He retired,when old age grew upon him,to the scholarly seclusion of Lincoln,far from his native land.He was the friend and companion of princes and kings,of scholars and prelates everywhere in England,in France,and in Italy.And yet there was no place in the world so dear to him as Manorbier.Who can read his vivid deion of the old castle by the sea -its ramparts blown upon by the winds that swept over the Irish Sea,its fishponds,its garden,and its lofty nut trees -without feeling that here,after all,was the home of Gerald de Barri?"As Demetia,"he said in his "Itinerary,""with its seven cantreds is the fairest of all the lands of Wales,as Pembroke is the fairest part of Demetia,and this spot the fairest of Pembroke,it follows that Manorbier is the sweetest spot in Wales."He has left us a charming account of his boyhood,playing with his brothers on the sands,they building castles and he cathedrals,he earning the title of "boy bishop"by preaching while they engaged in boyish sport.On his last recorded visit to Wales,a broken man,hunted like a criminal by the king,and deserted by the ingrate canons of St.David's,he retired for a brief respite from strife to the sweet peace of Manorbier.It is not known where he died,but it is permissible to hope that he breathed his last in the old home which he never forgot or ceased to love.
He mentions that the Welsh loved high descent and carried their pedigree about with them.In this respect also Gerald was Welsh to the core.He is never more pleased than when he alludes to his relationship with the Princes of Wales,or the Geraldines,or Cadwallon ap Madoc of Powis.He hints,not obscurely,that the real reason why he was passed over for the Bishopric of St.David's in 1186was that Henry II.feared his natio et cognatio,his nation and his family.He becomes almost dithyrambic in extolling the deeds of his kinsmen in Ireland."Who are they who penetrated into the fastnesses of the enemy?The Geraldines.Who are they who hold the country in submission?The Geraldines.Who are they whom the foemen dread?The Geraldines.Who are they whom envy would disparage?The Geraldines.Yet fight on,my gallant kinsmen,"Felices facti si quid mea carmina possuit."Gerald was satisfied,not only with his birthplace and lineage,but with everything that was his.He makes complacent references to his good looks,which he had inherited from Princess Nesta."Is it possible so fair a youth can die?"asked Bishop,afterwards Archbishop,Baldwin,when he saw him in his student days.{2}Even in his letters to Pope Innocent he could not refrain from repeating a compliment paid to him on his good looks by Matilda of St.Valery,the wife of his neighbour at Brecon,William de Braose.He praises his own unparalleled generosity in entertaining the poor,the doctors,and the townsfolk of Oxford to banquets on three successive days when he read his "Topography of Ireland"before that university.As for his learning he records that when his tutors at Paris wished to point out a model scholar they mentioned Giraldus Cambrensis.He is confident that though his works,being all written in Latin,have not attained any great contemporary popularity,they will make his name and fame secure for ever.The most precious gift he could give to Pope Innocent III.when he was anxious to win his favour,was six volumes of his own works;and when good old Archbishop Baldwin came to preach the Crusade in Wales,Gerald could think of no better present to help beguile the tedium of the journey than his own "Topography of Ireland."He is equally pleased with his own eloquence.When the archbishop had preached,with no effect,for an hour,and exclaimed what a hardhearted people it was,Gerald moved them almost instantly to tears.He records also that John Spang,the Lord Rhys's fool,said to his master at Cardigan,after Gerald had been preaching the Crusade,"You owe a great debt,O Rhys,to your kinsman,the archdeacon,who has taken a hundred or so of your men to serve the Lord;for if he had only spoken in Welsh,you would not have had a soul left."His works are full of appreciations of Gerald's reforming zeal,his administrative energy,his unostentatious and scholarly life.
Professor Freeman in his "Norman Conquest"described Gerald as "the father of comparative philology,"and in the preface to his edition of the last volume of Gerald's works in the Rolls Series,he calls him "one of the most learned men of a learned age,""the universal scholar."His range of subjects is indeed marvellous even for an age when to be a "universal scholar"was not so hopeless of attainment as it has since become.Professor Brewer,his earliest editor in the Rolls Series,is struck by the same characteristic.
