permission, I will attempt to rectify. First, I beg leave to dissent
from the derivation of the word Druid, "Druidh," a wise man, as such
a word is not to be found in the Welsh language. In one of your early
volumes[5] there is a letter from a Correspondent, deriving the word (in
the above language it is written Derwydd) from Dar and Gwydd, signifying
chief in the presence, as the religious ceremonies of the Druids were
considered to be performed in the presence of the Deity. This may seem
far fetched; but, according to the genius of the language, any word
commencing with _g_, and having another word prefixed, the sound of
the _g_ is always dropped: therefore, those words would be written
Dar-wydd, only a difference of one letter from the proper word.

With regard to the statement of the Druids being "ever foremost in the
battle strife," as your Correspondent has quoted Cæsar, I am surprised
that he has overlooked this passage: "The Druids were exempt from all
military payment, and excused from serving in the wars;" indeed, one of
the main objects of Bardism was to maintain peace, and the use of arms
was therefore prohibited to its members; though in later times it was
one of the duties of the king's domestic bard, on the day of battle,
to sing in front of the army the national song of "Unbennaeth Prydain"
(the Monarchy of Britain,) for the purpose of animating the soldiers.

It is not possible that a people possessing the three orders of Druid,
Bard, and Ovate, who, (leaving their poetry out of the question for the
present,) were able to raise the immense piles of Abury and Stonehenge,
could be the barbarians they are thought to be; and those who could
raise such immense blocks of stone deserve at least credit for
ingenuity. Now, it does not appear to me to require a great stretch of
fancy to believe that the requisite knowledge was obtained of the
architects of the Pyramids, Temples, and cities of Egypt and the east: