THE DAWN
The new spirit which began to manifest itself in Wales in the
eighteenth century took various forms. Of these, by far the most
important was religion, and with that we have already dealt. The
other forms were education, industrialism, politics, and literature;
and among these, education claims the first place. It is impossible
to make any clear distinction between religion and education; for the
chapel, by its Sunday School, its Literary Society, its Bible Class,
and its preaching was, for many years, a far more important agent of
education than any school or college. Again it is not easy to
determine whether that peculiarly Welsh institution, the Eisteddfod,
belongs more properly to the domain of education, or to that of
literature and art.
Ever since the first coming of Christianity into the country Wales
had had its schools. {219} In an earlier chapter we dwelt upon
differences between the Celtic Church and that of Rome; and one of
the most conspicuous of these differences was its greater insistence
upon the value of culture and knowledge. There were Grammar Schools
in Wales in the sixth century, just a hundred years before the
establishment by Augustine of the first English school at Canterbury.
In the turbulent times of the Middle Ages these schools deteriorated
sadly; still the lamp of learning was never wholly extinguished.
Such as they were, the mediæval schools were connected with the
monasteries, and with the dissolution of those foundations they too
ceased to exist. A few Welshmen were always to be found at Oxford,
and we have seen how they flocked back to their native land to
participate in the rising of Glyndwr. The Tudor union of the two
nations made intercourse much more easy; and, during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, the number of Welsh students at the old
Universities greatly increased. They were further encouraged by the
establishment of Jesus College, Oxford, a wholly Welsh foundation.
But it is needless to say that it was only the sons of the gentry,
and young men about to enter upon an {220} ecclesiastical career, who
were able to avail themselves of these advantages. The great bulk of
the middle class, and the whole of the lower classes, remained
without any sort of direct education.
The Reformation period witnessed the founding of many new Grammar
Schools, both in England and Wales. The new Established Church
prided itself upon the possession of "sound learning"; and the
schools were under its auspices. But these schools were all in the
towns; and the instruction given in them was entirely in English, and
by teachers who knew not a word of Welsh. The country districts
remained untaught, as too did the vast majority of the people who,
knowing no English, were unable to profit by the new schools.
Good people in London seemed to have felt an occasional qualm at the
thought of the ignorance which prevailed across the Welsh border.
For example, we hear of Oliver Cromwell and Richard Baxter playing
with the idea of a Welsh University. In the last years of the
seventeenth century an effort was made to provide Welsh children with
instruction in the English language, and to circulate the Bible, the
Prayer Book, {221} and certain other books in Welsh. Archbishop
Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Thomas Gouge, and James Owen founded a
society for that purpose; and it was so far successful that about a
thousand poor Welsh children were taught every year. In 1701 the
work of the society was taken over by the Society for the Propagation
of Christian Knowledge. Lending libraries were formed, charity
schools established, and much good work done. All these efforts,
however, were eclipsed by the famous "Circulating Schools" of the
Rev. Griffith Jones.
This remarkable man, the "morning star of the Revival" as he has been
called, was born in 1684, at Cilrhedyn, and educated at the
Carmarthen Grammar School. After holding the living of Llandeloi for
five years, he became Vicar of Llanddowror. He was fully impressed
with the desirability of providing education for the poorer Welsh
children, and especially for those whose homes lay in the country
districts. As it was clearly not feasible to provide a sufficient
number of stationary schools, he hit upon the happy device of having
circulating ones. Much help was given to him, and much encouragement
in his enterprise by Sir John Phillips, the {222} pioneer of the
Charity Schools movement; by the Society for the Propagation of
Christian Knowledge, and by Madame Bevan of Llacharn. The success of
the undertaking was startling, and well-nigh instantaneous. Within
ten years a hundred schools had been established; while within thirty
years the number had swollen to between three and four thousand. The
total number of scholars amounted to a hundred-and-sixty thousand.
For the instruction of the teachers a seminary was established.
Apart from subscriptions given by benefactors, the whole cost was
borne by a collection made in church during the Communion Service.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this
enterprise. It helped to preserve Welsh as a literary language. It
taught a considerable part of the population to read the Bible. It
prepared the way for the Revival which was at the door, and gave to
the Revivalists a solid foundation upon which to build. Griffith
Jones died in 1761; but the schools went on. In 1780 they were
suspended, owing to a lawsuit; but in 1809 the scheme again came into
operation.
The next momentous step forward in Welsh education was the starting
of Sunday Schools, by Charles of Bala. This was one of the {223}
direct results of the Revival. From that day to the present the
influence of these schools has been incalculably great. Children had
their place in them; but their primary function was the education of
adults. The term "school" when applied to them is somewhat
misleading; they were rather small study-circles, presided over by a
democratically chosen leader, and, with the Bible as text-book,
discussing almost every question pertaining to this world and the
next. Sunday Schools were quickly adopted by all the Nonconformist
bodies, and by the Episcopal Church as well; and among the former at
least church membership implied membership of the school. Owing to
this the minds of the people of Wales became saturated with the
Scriptures. The geography of Palestine was more familiar to them
than that of England. Bible stories, Bible arguments, and Bible
metaphors were become interwoven with the very texture of their
thought. Huxley once pointed out that no man who possessed a good
knowledge of the Bible could be considered uncultured; and Ruskin
maintained that to know by heart some of its greatest passages was to
make the writing of an undistinguished style impossible. {224} To
these admirable results must be added, in the case of Wales, the
training in reasoning, in dialectic, and in controversial fair-play
which the Schools supplied.
Coming to the nineteenth century, we find efforts to improve
educational facilities in Wales so numerous and so varied as to be
positively bewildering. The important date to remember is 1846.
