Ffynh 1O

The Welsh have a tradition, that these uncouth and savage mountains [of Snowdonia] formerly abounded with woods, and that they were felled by Edward I ... There may be more truth in another tradition, that this king ordered all the bards of Wales to be destroyed. It was a necessary policy, without which, he could not secure his new conquest. By these means, he eradicated the first principles of resistance, which always arose from the inflammatory and prophetical songs of those turbulent and enthusiastic poetasters. If some should regret the poems, existence of which the massacre obstructed, they may find some comfort on the reflection, that, it has given birth to one of the finest odes in the English tongue [Gray’s ode].