Welsh Journals

It seems to me that this simple list of names set out in alphabetical order calls up, even if only in dim and shadowy outlines, a series of portraits of the great ones who filled the stage in that eventful year of 1794, whilst behind we get passing glimpses of an odd little man with rosy cheeks and a billycock hat, wide eyed and open mouthed to every tradition or fact, who with his long staff in his hand walked the rough roads of Wales in search of forgotten Welsh manuscripts. Of course some of his swans have turned out to be geese, but we must surely remember his limitations of education and opportunity. I seem to see him best in the parlwr bach at Pandy Bettws near Bridgend, listening to the historic wisdom of Shon Bradford, his teacher.