The South Wales Daily Post

WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1894. WELSHMEN IN ENGLISH POETRY. In the June number of the English Illustrated Magazine Mr. William Graham • y- pro- duces the reader to Mr. Morris, the poet, and gives an altogether interesting description of his beautiful home at Penbryn, his "locale" as the writer terms it. Mr. Graham writes not much that is new to those who havo had the privilege of acquaint- ing themselves with the beauty of the scenery around Penbryn, but he has the gift, however, of investing it with a new charm which is quite delightful. "On the way to tho bard's housa (he will never allow hia friends to call him poet the writer tails us), we cross an old seven- arched bridge, ascend by a steep field path for a mile or so, turning from timo to admire tho panorama stretched at great length, like a straggling Rhine town, with its castellated ruin and frequent church towers. Then we traverse a level, tree-shaded road, and at length the gate of Penbryn is before us, park-liko with its meadows and frequent changes of elm and beech, and its winding drive, shaded by pine conifers,' a little description which we g-lels must have been inspired by a perusal of some of the' graphic touches which the "bard" himself treated us to in his" Songs of Two Worlds." Pt nb --yn itself comes next, with its pretty pannelled hall, low and old-fashioned," and its mottoes in gold letters on a deep blue ground." The poet claims to be descended from the Boleyns, and very appro- priately has he adopted that family's motto Fide et amort and the Semper Eadem" of their descendant, the Virgin Queen. Mr. Morris, too, has not forgotteo his Welsh line- age, for the" three leopards' he&d3of his ancestors are seen on shields over the heavy mantel. Penbryn contains oneJurtber proof, if proof were wanted, of the Welsh descent of its tenant, in the shape of a long pedigree which nM ies back to the time of Julius Caesar at least. Pictures, of course, are not wanting in haU, dining room, and drawing room, the one held dearest to the poet himself, per- haps, being an old one of the bard's grand- iather, Lewis Morris, of Penbryn, bard, anti- quary, and philologist, in night-cap and froggpd dressing-gown, something like a Celtic Cowper." The library, of course. is. not forcrtHen In that roc m. "buut by no ¡ bard out of the profits of his books," Mr, Graham says, is the poet's presence most felt.' Here much of the writing which is now familiar to countless readers in tho English- speaking countries of the globe is done. Then follows some vivid touches of the sjenery which Penbryn commands on the south, and the inspiration which tho pros- pect with its associations is calculated to create in a man of fho fancy and relined tastes like Mr. Lewis Morris. The sketch, however, Cioae3 somen hat prosaically with a reference to the Laureateship, a subject apparently on which the poet knew what to say and what not to say. This much of the Illustrated. Whatever English critics may say of Mr. Lewis Morris ai a poet, and however much the Chronicle and other journals may ridicule his eRbrts, ho is a countryman of whom his countrymen may feel truly proud. He 58 one of the few Welshman who have oss'tVea tho field of English poetry, and succeeded to pieaso the English public. Of course, practically, Mr. Morris is an Englishman he is so by birtu, education, and associations. But he is, never- theless, a chip of an old Welsh block, and no one may deny our right to reckon him as a Welshman. No predecessor of his in the aame direction lias climbed so high. He haa. doubtless, drawn his inspira- tions from Wclili sources. His works teem with proofs of it, and this, mayba, accounts for the fact that as a poet ho has no rival among his own countrymen. Mr. Morris is a fair illustration of what Welsh genius and Welsh feeling become when rightly translated or transferred into another language. Of course Mr. Morris was not conscious of any such translation it w.is the result of a gradual process in which he playa I but a mere passive role. Other pects wo have had. Gower, we pre- sume, was at least of Welsh exti action, but his works reflect but little of his country or its story. Vuughan, the Silurist, was a Welshman born, though in speech an Englishman. He writes with all the art f I artificiality which characterises his age. The same remark applies to George Herbert, a poet whose muse was smothered under a mass of ( conceits so fashionable in his day. Dyer's nationality was, probably, more English than Welsh, but his poem, "Grongar Hill," is a beautiful mirror of the Vale of Towy, ever charming, ever new." With that one exception, Wales owes but little to Dyer as a poet. The truth is, it is English writers that have re- vealed to the world the wcalt'r.ancl glory of Welsh literature—Shakespeare, Milton; Jonson, and above all, Tennyson. Welsh poets, who are able to write "immortal verse in their native tongue, cut very sorry figures indeed when they launch into English. We had a memorable instance of their helplessness on the occasion of the Queen of Roumania's visit to North Wales. Never did such idiocy appear in English dress as the englynion with which her Highness was then addressed by the Welsh bards. We much doubt whether it is possible for a poet, employing a metaphor, to lead an amphibious linguistic existence.

