The people of the principality are clean and industrious; there is,
however, in the nature of a Welshman such a hurriness of manner and want of
method, that he does nothing well; for his mind is over anxious, diverted
from one labour to another, and hence every thing is incomplete, and leaves
the appearance of confusion and negligence. The common exercises of the
Welsh are running, leaping, swimming, wrestling, throwing the bar,
dancing, hunting, fishing, and playing at fives against the church or
tower; and they constitute the joy of youth, and the admiration of old age.
The convivial amusements are singing and versification. In these favourite
exercises the performers are of humble merit; the singing is mere roar and
squeak; and the poetical effusions are nonsense, vested in the rags of
language; and always slanderous, because the mind of the bard is not
fertile in the production of topics. The Welsh character is the echo of
natural feeling, and acts from instantaneous motives. The fine arts are
strangers to the principality; and the Welshman seldom professes the
buskin, or the use of the mallet, the graver, or the chisel; but although
deficient in taste, he excels in duties and in intellect.
_Jones's History of Wales._