Anonymous (The Gentleman’s Magazine)

Domestic Occurrences

in The Gentleman’s Magazine, October 1792.

Saturday Sept. 22. This being the day on which the autumnal equinox occurred, some Welsh Bards, resident in London, assembled in congress on Primrose Hill, according to ancient usage...The wonted ceremonies were observed. A circle of stones formed, in the middle of which was the Maen Gorsedd, or altar, on which a naked sword being placed, all the Bards assisted to sheathe it. The ceremony was attended with a proclamation, the substance of which was, that the Bards of the Island of Britain (for such is their ancient title) were the heralds and ministers of peace, and never bore a naked weapon in the presence of anyone...The Bardic tradition, and several odes, were recited.

The author was anxious to explain that 'The Bardic Institution of the Ancient Britains, which is the same as the Druidic, has been from the earliest times, through all ages, to the present day, retained by the Welsh. Foreign writers, ancient and modern, have fallen into a great mistake, in considering the Bards and Druids as different orders; or, at least, as one subordinate to the other. This is very wrong'. The ceremonies concluded, arrangements were made for next year. 'The subject proposed for an English Ode...is the resurrection of Rhitta Gawr. Rhitta Gawr was a famous chief of the Ancient Britons, who exterminated so many despots, that he made himself a robe of their beards'. A curious choice, one might think, for the ministers of peace.