Welsh Journals

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whereas a Welshman of the Tudor or Commonwealth period would have said drap breeches but long breeches ret teer but black deer; bick kame but little game, the Englishman would not distinguish between the sounds. This inde- pendent testimony to the phonetic accuracy of the Welsh scribes is interesting and valuable, but in spite of that, can- not, perhaps, be expected to convince the supporters of the modern tendency to give concurring b's, d's or g's their single value. T.G.J. Stranded Gifts. Most large libraries have on their shelves books which have had a chequered history, or which have been prevented by a strange destiny from reaching the goal designed for them by pious owners. When handling one of these, one is conscious of a feeling akin to that of the Bardd Cwsg when he visited the Land of Oblivion one cannot repress the conviction that somewhere or other the former companions of this volume, to say nothing of its owner, are still praying for its return-" And will he no come back again ? That this is so, will be apparent to every one who taxes his mem- ory and tries to recall his impressions when his own prized bookshelves, displaying two or three aching voids, elo- quently upbraided the lax morals of the book-borrower. The pious donor may desire certain of his books to be deposited in the reading room or library of his native place, in order that later generations may sip their nectar and learn, as he did, to tread the path of glory." But though he hedges round his gift with conditions that seem explicit enough, a series of circumstances arise which to all intents and purposes flout his intentions and render nugatory his fondest hopes. An instance is found in a book which after the death of the Rev. James Hughes (Iago Trichrug) in 1844, found its way into the vicarage library of Rotherhithe. Mr. Daniel Wil- liams, formerly of Ystrad Fflur, presented Iago with a copy of the first edition of Dafydd ab Gwilym's poems, on con-