NOTES ON NEWS. -9- Nothing is more a cause MILIEUS' LA-NIPS. of wonder to the ordinary individual who walks the street, or who sits behind a desk, or pursues his avocation somewhere in the light of day, than the extraordinary recklessness of the average collier in the matter of safeguarding the life which he carries in his hand, as it were, each time that he descends to grope in the bowels of the earth. Yet the same thing could, with clual truth, be said of the workers in almost every dangerous oalling. Familiarity breeds contempt," and is the causa of far more fatalities than inexperienca and preventible accidents. Mr. Martin, the Inspector of Mines in the south-western counties, complains that there is very general uuwiliiugness and omission to use safety lamps in coal mines and ho instances a caso in which the proprietors of the mine, having undertaken to provide lamps and en- force tho use of them,had negleted to do sec. Their excuse is that having in November last put about 50 lamps into use, the men considered that they were not necessary and refused to work with them. Mr. Martin is, thereupon, sarcastic. "I have yet to learn," he says, that the workmen are the re- sponsible persons for the management and direc- tion of the collieries in the district, and if a fatal accident should occur at these collieries, I consider the owners and manager would be likely to find themselves in a very tight corner." Happily, this dangerous practice is not common irl South Wales, where bitter experience, repeated with terrible emphasis at short perioda, keRpo the miners alive to the value of Sir Humphrey Davy's invention but yet it is only too certain that there are in many ecliieries reckless men who render abortive all the carefulness of their comrades until a fearful disaster is caused, and careful and careless alike are hurried into eternity, and a heritage of poverty and woe is left to tfeose above the surface. The time may come when mines will be worked by the light of the e'.ectnc current; but the dangers of t e mine will then be probably as great and as numerous ai recklessness r.01V makes them. The rumours of dissolution THE LIIE OF THE are becoming more pro- OOVKRNMENT. nounced, and men who arc old parliamentary hands, as well as those who are mere voting machines, are seriously debating the chances of the Rosebery Adminis.ration holding out till the reapers appear. It is fully recognised at Westminster that everything/lepends absolutely on the faithfulness and the enduranca of tie Irish Nationalists. The member for Merionethshire and his assistant-whips, have, indeed, got a hard task on hand. Their greatest danger iiea in tLe belief that the Opposition have no dcsiu to oust the Government on the Budget. This is the veriest rope of sand. An Opposition which includes Mr. Goschen, the quondam friend of revised death duties Mr. Chamberlain, I the author o? ransom" anl advocate of a graduated income tax; Lord Randolph Churchill, the spasmodic pleader for a strengthened Nary; Mr. T. W. Russell, the temper- ance orator and fiery Orangeman—an Opposition led by men like these, who have swallo wed their most cherished ideals for the sake of dealing a blow at the Ministry-is not an opposition likely to be held in check by the fact that he Budget is popular. If the Government should be beaten in aaaap division, tinJ "the friends of everything except Home Rule should be ealled upon to take office, the old expedient of using the money which now gees to reduca the National Debt would be quietly resorted to, and the Budget of Sir William Harcourt, minus it! liquor-tax clauses, would be made to do duty. It would be the good old dodge of htealing the enemy's clothes while he is help- less. Therefore the utmost necessity still exists for keeping watch and ward with sleepless vigi- lance at the lobby doors and if, despite all pre- cautious, defeat comes to thQ Government by means of unholy alliances or lackadaisical absten- i tions. Ministers will ttieu ba ablo to go to the country with clean hands, saying, W e have done cut- b st; it i) jour fault wo have not done better; ^Ive as a larger waicrUv to do more."

