Welsh Journals

such a place and so on through trailing clouds of vagueness. At one time I suspected that this was a form of wishful thinking, a romantic escapism from present circumstances, a desire to be in some way associated with what is grand, powerful, important, but after years of experience in testing and investigating such claims I found so many of them to be true that I no longer view them with the same scepticism. An interesting feature of the families concerns the ancestral traditions associated with them. For some time I have been collecting traditions and legends about the old families throughout Wales, the lore of the landed gentry, and they are worth while recording, especially now- adays when so many of the country-houses are being given up. With the departure of the families much of this lore may disappear, but I hope that an effort will be made to rescue them by others as well. Some of these traditions have a foundation in fact and encrusted in them is historical material not found elsewhere. Many, of course, have been distorted or exaggerated in course of generations of verbal transmission, but analysis and comparison sometimes make it possible to recognize the kernel of the original truth or the original sin. Roman- tic and exciting, homely or unadorned, all are worthy of preservation. I have tried to give you a glimpse of the old families that dwelt in these three counties. Much more could have been included, but I hope that this brief review will serve to indicate the importance of the study of family history and the variety of interests connected with it. Members of these families were often men of great abilities and talents who benefited the public both locally and nationally they gave freely of their time and experience, their friendship and patron- age, to those among whom they dwelt and whose interests they were content to promote. They gave us Dafydd ap Gwilym, whose lively muse still charms our leisure hours, historians and genealogists like Giraldus Cambrensis, George Owen of Henllys, George William Griffith of Penybenglog, William Lewes of Llwynderw, David Edwardes of Rhydygorse, and Richard Fenton, without whose antiquarian gleanings much of our county history would be enveloped in impenetrable mists governors andjusticiars like Sir John Wogan and Sir John Perrot gallant sailors and soldiers like Admiral Tucker and Sir Thomas Picton thinkers and reformers like Sir William Vaughan of Torycoed and John Lewis of Glascrug judges like Sir John Vaughan of Trawscoed and Sir Marmaduke Lloyd divines like Vicar Prichard, whose haunting verses still linger on Welsh lips a Jones of Gwynfryn and a Lewis of Henllan who filled with distinction the episcopal thrones of St Davids and Llandaff; great farmers like Thomas Johnes of Hafod who, at his