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WIT AND WISDOM
OF
LORD TREDEGAR
[Illustration: Tredegar]
WIT AND WISDOM
OF
LORD TREDEGAR
1911.
WESTERN MAIL, LIMITED,
CARDIFF, NEWPORT, SWANSEA,
MERTHYR, BRECON AND
176, FLEET STREET, LONDON.
FOREWORD.
There are a few observations which may be deemed appropriate in
presenting to the public this collection of extracts from the speeches
of Godfrey Charles Morgan, first Viscount Tredegar; but it is
inconceivable that any should be necessary by way of apology. During
the course of an active and a well-spent life, happily extended beyond
the allotted span, Lord Tredegar has made hundreds of public
utterances. Innumerable are the functions he has attended during
half-a-century and over; and at most of them he has been the central
figure. But while his high station would always have secured attention
and respect for his words, this volume may serve to prove to future
generations what this generation well knows, that Lord Tredegar has
held his listeners by his humour or by his earnestness, according to
the occasion, and that, in the homely phrase, he has always had
"something to say." It is my hope, however, that this little book may
have a still worthier mission. For I think it will be found to reveal
a noble mind. The simple words of Lord Tredegar have time and again
struck deep to the hearts of his audience. Collected here, they reveal
the gentleness of his disposition and the purity of his motives. They
show the consistency of his life. But they do much more. They appear
to constitute a great moral force. Not that his lordship ever posed as
preacher, or constituted himself a Court of Judgment on any class of
his fellows. There is no trace of a superior tone in his speeches. His
words show sympathetic insight into the trials and difficulties that
beset the path of every one of us, and his desire was never to
censure, but ever to encourage and assist with kindly suggestion and
cheering thought.
No aspect of these extracts is so interesting as that which enables us
to observe how faithfully and well Lord Tredegar has discharged his
promises. Long before he could describe himself as a landowner, he
said that if ever he came into that position he would give any
assistance he could to his tenants in the way of improving his land.
He hoped he would never become "such a ruffian as some people would
make landlords out to be." Reading later speeches we find Lord
Tredegar undertaking in his turn conscientiously the public duties
previously discharged by his father. We find him making the
acquaintance of the farmers and studying their difficulties. We find
him raising the Tredegar Show to its present pre-eminence in the world
of agriculture. It is a noble record of honesty of purpose. And
agriculture, as well we know in Wales and Monmouthshire, is but one of
Lord Tredegar's many interests. He has spoken wise words on education;
he has urged the claims of charity. He has led the way in historical
research, and inspired among many whose interest might not otherwise
have been aroused a love of our ancient castles and our dear old
parish churches. He has spoken eloquently of our Welsh heroes and
bards. Upon the value of Eisteddfodau he loves to expound. But it is
not these higher interests of his that have made him so beloved. His
appeals for the ragged urchin of the streets, his appreciation of the
bravery of the worker, his jokes at bazaars, his quips at the cabmen's
annual dinners, his love of old customs, his pleasantries at the
servants' balls, by these and by his transparent sincerity he has won
the affections of all classes of the people, who have found in him a
leader who can share sorrows as well as joys. His brave words have
been the consolation of the widow of the humble soldier slain in
battle, as they have been the encouragement of the boy or girl scholar
shyly taking from his hand a prize. He has told the boys they will be
all the better for total abstinence, and he has dined and joked with
licensed publicans. "Here, at least, is inconsistency," may exclaim
the stranger into whose hand this book may fall. But Lord Tredegar
justifies himself by the fact that having licensed houses on his
estate it is his duty to take an interest in those who conduct them.
Lord Tredegar has never sought to adorn his speeches with rhetoric. He
has always spoken so that he who heard could understand. And yet he is
reputed justly to be among the best of after-dinner speakers. If it be
necessary to delve into the possible secret of his success, one might
hazard a guess that it is because in his speeches it is the unexpected
that always happens. The transition from grave to gay or from gay to
grave is so swift that the mind of the listener is held as it were by
a spell, and all is over e'er yet one thought it had begun.
Much of this, however, is in passing. Quite a multitude, at one time
or another, has listened to the words of Godfrey Charles Morgan. Quite
a multitude has been influenced by them. That multitude, I am sure,
will be glad to have those words in permanent form. There may be but a
sentence chosen from a speech that has been heard, but that sentence
will be remembered or recollected. And to that greater multitude who
by the natural force of circumstances cannot have listened to the
words of Viscount Tredegar, this little collection may serve to show
forth a figure that, though simple, is great in simplicity, and it
were strange indeed if some sentences were not found which may help to
make a crooked way straight.