Prior to that landmark, efforts of a voluntary kind had been made by
the National Society, and by the British Society. In that year a
Royal Commission was appointed to make a thorough investigation into
the condition of education in the Principality. When the Commission
issued its report, a year later, a great outcry was raised in Wales;
for it was discovered that it had gone much beyond the limits
assigned to it for enquiry, and had made strictures, many of them
demonstrably false, and others offensively expressed, upon the moral
and religious condition of the people. The enquiry has been known in
Wales, ever since, as "Brad y Llyfrau Gleision" (The Treason of the
Blue Books). Nevertheless the Commission had done good work in that
it had aroused interest in the question of education, and had
impressed upon Parliament, and public men generally, the {225}
necessity of dealing with it. There was, in consequence, a decided
quickening of the educational life of Wales; and, down to 1870, a
steady increase in the number of schools, as well as an improvement
in the quality of the teachers. In 1870 the separate history of
elementary education in Wales comes to an end; for it was then
assimilated in almost every respect to that of England.
An increase in the number of schools and scholars involved an
increase also in the number of teachers; and to supply them proved to
be one of the most difficult of problems. The salary paid was so low
that no man who had been to a University could be expected to accept
it. As yet there were no secular colleges in Wales, and but few
secondary schools. A few truly excellent secondary schools there
were; establishments like Ystrad Meurig, from which, for a
considerable period, Bishops used to ordain young men without any
additional training. The result was that schoolmasters were
generally grossly incompetent, being one-legged army sergeants, or
retired sailors, with no knowledge of Wales, and but little knowledge
of anything. And not only were they ignorant, but they were also
snobs of the most contemptible kind, {226} toadying to the vicar and
the squire, whose henchmen they were, and never hesitating to express
their detestation and scorn of everything Welsh. A poor farm boy,
who afterwards became one of Oxford's most brilliant scholars, has
left, in his inimitable _Clych Atgof_, a half-amusing, half-pathetic
account of his troubles in early life with teachers of this kind.
In 1846 there was only one normal college in the whole of Wales. To
this were added two Church of England teachers' training colleges,
the one at Carmarthen, the other at Bangor; and, in 1862, was
established a second normal college. Sir Hugh Owen, one of the most
illustrious names in the list of great Welshmen, had begun to agitate
for a connecting link between elementary schools and places of higher
education. No schools were then founded; but a "North Wales
Scholarship Association" was formed; and this afforded much valuable
assistance prior to the coming of the County School. The Magna Carta
of secondary education in Wales was the Intermediate Education Act of
1889. This Act provided for the levying of a half-penny rate in all
the Welsh counties by the County Councils. In every county a joint
education committee was to be appointed to {227} deal with existing
endowments and buildings; and, where necessary, to provide new
schools under the management of the recently appointed local bodies.
In order that greater uniformity might be acquired, a Central Welsh
Board was constituted, to which was entrusted the duty of supervising
the schools generally, inspecting them, and examining the pupils.
The Board continues to exercise some of its functions, but now shares
a dual control with the Welsh Department of the Board of Education, a
Department which was created as a concession to nationalist
aspirations. From the commencement the success of the new
Intermediate Schools was phenomenal. Schools starting with ten
pupils would, in a dozen years, have two hundred or more. Of large
gifts given by the rich there were very few. Apart from grants made
by the Government, the schools depended upon the small, but generous,
contributions of the poor. In the early days of their history they
were admirably served by as devoted and far-sighted a body of
teachers as any schools have ever been fortunate enough to possess.
Only in recent years has the voice of hostile criticism been heard.
Side by side with reforms in elementary {228} and secondary education
marched the reform of higher education. The Established Church had
depended upon Oxford and Cambridge for the training of its clergy;
but the Dissenting Churches soon discovered the need of colleges of
their own. The first to be founded seems to have been the Academy of
Brynllywarch, in 1662. Eventually this was moved to Carmarthen,
where it became the progenitor of the present College. We have
already had occasion to allude to the founding of a college at
Trevecka, by Lady Huntingdon; but this was moved to Cheshunt in 1792.
A Welsh Methodist college was, however, opened there in 1842. In
1836 Dr. Lewis Edwards opened a Methodist college for North Wales at
Bala. The Episcopal Church, feeling the need of a college at which
living would be cheap, opened a college at Lampeter, and that became
the first Welsh college possessing the power to confer degrees.
Other denominations possessing colleges, many of them dating back to
the eighteenth century or even earlier, reorganized them, and, in
some cases, transferred them to new localities. In this way the
Congregational colleges at Brecon and Bangor, and the Baptist college
at Bangor came into existence.
{229}
But excellent as was the work done by these seminaries in preparing
men for the Christian Ministry, educationally the central theme of
interest is the movement which culminated in the foundation of the
University of Wales. The idea was as old as Owen Glyndwr; it had
been discussed by Cromwell; but it was not until 1853 that a powerful
popular agitation was started on its behalf. A memorable meeting was
held in London in the following year, attended by Hugh Owen, George
Osborne Morgan, Lewis Edwards and others, at which the idea was fully
debated. Nothing further, however, was done until 1863, when another
meeting was held, at which a resolution in favour of a national
University was carried, and an executive committee appointed. An
attempt to persuade the authorities of Lampeter to unite in forming
one unsectarian University failed; and the committee proceeded with
the heavy task of collecting money. From 1871 until his death Sir
Hugh Owen gave the whole of his time to this work. The appeal met
with a warm response; and in 1872 Aberystwyth College was opened,
having been secured literally with the pennies and the shillings of a
hard-working peasantry. From the start it was felt to be a real
national {230} possession; and that feeling was deepened by the
appointment of the saintly scholar-preacher, Dr. Thomas Charles
Edwards, to be its first Principal. For ten years the College
received no grant at all from the Treasury; yet it continued to
flourish in ever-increasing measure. So successful was the venture
that, in 1883, a similar College, for the use of South Wales, was
opened at Cardiff; and in 1884 this was followed by one at Bangor.
