a country situated in the south-west part of Britain, into which the ancient Britons retired from the persecution of the Saxons. Anciently it was of greater extent than it is at present, and comprehended all the country beyond the Severn; that is, besides the 12 counties included in it at present, those of Herefordshire and Monmouthshire, which now are reckoned a part of England, were then inhabited by three different tribes of the Britons, namely, the Silures, the Demetae, and the Ordovices. The Romans were never able to subdue them, till the reign of Vespasian, when they were reduced by Julius Frontinus, who placed garrisons in their country to keep them in awe. Though the Saxons made themselves masters of all England, they never could get possession of Wales, except the counties of Monmouthshire and Herefordshire, formerly a part of Wales. About the year 870, Roderic king of Wales divided it among his three sons; and the names of these divisions were, Demetia, or South-Wales; Powysia, or Powis-Land; and Venetodia, or North Wales. Another division is mentioned afterwards in the records, viz. North Wales, South Wales, and West Wales; the last comprehending the counties of Monmouth and Hereford. The country derived the name of Wales, and the inhabitants that of We/bs, from the Saxons, who by those terms denote a country and people to which they are strangers; for the Welsh, in their own language, call their country Cymry, and their language Cymraeg. They continued under their own princes and laws from the above-mentioned period, and were never entirely subjected to the crown of England till the reign of Edward I. when Llewellyn ap Gryffith, prince of Wales, lost both his life and dominions. Edward, the better to secure his conquest, and to reconcile the Welsh to a foreign yoke, sent his queen to lie in at Caernarvon, where she was delivered of a prince; to whom the Welsh, on that account, the more readily submitted. Ever since that time, the eldest sons of the kings of England have commonly been created princes of Wales, and as such enjoy certain revenues from that country.

As to the character of the Welsh, they are said to be a brave, hospitable people; and though very jealous of affronts, passionate, and hasty, yet are easily reconciled. The common people look with a suspicious eye on strangers, and bear a hereditary grudge to the English nation, by whom their ancestors were expelled from the finest parts of the island. The gentlemen are apt to value themselves upon the antiquity of their families; and with some reason, as they can generally trace them much higher than the inhabitants of most other countries.

All the better sort, both in town and country, can speak English, especially in the counties bordering upon England. The common people, in general, only speak their own language, which is the ancient British; and not only differs entirely from the English, but has very little affinity with any of the western tongues, unless we should except the Gaelic, Erse, or Irish. It is said to be a dialect of the ancient Celtic, and in many respects to resemble the Hebrew. Most of the clergy are natives of the country, and understand English so well, that they could exercise their functions in any part of Britain. The public worship, however, is as often performed in Welsh as in English, excepting in the towns, where the latter is the prevailing language. The inhabitants are computed at about 300,000.

The country, though mountainous, especially in North Wales, is far from being barren or unfruitful; the hills, besides the metals and minerals they contain, feeding vast herds of small black cattle, deer, sheep, and goats, and their valleys abounding in corn, as their seas and rivers do in fish. Here are also wood, coal, and turf, for fuel, in abundance.

Wales is bounded on all sides by the sea and the Severn; except on the east, where it joins to the counties of Chester, Salop, Hereford, and Monmouth. Its length, from the southernmost part of Glamorganshire to the extremity of Flintshire north, is computed at about 113 miles; and its greatest breadth, from the river Wye east to St David's in Pembrokeshire west, is nearly of the same dimensions, being about 90 miles.

After the conquest of Wales by Edward I., very material alterations were made in their laws, so as to reduce them nearer to the English standard, especially in the forms of their judicial proceedings: but they still retained very much of their original polity, particularly their rule of inheritance, viz. that their lands were divided equally among all the issue male, and did not descend to the eldest son alone. By other subsequent statutes their provincial immunities were still farther abridged: but the finishing stroke to their dependency was given by the statute 27 Hen. VIII. c. 26, which at the same time gave the utmost advancement to their civil prosperity, by admitting them to a thorough communication of laws with the subjects of England.—Thus were these brave people gradually conquered into the enjoyment of true liberty; being insensibly put upon the same footing, and made fellow-citizens, with their conquerors.

It is enacted by the 27 Hen. VIII. 1. That the dominions of Wales shall be forever united to the kingdom of England. 2. That all Welshmen born shall have the same liberties as other king's subjects. 3. That lands in Wales shall be inheritable according to the English tenures and rules of descent. 4. That the laws of England, and no other, shall be used in Wales; besides many other regulations of the police of this principality. And the 34 and 35 Hen. VIII. c. 26, confirms the same, adds farther regulations, divides it into 12 shires, and, in short, reduces it to the same order in which it stands at this day; differing from the kingdom of England in only a few particulars, and those too of the nature of privileges (such as having courts within itself, independent of the procs of Westminster-hall), and some other immaterial peculiarities, hardly more than are to be found in many counties of England itself.

New WALES. See New BRITAIN. New South WALES. See New HOLLAND. Prince of WALES. See ROYAL Family. WALKING Leaf, an insect. See MANTIS Sycifolia, ENTOMOLOGY Index.