THE POST BAG. S Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone have gone to Lori Ketide! s place, Hatchlands, for a uionLu. Mr. Yates, who luts cremate! so many soei;} failure!; during his c r;er, is "Atlas(t) "to 0* cremated hi:m:eK Mr. Bnuiocr, M.P., says he believes he is ih, Oidy iran in the world who ever stopped his workt and called his men together and asked theai t. join & Trade Union. t,tlnularion or ihoOdaaof Horace i» now in tho press, and will be published in the course of the summer by Mr. Mm-ray. A is on a Welsh tran- siation of the same poet. Lleurwg hns borrowed nis nom dc vlv.yne froan the i.iimg of an ol'.l Wolsh saint, who gave h:« -1 u name io Llanourwg (correctly Llanllourtvg^ near Cardiff. I.leurwg is a form of l,uc*,ui uu& LncitVr, and ;>lso appears as Lleufer, and mean* a Lght bearer, The name :s an embodiment or the legend which refers to the introduction of Christianity io Britain by King Lucius, Ihe first of all Christian ;.in^s," On Saturday a itrong body of divinity were seen to enter the studio of Mr. Alderman Chapman, ir. High-street, Swansea. Thev were fourteen in number, tlic-ir united ace; amounting to 710 years. They wire representatives of officialdom* at the Ebenezer Congregational Church. The carnerr. soon transt'eVi'iSfd their individualities on -,paA- board, and they now lorni an interesting group a £ Mr. Chaplain's, whcic they add to the triumph. of his arc. "11 wy I," a Swansea correspondent, writes:— *• The-statoiueiit made by a Philistine Saxon,' and insetted in your Post Ba.g column this week, is, I think, an error, for I rcmbembcr when passing through Westminster Abbey to have noticed marble tablet to the mei-ory ot a Matisel from Margam, Glamorganshire. I believe the body is buried there. I am only speaking from memory, but I think the tablet is in the wall north side of the Nave. Doubtless the, e are other distin- guished Welshmen interred there if the reccrci was looked up." The Rev. Prebendary Kinsman, rector of Tin- tagel, whose denth at the ago of eight -three wa, recorded last week, was one of the most famous Cornish clergy of the old school. Like Rober.* Stephen Hawker, who was settled a few miles to the north of him at Morwenscon, ho was the friend of numerous emiNent pioplo who fo ind literary inspiration or bodily refreshment on that remarkable stretch 0: coast. He was at Tinsel wh n Tennyson came ta work up the local colour for his "Idylls of the King;" be was there many years later when Mr. Gladstone came as a. visitor to Sir Arthur Hayter, who has a house in th) village. More than one noveiht has put him into a book. Tm agel Vicara.ge lies in a little hollow, mono- polising all the trees to be found along the coast for a stretch of five miles. From the study windows the eye travels down the valley to King Arthur's Castle, which stands high on a. rocky peninsula. To the right is the cove where the ninth wave brought the child Arthur to Merlin's feet, and above the ruined tower which is loeally knowa as the Roaud Table. For the greater part of Mr. Kinsman's residence there, Tintagel \Va, still.23 miles frota a railway, and during winter visitors were few. The Vic-tr, however; who was unmarried, amused himself by reading and paint- ing most assiduously, and might be setn in all weathers riding a etout cob across the downs. It is not quite clear how much in the £ the rates run to at Swansea—the figures are so high that everybody is afraid to add them up. However, they may be put down at 8s., and compared with,, be following: In Birmingham they pay 6s.Sd. in the S. In the 7s. list comes Bristol (7s. Id.), Leicester (7e. 6d.), Sheffield (7s. e £ <3.\ Wclverhamptoc (7s. Pd. and Coventry (7s. 4d.). Manchester men get off with a fraction over 5z. 6d., Nottiog" ham pays es.,and so doea West Bromwich Burton- on-Trent 5a. gel. Liverpool rates are very low* ahicunting to only An. lid. in the pound; those of Cheltenham aro 4■. 