But so far the Colleges had no charter of incorporation, and were
without the power to confer degrees. A further agitation in favour
of an incorporation of the three Colleges in one University of Wales
was set on foot. In this agitation the chief part was played by the
Cymmrodorion, a society which, in the course of its long history, has
conferred untold benefits upon Wales. When due investigation had
been made, and the proposed charter had been fully discussed in
Parliament, it was granted; and in 1893 the Welsh University came
into being, with Lord Aberdare as its first Chancellor. Its success
has been wonderful and sustained, and it is only with difficulty that
the Colleges have been able to cope with the many hundreds of
students who flock to them. So great has {231} the pressure been,
that it has since been found necessary to found a fourth constituent
College, at Swansea. In most respects the Colleges are similar; but
a particular branch of knowledge may be provided for in one, and not
in the others. Thus Cardiff possesses a Medical School, Aberystwyth
a Law School, and Bangor a Theological School. Aberystwyth is also
the home of the Welsh Director of Musical Studies, and of the Wilson
Chair of International Politics.
The work of the Universities has been helped and stimulated by the
establishment of a National Museum at Cardiff, and a National Library
at Aberystwyth.
* * * * *
The political awakening in Wales came considerably later than the
religious and the educational awakening; and when it did come it was
largely as a consequence of the others. We have seen how, in the
period of the Civil War, the Principality was almost wholly Royalist;
and when two distinct political parties came to be formed at
Westminster, in the closing years of the seventeenth century, it gave
its steady support to the Tories. It is with shame that the
historian is forced to admit that Welsh lawyers like the infamous
{232} Judge Jeffreys were among the most brazen and unscrupulous
agents of Stuart tyranny. But just as there were a few
Parliamentarians in Wales in the reign of Charles I, so also in the
reign of James II there were a few prominent Welshmen, who gave
strong support to the Revolution and the Bill of Rights. With the
reign of Anne Wales settled down to the quiet Toryism from which it
was not roused for over a hundred years. It is interesting to note
that, as in the case of France, the first note of discord was heard
among the men-of-letters. We hear it in the writings of Jack
Glan-y-Gors, and in those of Iolo. But their rebellious sentiments
found no echo in the hearts of the people; and the great leaders of
the Revival were either strictly non-political, or else Tory. Nor
did the French Revolution do much to rouse the country. An almost
solitary exception was the philosopher-preacher Richard Price, the
supporter of the American rebels, and the defender of the rights of
man. He does not occupy a prominent place in history; but the man
who occasioned the _Reflections on the French Revolution_ of Burke,
and who earned an able vindication from the pen of John Morley,
certainly merits a passing allusion.
{233}
The Reform Act of 1832, which raised the number of Welsh Members from
twenty-seven to thirty-two, seems to have made no alteration in the
politics of the country; but soon afterwards the topics which were
going to be fought over so passionately before the close of the
century, began to emerge and to define themselves--the right of the
Welshman to live his own life in his own way, to speak his own
language, and to worship in his own chosen mode. It meant the
recapturing of the lost dignity of Welsh nationality. In the
eighteenth century Welshmen had, almost contentedly, sunk into a
position of inferiority, and had never dreamed of asserting their
claim to a place of equality in the Empire in which they were now, by
law, partners. The cleavage between the newly anglicised gentry, and
the middle and lower classes, had become wider; and after the
Revival, to the difference of language, was further added the
difference of religion. That any Welshman should aspire to occupy a
position of trust and distinction would be scouted. Goronwy Owen, a
curate in the Church of England, and the greatest Welsh poet, and
possibly the greatest prose stylist too, of the eighteenth century,
writes in one of his charming letters in 1753: "Do {234} you ever
expect to see a Welshman a Bishop? Sooner would I give credence to
the Brut which promises the second coming of Owain Lawgoch than
expect ever to see a Welshman holding an office of the least
distinction in either Church or State."
South Wales was rapidly becoming industrialized; and the Chartist
Movement found there, and even more in the small manufacturing towns
of the Severn valley, places like Llanidloes, and Newtown, the home
of Robert Owen, many followers. All through the centuries, owing to
its geographical position, Wales had been influenced by two things,
isolation and contact; isolation from all kindred beyond the seas,
and contact with its unfriendly neighbours on the land side. In the
ancient Hellenic world the sea united; but for the Celtic races it
has been a barrier to divide. Between the Celt of Ireland and the
Celt of Wales intercourse was always slight and intermittent; while
between the Welshman and the Breton there was hardly any intercourse
at all. Unlike his Breton kinsman, the Welshman has never taken
kindly to the sea; he has looked at it, and then raised his eyes to
the mountains. He became a farmer, and not a fisherman or a sailor;
and when he did look out at the great {235} world he did so through
the English window. This geographical isolation led also to a human
isolation, which is a very marked characteristic of the Welsh nation.
Fortunately the nation had been fully formed before the close of the
eighteenth century, otherwise the combined influence of English
political, social, and religious ascendancy might have swept away
every vestige of the fine cultural inheritance of the past. In the
great fight which began in 1832, and which occupied eighty years,
Wales came out victorious in religion, in politics, in education, and
in social matters. Even industrialism, the most potent foe of
nationality, was kept at bay; and between it and the Welsh spirit the
contest still goes on. With the Industrial Revolution itself,
enormous as its influence was, we need not concern ourselves here;
for in Wales it followed practically the same course as in England.
The mineral wealth of Wales had been tapped by the Romans; but a new
impetus was given to mining by the invention of the steam engine, of
improved machinery, and by the new means of transport which came into
being in the first half of the nineteenth century. In many parts of
the land agriculture had to yield place to quarrying and mining; for
there was slate in Carnarvon and Merioneth, copper {236} in Anglesey,
zinc in Denbigh, lead in Flint and Montgomery, gold in Merioneth,
silver in Cardigan, and iron and coal in both North and South Wales.
