that of the vexation attached to litigation in general, and in par ticular of the portion attached to the attendance of parties, little less than the whole was factitious, the produce of the industry of learned judges made in conjunction with suitors whose interest it was to delay Justice."

As we have extended this article to a length greater than some of our readers may think necessary, we shall hasten to a conclusion with thanking Mr. Bentham for the instruction he has afforded us. We came to this subject with prejudices strong and rooted, he has removed them. We deemed the English civil trial with all its appendages of four judges half a dozen witnesses and twelve jurymen the best that could be devised for the promotion of Justice.-He has shewn us that it is faulty, and we acknowledge its errors.-We are far however from thinking that Mr. Bentham's Book will produce this effect on the public at large, as so great is its negligence in point of style and arrangement, that it seems to have been written with the intention of not being read.-We have here indeed as in his other works a lamentable proof of the insufficiency of human Genius; and we cannot but regret that a writer who possesses vigour and acuteness of mind sufficient to throw new lights on the most abstruse science, and to instruct the world, should lessen the value of his labours by the want of style in communicating them. We do not indeed agree with the orator in Thucyides, o", τε γαρ γνες, και μη σαφῶς διδάξας,

ισῳ ει και μη ενεθυμηθη. But we can assure our readers that were it not for the instruction we gained from these pages we should have reviewed with more pleasure even the cumberous quartos of some of our modern tourists, or the doleful adventures of others.

The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin, &c. by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart. [Continued from page 19.]

THE Second Volume of this interesting work includes Book II of the Itinerary, the Description of Wales, by Giraldus, with annotations by his Editor, and a Supplement of 78 pages, the object of which," Sir Richard informs us, "is to render the Itinerary of Giraldus an useful guide to the modern traveller through the Principality, by describing those places, which from the nature of his tour he was necessarily obliged to omit." This Supplement also contains an Essay on the "Progress of Architecture, from a period nearly coeval with the Conqueror to the sixteenth century, illustrated by a series of designs taken from existing remains in South Wales, and arranged systematically" together

with a List of Books relating to Wales, and comprehending between seventy and eighty publications.

The historical notices of Menevia, or St. David's, given by Giraldus, are much extended by his annotator, who in one of his notes informs us from the Cambrian Biography,' that Dewi, or St. David, has been dignified with the title of Patron Saint of Wales, in consequence of the romances of the Middle Ages, which created the Seven Champions of Christendom, but that "this rank is hardly known among the people of the Principality, being a title diffused among them from England in modern times. The writer of this account" [Mr. Owen, Editor of the Welsh Dictionary, and the Myvyrian Archaiology]" never heard of such a Patron Saint, nor of the leek as his symbol, until he became acquainted therewith in London."-What would our old friend Fluellin have said to this? Would he not have called it "a most contagious treason, look you, as you shall desire in a summer's day;" and have rendered "plows, for its payment?" Not that we question Mr. Owen's veracity, as to his having never heard, whilst in his own country, of St. David being the Patron Saint of Wales, or of his having the leck for a symbol, but that we think the sphere of his information in this instance must have been too closely circumscribed for us to admit bis authority to be decisive. The words which our Immortal Dramatist has put into the mouth of Fluellin, where the latter is speaking to the Fifth Harry' about the "prave pattle" of Cressy, and the "plack Prince of Wales," are most certainly drawn from the "Chronicles" of the times, and we shall therefore take the liberty of quoting them, as evidence that St. David and his leek have been known in Wales, far longer, very far longer, than the recent period intimated in the above citation, It should be premised, that the Genoese Bowmen who led the attack at the battle of Cressy, were principally discomfited by the Archers who formed the vanguard of the Black Prince's army, and among whom was a considerable body of natives of Wales.

Flu. "If your Majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which your Majesty knows, to this hour is an honourable padge of the service: and, I do believe your Majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon St. Tavy's day.

K. Hen. "I wear it for a memorable honour :—

For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.'
Hen. V. Act IV. Scene VII.

* Giraldus, when speaking of Merionythshire, in his Description of Wales, Book I. Chap. VII. states, that "The natives of

The account of the Cathedral of St. David, with its varions appendages, is curious; but we cannot subscribe to Sir Richard's hyperbolical compliment in calling it "the Palmyra of Saxon antiquity!" The contrast of its bleak and dreary situation, with the exquisite taste, and exalted architectural science, displayed by no inconsiderable portion of the ecclesiastical buildings, has unquestionably, a most impressive effect; yet the palm of a Palmyra must not be awarded to Menevia: In the Catholic ages, St. David's was famous for pilgrimages, and William the Norman, Henry the Second, and Edward the First with his beloved Eleanor, are all recorded to have made their offerings at its shrine. Browne Willis says, that the offering money was so abundant, that it was "divided in the Chapter-house weekly by dishfulls, the quantity being so great as not to allow leisure to tell it." Whilst thus employed, the monks might have exclaimed with Horace, Laborum dulce lenimen. -The impropriety of describing St. David's Cathedral as of Saxon architecture, when it is admitted to have been re-built about the year 1180, we shall recur to in proceeding. Edmund, Earl of Richmond, father to Henry VII, was buried here, together with the illustrious Prince Rhys, and many other personages of rank and dignity'; but most of their tombs are sadly mutilated.

In the second chapter, Giraldus, whose passion for the marvellous has been already noticed, and whom Godwin in his Catalogue of Bishops has ironically characterized as “ u little too credulous in believing incredible reports, and no less lavish in delivering them," has scarcely related any thing but tales of wonder. One of these we shall transcribe for the sake of the historical note attached to it by Sir Richard, on the phrase, assuming the Cross.

