Welsh Journals

THE POSSIBLE FORMATION OF A COUNTY MUSEUM IN CARDIGANSHIRE.1 I am not an antiquarian but I have long been a great admirer of one work inspired by antiquarian activities-Hydriotaphia or Urn Burial by the great Sir Thomas Browne. So much is that so that if I were the President of a Society of Antiquaries, and had dictatorial powers, I would lay down that each meeting should be preceded by a reading from him a short reading, for his words are full of meaning and I should have a pause afterwards for members to ponder them. At the first meeting of every session the reading might be 'Time hath endless rarities, and shows of all varieties which reveals old things in heaven, makes new discoveries in earth, and even earth itself a dis- covery. That great Antiquity America lay buried for a thousand years and a large part of the earth is still in the Urne unto us.' That should stimulate the Society to further searches and more diggings. And at some time I should certainly drag in But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit of perpetuity.' But I am not the dictatorial president of an Antiquarian Society, and so I find excuses for quoting such things to audiences temporarily at my mercy-like you It is not however an enjoyment that I can indulge for long. I am here in fulfilment of a contract, a contract to give you some consider- ations on the project of forming a county museum in Cardiganshire. We may safely assume that a museum is a good thing-if it is a good museum. Our first question then should be Is a museum necessary in Cardiganshire ? This need not detain us long. Apart from the Departmental Museums (which are small, specialist museums) of the University College at Aberystwyth there are no museums at all in Cardiganshire. The nearest in adjoining counties are those at New- town in Montgomeryshire and at Carmarthen. The former is a small memorial museum devoted to Robert Owen the latter is larger and concerns itself with its locality, but with a limited scope it is mainly archaeological and folk-life. It was founded by your opposite number, the Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society, but is now administered by !An address given at Aberystwyth, 26 March 1949.