ook with them when they first went to settle in
Gaul, under Maximus and Conau Meiriadoc, may be still extant, at least
transcripts of some of them; for that some were carried over is plain, by
what Gildas himself says, "quae vel si qua fuerint, aut ignibus hostium
exusta, aut civium exulum classe longins deportata non compareant." So
that I would have our traveller pass two years at least in Basse
Bretagne, in order to make enquiry after such ancient monuments, and I
make no doubt but he would make great discoveries.--Thus furnished, he
might proceed to the British Museum, the Bodleian library, and the
library of the two Universities, and elsewhere, where any ancient British
MSS. are preserved. We might then have better editions of British
authors than we have had from the English antiquaries, though in other
respects very learned men; but, being unacquainted with our language,
Bards, and antiquities, they have nothing but bare conjectures, and some
scraps from the Roman writers to produce. No one likewise would be
better qualified to fix the ancient Roman stations in Britain, as they
are set down in Antoninus's intinerary, and their ancient British
names.--I wish learned men would think of this ere it be too late; for
one century makes a great havoc of old MSS. especially such as are in the
hands of private persons, who understand not their true value, or are
suffered to rot in such libraries, where nobody is permitted to have
access to them.

2. _The following curious Commission published and inserted in some of
the copies of Dr. Brown's Dissertation on the Union &c._, _of Poetry and
Music_, _and communicated from a Manuscript Copy in my possession_,
_having so near a Relation to the Family of the noble Patron of these
Poems_, _I thought it right to reprint it on this occasion_.

"By the QUEEN,

"Elizabeth, by the Grace of GOD, of England, France, and Ireland,
Queen, Defender of the Faith, &c. To our trusty and right well
beloved Sir Richard Bulkely, Knight, Sir Rees Griffith, Knight, Ellis
Price, Esq. Dr. in Civil Law, and one of our Council in the Marchesse
of Wales, William Mostyn, Ieuan Lloyd of Yale, John Salisbury of
Rhug, Rice Thomas, Maurice Wynne, William Lewis, Pierce Mostyn, Owen
John ap Howel Fychan, John William ap John, John Lewis Owen, Morris
Griffith, Symwd Thelwal, John Griffith, Ellis ap William Lloyd,
Robert Puleston, Harri ap Harri, William Glynn, and