THE SCENE: Every Welsh person should apparently feel grateful for the fact that Gerald of Wales saw fit to use his limitless talents to describe your country.
THE TEXT: I now propose, in this short treatise, to write a Description of Wales, my own country, and to describe the Welsh people, who are so very different from other nations. Some take exception to what I have done. In their concern for me, they see me as a painter who, rich in precious colours, the master of his art, strives with great skill and industry to portray a humble cottage or some other subject by its very nature base and ignoble, when they were expecting me to paint a temple or a fine palace. They are surprised that, from all the great and striking subjects which the world can offer, I choose to extol in my writings and to adorn with all the flowers of my rhetoric those rugged countries.
– The Description of Wales, Gerald of Wales, 12th Century AD
