Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

volume on The Claims of Ossian was published in 1825 and straightway he began to distribute copies gratis to several public libraries and "in- telligent persons connected with Celtic literature in Wales and elsewhere." When Rees was in London in May 1826 he had a number of volumes to give away to his Cymmrodorion friends. Rees spoke of him as a "literary giant" and used to visit him as often as he could. By this time Edward Davies was an old sick man, almost blind and unable to follow his studies. He looked forward to the intelligent, congenial conversation of his friend and took advantage of his offer to catalogue his Celtic library and to arrange his manuscript papers for preservation. He gave a large number of these to W. J. Rees, who preserved them among his own literary remains. On one of his visits, when Rees hoped "to exhiliarate him in his present cheerless state", Edward Davies related to W. J. Rees the story of his life. After his death in 1831, Rees published a Memoir to his friend in the third volume of the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine. It was in 1826 that W. J. Rees first heard of the project to publish the Mabinogion. Angharad Llwyd sent him a copy of a Prospectus, "To be published by subscription in 2 volumes, Royal 8vo, price Two Pounds in boards, Y Mabinogion, or the Ancient Romances of Wales, with a literal version in English, and illustrated by W. Owen Pughe Rees immediately sent his name in as a subscriber, but not many followed his example. The London Welshmen considered it too expensive. At the time of the Denbigh Eisteddfod, Rees doubled his subscription and got his brother and his nephew to subscribe as well. But this ambitious project again fell through. The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine has already been noted. Ever since the Cambro-Briton had ceased publication in 1822 the members of the Cambrian Societies had felt the need to fill the gap. W. J. Rees favoured the title The Cambrian Repository, and John Jenkins would have liked John Blackwell of Mold to be offered the editorship. Neither of them got their way. Mr. Henry Davies, the Librarian of the Cambrian Institution in London, was appointed editor, but even before the magazine appeared he had been asked to resign. In 1828, when W. J. Rees received a Pros- pectus, he found that the name had also been changed, which annoyed him, ‘ ‘ although the mere name is not important yet the alteration does not seem to me to be any improvement," he wrote. The new editor was Samuel Humphreys, a native of Montgomery, who according to John Jenkins, "had never made Wales, her langugage or her literature his study." Henry Davies, having taken umbrage, removed himself from London to Cheltenham, where he edited The Cheltenham Album for many years. When the first volume of the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine appeared in 1829, the Subscribers' List was headed by the Rt. Hon. Lord Ashley. This young nobleman had been anxious to learn Welsh and was provided with a tutor by Thomas Richards, formerly of Berriw, and since 1826 Rector of Llangynyw in Montgomeryshire. In the Autumn of 1827 Lord Ashley spent a week at the rural Rectory of Llangynyw, where Thomas Richards entertained Gwallter Mechain, Dr. William Owen Pughe and Rowland Williams, his neighbour at Meifod. They held a Gorsedd cere- mony for his entertainment and bestowed upon him the Bardic name of Lleon Llaw Gyffes. On the death of his father Lord Ashley succeeded to the title of the Earl of Shaftesbury and he became well known for his humanitarian reforms.