Dawlish

“ And if you go to Dawlish and inquire for the Parson and the Clerk, you will be directed to a couple of big rocks that lean up against a cliff; and there are pictures of these two imposters, not only on the post-cards but even in such books as the Devonshire volume of the Cambridge County Geographies.
The real Parson and Clerk were in the sea off Holecombe headland, half way from Dawlish to Teignmouth. They were big rocks, more or less of human shape; and the rock nearer to the headland was a good deal taller than the other rock further out. ”

“ And staunch old David Dawlish—uncle by right of purchase with many sweets in years gone by, if not by blood—was still thinking it over when the door of her room banged upstairs.
"A whisky and soda, Hubert," he remarked, as the latter joined him, "is clearly indicated."
"We'll have trouble with him, David," grunted the Master. "Damned quixotic young fool. He's got no right to get killed officially: it upsets all one's plans. Probably have to pass an Act of Parliament to bring him to life again."
"Leave it to Molly, old man." The secretary measured out his tot. "Leave it all to her." ”

“ There we halted for refreshments and for a hurried excursion in and about the town, as we were anxious to reach Torquay before night, where we had decided to stay until Monday morning. We walked towards the source of the water, which comes down from the higher lands in a series of pretty little waterfalls, spreading out occasionally into small lakes adorned at the sides with plots of grass and beds of flowers. The name Dawlish, we learned, came from two Cornish words meaning "deep stream," or, as some have it, "Devil's Water" ”

“ You can't go throwin' your arms round a stranger's neck in the huntin'-field. It's simply not done."
"When I require your assistance on what is or is not done, Mr. Dawson, I will let you know," returned the girl, coldly. "Until then kindly keep such information to yourself."
"Mr. Dawson!" The youth recoiled a pace. "Molly! what do you mean?"
But the girl was taking not the slightest notice of him; her eyes were fixed on the stranger, who was talking for a moment to David Dawlish.
"You forgot to take my cap," he said to the secretary, with a smile. "If you like I will send it along by post ”

“ Dawling remembered things; I think he caught in my very face the irony of old judgments: they made him thresh about in his chair. I said to Flora as I took leave of her that I would come to see her, but I may mention that I never went. I'd go to-morrow if I hear she wants me; but what in the world can she ever want? As I quitted them I laid my hand on Dawling's arm, and drew him for a moment into the lobby. ”

“ Even in his old age, when he is beginning to repent of his rash and merry youth, nature has not deserted him,—the very tree under which in the old days he used to meet his sweetheart has become bent and withered in sympathy with him. Though Dafydd yields not the palm to any poet of his class throughout the world, and though his influence is still a potent factor in the literature of Wales, we are certain of hardly a single fact about his life. ”

“ Freeman, in "recorded history of nations laying aside the use of one language and taking to the use of another, for any one who cares for accuracy to set down language as any sure test of race. In fact the studies of the philologer, and those of the ethnologist strictly so called, are quite distinct, and deal with two different sets of phenomena." [28] Even if then we assume that there be no traces of Basque roots in the Celtic languages of the British Isles, that fact does not affect the question as to the origin of the small dark peoples of Wales, Scotland, and of Ireland. ”

“ Most of his poems deal with love in the spirit of the medieval writers of France and of Provence, but with this very important difference, that the French writers must base their reputation on their treatment of love as a theme, whereas Dafydd’s claim to fame is based on his treatment of nature and of out-door life. In many cases, indeed, love is only a conventional peg whereon he may hang his observations on nature, and Welsh literature may claim the distinction of having had its Wordsworth in the 14th century. ”

“ Of the merit of our poet’s productions it is almost superfluous to speak: the meed of praise, awarded by his contemporaries, has received the sanction of four centuries, and Davyth ap Gwilym is still regarded as one of the most eminent of the Welsh bards, whether we estimate him by the originality of his genius, or the harmonious character of his versification. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In her story of Saint David she has gone to the old "Lives" and the documents for some of her colour. There are passages that may terrify the modern reader, who has no Welsh and does not know how to pronounce Amherawdwr (the Welsh form of imperator or emperor) , Dyfnwal, Llywel or Cynyr. The average English reader who is brought up on soft and sibilant C's and i-sounding Y's will probably end by turning the last name into "sinner" in vain compromise. And possibly Miss Devereux is too hard on the average un-Celtic reader; for though she turns Gwy into Wye, she retains Dyfi for Dovey. ”

“ It is good for him to be made to leave his work, and play games; he is keen about his footer and they think he will row well! The man who has rooms on the same staircase seems a very good sort. I forget who he is—it's quite a well-known family—but he has been uncommonly kind to Davie. He wants him to go home with him next week, but of course Davie is keen to get back to Priorsford. Besides, you can't visit the stately homes of England on thirty shillings, and that's about Davie's limit, dear lamb! Jock and Mhor are looking forward with joy to hear him speak. ”

“ In 1241 Davydd went to Gloucester, one of the three cities at which the kings of England used regularly to meet their advisers in council, and there did homage to Henry III. Then his real troubles began. The extreme nationalists were determined to put an end to the policy of dependence; and in the person of the imprisoned Griffith they knew that they would find an able and enthusiastic champion. And not only was Davydd opposed by the Welsh diehards; he also found enemies in many of the border princes and barons, who resented the supremacy of Gwynedd. ”

“ If we let the lady go, hawk and man must have their necks wrung, after forest laws.’
‘And I tell thee,’ cried Davie, ‘that this is a noble gentleman of Scotland, and that we will fight for him to the death.’
‘Let it alone, Davie,’ said George. ‘No scathe shall come to the lady through me.’
‘Save him, Davie! save Skywing!’ screamed Jean.
‘To the rescue—a Drummond,’ shouted David; but his father pushed his horse forward, just as the men in green, were in the act of stringing, all at the same moment, their bows, as tall as themselves. ”

