Daniel Lleufer Thomas

“ Jenkins amply deserves the eulogium of Wood, who describes him as a ‘vigorous maintainer of the rights of the crown, a heart of oak, and a pillar of the law.’ He was elected a bencher of Gray's Inn in 1660, and soon afterwards retired to his own estate at Hensol in Glamorganshire, where he became a patron of Welsh bards, and presided at the annual eisteddfod held at Ystradowen in the neighbourhood. ”

“ The college continued to flourish for several centuries, sending forth a large number of missionaries until, early in the 12th century, its revenues were appropriated to the abbey of Tewkesbury by Fitzhamon, the first Norman lord of Glamorgan. A school seems, however, to have lingered on in the place until it lost all its emoluments in the reign of Henry VIII. The present church of St Illtyd is the result of a sequence of churches which have sprung from a pre-Norman edifice, almost entirely rebuilt and greatly extended in the 13th century and again partially rebuilt late in the 14th century. ”

“ An advanced liberal in politics, and from 1887 till his death a member of the political committee of the Reform Club, he was in favour of home rule and Welsh disestablishment. But his chief interest lay in social reform (see his odes for the first co-operative festival in 1888, for the trade union congress at Swansea in 1901, and on the opening of the West Wales Sanatorium in 1906) . ”

“ Among the benefits which he ascribed to the Oxford movement was the greater dignity and solemnity with which it had invested religious functions, whence perhaps (and owing also to his fondness of music, cf. Stephens, Freeman, i. 90) his private admission that he liked a few ritualists 'to give colour' to his diocese.
Throughout his life Jones was always methodical and minutely accurate, though his range of knowledge was of the widest. A natural warmth of feeling was concealed under a somewhat precise manner. ”

“ In 1208 the Welsh and English inhabitants who had frequent cause to complain of their treatment, received each a charter, in similar terms, from King John, who also visited the town of Swansea in 1210 and in 1215 granted its merchants liberal privileges. In 1283 a number of de Braose’s tenants—unquestionably Welshmen—left Gower for the royal lordship of Carmarthen, declaring that they would live under the king rather than under a lord marcher. ”

“ While the bulk of the coal is sent to France and the Mediterranean ports, an increasing quantity of anthracite is shipped to Germany, and, in sailing vessels to the Pacific ports of America, patent fuel is largely sent to South America, whence return cargoes of mineral ores and grain are obtained, while Germany, France, Italy, Rumania, the United States and the Far East are the chief customers for tinplates. Over one hundred fishing-smacks and trawlers usually land their catches at the south dock, where there is a flourishing fish-market. ”

“ The air, however, possesses a distinctly Welsh character. According to the Welsh tradition, Dafydd when on his death-bed had fallen in a trance, and was believed to be dead, but, suddenly reviving, told his mother that he had just heard one of the sweetest songs of heaven, which, on his harp being handed him, he then played; but as the last note was dying away Dafydd, too, died. The air was preserved from memory by his mother, who was herself a good harpist and a fair poetess. ”

“ The work, in which he discusses his ideals as a poet, and answers some of his severest critics, is largely autobiographical. Most of the addresses deal with problems of Welsh education, which was the second great interest of his life. Until 1876, Morris, who then lived chiefly in London, took no active interest in Welsh affairs. He had not mastered the Welsh language (cf. his poem, The Eisteddfod: 'Hardly the fair tongue I know') , nor did he know much of the history and literature of Wales, while Welsh archæology did not appeal to him. ”

“ In 1901 the Gower rural district (which includes the Welsh-speaking industrial parish of Llanrhidian, with about three-sevenths of the total population) had 64·5% of the population above three years of age that spoke English only, 5·2% that spoke Welsh only, the remainder being bilinguals, as compared with 17% speaking English only, 17·7% speaking Welsh only and the rest bilinguals in the Swansea rural district, and 7% speaking English only, 55·2% speaking Welsh only and the rest bilinguals in the Pontardawe rural district, the last two districts constituting Welsh Gower. ”