"Another woman at Aberteivi, of a very different way of thinking, held her husband fast by his cloak and girdle, and publicly and audaciously prevented him from going to the Archbishop to take the Cross; but three nights afterwards, she heard a terrible voice, saying, Thou hast taken away my servant from me, therefore what thou most lovest shall be taken away from thee.' On her relating this vision to her husband, they were struck with mutual terror and amazement; and on falling to sleep again, she unhappily overlaid her little boy, whom, with more affection than

that part of Wales excel in the use of long lances, as those of Monmouthshire are distinguished for their management of the bow." How well does this correspond with the goot service,' which, as Fluellin says, was performed by his countrymen at the battle of Cressy!

prudence, she had taken to bed with her. The husband relating to the Bishop of the Diocese both the vision and its fatal predic tion, took the Cross, which his wife spontaneously sewed on her husband's arm."* p. 38.

Sir Richard speaking of the Druidical Antiquities in the neighbourhood of Nevern, in his annotations to this chapter, says, "The Cromlech, or Temple at Pentre Evan surpasses in size and height any I have yet seen in Wales, or indeed in England, Stonehenge and Abury excepted." Surely our author cannot be so unacquainted with the distinction between a Cromlech and a Temple as this passage would seem to intimate! We know of no Cromlech either at Stonehenge or Abury, though there is a very fine one within a few miles of the latter place, on Marlborough Downs.-Was not the Johannes Bradshaw, Arm.' who died in May, 1588, and to whose memory a stone tablet has been erected in the little Church at St. Dogmael's, an ancestor of the famous President Bradshaw, of Regicide notoriety, who was born at Marple Hall in Cheshire?

In describing the beautiful river Teivi, Giraldus mentions it as abounding with salmon, and also, as the only river either in Wales or England "which has beavers." This animal, called Llost lydan, or Broad-tail, in Welsh, is mentioned in the laws of Howel Dha, but was even then of such extreme rarity, that its skin was valued at the "exorbitant price of one hundred and twenty pence; when the skins of the stag, wolf, fox, and otter, were valued only at eight pence

"The origin of assuming the Cross may be derived from the Council of Clermont, in 1095, when those religious enthusiasts, who undertook the expedition to the Holy Land, had the Cross sewed on their garments: Crucem assumnere dicebantur, qui ad sacra bella pro ecturi crucis symbolum palliis suis assuebant et aifigebant, in signum votive illius expeditionis, cujus originem Concilio Claromontano sub Urbano II. adscribunt scriptores omnes Rerum Hierosol. et alii passim.' It was either woven in gold or silk, or made with cloth, and generally sewed on the right shoulder; but in the celebrated Crusade undertaken in the year 1188, by Philip King of France, and Henry the Second of England, and which gave rise to this Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, the different Sovereigns distinguished their own subjects by varying the colours of their respective insignia. In the first Crusade all were red; but in this the French alone preserved that colour, whilst the, English were distinguished by white, and the Flemings by green Crosses. Some zealots carried their zeal so far as to imprint the figure of the Cross on their skin with a red-hot iron, and thus perpetuated the holy mark." Ibid.

each, the white weasel at twelve pence, and the marten at twenty-four pence." The natural history of the Beaver is thus given by Giraldus: it furnishes another proof of his love of the wonderful.

"The Beavers, in order to construct their castles in the middle of rivers, make use of the animals of their own species instead of carts, who, by a wonderful mode of carriage, convey the trees from the woods to the rivers. Some of them obeying the dictates of nature, receive on their bellies the logs of wood cut off by their associates, which they hold tight with their feet, and thus with transverse pieces placed in their mouths, are drawn along backwards, with their cargo, by other beavers, who fasten themselves with their teeth to the raft. The moles use a similar artifice in clearing out the dirt from the cavities they form by scraping. In some deep and still corner of the river, the beavers use such skill in the construction of their habitations, that not a drop of water can penetrate, or the force of storms shake them; nor do they fear any violence but that of mankind, nor even that, unless well armed: they entwine the branches of willows with other wood, and different kind of leaves, to the usual height of the water, and having made within side a communication from floor to floor, they elevate a kind of stage or scaffold, from which they may observe and watch the rising of the waters. In the course of time, their habitations bear the appearance of a grove of willow trees, rude and natural without, but artfully constructed within. This animal can remain in or under water at its pleasure, like the frog or seal, who shew, by the smoothness or roughness of their skins, the flux and reflux of the sea; these three animals therefore, live indifferently under the water, or in the air, and have short legs, broad bodies, stubbed tails, and resemble the mole in their corporal shape. It is worthy of remark, that the beaver has but four teeth, two above, and two below, which are broad and sharp, like a carpenter's axe, and as such he uses them. They make excavations and dry hiding-places in the banks near their dwellings, and when they hear the stroke of the hunter, who with sharp poles endeavours to penetrate them, they fly as soon as possible to the defence of their castle, having first blown out the water from the entrance of the hole, and rendered it foul and muddy by scraping the earth, in order thus artfully to elude the stratagems of the well armed hunter, who is watching them from the opposite banks of the river. When the beaver finds he cannot save himself from the pursuit of the dogs who follow him, that he may ransom his body by the sacrifice of a part, he throws away that, which by natural instinct he knows to be the object sought for, and in the sight of the hunter castrates himself, from which circumstance he has gained the name of Castor: and if by chance the dogs should chase an animal which had been previously castrated, he has the sagacity to run to an elevated spot, and there lifting up his leg, shews the hunter that the object of his pursuit is gone. Cicero