translated, Mr Williams writes: "The second portion of the Welsh
Greal, folios 110-280, contains the adventures of Gwalchmei
Peredur and Lancelot, and of the knights of the Round Table; but
these are not found in the "Morte d'Arthur". The Peniarth MS. is
beautifully written on vellum, and in perfect preservation, and
its date is that of Henry VI., the early part of the fifteenth
century. The orthography and style of writing agrees literally
with that of the "Mabinogion of the Llyvr Coch Hergest", which is
of that date. This, of course, is a transcript of an earlier
copy; but there is no certainty when it was first translated into
Welsh, though Aneurin Owen in his "Catalogue of the Hengwrt MSS."
assigns it to the sixth year of Henry I. It is mentioned by
Davydd ab Gwilym, who died in 1368."

Whatever may be the date of the Welsh version, the translator had
no great mastery of French, and is often at fault as to the
meaning both of words and sentences, and when in a difficulty is
only too apt to cut the knot by omitting the passage bodily. The
book itself, moreover, is not entire. On page 275, all between
Branch IX. Title 16 and Branch XI. Title 2, twenty-two chapters
in all, is missing. Again, on page 355, Titles 10-16 in Branch
XXI. are left out, while the whole of the last Branch, containing
28 Titles, is crumpled up into one little chapter, from which it
would seem that the Welshman had read the French, but thought it
waste of pains to translate it. In all, not to speak of other
defects, there are fifty-six whole chapters in the present book,
of which there is not a word in the Welsh.

In one matter, however, Mr Williams' English translation has
stood me in good stead. In Branch XXI., as I have said, the