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Volume 4 39 |
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ASPIRANTS FOR BARDIC HONOURS: MODERN OBSERVANCE OF AN ARCHAIC FESTIVAL IN MEDIEVAL SURROUNDINGS The Gorsedd, an open-air solemnity, is very dear to the heart of the Welsh people and arouses deep interest throughout their country. It is invariably attended by numerous spectators, some from curiosity, but the most part from enthusiasm, and not a few who are entirely ignorant of the Welsh language. The robe of white, "emblem of holiness and peculiarly of truth," was the distinguishing dress of the Druids, to which hierarchy the ancient Celtic bards belonged; and here a group of present-day bards is seen in the historical grounds of Carnarvon's famous castle, one of the finest surviving strongholds of the Middle ages in the United Kingdom |