Sir

I am ashamed to have deferred answering your Letter so long, and sending my acknowledgments of your obliging Favour of a drawing of the Silver Harp. I wrote to M^r Morris immediately upon the receipt of yours to enquire of him whether he had any Poems rehearsed at Caerwys, worth communicating to you, but I have received no Answer; from whence I conclude that he is not in Town. The only Poem that I know of produced there, is in J. D. Rhys's Grammar pag: 242 which is the more remarkable as containing in it the 24 Measures. I intended sending you a Translation of the "Constituta sui Edicta antiquitus in usum Bardorum Musicorum Præscripta"¹ in the Grammar above mentioned, (pag 295) but for want of more knowledge of the old British Musick, and of corresponding Terms in English, I am under the Necessity of dropping my Design. The [...]^Sorts of Musicians as related by J. D. Rhys are eight, of which four are called graduates viz. Bards. Harpers. Crowders, & vocal Performers. The other four O^rders contain the inferior Performers, such as played upon all sorts of Wind Instruments, Taborers, Fidlers, or those who played upon the three stringed Crwth,² and vocal Performers, who were to play all manner of Tricks, much in the style of our modern merry Andrews. J. D. Rhys. Gram: p 303 M^r Warton in a Letter to M^r Price acknowledges the receipt of your Favour, and says that he will give you ample Satisfaction respecting the Chester Plays &. M^r Price desires his best Compliments to you, and has sent you the inclosed Description of Raglan Castle, which he requests may be put with the rest of his Papers in your Hands when you have done with it –³

In persuing M^r Morris's MS of ancient British Music, I found a piece with this account of it. "The End of the Prelude of the Salt which was wont to be played before Arthur's Knights when the Saltseller [sic] was placed upon the Table."⁴

I am much obliged to you for your kind promise of a Drawing of the Silver Harp. I gave M^r Edwards⁵ a rude drawing of it, which I begged of him to compare with the original, in order to know whether there is a remarkable Protuberance near the upper Extremity of the Belly of the Harp as represented in M^r Morris's Drawing of it. As Sir Roger Mostyn is in Possession of this Medal by an hereditary Right he may possibly be able to give an account of the Bards Medals which the chief Bards wore upon their Shoulders. These were both of gold and Silver. on them were presented a Chair, or they were in the Shape of a Chair but which I cannot as yet make out. [...] I am afraid that none of them are extant, and that little or no Account can by given of them at this Period.⁶ I am with great Respect

Sir
your most obedient humble Servant

Jno Jones.

Bodleian Library
25 Sept 1777

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Editorial notes

1. 'Rules established from ancient times for the purpose prescribed for the use of bardic musicians'.
2. 'crowd'.
3. This enclosure has not survived with the manuscript, and there is no mention of Raglan Castle in Pennant's work.
4. Pennant reproduces this information in his discussion of the eisteddfod, which he introduces with the words 'I find that a tune ...', footnoting his reference to 'Mr. Morris's MSS. of British music'. A tour in Wales 1770 [1773] (2nd edn., 1784), I, p. 459.
5. Mr Edwards has not been identified.
6. Pennant writes of the 'Penbardd or Pencerdd' (the chief bard) that he 'received the badge of the silver-harp; or that of a golden or silver chair, which he wore upon his shoulder'. See A tour in Wales 1770 [1773] (2nd edn., 1784), I, p. 471.