"The privy seal represents the four lions rampant towards the spectator's left, on a shield, surmounted by an open coronet [crown]: the dragon[3] of Wales, as a supporter, on the dexter side; on the sinister, a lion. The inscription seems to have been '_Sigillum Oweni_ PRINCIPIS WALLIE.' No impression of this seal is probably now to be found either in Wales or England. Its workmanship shows that Owen Glyndwr possessed a taste for art beyond the types of the seals of his predecessors."
The dragon is a favourite figure with Cambrian bards; and, not to multiply instances, the following lines may be cited from the poem of the "Hirlas Horn," by Owen Cyfeilioc, Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn,--
"Mathraval's[4] Lord, the Poet and the Prince,"
father of Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn (the Gwenwen of Sir Walter Scott's _Betrothed_):--
"A dytwc i Rufut waywrutelyn Gwin a gwydyr goleu yn ei gylchyn Dragon Arwystli arwystyl tervyn Dragon Owein hael o hil Kynvyn[5] Dragon iw dechren ac niw dychryn cat Cyvlavan argrat cymyw erlyn." _Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales_: London, 1801, 8vo., vol. i. p. 265.
"And bear to Grufydd, the crimson-lanced foe, Wine with pellucid glass around it; The Dragon of Arwstli, safeguard of the borders, The Dragon of Owen, the generous of the race of Cynvyn, A Dragon from his beginning, and never scared by a conflict Of triumphant slaughter, or afflicting chase."
Gray, whose "Bard" indicates the inspiration with which he had seized the poetry and traditions of the Cymri, thus refers to the red dragon as the cognizance of the Welsh monarchs, in his _Triumphs of Owen_ [ap Griffith, Prince of North Wales]:
"Dauntless, on his native sands, The _Dragon_, son of Mona, stands; In glittering arms and glory dress'd High he rears his _ruby_ crest."
The dragon and lion have been attributed to the Welsh monarchs, as insignia, from an early period, and the former is ascribed, traditionally, to the great Cadwallader.
In the _Archæologia_, vol. xx. p. 579. plate xxix. p. 578., are descriptions of engravings of the impressions of two seals appendant to charters of Edward, son of Edward IV., and Arthur, son of Henry VII., as Princes of Wales, the obverse of each bearing three lions in pale passant, reguardant, having their tails between their legs, reflected upon their backs, upon a shield { 290} surmounted by a cap of maintenance: Prince Edward's shield has on each side a lion as a supporter, holding single feathers, with the motto "Ich dien." On Prince Arthur's seal, the feathers are supported by _dragons_. Thomas William King, Rouge Dragon, in a letter to Sir Samuel Meyrick, dated 4th September, 1841, published in the _Archæologia_, vol. xxix. p. 408., Appendix, regards the lions on these shields as to the ensigns attributed at the period of the seals to certain Welsh princes, and the dragon as the badge of Cadwallader.