At first iron was regarded as the most important, coal being valued
only for the part which it played in smelting operations. With the
coming of Guest to Dowlais, and of Crashay to Merthyr, towards the
close of the eighteenth century, the industry began to expand rapidly
in Glamorganshire and Monmouth. It was not until the middle of the
following century that the coal industry became important in itself;
but once its importance was recognised, it was worked with the utmost
energy, and exported to every part of the world. To-day upwards of a
quarter of a million men work in the pits, and more than half the
total population of Wales is contained in the mining valleys. The
majority of these labourers are not Welsh; for to the pits, and to
the great ports on the Bristol Channel, immigration has been taking
place regularly, and on an enormous scale. Except for the thinly
populated counties of Cardigan, Pembroke and Carmarthen, South Wales
is no longer Welsh in any sense of the word, and it has ceased to
sympathize with the political, the cultural, and the religious ideals
of the North. This is the most difficult {237} problem with which
Welsh statesmen are to-day confronted.
While the Chartist Movement was in full swing, the Rebecca Riots
broke out. The new roads which had just been constructed were
maintained by tolls, which were levied at turnpike gates placed at
short intervals along them. As there were no railways, and as the
small farmers of Cardigan and Carmarthen had often to carry great
quantities of lime, for the fertilization of their land, over thirty
or forty miles, the tax became an extremely burdensome one. Finding
that protests availed nothing, some of the younger men, in 1843,
disguised as women, broke the obnoxious gates in pieces. Their
unruly conduct had two beneficial effects--it drew attention to a
real grievance, and it taught the Welsh people to look to Parliament
to redress their wrongs.
About this time newspapers began to be founded; and their effect upon
the political life of the country was immediate and immense. Without
exception they were democratic, and nationalist in the wider sense.
The history of the Welsh Press is a heroic record. These little
papers hardly ever secured a sufficiently big circulation to make
them self-supporting. Their owners, themselves far from rich, were
true patriots, and {238} were content to suffer financial loss year
after year. _Seren Gomer_ was first started in 1814, and revived in
1818. In 1835 appeared _Yr Haul_, and _Y Diwygiwr_. But it was not
until _Yr Amserau_ began to appear in 1843, under the editorship of
the great poet-preacher Gwilym Hiraethog, that Welsh journalism quite
realized what it was capable of doing. At last the Welsh people had
found an adequate mouthpiece. Soon the "Letters of the Old Farmer"
began to appear in _Yr Amserau_; and throughout the troubled, but
inspiring, period of Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Kossuth, this paper
continued to give Wales a democratic and strong liberal lead. It
fought energetically for the repeal of the Corn Laws; and it was the
first paper to tell the people clearly--"The enemy is the landlord."
From that day, down to the outbreak of the Great War, the political
history of Wales consists of an unceasing struggle for the freedom of
the tenant, and for the freedom of Nonconformity. Meanwhile other
papers and journals were being established. Dr. Lewis Edwards
founded _Y Traetliodydd_; and the articles contributed by him to it,
when collected and published in a volume, became the Welsh
counterpart of Macaulay's Essays. An able journalist, signing
himself "S.R.", {239} vigorously championed the cause of the poor and
the oppressed in his _Cronicl_. He was a Free Trader, he condemned
war, he opposed landlordism, and he advocated a penny postage before
anybody else had done so. But perhaps the greatest of all the
journalists was Thomas Gee of Denbigh. In 1854 he issued a Welsh
Encyclopedia, a mammoth work first issued in parts, and afterwards
bound in many volumes, which brought the most up-to-date knowledge
into the homes of the people, in their own language, and at a price
which they could afford to pay. Three years later he started a
weekly paper called _Baner Cymru_, with which _Yr Amserau_ was
amalgamated in 1859. The paper won instant popularity; and when the
weekly letter of its political correspondent--"Y Gohebydd"--began to
appear, its success was assured. No paper did more for the political
emancipation, and education, of the people, and to direct their
thoughts towards the House of Commons. It would not be long before
they claimed to send Welsh speaking democrats to represent them. The
supremacy of the squire and the parson was approaching its end.
The closing years of the nineteenth century, and the early years of
the twentieth, saw a wonderful literary efflorescence in Wales.
{240} The _Cymru_ and the _Geninen_ set and maintained a high
standard of accuracy, learning, and art. Owen M. Edwards edited
cheap reprints of all the Welsh classics; and himself wrote travel
books, whose graceful style, delightful humour, and frequent passages
of moving eloquence, entitle them to rank with the _Reisebilder_ of
Heinrich Heine. The beautiful, but not always idiomatic, prose of
the Welsh Bible, had become much more ornate, stiff, and difficult in
the hands of Ellis Wynne, whose _Bardd Cwsc_ is, nevertheless, the
finest work of creative genius in the Welsh language. Goronwy Owen,
and Dr. Lewis Edwards, employed a much more flexible style; but it
was not until the rise of Owen Edwards that the full possibilities of
Welsh prose, as a vehicle for expressing modern ideas, became
manifest. Welsh poetry there had always been an abundance of;
starting with the obscure bards of the sixth century, and the
Arthurian legends, passing through the warlike minstrels of the
Middle Ages, to the sweet, but shallow, love poems of Davydd ap
Gwilym. Then came a long period of monotonous and mediocre
versifying; until real poetry again began to be produced by Goronwy
Owen. A touch of sublimity in an occasional poem of Ishryn, {241}
and the true lyric flavour of much of Ceiriog, place these two men in
the front rank of Welsh poets. The older poetry is couched in
intricate and artificial metres, the twenty-four varieties of which
every bard was expected to show an acquaintance with. But of late
there has been a tendency to discard these, and to write more freely
and naturally. There are some genuine poets in Wales to-day; but
their home seems to be the college lecture-room and not the old home
of the bards, the Eisteddfod.