“ So the old woman who happened to live next door always said to John, her [332] husband, ‘Esmwyth cwsg cawl dwr John bach,’ (water broth, easy sleep, John dear) .
[Contents]
“CYNGHOR GWRAIG HEB EI OFYN.”
(A Woman’s advice without asking for it) .
When King Henry VII. (then Earl of Richmond) was on his way through Wales to Bosworth Field, he consulted Dafydd Llwyd of Mathavarn, as to the final issue of the coming struggle with Richard III. Dafydd was a country gentleman, a bard, a wizard, and a prophet. On this occasion, however, he did not know how to prophecy, and was greatly perplexed. ”

“ Dafydd replied fiercely. "He sell us Delyn—he sell us Delyn water—he sell us our own moun-tains!—It iss not for this we make you Chairman of the Council, Howell Gruffydd!"
Howell trembled, but put up a soothing hand.
"Aw-w-w, you wait and see, Dafydd Dafis! A prof-fit is a prof-fit, but this is wick-ed, and preposterous, and out of all reason! You wait and see! We have a meeting this morning, and p'rapss we show Mister Edward Garden he is not so clever as he think he is! He think he put his Saxon pistol to our heads like this? Indeed he make a great mistake! You wait and see, Dafydd. ”

“ Davy's note-books now became rapidly filled with the Results of his studies, with Reflexions, with Resolutions, and with the most ambitious prospectuses of his future labours. Dr. Davy gives, in his 'Life' of his brother, an interesting specimen, written in 1799, when Davy had taken a house in Dowry Square, Clifton. Two hours before breakfast were to be devoted to his 'Lover of Nature,' or the 'Feelings of Eldon'—the five hours from nine to two to experiments—the time from four to six was to be spent in reading, and from seven to ten p.m. in the study of metaphysics. ”

“ Is it three weeks you call three hours?' said Dafydd. His wife told him they had been looking everywhere for him, but could get no clue to him, and pressed him to say where he had been. At last he told her that while playing on his flute at the Llorfa he was surrounded at a good distance off by little beings like men, who closed nearer and nearer to him until they became a very small circle. They sang and danced, and so affected him that he quite lost himself. They offered him something to eat,—small, beautiful cakes, of which he partook; and he had never enjoyed himself so well in his life. ”

“ As before observed, Davyth ap Gwilym has been compared to Petrarch; and no doubt his personal history bears in one respect a strong and interesting resemblance to that of the Italian poet. But in all the peculiarities of his genius, our bard approaches more nearly to Burns than to any poet, whether of his own or other countries. He has the same originality, the same intense sympathy with nature, and, above all, the same magic transitions from satire and raillery to wild sublimity and deep pathos. ”

“ Every subject in Davy's mind has the principle of vitality—living thoughts spring up, like the turf under his feet.' And Davy, of course, could not fail to admire the genius of Coleridge—it was he who persuaded the dreamy poet to give his well-known series of eighteen lectures on Shakespeare at the Royal Institution in 1808. Horne Tooke was another of Davy's admirers, and was so enchanted with him early in his career that he engaged Chantry to make a bust of the Cornish philosopher. ”

“ But for this sudden revival of Cymric literature under the patronage of Elizabeth (for the obtaining of which Wales must ever owe a deep debt of gratitude to Bishop Richard Davies, “her second St David”) , there is every reason to believe that the ancient language of the Principality must either have drifted into a number of corrupt dialects, as it then showed symptoms of doing, or else have tended to ultimate extinction, much as the Cornish tongue perished in the 17th century. ”

“ But for God’s sake make haste and come to me, and let us talk of the sands of Arabia while we are floating in our lazy boat on Keswick Lake, with our eyes on massy Skiddaw, so green and high. Perhaps Davy might accompany you. Davy will remain unvitiated; his deepest and most recollectable delights have been in solitude, and the next to those with one or two whom he loved. He is placed, no doubt, in a perilous desert of good things; but he is connected with the present race of men by a very awful tie, that of being able to confer immediate benefit on them ”

“ There was a person of the name of Dafydd William Dafydd living at Bryngrainen farm, Palleg, Ystradgynlais. He was a very religious man, fond of music, and a good player on the flute. One day he went out as usual to see after his cattle and sheep on the adjoining mountain, to a place called Llorfa, near the Van Pool. He often went up there to play the flute. This day, as usual, he took his flute with him; and he did not return home that evening. His wife called together her friends, and said Dafydd had not come home. ”

“ It is not uninteresting here to note that Davy, on becoming connected with the Royal Society, did not entirely relinquish his intentions of prosecuting—what might probably have been a more lucrative career—his original profession of medicine. But not even such a prospect—nor even that of an illustrious career in the Church— (to which it is said the Bishop of Durham and others, charmed by his eloquence as a lecturer, urged him) —could draw away his affection from science. ”

“ The broad-headed dark Welshman is identical with the broad-headed dark Frenchman, and the Welsh people may be defined ethnologically as principally Celtic and Iberian, every intermediate variety between the two extremes being represented. ”

“ The simple fact is that Dalibard has spent many years in England; he has married an Englishwoman of birth and connections; he knows well the English language and the English people; and just now when the First Consul is so anxious to approfondir the popular feelings of that strange nation, with whose government he is compelled to go to war, he may naturally have much to say to so acute an observer as Olivier Dalibard. ”

“ The Welsh were greatly exasperated at the news, laying the death of their favourite most naturally at Henry’s door, and as the Marcher barons had been encouraged of late in their aggressions and tyrannies by the decline of Welsh strength, the time seemed ripe for another general rising. Dafydd now came out as a warrior and a patriot leader, and Wales rallied to his standard. ”