Welsh Journals

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Aberystwyth. Hughes' influence was equally important in another field, for he was the encourager of many young men who, after ordination, formed the vanguard of the church's mission in the south Wales valleys. His two most famous proteges achieved fame also as church planters, though in widely separated fields. John Griffith of Merthyr became the "unmitred bishop of Llandaff" to use Wilton D Wills' expression, and Mesac Thomas was the first bishop of Goulburn in Australia. Hughes' influence also stemmed the spread of Tractarianism in Cardiganshire and there is an interesting discussion of his involvement in the consecration of the celebrated Tractarian church at Llangorwen, technically in his parish. Significantly enough, Hughes' great-grandson was John Poole-Hughes, bishop of Llandaff, a man whose high-churchmanship was sufficiently broad to recognise the value of the traditions so worthily upheld by his ancestor. RLB IGNATIUS, O.S.B. [Joseph Leycester Lyne]: Hymns and Tunes of Llanthony Monastery Suitable for Missions. Printed by Novello, Ewer & Co, 1890. Republished with two extra hymns by Gage Postal Books, PO Box 105, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, 1989. 34pp. £ 2.00. Mr Laurie Gage is to be congratulated for bringing out in print these works once again. They are very largely the compositions (both words and music) of that wayward and strange genius, Joseph Leycester Lyne (Father Ignatius), who is often said to be the first to have restored the monastic life to the Church of England probably untrue, although he was one of the earliest to work for this. His community followed the rule of St Benedict. Founded at Claydon in Suffolk, this moved firstly to Norwich, and then to the Black Mountains, high up under the Gospel Pass, where you get the breathtaking views of both the counties of Brecon and Hereford. This is Kilvert country, and Kilvert himself gives an account of his walk up to the monastery, set in a secluded valley just over the Welsh border, and of their odd meeting. There is no doubt that both words and music are strange. These hymns were meant for mission services: they are sentimental and decidedly 'home-spun' in the harmonisations. To see the works and to play them through is, however, to get a 'feel' of the whole Llanthony experiment: 1 In his introduction Ignatius says that "Jesus only" is the burden of each hymn; but, truth to tell, the quality of the words varies widely from the confident and picturesque to the frankly uninspired and poor.