Never has Welsh so flourished as a literary language as at present.
At least nineteen weekly Welsh papers are published in Wales,
eighteen monthlies, and six quarterlies; in addition to which
Liverpool has its own Welsh weekly, the United States one, and
Patagonia one. The output of Welsh books is not very large, but it
cannot be computed at much less than a hundred in the course of every
year. And Welsh is not only widely read, it is also widely spoken.
In North Wales, and in at least two counties in the South it is still
the language of the home, of the playground, and of public worship.
And wherever the Welshman goes he carries his language with him. In
America, in Patagonia, in Africa, and in Australia, there are Welsh
colonies, with {242} Welsh societies and Welsh chapels. In the
United States alone the number of Welsh chapels is close upon four
hundred. In Great Britain, outside Wales, the tale is the same. The
numerous Welshmen who have left their own quiet homes in order to
push their fortunes in the great cities have never forgotten the
traditions of their youth. London has over thirty Welsh places of
worship, Liverpool about the same number, Manchester nine, Birmingham
four, and Bristol three, while many other English, Scottish, and
Irish towns have at least one each.
The political calm of Wales was broken in 1859, the year of the last
but one of the great Revivals. There was a General Election, and the
tenant farmers of Merioneth decided, for the first time, that they
would refuse to vote for the landlord's nominee, and would run a
candidate of their own. Ruthless evictions followed; and ere long it
had become the settled policy of most of the great estate holders to
examine into the political, and even the religious, views of their
tenants, and to expel all Radicals and Nonconformists. Persecution,
however, only stiffened the determination of the people; and the
contest went on. The Reform Act of 1867 helped the democratic
movement; and in the following {243} year Henry Richard was returned
at the head of the poll at Merthyr Tydvil. Richard was one of the
most able, and most interesting men of the day, and would have been
an ornament to any representative assembly. As an advocate of peace
he became known all over Europe; and was the first Welshman, in
modern times, to occupy an international position. At the same
Election seven Liberals were returned for Wales. Fresh evictions
followed, and Welsh farmers emigrated in scores to the United States.
But a measure of relief was at hand: in 1872 the Ballot Act was
passed. From that day Liberalism swept onwards from victory to
victory. In 1886 Tom Ellis, the noblest and most far-sighted of the
men sent by Wales to Parliament, was elected for Merionethshire.
Four years later David Lloyd George became Member for Carnarvonshire,
and in the same year Samuel Evans (afterwards to become a famous
President of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Court) was elected
for Glamorgan.
Wales had now won full political recognition, and its members were in
a position to bargain with the Liberal leaders for the inclusion of
such measures as Welsh Disestablishment and Disendowment in the party
programme. After long waiting, and much acrimonious {244}
discussion, that measure became law in 1914. It was a great act of
justice, and its benefits have been felt by the formerly Established
Church no less than by the Free Churches. Indeed, one of the most
wonderful and hopeful things in the recent history of Wales is the
way in which the new Welsh Church has organized itself, and adapted
itself to the new situation. It is now a truly national body, with
its own Archbishop and a thoroughly democratic constitution, in which
the lay element counts for at least as much as the clerical.
* * * * *
Thus from being the last refuge of hunted tribesmen, a land swept
time after time by the tide of invasion, Wales has come to be
actively and amicably associated with England in her high destinies.
Everywhere Welshmen are participating to the uttermost in the wider
life of the Empire. In all the professions, in literature, in the
arts, in trade, in the Civil Service, in the Army, in the Navy, and
in the Diplomatic Corps they are winning distinction for themselves.
The outlook in Wales is full of promise. The old period of
antagonism between Welshmen and Englishmen seems, happily, to have
come to an end. The democracy has won the day; and all obstacles in
the way of the {245} development of what genius lies hidden in the
people have been removed. Home Rule is sometimes spoken of, but it
is generally by theorists and doctrinaire pedants. Most patriotic
Welshmen would be content with a slightly increased measure of local
autonomy. The vast majority of the nation are satisfied that
equality of opportunity for all the inhabitants of the British Isles,
irrespective of race, has been achieved, and that in literature, in
art, in music, in scholarship, in the professions, in politics, and
in commerce there is nothing to hinder a Welshman from winning any
distinction he may merit. The discordant cry of the extreme
nationalist is occasionally heard, with its glorification of all that
is vulgar and unworthy of preservation in the Welsh tradition. But
this wins little sympathy. As a whole the people have seen a fairer
vision than that of an independent Wales: the vision of a
Commonwealth living a life of ordered prosperity; upholding and
illustrating the great principles of justice, equality, and freedom,
to secure which so many eyes have been dimmed with tears and so many
fields sodden with blood; a Commonwealth in which Wales, in virtue of
its splendid tradition of passionate idealism and of tireless
spiritual effort, shall enjoy a foremost place.
{246}
APPENDIX
ILLUSTRATIVE PASSAGES FROM WELSH LITERATURE
The following passages are intended to illustrate within short
compass the spirit of the Welsh classical prose writers. For the
selection the author is indebted to Mr. John Lloyd's admirable
anthology _Llyfr Darllen ac Ysgrifennu_; but the translation into
English is his own. The attempt to translate Welsh poetry is too
difficult to be essayed except by a man of peculiar gifts; and Wales
is still waiting for its Edward FitzGerald.
The first passage is from the _Mabinogion_, a twelfth-century
compilation containing a large number of ancient tales of love,
romance, and war.
