but he could not accomplish his object. I have repeatedly requested a harp-maker to try, but his heart failed him. At length, however, it has been accomplished by Messrs. Schwieso and Grosjean, of Soho-square, at the suggestion of a Welshman, Mr. H. Williams, of Dean-street.

This Harp, which is to be called "The Cambrian Pedal Harp, with two rows of strings," has just been completed, and it certainly is a very ingenious piece of mechanism. In appearance, compass, size, &c. it resembles the common Pedal Harp, with the exception of a double row of strings. The pedals act, of course, on both rows at once, so that the performer has the advantage of the Triple Harp, with the powerful aid of the pedals; and the variety that is capable of being produced is infinite. It will be asked whether the tone is so good, and whether the strings can be of the usual roundness; to this I answer, that a double sounding board is introduced by the makers, thereby allowing the strings to be equally thick, consequently a great body of tone can be produced.

This Harp will be introduced at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Cambrian Institution, on the 22d of May next, and played by a young musician of the name of Davies, who promises to become a first-rate performer*.

Within these few years the Harp has become a most fashionable instrument, and there are a number of capital performers in England.

Mr. E. Jones (who must be considered as Tad y Telynwyr) is a very good performer; his execution is extremely neat, and his tone very melodious. The Meyers, senior and junior, are excellent harp players. Messrs. Horne, Challoner, Baur, Taylor, Chipp, Weippert, Craven, Lord, Davies, Holst, junior, Mesdames Moralt, Boom, Misses Randles, Gutherot, Turnbull, Sharp, Dibdin, Barry, Dodd, Morgan, Forster, excel on this sublime instrument. But the great masters of the day are Messrs. Bochsa and Dizi; and it was no small treat to hear these celebrated performers at the recent Oratorios playing a duet. Were I asked for my opinion as to their relative merits, I would say that Bochsa is full of fire, soul, and energy, executing very difficult passages, and traversing the mazes of modulation with wonderful skill and science; while Dizi delights his hearers with his exquisite delicacy, sweetness of tone, taste, and expression. Most of these professors have published instruction-books; Bochsa's (published by Chappell, in Bond-street,) contains a brief History of the Harp, and much valuable information. Mr. Dizi has Harps made by Dodd, of Berners-street, on a different principle from any others; the strings, instead of resting on a pin, and acted upon by the fork of the pedal on the outside, are fixed in the inside of the comb, and, by a simple contrivance,

* Since this was written, the Harp in question has been introduced at the Anniversary of the CYMMRODORION, alluded to by Mr. Parry, where it was generally admired for the fulness of its tones and the compass and variety of its execution.-ED. TR.

the tone is raised. Mr. D. has also added a muffle pedal, which he calls etouffé.

On other Harps this is effected by stopping the string with the left hand the instant it is struck.

For the honour of Wales I must state that I remember a very ingenious person of the name of Burrows, at Denbigh, who made a Harp, and contrived to have a piece of wood in the shape of the comb, lined with leather, which he used (by a motion of his head) to let fall on the strings, for the purpose of muffling the

tone.

I should not be doing justice to a most worthy and highlyrespected character were I to omit the name of Thomas Jones, Esq. of Nottingham-place, who, though not a public professor, is a most exquisite performer on the Triple Harp, and one who feels delight in encouraging rising merit. There are, besides, a number of ladies (amateurs) who play delightfully on the Harp.

The principal Harp-makers are Erard, Dodd, Eratt, Stumpff, Schwieso and Grosjean, Barry, &c. &c.* and the prices run from sixty to one hundred and seventy guineas.

That there is a vast deal in a NAME I am well aware, but, if the ingenious inventors of the Cambrian Pedal Harp will produce an elegant, fine-toned, highly-finished instrument at a reasonable price, I hope that the fair daughters of Cymru will patronize it, for they will be highly delighted, I am certain, with the effect of the double row of strings; besides, they will enjoy the advantage of proceeding with an air, though a string were to break on one side, as a corresponding one will be found on the other.

TELYN, OR HARP.

ERE I close my remarks, I beg to make a few observations on the name of the Harp in Welsh. Mr. Gunn says,-" The name of the Harp in Gaelic has a direct reference to its fabric. The word Clar, a Harp, means also a table, a stave, a board, fashioned and smoothed to a certain shape, and is expressive of the proper form and materials of which the frame of the Harp must be made." Hear what Mr. W. O. Pughe says, in answer to this, "The Clar, a board, is the Welsh Clawr. It is very probable that the Irish Clarseach, a Harp, has for its root the Welsh Cler, a plural noun collective, i. e. minstrels, and of which word Clyr is an inflection.

*There are many Harps with the names of different music-sellers engraved on them, but they are, in general, manufactured by some of the makers above-mentioned.

Clyryn (s. m.) and Cleren (s. f.) mean any thing that hums, a humble bee, a hornet*."

دو

Mr. Gunn farther says,-" The Harp is also frequently mentioned in old Gaelic poems by a poetical phrase, expressive of its nature and powers, as Teud ciuil, the strings of melody or music;' and this figurative expression for the Harp has its perfect synonyma of like syntax in the phrase Teud luin, which is pronounced Telin, the letter d being quiescent.' This is deriving the name of an instrument in one language from a poetical phrase in another!! But a word or two more from Mr. Gunn: "The Welsh name of the Harp (says he) is this very word, or rather phrase, Te-lin, which, in its composition, is not expressive, in that language, of any idea, and of which no etymology can, I BELIEVE, (very well put in Mr. G.) be given, excepting that of the Gaelic just mentioned. The plain inference to be drawn from which is, that the Welsh have derived this instrument, together with its name, from the nation who had given to it that expressive appellation, and that this was really the case can be supported by various arguments of great force, [cannons, Gunns, and pistols ?] which will be given in a future work." Which said "future work" has never appeared, although these correct observations were published in 1807.

