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.
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