"How long soever they may have been on the way, they came at last to
Dyfed, and went in quest of Arberth. They kindled a fire, and began
to eat and to hunt, and in that manner spent a month. They assembled
their dogs about them, and so remained a year. Now one morning
Manawyddan and Pryderi arose to go out hunting, and got their dogs
ready to depart from the court. {247} And some of the dogs behaved
in this fashion: they walked ahead, and reached a small bush close
by; and as soon as they had reached the bush they instantly fled
quickly back, their hair on end, and returned to their masters. 'Let
us approach the bush,' said Pryderi, 'that we may see what it
contains.' They approached the bush, and when they had approached,
beheld a white tree boar rising out of it. Then the dogs, encouraged
by the men, rushed upon it. And the boar, for its part, left the
bush, and went some distance away from the men. When the men were at
some distance it would bark at the dogs; but when the men drew near
it again fled, and ceased to bark. And they followed the boar until
they beheld a great and noble fortress newly built, where before they
had never seen either stone or building. And the boar ran swiftly to
the fortress, the dogs following it. And when the boar and the dogs
had entered the fort they wondered at seeing a fortress where
previously they had seen no building. And from the top of the throne
they gazed, and listened for the dogs. But long as they waited they
heard not a sound of the dogs. 'My lord,' said Pryderi, 'I will go
to the fortress to enquire for the dogs.' 'Truly thou art {248}
ill-advised,' answered he, 'to go to this fort which thou hast never
before seen; and if thou wilt follow my advice go thou wilt not. He
who hath laid a charm upon the land must have built this fortress
here.' 'Yet truly loth am I to lose my dogs,' answered Pryderi. But
in spite of the counsel which he had received from Manawyddan,
Pryderi would go to the fortress. When he came to it he saw nothing
within, neither man nor animal, neither boar nor dogs, house nor
courtyard. But in the centre of the fortress he beheld a well of
marble, and by its side a golden vessel standing upon a marble slab,
and chains stretching upwards towards the sky, the ends of which he
could not see. Great was his delight at the beauty of the gold, and
at the fine workmanship of the vessel. And he came to the vessel and
laid hold of it. And as he laid hold of the vessel his hands stuck
to it, and his feet to the slab upon which the vessel stood; and he
was bereft of speech, so that he could utter no word. And thus he
remained.
Manawyddan waited for him till the close of the day. And in the
evening, believing that he should receive no more tidings of Pryderi,
nor of the dogs, he returned to the court."
{249}
The next passage is from _Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsc_ (Visions of
the Sleeping Bard) of Ellis Wynne.
"On a fine afternoon of ripe and sultry summer, I betook me to the
summit of one of the mountains of Wales; and with me a telescope, to
help my failing sight to see things distant near at hand, and things
small large. Through the clear air, and the quiet haze I could
discern, far across the Irish Sea, many a delightful sight. At last,
after feeding my eyes upon every sort of delight around me until the
sun had almost reached his fortress in the west, I laid myself down
upon the grass, musing upon the superior beauty and comeliness of the
distant lands of whose kindly plains I had caught a glimpse; and
envying the happy lot of those who behold their full beauty and had
seen the course of the world. And so, by much travail of my eyes,
and afterwards of my mind, I became weary, and in company with
weariness came my Master Sleep stealthily to bind me; and with his
leaden keys he locked the windows of my eyes securely, and also all
my other senses. Yet was it useless for him to attempt to lock up
the Soul, which can live and travel without the body; for my spirit
escaped on wings of fancy out of the locked body."
{250}
The third extract is from Daniel Owen, greatest of Welsh novelists.
"The office in which the Old Soldier held his school was a long and
narrow building. Around it was a hard and bent form; and connected
with it a desk which rested against the wall. One of the first
things I noticed was that there was hardly a square inch of the
desk's surface upon which a picture, a figure, or a name had not been
carved. At the far end of the schoolroom, close to the fire, was the
master's desk; and beneath it was a hole which, as I afterwards
learnt, was for the master to insert his wooden leg into when he sat
down. On my first entrance into the school I saw a strange and novel
sight. All the boys were present, some on top of the desk, some on
each other's backs playing horses and prancing round the school. One
boy--a cripple with a crutch--was trying to mimic the master, sitting
at the desk, his crutch thrust through the hole, and calling vainly
for order. The scene changed every minute; and everyone shouted for
all he was worth except one boy, who stood on top of the desk by the
window, dividing his attention between the play and the road by which
the master would approach. I felt strangely at the time, and
believed that I {251} had come amongst a most wicked set of boys, and
that my mother, if only she knew what they were like, would never
allow me to come again. On the other hand I thought it was the best
place for fun that I had ever seen. But my predominant feeling at
the time was a kind of painful strangeness and shyness; for Wil Bryan
had left me by myself, and had joined eagerly in the games. While I
was possessed by these feelings I saw the boy at the window put his
two fingers to his mouth and give a shrill whistle; and in a
twinkling every boy was in his place breathing quickly. I knew
perfectly well that I should look foolish enough standing like a cold
monument all by myself by the door when the Soldier came in. He
passed me without pretending to see me. He looked angry and
disturbed; and I perceived at once that the watchman had not sounded
the warning sufficiently soon, and that the master had heard all the
deafening uproar. He went immediately to his desk, whence he
produced a long and powerful cane. I saw the boys bending in
readiness, while the Soldier went about the school thrashing cruelly
everybody without distinction. I was the only boy who did not taste
the cane, and yet I was the only boy that wept, for I was greatly
frightened."
{252}
NOTE ON BOOKS
Until comparatively recently Welsh historical works were uncritical;
and although many of them contain much invaluable information, they
must be read with caution. Welsh historical scholarship has,
however, made great strides recently, and now there are a few
excellent books available, more especially for the Middle Ages. For
the later period the most valuable material is still scattered about
in old numbers of such publications as the _Cymmrodor, Transactions_
of the Cyminrodorion Society, and the Cambrian Archæological Society,
_Cymru Traethodydd_, _Y Geninen_, _Eisteddfod Transactions_, etc.;
and locked up in theses written for the post-graduate degrees of the
Welsh, and other, Universities. A historian with ability to digest,
and above all ability to write, is badly needed to deal with this
immense volume of material.