“ Coal was brought down from the hills on the backs of mules, and iron carried in two-ton wagons. In 1798 the first dock (12 acres in extent) was constructed at the terminus of the Glamorgan canal from Merthyr. The commercial greatness of Cardiff is due to the vast coal and iron deposits of the country drained by the Taff and Rhymney, between whose outlets the town is situated. But a great impetus to its development was given by the 2nd marquess of Bute, who has often been described as the second founder of Cardiff. ”

“ EVANS, JOHN, 'Eglwysbach' (1840–1897) , Welsh Wesleyan divine, was the eldest son of David and Margaret Evans of Tydu, a small farm in the parish of Eglwysbach, Denbighshire, where he was born on 28 Sept. 1840. The name of his native parish became associated with him throughout his lifetime, and was the name by which he was always popularly known among Welshmen. ”

“ Resigning his position at the local government board so as to devote his whole time to the cause of Welsh education, Owen, who from 1871 to 1877 was honorary secretary of the institution, organised, at the suggestion of a Welsh journalist, John Griffith, better known as Y Gohebydd, a house-to-house canvass of Wales, and addressed meetings in all parts of the country, resulting in the payment of the debt and in the collection of about 9,000l. for a sustentation fund, as well as in the creation of a strong public opinion in favour of higher education. ”

“ His son James assisted him in the business. On a Sunday evening in January 1856 the father wrote a Welsh song of three verses, to which the son, a good singer and harpist, shortly afterwards composed original music, giving it the name of 'Glan Rhondda' (original score reproduced in 'Graphic' for 5 Aug. 1893) . The words and the simple and tuneful melody, which owed nothing to any folk-song of England or Scotland, caught the public taste when sung locally by the son at an eisteddfod at Pontypridd in 1857 and on other occasions. ”

“ De Braose’s charter of 1305 bears some evidence to the importance of the shipping of Swansea even at that date, for by it there was granted or confirmed to the burgesses the right to take from the lord’s woods sufficient timber to make four great ships at a time and as many small vessels as they wished. Coal was even then worked in the district. Cromwell in his charter of 1655 recognized Swansea as “an ancient port town and populous, situate on the sea coast towards France convenient for shipping and resisting foreign invasions.” ”

“ When the university of Wales was being established in 1893, he however missed the opportunity of securing the inclusion of Lampeter as a constituent college of the university, towards which he thereafter advised an attitude of friendly reserve. He took an active part in the government of Christ's College, Brecon, becoming chairman of its board of governors in 1880 (see his evidence before Lord Aberdare's committee on Welsh intermediate education, Minutes, pp. 433–43) . As to elementary education, he was satisfied with the religious instruction which it was possible to provide at board schools. ”

“ LEWIS Morganwg, i.e. of Glamorganshire (fl. 1500–1540) , Welsh bard, was the son of another bard named Rhys Llwyd ab Rhys ab Rhicert (fl. 1450–1490) , otherwise known as the Old Grey Bard of Glamorgan, who lived at Blaen Cynllan in that county. ”

“ Her haste left her no opportunity of improving her style or strengthening her power of characterisation, but she fully sustained her first popularity mainly owing to her idealisation of Welsh life, to the prim, simple and even child-like dialogue of characters in such faulty English as the uncritical might assume Cardiganshire fishermen to speak, and also to the imaginative or romantic element which she introduces into nearly all her stories. ”

“ In 1581 Queen Elizabeth granted a confirmatory charter to the mayor and bailiffs direct without reference to the lord of the castle. The town was treated as a borough by prescription until 1608, when James I. confirmed its status by express incorporation, adding also to its rights of self-government, and granting it a third fair (on the 30th of November) . In 1687 the town surrendered this charter to James II., who in a substituted one, which, however, was never acted upon, reserved to the Crown the right of removing any member of the corporation from office. ”