Welsh Journals

CHARLES AND EDWARDS PAPERS. Mr. Thomas Charles Edwards of Ampleforth, Yorkshire, has placed on permanent deposit' the collection of letters and papers left by his grandfather, Thomas Charles Edwards, M.A., D.D., the first principal of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, which had been lodged in the National Library for safe keeping since 1919. The central figures around which this collection grew are household names throughout Wales, and represent leaders in the religious and educational life of the Principality for three long generations. They are the REVEREND THOMAS CHARLES, Charles o'r Bala,' (1755- 1S14 D.N.B. x, 112-114), his grandson-in law, Dr. LEWIS EDWARDS of Bala (1809-1887 D.N.B. xvii, 124-125). and the latter's son, Principal THOMAS CHARLES EDWARDS (1837- 1900; D.N.B. Suppl. ii, 178). The Thomas Charles group includes portions of the original manuscript of Y Geiriadur rsgrythyrol, better known to generations of Sunday School members as' Geiriadur Charles,' and over five hundred letters relating to Charles and his immediate family. The corres- pondents include John Davies, Tahiti, Walter Davies, Gwallter Mechain,' John Elias, Sir Richard Hill, Robert Jones, Rhoslan, Thomas Jones, Denbigh, Edward Morgan, Syston, Thomas Parnell, William Owen Pughe, and William Williams, Pantycelyn. Among the Lewis Edwards papers are manuscripts of his sermons and essays and over three thousand autograph letters including those of his own family and his large circle of correspondents. The latter included Roger Edwards, John Elias, Thomas Gee, Humphrey Gwalchmai, John Hughes, Liverpool, Owen Jones, Gelli, Robert Jones, Rotherhithe, Thomas Levi, John Matthews, Ellis Owen, Cefnymeusydd, Henry Rees, Henry Richard, Ebenezer Thomas, Eben Fardd,' and Joseph Thomas, Carno. The correspondence of Principal Thomas Charles Edwards and his family also consists of about three thousand letters. His correspondents included Lord Aberdare, Charles Ashton, Henry Blackwell, David Bruce, T. K. Cheyn, A. B. Davidson, David Davies, Llandinam, D. Charles Davies, Henry Drummond, James Drummond, Ellis Edwards, Owen M. Edwards, D. Silvan Evans, A. M. Fairbairn, Charles Gore, Michael D. Jones, Benjamin Jowett, Sir Lewis Morris, H. Nettleship, Isambard Owen, Stuart Rendel, Henry Richard, Owen Thomas, and W. Westcott. This group also contains notes of lectures taken and delivered by the Principal, material for his commentaries on I Corinthians and Hebrews, and for his Bywyd a Llythyrau Lewis Edwards. There are a few miscellaneous items in the collection, the most notable being an early record of Calvinistic Methodism in Bala- Cof-lyfr cynlleidfa'r Methodistiaid yn Nhref y Bala, 1740~52’ ­-an account book of collections made towards the cost of building chapels in North Wales with some minutes of Associations, 1780-1797, and a letter from George Whitefield2 to Howel Harris, 22 Aug. 1741. E. D. JONES. QUATERCENTENARY OF VIVES. In 1940 will be commemorated the quatercentenary of the death of the Spaniard JUAN Luis VIVES (born at Valencia in 14923), one of the great thinkers and writers on education. The friend of Erasmus, he spent some years in England at the Court of Henry VIII he also lectured at Oxford. 1 The Library has letters of Thomas Charles, and material relating to him, in N.L.W. MSS. 128, 894, 1,467, 2,696, 3,294, 5,655, 7,436, 12,764-5, and in the'C.M. Archives' deposited by the Presbyterian Church of Wales. 2 The signature is lost. 3 1492, annus mirabilis in the history of Spain.