The best general introduction is O. M. Edwards's _Wales_, in the
"Story of the Nations" Series. It is delightfully written, and is
always interesting and suggestive. Another good book is
Rhŷs and Brynmor Jones's _The Welsh People_. Gilbert
Stone has written an interesting book, _Wales_, especially valuable
for the pre-Norman period.
For the Middle Ages the standard work is Lloyd's _History of Wales_,
in two volumes. It is scholarly and accurate, but unfortunately only
takes us down to the Edwardian Conquest. Haverfield's _Roman
Britain_ is useful. Seebohm's _Tribal System in Wales_ adopts some
exploded theories, but is still essential. Little's _Mediæval Wales_
is brilliant and suggestive. Barbier's _Age of Owen Gwynedd_ is
interesting. Morris's _Welsh Wars of Edward I_ is valuable for much
besides military affairs. Hugh Williams's learned work on
_Christianity in Early Britain_ should be consulted. Other books of
interest are Peake's _Bronze Age and the Celtic World_, and Lewis's
_Mediæval Boroughs of Snowdonia_. Always brilliant, though not
always reliable, is Rhoscomyl's _Flame Bearers of Welsh History_.
Good biographies of mediæval Welshmen are few. Henry Owen's _Gerald
the Welshman_ is good; also Bradley's _Owen Glyndwr_. Tout's _Edward
I_ should be consulted, also Wade Evans's _St. David_.
For later times we begin with Llewelyn Williams's {253} _Making of
Modern Wales_. It is scholarly, original, and well written; but in
parts should be read with great caution. Bowen's _Statutes of Wales_
is invaluable. Other works of value are Skeel, _Council of the Welsh
Marches_, J. H. Davies's _Introduction_ in his edition of the works
of Morgan Llwyd; Morrice's _Wales in the Seventeenth Century_; D. R.
Jones's _Y Deffroad Addysgawl; The Welsh University_ (College
Histories Series); Elvet Lewis's _Nonconformity in Wales_. There are
some good biographies, notably: Pollard's _Henry VIII_; Pierce's
_John Penry_; David Jones's _Life and Times of Griffith Jones of
Llanddowror_; Ambrose Jones's _Griffith Jones_; Hughes's _Life of
Howel Harris_; Jenkins's _Thomas Charles of Bala_; Gwynn Jones's
_Cofiant Thomas Gee_ Owen Thomas's _Cofiant John Jones Talsarn_;
Williams's _Thomas Charles Edwards_; McCabe's _Robert Owen_; W. E.
Davies's _Sir Hugh Owen_.
Welsh history, like that of most countries, requires a study of
contemporary literature, both prose and poetry, for its true
understanding. The following works will be found most useful:
Gildas; _The Mabinogion_; Geoffrey of Monmouth's _Histories_;
Theophilus Evans's _Drych y Prif Oesoedd_; Ellis Wynne's
_Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsc_; Vicar Pritchard's _Camvyll y Cymry_;
Morgan Llwyd's _Llyfr y Tri Aderyn_. The letters of the brothers
Morris, and of Goronwy Owen are illuminating. For social life the
novels of Daniel Owen are invaluable. The numerous poets published
by O. M. Edwards in _Cyfres y Fil_, together with the Introduction
contained in the majority of them, are of the utmost importance. Dr.
Edward's _Traethodau Llenyddol_ contains many interesting historical
essays. Shakespeare's historical plays ought not to be neglected.
For Welsh literature and language the following books should be
consulted: Morrice's _Manual of Welsh Literature_; Robert Owen's _The
Eymry_; Griffith's _Llenyddiaeth Cymru_; Renan, _Poetry of the Celtic
Races_.
Almost every Welsh castle and monastery has its local historian.
English historians, as a rule, have dealt inadequately, and often
ignorantly, with Wales. Bearing this in mind, the student would do
well to turn to the _Political History of England_, Green, Clarendon,
Gardiner, and Lecky.
