As there is a natural curiosity in most people to be brought acquainted with the works of men, whose names have been conveyed down to us with applause from very early antiquity, I have been induced to think, that a translation of some of the Welsh Bards would be no unacceptable present to the public. It is true they lived in times when all Europe was enveloped with the dark cloud of bigotry and ignorance; yet, even under these disadvantageous circumstances, a late instance may convince us, that poetry shone forth with a light, that seems astonishing to many readers. They who have perused the works of Ossian, as translated by Mr. Macpherson, will, I believe, be of my opinion. I mean not to set the following poems in competition with those just mentioned; nor did the success which they have met with from the world, put me upon this undertaking. It was first thought of, and encouraged some years before the name of Ossian was known in England. I had long been convinced, that no nation in Europe possesses greater remains of ancient and genuine pieces of this kind than the Welsh; and therefore was inclined, in honour to my country, to give a specimen of them in the English language. As to the genuineness of these poems, I think there can be no doubt; but though we may vie with the Scottish nation in this particular, yet there is another point, in which we must yield to them undoubtedly. The language of their oldest poets, it seems, is still perfectly intelligible, which is by no means our case. The works of Taliesin, Llywarch Hên, Aneurin Gwawdrydd, Myrddin Wyllt, Avan Verddig, who all flourished about the year 560, a considerable time after Ossian, are hardly understood by the best critics and antiquarians in Wales, though our language has not undergone more changes than the Erse. Nay, the Bards that wrote a long while after, from the time of William the Conquerer to the death of Prince Llewelyn, are not so easy to be understood; but that whoever goes about to translate them, will find numerous obsolete words, not to be found in any Dictionary or Glossary, either in print or manuscript.