fastnesses of the enemy? The Geraldines. Who are they who hold the
country in submission? The Geraldines. Who are they whom the
foemen dread? The Geraldines. Who are they whom envy would
disparage? The Geraldines. Yet fight on, my gallant kinsmen,


" Felices facti si quid mea carmina possuit."


Gerald was satisfied, not only with his birthplace and lineage, but
with everything that was his. He makes complacent references to his
good looks, which he had inherited from Princess Nesta. "Is it
possible so fair a youth can die?" asked Bishop, afterwards
Archbishop, Baldwin, when he saw him in his student days. {2} Even
in his letters to Pope Innocent he could not refrain from repeating
a compliment paid to him on his good looks by Matilda of St. Valery,
the wife of his neighbour at Brecon, William de Braose. He praises
his own unparalleled generosity in entertaining the poor, the
doctors, and the townsfolk of Oxford to banquets on three successive
days when he read his "Topography of Ireland" before that
university. As for his learning he records that when his tutors at
Paris wished to point out a model scholar they mentioned Giraldus
Cambrensis. He is confident that though his works, being all
written in Latin, have not attained any great contemporary
popularity, they will make his name and fame secure for ever. The
most precious gift he could give to Pope Innocent III., when he was
anxious to win his favour, was six volumes of his own works; and
when good old Archbishop Baldwin came to preach the Crusade in
Wales, Gerald could think of no better present to help beguile the
tedium of the journey than his own "Topography of Ireland." He is