Welsh Journals

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gollen to learn the trade of a carpenter. Here he remained for six years until an accident to his hand prevented his following the trade any further and he returned to his parents, who, by this time, had removed to Llanasa. At the age of twenty-five he was elected an elder of the Calvinistic Methodist church at Gwespyr, and, later, on the return of the family to Llanarmon, of the Calvinistic Methodist church in that place. He has been described by one of his contemporaries as, physically, the embodiment of strength. Strong and stalwart, he also possessed a powerful mind, a tenacious memory, and remarkable will power. It is seldom that such physical and mental powers are so well blended. With few educational advantages he yet attained an extensive knowledge of many subjects. He prided himself upon the fact, not that his library contained practically every book in Welsh, but that he had read them all. Whilst still young he read extensively in theology. His library reveals the extent of his reading, for it contains English and Welsh commentaries, monographs, several series of annotated texts, and weighty dictionaries. His favourite subject in this connection was Puritan theology. Later he turned to political and church history. He edited the 1893 edition, Argraphiad rhad," of Hanes y Merthyr- on, by Thomas Jones, of Denbigh (two volumes), and added an Appendix to it entitled Hanes diwygwyr crefyddol Cymru." No doubt it was this study of Church history which helped to make him such an authoritative speaker on the historical aspect of the two questions which occupied most of his later years--disestablishment and tithe. His library shows him to have viewed every political question of his day from a religious angle, and, consequently, it contains but few bibliographical 'rarities.' Book- collecting was not his hobby, but he did contrive, nevertheless, to assemble a remarkable collection of books and pamphlets, particularly in Welsh. He was a member of the first County Council elected in 1888 for Denbighshire and at the first meeting of the Council was appointed an alderman. On April 13, 1899, a monument to him was unveiled in the cemetery of the Calvin- istic Methodist chapel, Llanarmon. Just previous to his death a movement had been started to make a public testimonial to him for his services to Wales, but on his death the testimonial Committee decided to erect a monument to his memory at the church which he had served so well. The chairman at the unveiling ceremony was Mr. J. Herbert Roberts, M.P., now Lord Clwyd, and the principal speaker was the late Sir J. Herbert Lewis. Herbert Lewis stated that He [John Parry] received a good education in the best university of the ages-a university which is open today, through the medium of books, which can be obtained at little cost by every man and woman. He was a great reader, fond of collecting good books, and reading them." WM. WILLIAMS. HENRY VAUGHAN AND HIS PUBLISHERS." It is a matter for much regret that Miss Gwenllian Morgan, M.A., F.S.A., a Governor of the Library, did not live to complete her study of the life and work of Henry Vaughan, Silurist' (1622-1695 D.N.B. lviii, 164). She would, no doubt, have found much to interest her in the latest contribution on the Silurist's' work to come to our notice. This is an article in the Transactions of the Bibliographical Society (Vol. XX, No. 4, March, 1940) by Mr. William R. Parker, entitled' Henry Vaughan and his publishers.' Mr. Parker collects the entries in the Stationers' Company's Registers relating to the editions of Vaughan's works published in his lifetime and goes on to examine the possible reasons why, in the course of a few years, he should have changed his publisher so often. Mr. Parker comes to the conclusion that the Silurist' left arrangements for the publication