"Y Pedair Camp ar hugain" Or the 24 Games of the Old Britons. Out of Dr. Davies.¹

Out of these 24 Ten are reckoned Manly game[s] (Gwrolgampau) Ten Juvenile Games, (Mabolgampau) and Four subgames. (Gogampau.) —––––

Of the 10 manly Games, 6 depend upon bodily ability. 1^st Strength to raise weights. 2^dly Running, 3^d leaping, 4^th Swimming, 5^th wrestling, 6^th Riding.

Four out these Six, viz, Running, Leaping, Swimming, wrestling, are called Father-games (Tadogion Gampau) and they are so called, because no Instrument whatever is necessary to perform either of them, but only the man naked as he was born.

The other 4 manly games depend upon Skill in Arms & they are. 1^st. Shooting, 2^d playing with the sword & Buckler, 3^d Playing with the two handed Sword. 4^th "chwarae ^a Ffon ddwybig² (Qu: an quarter staff). —––––

Amongst the 10 Juvenile Games are three species of chace 1^st. Coursing with a Greyhound, 2^d Fish hunting, 3^d Bird hunting. – The remaining 7 are Domestick Games. The 1^st is Poetry, (Barddoniaeth) 2^d Playing upon the Harp, 3^d Reading Welsh, 4^th Singing a Cywydd³ with music, 5^th Singing a Cywydd between Four,⁴ with accēnts. 6^th Drawing Coats of Arms, 7^th Heraldry. —––––

The 4 ^that are Call^d. Sub-games. 1^st "chwarau ^^b, Gwyddbwyll"⁵ 2 ^C chwarau Tawlbwrdd,⁶ 3^d ^d chwarau Ffristial⁷ 4^th Achyweiriaw Telyn. ie: Tuning the Harp. —––––

a Ffon dwybig signifies a two pointed staff. I believe the game was something similar to what is now called playing with the Quarter Staff, because they use each end of the stick &c

b Gwyddbwyll. This is tranlated [sic] by Richards. The play at Chess. How truely I know not. For Davies does not under the word give any Satisfactory account of it. For my part I think it is the Game that goes under the name of the Fox & Goose. Whatever it was it had its men. for we meet with the expression Gwerin y wyddbwyll which Signify the men of the Wyddbwyll.

C "chwarau Tawlbwrdd" This comes from Tawlu or Taflu to Throw & Bwrdd a Table. This is supposed to mean the Game of Back gammon. which from it's [sic] name seems to be of British Origin: Vid. the word Tawlbwrdd in Richards's Dictionary

d – "chwarau Ffristial." This game like the two former had it's [sic] Table men. And this most certainly was played with Dice. For Ffristial signifies a dice bo[...]x.

I must observe that it is impossible at this Time to determine with any degree of Certainty, what these Games were. I am convinced that Dr Davies himself did not know what they were otherwise he would have told us.

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Editorial notes

1. Pennant draws on this material in his description of 'Antient Games' in A tour in Wales 1770 [1773] (1778), II, pp. 309–11.
2. 'to play with a pitchfork; quarterstaff'. See GPC s.v. ffon ddwybig.
3. A poem or song in rhyming couplets and, in later times, using a system of consonance known as 'cynghanedd'. GPC.
4. 'Cywydd pedwar', one of the various forms of the cywydd metre. GPC.
5. 'playing chess'.
6. 'playing 'tawlbwrdd', a game akin to chess. See GPC s.v. tawlbwrdd.
7. 'playing at dice or backgammon'. See GPC s.v. ffristial.