Welsh Journals

day where it is expected to arrive on Thursday morning and we trust Messrs Pickford and Co. will receive such encouragment from the trade and mar- kets in general as to induce them to establish a similar communication between the place and Manchester". In lighter vein is the following- Married-lately at Llanidloes by the Rev. John Davies vicar of Llanidloes and Llandinam, Mr. John Benbow3 of Llanidloes, flannel and whittle manufacturer to Mary, eldest daughter of Mr. Thomas Davies of the same place, butcher, after a long and tedious courtship of eleven years". Advertisements included those dealing with emigration- "Emigration to America at reduced fares. Passengers forwarded by first rate ships every week to America by S. Schofield, 15, Demson St., near Prince's Dock, Liverpool. Applications to secure places and to know times of sailing to be made to Mr. R. Wood, Emigration Agent at Offices of Messrs Evans and Owens, Solicitors, Newtown". E.R.M. EDUCATION IN NEWTOWN 1840 Dr. J. A. Davies, in his article 'The History of Education in Montgomeryshire' (see above p. ), mentions the important part played by the Sunday School movement in educating the masses. He also points out the limitations of the Sunday Schools' work in this field. Sunday Schools taught many who then turned to secular works for inspiration and the range of their reading was remarkable in many ways. In her novel (Mary Barton' Mrs Gaskell writes 'There were weavers, common handloom weavers, who threw the shuttle with unceasing sound, though Newton's Principia lies open on the loom, to be snatched at in work hours but revelled over in meal times or at night. Mathe- matical problems are received with interest and studied with absorbing atten- tion by many a broad spoken common looking factory hand'. This was Lanca- shire in the 1840s. The following illustrate a somewhat similar situation in the manufacturing towns of Montgomeryshire and is taken from the Report of the Royal Commission on Handloom Weavers 1840-W. A. Miles (Com- missioner). The remarks made by John Owen, a weaver of Newtown, illustrate both points made by Dr. J. A. Davies. The evidence given by this weaver 3 Although the courtship may have been long John Benbow (son of Richard Benbow, mercer, Llanidloes) was not older than 28 when he married. He died in 1853. No file of this short-lived paper exists at Colindale but there is one at N.L.W.