Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

LEWIS MORRIS: 'THE FAT MAN OF CARDIGANSHIRE'* Three hundred years ago, on 27 February 1701 to be precise, Lewis Morris, one of Ceredigion's most multi-talented adopted sons, was born at Fferam cottage in the parish of Llanfihangel Tre'r-beirdd in Anglesey. Five years before his death in April 1765 he found it hard to contemplate the possibility that posterity might consign his name to oblivion: Time runs on very fast, and I am afraid we shall die like other men and be buried among the herd, without doing any thing to preserve our names, no more than Modryb Ellyn o'r ty bach ar y mynydd. This is a mortification to think of.1 It mattered intensely to him that future generations would acknowledge his worth and it is entirely appropriate therefore that this Society should pay homage to him since he lived in this county from 1742 until his death in 1765, firstly at Galltfadog (which he called his 'hermitage'),2 near Capel Dewi, and then at Penbryn, Goginan. The 'ingenious Lewis Morris', as he was often called by his admiring contemporaries, was buried in the chancel of Llanbadarn church where, in 1884, his great-grandson Sir Lewis Morris laid a memorial stone in his honour.3 I should warn you at the outset that Lewis Morris had some scathing things to say about this county and its peo- ple. Although he acknowledged that its rich deposits of lead ore had made it the 'Cambrian Peru', he believed that it contained the 'fewest clever or ingenious people' in Wales.4 The gentry were 'a Lawless set of wretches' and 'canibals' who spent their time hunting, fishing, hare-coursing and fomenting trouble, the working people were idle 'good-for-nothings', and the town of Aberystwyth was 'full of Hottentots'.5 Writing to his brother William in October 1757, he said: 'Thank God that you are in a country [i.e. Anglesey] where all the people are not mad and wicked.'6 He spoke both in sorrow and anger of 'the Cunning and Devilish Arts of Cardiganshire' and when, from time to time, he escaped to neighbouring Merioneth he likened it to forsaking the 'land of Egypt' for the 'land of Canaan'.7 My aim in this lecture will be to depict him warts and all, to raise, as he might have put it, a petticoat's hem on a colourful and turbulent personality whose astonishing versatility made him a legend in his own time. Long after his death Iolo Morganwg, who believed that Morris was a scoundrel and a charlatan, informed Walter Davies (Gwallter Mechain) that when so-called giants were closely examined they often turned out to be mere pygmies. 'Is not Lewis Morris', he asked, 'think you, one of these diminutive beings.'8 I hope to