A good story is told among the country people, of a farm labourer, who, when put to clear out the weeds from a field, was observed always to leave some of the most thriving standing. One day his master remonstrated with him, and got for answer, “Weeds are bread.” No reply was made at the moment, but when meal-time came, and the soup was served out, a bowl full of weeds was handed to the workman with the remark:--“Since weeds are bread, eat that, for you get no more to-day.” It is said that the lesson was understood, and that for the future the farm servant performed his allotted task in a more conscientious way.[225] [225] From George Allez, Esq. CHAPTER XIV. Historical Reminiscences. “Antiquities, or remnants of history, are, as was said, _tanquam tabula naufragii_, when industrious persons, by an exact and scrupulous diligence and observation, out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, private records and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books that concern not story, and the like, do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.”--Bacon’s _Advancement of Learning_. CADWALLA AND BRIAN. Although the following story is entirely forgotten in Guernsey, and indeed may possibly never have been popularly known in the island, it is entitled, from its legendary and romantic character, to a place in this collection. It is related by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his British History, Book XII. Ch. 4. It is necessary to premise that Edwin, the first of the Anglo-Saxon Kings who embraced Christianity, having quarrelled with Cadwalla, Sovereign of North Wales, attacked and defeated him at Widdington, near Morpeth. Edwin pursued Cadwalla into Wales, and chased him into Ireland. These events happened about the year 630 A.D. The story itself shall be told in the words employed by Geoffrey in his account of Cadwalla’s exile, as we find them translated in Bohn’s “Antiquarian Library.”