But since Telford's another bridge has been built over the Menai, which enables things to pass which the bard certainly never dreamt of.

He never hinted at a bridge over which thundering trains would dash, if required, at the rate of fifty miles an hour; he never hinted at steam travelling, or a railroad bridge, and the second bridge over the Menai is one.
That Lleiaf was a man of remarkable foresight, cannot be denied, but there are no grounds which entitle him to be considered a possessor of the second sight.

He foretold a bridge, but not a railroad bridge; had he foretold a railroad bridge, or hinted at the marvels of steam, his claim to the second sight would have been incontestable.
What a triumph for Wales; what a triumph for bardism, if Lleiaf had ever written an englyn, or couplet, in which not a bridge for common traffic, but a railroad bridge over the Menai was hinted at, and steam travelling distinctly foretold! Well, though Lleiaf did not write it, there exists in the Welsh language an englyn, almost as old as Lleiaf's time, in which steam travelling in Wales and Anglesea is foretold, and in which, though the railroad bridge over the Menai is not exactly mentioned, it may be considered to be included; so that Wales and bardism have equal reason to be proud.

This is the englyn alluded to:-- "Codais, ymolchais yn Mon, cyn naw awr Ciniewa'n Nghaer Lleon, Pryd gosber yn y Werddon, Prydnawn wrth dan mawn yn Mon." The above englyn was printed in the Greal, 1792, p.

316; the language shows it to be a production of about the middle of the seventeenth century.