The Elizabethan sophisticates weren't wrong

I'm reading Samurai William, an account of the first Englishman to visit Japan. It's cracking stuff, full of piracy, sinking ships, warring feudal lords, and blind prejudice. This, in particular, caught my eye:

Even those living on the fringes of the British Isles were deemed primitive by the sophisticates of Elizabethan London. One group was held to be particularly backward -- idolatrous, superstitious, and living in "barbarous ignorance." They were the Welsh.

And after yesterday's defeat on a very poor pitch at Cardiff, I think Canaries supporters everywhere can add a hearty "So say we all!"*

* Yep, I've been watching too much Battlestar Galactica recently.