Now, according to Mr. W. O. Pughe, who is a Cymro, and understands yr Iaith Gymraeg better, perhaps, than any other man living, (see his excellent Welsh and English Dictionary, &c. &c.) the root of Telyn is Tèl, i. e. what is straight, even, or drawn tight. Hence it is very evident that the name of Telyn is coeval with the knowledge of a stringed instrument among the Cymry. The antiquity of the word Telyn is singularly corroborated by the circumstance of the coast of France, where Toulon is situated, being anciently called the promontory of Citharistes, and the town itself Telo Martius. Camden says," If you ask our Britons what they call the Harp, they will presently answer you Telyn; if you could raise an ancient Phoenician, and ask him what are songs played on the Harp, he would answer you Telynu.”

That the word Telyn therefore is purely Welsh, I hope no unbiased person will deny and that the honour of cultivating the Harp, and handing it down, in a progressively-improved state, to the present time, is also due to my countrymen, there can be no

*This hypothesis, as to the etymology of clarseach, is extremely plausible; at all events, it has much more reason in it than the theories of the Irish and Scotch writers. -ED. TR.

† Can a blind man be a judge of colours? Ought any one to hazard an opinion on a subject to which he is a total stranger? Yet Mr. Gunn attacks the Welsh language, although he is utterly unacquainted with it. I know that Mr. Gunn is a classical scholar, and an excellent musician, but he is not a Cymro.

The form of the Bay of Toulon resembles the comb of a Harp, and the Latin name of that instrument is Cithara. In the CAMBRO-BRITON, vol. iii. p. 354, is given an extract from Mr. Beauford's Treatise on Ancient Music, in which the author says, "The Harp (in old Irish, Oirpeam) is certainly of Teutonic or Scythic origin."

doubt*. May the Cymry enjoy their language, customs, and innocent pastimes, till time be no more!

+ This beautiful stanza is an extract from a Song, written by Mrs. Hemans, (for the first volume of Welsh Melodies,) to the air of " Ar hyd y nos," entitled, “The Sea-song of Gavran." [The national air of " Ar hyd y nos" reminds us of that peculiar characteristic of the Welsh Harp which it did not enter, perhaps, into Mr. Parry's purpose, when treating the matter in a mere historical view, to discuss. We allude to the particular plaintiveness of its tones, or, to speak more correctly, of the airs, which are adapted to it. This is, certainly, the great and supreme distinction of the favourite instrument of the Cymry, and may help, a good deal, to guide us to a correct knowledge of the character of the people, with whose souls these soothing, tranquillizing, and almost disspiriting sounds appear to have been so congenial. However, this is not the place for a philosophical inquiry into the subject: we shall, therefore, close our remarks with a couplet, by Davydd ab Edmwnd, a Welsh poet of the fifteenth century, which happens to be much to the point. It is thus:

"Nid oes nag angel, na dyn,

Nad wyl pan gano delyn."

The following is a humble translation :-

Of men on earth, or saints on high,
When Cymru's harp-notes stray,
Who doth not feel the tearful eye

Yield to the melting lay?-ED. Tr.]

LAW TRIADS

OF THE

ANCIENT BRITONS*.

TRANSLATED BY THE LATE

REV. PETER ROBERTS.

THE TRIADS of DYVNWAL MOELMUD, called THE TRIADS OF THE SOCIAL STATE†, as comprising the RIGHTS and DUTIES of the CYMRY, such as they were before they lost their Privileges through the oppression, fraud, and treachery of the Saxons.

1. THE three fundamental principles of a social state privilege, possession, and mutual compact‡.

*The Triads, here translated, are taken from the Archaiology of Wales, vol. iii. p. 285, where they form a part of many of a similar nature, published in the same work, under the general denomination of "Triads of Wisdom of the Bards of the Isle of Britain." Strictly speaking, therefore, these are not the "Law Triads of the Ancient Britons," which occur in a subsequent part of the same volume of the Archaiology. However, it has been thought advisable to retain the title adopted by Mr. Roberts. Dyvnwal Moelmud, to whom these Triads are ascribed, (though the justice of this imputation may reasonably be questioned,) is thought to have lived about four centuries before the Christian era. According to the Historical Triads, he was the son of Dyvnwarth ab Prydain, and, according to the British Chronicles, the son of Clydno, a prince of the Čornish Britons. For translations of the Triads relating to him, see the CAMBRO-BRITON, vol. i. pp. 45, 284; and vol. ii. pp. 145, 146. It may be proper here to add that this translation, from the pen of a distinguished Welsh scholar, was presented to the CYMMRODORION by the Right Hon. C. W. W. Wynn, to whose active interest the Society has been considerably indebted. The translation is printed literally from the MS. of the late Mr. Roberts; and such observations as may be deemed necessary to explain the text will be found in the following notes.-ED. TR.

+ The original words, here rendered "social state," are gwladoldeb a chydwladoldeb, which appear to imply the general rights appertaining to a country and community. The words adopted in the translation are, therefore, perhaps as near as the English tongue will allow, though not fully expressive of the meaning of the Welsh.-ED. TR. The Welsh word is cyvraith, which implies, in a popular sense," law." Ac