The legend is thus told: when Vortigern found himself unable to contend with the treacherous Saxons, whom he had, in the year 449, invited into Britain, he determined, by the advice of his Magicians, on building an impregnable fortress in Snowdon. He collected the materials, which all disappeared in one night.—The Prince, astonished at this, convened again his wise men, who assured him his building would never stand, unless it was sprinkled with the blood of a child, born without the help of a father; the Realm was ransacked,—at length, one of his emissaries overheard some boys at play reproach another, and call him an unbegotten knave. The child and his mother were brought before the King,—she confessed he was the offspring of an Incubus. The boy, whose name was Merlin, was ordered to be sacrificed, but on confounding all the Magicians, with his questions, and explaining the cause of the miscarriage, got his liberty, and To that mighty King, who rashly undertook A strong wall’d Tower to rear, those earthly spirits that shook The great foundation still, in Dragon’s horrid shape That dreaming wizzard told, making the mountain gape With his most powerful charms, to view those caverns deep And from the top of _Brith_, so high and wondrous steep, Where Dinas Emrys stood, shewed where the serpent fought, The white that tore the red, from whence the Prophet wrought The Britons sad decay, then shortly to ensue. The above is Drayton’s translation of the legend, in his Polyolbion. Merlin, or Merddin Emrys, or Ambrosius, was in fact the son of a noble Roman of the same name; his mother, a vestal, to save her life and honor, invented the fable of his father, which was swallowed by the credulity of the times. Merlin, or Myrddin, was an able Mathematician and Astronomer, and deeply read in all the learning of his age. The vulgar, as usual, ascribed all he did to the art of magic, and his discovery, that Vortigern had begun to found his Castle on a Morass, was immediately said to have been attended with most portentous circumstances; numbers of Prophecies were attributed to him, the repetition of which is said to have been forbidden, by the Council of Trent; however, since it is certain that Vortigern, after his misfortunes, retired to the Snowdon Hills, and died not very remote from them, it is possible he might have selected this for his strong hold, as it is admirably adapted for that purpose, and nearly fills the streight of the valley, and Merlin Ambrosius might have given to it the name of Emris. A place close by, styled Cell y Dewiniaid, or the Cell of the Diviners, allusive to the Magicians of Vortigern’s Court, is another circumstance which favors the history of this celebrated supposed Prophet, and not at a great distance, are some large stones, which are called Beddau’r Dewiniaid, the Tombs of the Magicians. There is a tradition also, that within this rock there is