry if you do. God be with you, and keep you.
I am yours sincerely,
LEWIS MORRIS.
_Penbryn_, _July_ 4, 1760.
* * * * *
The same to the same.