Welsh Journals

craftsmanship in book production that may lead to the development of a sounder public taste and may encourage printers and publishers to aim at a higher standard of workmanship in the making of printed books. The "Ceiriog" volume will naturally make the greatest appeal to the Welsh lover of the book beautiful. It is a joy and a delight to find the familiar lyrics in a setting such as no previous Welsh poetry has ever received. The whole making of the book is in the tradition of the great achievements of the great English presses, William Morris's noble work at the Kelmscott Press, Mr. Cobden-Saunderson's superb setting of the Holy Bible at the "Dove" Press; these and other suc- cessors carry us back to the works of the great Italian and German printers of the Renaissance. William Morris was the first in England in modern times to produce a book that would give the same pleasure to look upon as a painting or a fine print, and Mr. Maynard in this volume proves himself an apt follower of Morris in all that goes to the making of a noble book. He has chosen a hand-made paper, which sets off the rich black of the inked type and the woodcuts. He has treated, as Morris insisted, the double quarto pages as one unit, and the printed matter is given its rightful place in the centre of the double page, with spacious outer and lower margins. The type too, the "Kennerly" set solid, has been selected with taste and judgment; it is of a noble and rounded design, restful and satisfying in its simple beauty. The initial capitals printed in red on the wide margins add a note of colour to the page. A noteworthy feature of the volume, which greatly increases its attractiveness and adds to its value, is the 30 woodcuts designed and cut by Mr. Maynard and his colleague, Mr. H. W. Bray. It is a pleasure to see woodcuts again used to illustrate as well as to decorate a volume. The art of wood-engraving had, since its hey-day in the '60s, been driven out of use in book and magazine illustration until its recent revival in this century, and it is a source of gratification to find a Welsh press taking such a courageous part in this revival. Mr. Maynard displays equal skill and as fine an artistio sense in his direct reproductions of scenes associated with Ceiriog's life as he does in some finely imagined and very suggestive illustrations of the subject matter of the poems, which, with ad- mirable skill in the design of a page, he places as head and tail pieces to the poems. His style is broad and modern in character; he makes use of contrasting masses of black and white rather than the "lines" of the older engravers. He seems to me to have been thoroughly successful in convey- ing the spirit of the poems, particularly in the vigorous headpiece to "Gwyr Harlech" and those of "Yr Eneth fechan ddall," "Y Telynwr dall," and "Y Garreg Wen." Professor Lloyd Jones, of Dublin University, has written a critical introduction, which is both ade- quate and just, and has made a selection of 35 poems, which include Myfanwy Fychan, and the pastorals, "Owain Wyn" and Alun Mabon. After a perusal of all Ceiriog's various volumes I find my- self in agreement with his selection, except that I would venture to suggest that "Yn Nyffryn Clwyd" has qualities which should carry the poem into an anthology of Ceiriog's work. We congratulate the founders of the press as well as Mr. Maynard, and his colleague, Mr. H. W. Bray, on a work of art which will be a treasured possession of many a book lover, and will bring distinction to the craft of book production in Wales. E.J. Poems by George Herbert. Edited by Sir H. Walford Davies. Poems by Henry Vaughan. Edited by Mr. Ernest Rhys. The Gregynog Press. "Valuable books should in a civilised country be within the reach of everyone, printed in excellent form, for a just price; but not in any vile, vulgar or by reason of smallness of type, physically in- jurious forms at a vile price. "Chosen books their text printed all on leaves of equal size, broad of margin, and divided into Pleasant volumes, light in the hand, beautiful, and strong, and thorough as examples of binders' work.Ruskin. The Gregynog Press was founded-with no blow- ing of trumpet-by members of a family whose great aim in life is to enrich Wales socially and spiri- tually. The volumes before us are its first fruits, and they give promise* of a noble harvest. The Press has a definite object in view-to produce books that are in every sense objects of art. It does not therefore enter into competition with purveyors of cheap reprints; it aims rather at doing in Wales what the Kelmscott Press did in England. In these days of mass production we have become so accus- tomed to cheap reprints that we seldom pause to consider what we are losing by the process. We forget that in our efforts to popularise literature we are at the same time degrading the printer and the book-binder into mere manipulators of machinery. In the past the making of books was an art which was practised by skilled craftsmen who took pride in their work. In these days the art of book- making has degenerated into a process, the crafts- man has become a 'hand,' and the woodcut artist has been supplanted by the photographer. But though machinery has come to stay, and though most of our books will have to be produced by machinery, this is no reason wnv some books should not be produced in a more excellent way-where the paper-maker, the printer, the woodcut artist and the binder combine to give us of their best. For in this way only can books be made which are in a real sense works of art-if we accept Mr. Lethaby's dicta that "art is thoughtful workmanship" and that "every work of art shows that it was made by a human being for a human being." The two volumes before us are printe3 on hand- made paper manufactured in Wales; the type is excellent, each page being carefully built up, the initial letters and the rubrics being in red. Two styles of binding are offered-full Levant' and 'quarter linen.' In the latter form each of the volumes has a different style: but in view of the fact that these volumes are the first numbers of a series, would it not be better to fix upon a uniform style? The compositors' work has been done with care- I have noticed only one slight misprint ("Vaughans" for "Vaughan's" on p. xxvi. of Mr. Ernest Rhys's Introduction) In the Vaughan volume there are eight or nine woodcuts designed and cut bv Mr. R. A. Maynard and Mr. H. W. Bray, and illustrating the district where the poet lived, while in the Herbert volume there is a woodcut of Montgomery Castle — Herbert's birthplace. The bold design of the woodcuts har- monizes well with the character of the type. The selection of the poems has in each case been entrusted to a competent editor. Sir Walford Davies has chosen those parts of "The Temple" that "re- veal George Herbert's love of building in words as in living stones." Mr. Ernest Rhys's introduction dilates on the charms of the Vaughan country, to enable us to read the poems in their natural setting. I feel sure that booklovers and all who are inter- ested in the promotion of the arts and crafts in Wales will be glad to know of this new movement in Welsh book-making. And it is to be hoped that every County School in Wales will be able to procure a copy of each volume published for its Sixth Form Library. The volumes will also prove very suitable as prizes for senior pupils. E.D.J.