4d. Two trwns escopa with charges below Lli., Southpcrt with 3s. 10c7. and Lancaster with 3s 7id. Gateshead gets gas cheapest: (Is. 7 4-5d. per 1COO cubic feet), tnd Norwich pay: most (3s. 8d.). Chicago ban not taken altogether kindly to Ml\.é Stead's new work, "If Christ Came," which ia noticed elsewhere in our issue of to-day. This is what the Citizen of that city says about it:— Chief of cranks, Stead, had no sooner set foot in virtuous and sanctimonious London than he spewed his putrid bile on Chicago. l The Daily News gives publicity to his violent onslaught on our city-its aldermen, its,, law courts, and other organs of authority. Ha c added that Americans bad more to learn from the Old World than the Old World had to leara from them. The United States verily appalled me!" he said. No decent paper has a right to publish tho vile sputter in ga of this scurrilous scribe. The Old World is a fossilised, played-out old oddity. A young and exuberant. nation like ours marches lustily in the vanguard of modern progress-the ravings of the Anglo-Saxom madman to the contrary notwithstanding, The. New World evidently has nothing to learn from, the Old in the way of abuse. A well-known politician managed to elude tho vigilance e! the doorkeeper of tho House on the. day when the first Home Rule Bill was introduced, and actually took his seat on one oC~ the benches below the gangway; .but this remarkable achievement was eclipsed yesterday afternoon by two ladies. It appears, these ladies were escortetl te the httle nook neat the mt. B entrance to the House in order to give them the opportunity of viewing the interior 01 the Chamber. Their conductor left them and walkei towards the Treasury bench, and the ladies at once followed him, through the open deer as far as the bar. This invasion of the gentle-?1 sex created great consternation among the legisl: (.tu-s but the ladies themselves were obviously quite at ease, and iseemed much interts-ed in 'the seen. The Speaker was dczing at the time, but the officials at the door put an e»A to the tensien., bv promptly removing the lo.dies, who were informea; of the enormity of the effenee they had coinuHiteOt « Llansadwrufab writes The interesting word in use in those parts whence y«ar corrcs+ pondent Towi' writer, in, in my idea, incorrectly rendered; that is, if by ♦ those parts' are meant those ill tho neighbourhood of the River Towy, from Llandovery to Golden Grove, where the expressions tori eoCiJ, 'sfynvdd' (cut wood for lighting, beginning, oy drawing up the firo with), a"d ''sgynyadu'i tan' (l'S1^ the fire) Rre very common Had the word Ceagynydd' appeared in Clwb yr Hosan Las," in which _Carinarthettv shire conversational Welsh is jhoiieticallv, rati-,ci than etymologically, rendered, I should not hav» been a bit surprised, because Coc< 'sgyaydd, or Co'd 'sgynydd, who fluently spoken by a native, sounds very much like COST gvnydd,' which, therefore, undoubtedly ig a eor* ruption of tho compound word "coed-c^ CoNi 'Sgynydd.- But "Coecl 'Sgynydd is a term quite distinct from < coed-tan' (firewood) or 'Coed-ff wrn' (wood for burning in the brick-oven for bsking purpos^u^ and always signifies wood or sticks usad tl" light or regenerate ft coal fire in th grate. ''Sgynydd,' or 'Ysgynydd,^ means a mounter, and probably the word Coed '*gynyd* is used to signify the act of building up ib6 fire. I trust this wiU assist Towt up tracing the word t» its etynio.o^'Cft., spring, and that we shall, before L»on^. be favoured iu tho • Post Bag' with the true origi* of the word sgymdd' in its connection with lu»l, 1 have tried and failed to tc&oo it E!a i8»&c«.ovi;y to either 'ysgenu' (generate), 'yagym' (mount;, 'sugnu' (draw), or goscyutftaeo' (a fuel coir- ( BUTTL.H'.FL*