§ 1. The facts of this History, from the earliest period to the year 1066, are derived from the works included in the ‘Monumenta Historica Britannica;’ from the ‘Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales,’ edited by Aneurin Owen and published by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls; and from the Triads, Poems, and Genealogies preserved by the Welsh Bards. For the testimony of Sharon Turner to the historical value of the Welsh Triads and Poems, I must refer the reader to his ‘Vindication of the Ancient British Poems.’

Of the Genealogies, Sir Francis Palgrave says: ‘Admitting that the British pedigrees must be employed with caution, they may yet be received as historical testimony.’

Of ancient Cambrian records altogether, Mr. Gunn remarks, that he cannot perceive ‘how we are justified in withholding from the traditions of our own country the faith we repose on those of distant ages, which, like them, were orally delivered, and on which so much of ancient history is founded.’

The dates, from the year 59 b.c. to a.d. 498, are derived from the Chronological Abstract prefixed to the first volume of the ‘Monumenta Historica Britannica,’ pp. 129–146. It is much to be regretted that Sir Thomas Hardy could not send forth, in the same volume, a Chronological Abstract of the Saxon Period.