{254}
INDEX
NDX Aberconway, 80, 83
Aberdovey, 75
Aberystwyth, 67, 229, 231
Act of Uniformity, 199
---- of Union, 133
---- the Reform, 233
---- for Propagation, 194
Age, Old Stone, 10
---- New Stone, 11-13
---- Bronze, 14
Angharad, 38
Arles, 41
Arthur, King, 47
---- Prince, 127, 129
Bangor, 56, 71, 74, 230-231
Bardd Cwsc, 240
Barlow, Bishop, 148
Beaufort, Margaret, 125
Belesme, Robert of, 65
Benedictines, 41, 104, 152
Bible, Welsh, 154-155, 223
Bifort, Llewelyn, 120
Black Death, 102-103
Bleddyn, 39
Blegwryd, 48
Bosworth, 126
Bow, Long, 102
Braose, Reginald, 76
Britain, 8, 9, 11, 14, 23, 34-35, 40
Brythons, 20, 32, 36
Cantrefs, the Four, 83, 87-88, 90, 92
Caratacus, 25, 26, 29
Cardiff, 67, 230, 231
Cardigan, 37, 69, 72
Carmarthen, 37, 132
Carnarvon, 29, 96, 97
Catholics, Welsh, 151-153
Ceiriog, 240
Celts, 12, 15-20
Charles, Thomas, 212, 222
Charter, Great, 75
---- Town, 96
Chartists, 234
Chester, 26, 36, 67, 70, 181, 186
Christianity, 33, 40-44
Church, Welsh, 42, 44, 80, 119, 244
Cistercians, 80, 105
College
---- Aberystwyth, 229, 231
---- Bangor, 230-231
---- Cardiff, 230-231
---- St. Gregory's, 152
---- Jesus, 219
---- Normal, 226
---- Rome, 151
---- Swansea, 231
---- Theological, 228
Corwen, 70, 122
Council of Princes, 75, 76, 79
Count of Saxon Shore, 35
Court, County, 96, 141
---- of Great Sessions, 137, 139-141
Cradock, Walter, 168, 193
Criccieth, 81, 96
Cromwell, Oliver, 187, 195, 220
---- Thomas, 148-149
Cunedda, 35, 76
Cymmrodorion, 230
Danes, 8, 37-38
David, Saint, 47, 149
Davies, John (Mallwyd), 155
Davydd Gam, 117
---- ap Gwilym, 240
---- ap Llewelyn, 79, 81-83
---- ap Sinion, 125
Deganwy, 36, 82
Deheubarth, 37, 63, 68
Deorham, 36
Dolgelley, 117, 118
Druids, 27
Dyfed, 37, 97
Edward I, 37, 83-100
---- II, 64, 67, 101
---- IV, 124, 130
Edwards, O. M., 60, 95, 226, 240
---- Lewis, 228, 240
Eisteddfod, 72, 218
Elizabeth, Queen, 153
---- of York, 76, 126
Ellis, Tom, 243
Evans, Theophilus, 207
Feudalism, 49
Fitz Osbern, 67
Flemings, 67
France, 1, 13, 16, 103, 116, 119
French, 98, 119
Friars, 80, 105-106
Gaul, 16, 17, 20, 23
Gee, Thomas, 239
George, D. Lloyd, 199, 243
Giraldus Cambrensis, 56-60
Gladys, 76
Glyndwr, Owen, 109-123
Goidels, 15
Griffith ap Conan, 68
---- ap Llewelyn, 38, 39
---- ap Llewelyn Fawr, 79, 81, 82
---- ap Rees, 68, 69
Grosmont, 78
Gwent, 37
Gwenwynwyn, 73, 76
Gwledig, 35
Gwynedd, 37, 39, 49, 63, 68
Harlech, 96, 125, 186
Harold, 38, 39
Harris, Howel, 199, 201-211
Harrison, 194-195
Henry I, 65
---- II, 69, 70, 71
---- III, 77, 81, 82, 87, 89, 90
---- IV, 107, 114-115
---- V, 118, 121
---- VII, 126-131
---- VIII, 76-144, 199
Hereford, 67
Howel Dda, 38, 45, 48
Huw Llwyd, 191-193
Iberians, 13, 15
Islwyn, 240
Joan, 74
John, King, 74
Jones, Griffith, 201, 206, 221-222
---- John (Colonel), 172, 189
---- John (Leander), 152
Journalism, 237-239
Lake Dwellings, 12
Lancastrians, 124
Laud, Archbishop, 152, 167
Laws, 44, 45-55
Lee, Roland, 132
Llewelyn the Great, 72-80
---- ap Griffith, 83-94
---- ap Seisyll, 38
Llwyd, Morgan, 172, 190, 191, 194, 195-197
Lollards, 107
Ludlow, 129, 137
Macsen Wledig, 35
Maelgwn Gwynedd, 36
March, Earl of, 116, 121
Marches, 67, 75, 134, 135
---- Council of, 130, 136, 137-139
Methodists, 207, 211-213
Minerals, 14, 32, 235-236
Mona (Anglesey), 27, 70, 188
Monasteries, 41, 104, 105, 147
Montfort, Simon de, 89
Montgomery, Roger of, 67
---- Treaty of, 90, 91
Morgan, Bishop, 154
Morris, Dr. (Clynnog), 151
Mortimer, Edmund, 116
---- Ralph, 76, 83
Nonconformists, 165-168, 199, 213-217
Normans, 8, 62, 63, 65, 68, 69
Offa, 37
Owen, Goronwy, 233, 240
---- Gwynedd, 69-70
---- Goch, 83
---- Hugh, 226, 229
---- John (Clenenau), 188
---- of Wales, 103
Oxford, 114
Parliament, 101, 118, 136, 237
Peckham, Archbishop, 93
Penry, John, 159-162
Pope, 50, 80, 119
Powel Vavasour, 168, 195
Powys, 37, 63
Prayer Book, 154
Preaching, 160, 213-215
Pritchard, Vicar, 162-164
Prys, Edmund, 153, 155-159, 192
Puritanism, 165, 173, 194, 201
Rebecca Riots, 237
Rees, Lord, 57, 71-72
Reformation, 85, 145
Revolution, French, 232
---- Industrial, 209, 234-237
Rhodri Fawr, 37
Rhuddlan, Treaty of, 92
Rhys ap Thomas, 128
Richard, Henry, 243
Rowlands, Daniel, 206
Saints (Welsh), 44
Salesbury, William, 154
Schools, Circulating, 221-222
---- County, 226-227
Schools, Grammar, 219-220
---- Sunday, 217-218, 222-224
Shires, 37, 96, 101, 134
Shrewsbury, 66, 67, 89, 94, 117
Statute of Labourers, 102
---- of Staple, 102
---- of Wales, 96
Strathclyde, 36
Towns, 96
Tudor, Edmund, 125
---- Jasper, 125
---- Owen, 125
Tudors, 125
Turberville, Thomas, 98
War, Hundred Years, 102
---- Civil, 169-198
---- of Roses, 124-127, 143
Welsh Language, 22, 135-136, 220, 241
---- University, 119, 120, 220, 229-231
Whitby, 44
William I, 62, 64, 66
Williams, Lord Keeper, 174-177, 184
Williams, of Pantycelyn, 207 ENDX