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quarries at Dowlais, Penderyn, Penwyllt, Bryn- aman, Llandebie, Kidwelly and Templeton.3 At Stormy Down, near Kenfig Hill, there are friable but pure sandstones of much more recent geological age than the Millstone Grit, and they, too, are quarried for silica-bricks, and for crushing into sand for steel moulding and furnace linings. This sandstone, which belongs to the Rhaetic Formation, was deposited at the same time as, but in shallower water than, some of the black shales seen at the base of the cliffs between Laver- nock and St. Mary's Well Bay in Glamorgan. As we have seen to be the case with other materials, such as limestone and fireclay that are 3 Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain. Vol. VI.-Refractory Materi- als. Memoirs of the Geological Survey, 1920. TO have written a play at twenty-one which has been claimed as "the greatest play written by a Welshman," is an achieve- ment which needs no further comment. That there are many in his own country, however, to whom the name of Emlyn Williams conveys nothing is the justification of this short sketch. Moreover, the fact that, at the time of writing the reading committee of the National Eistedd- fod are considering the play, gives it a new interest. As to Mr. Williams himself, the facts may be briefly told. He is, in the Elizabethan sense, an "Oxford pen," as, indeed, are Mr. Richard Hughes and Mr. A. O. Roberts, two of the most promising figures in the Welsh dramatic move- ment. Having said so much, one must also add that he is a Welshman, for, as with the two young men mentioned, his stay in the University has only served to intensify the inspiration his native country offers. For the rest, he was born at Penyffordd (Flint), was educated at Holywell County School, went to Geneva, and subsequently won an open scholarship to Christchurch, Oxford, where he remained for four years. Here he actively asso- ciated himself with the Oxford Union Dramatic Society, which eventually produced his play, "Vigil," a one-act which gave very evident indications that here was a star in the ascend- ant. Then, in February, 1927, Mr. J. B. Fagan, sponsor of Strindberg and Tchehov, who above all has helped to lead the theatre out of bondage, produced Mr. Williams' first long play, "Full Moon," at the Oxford Playhouse for six per- extensively used in the manufacture of iron and steel, the demand for silica rock and ganister fluctuates with the general state of industry in the country. In the post-war years, Wales has pro- vided from one-third to one-quarter of the total output of Great Britain, which has varied from a minimum of about 150,000 tons in 1921, to a maximum of over 600,000 tons in 1923, a year of unusual prosperity. Of the Welsh quota, the counties of Carmarthen and Denbigh each pro- vided nearly one-third, Anglesey and Brecon near- ly one-sixth each, the remainder about one-twelfth each comes from Flint and Glamorgan.4 4 Fifth Annual Report of the Secretary for Mines, 1926. H.M. Stationery Office. A NEW WELSH DRAMATIST by Geraint Goodwin formances. Soon afterwards Mr. Williams came down, went on the stage, and left for New York in the company of And So to Bed." In making a practical career of the stage he is following the precedent of many well-known dramatists, to whom the theatre is something to be learnt from within and not observed from without. And all this while "Full Moon" has lain in manuscript-publication has possibly never oc- curred to him. Yet from the small band of people who have seen or read it comes a chorus of praise which might well turn the head of any- one less modest than this young man. And now comes the question, how far is this chorus of praise justified? Is it the best play by a IVelshman-beyond, perhaps, Mr. Richard Hughes' "Comedy of Good and Evil," over which Mr. Bernard Shaw enthused on its London production? But whether it is or not-and it is surely irrelevant-it is quite obvious that here is a remarkable piece of work-remarkable in the author's sureness of touch, in the technical skill obvious throughout, and, most of all, in the strength and purity of its inspiration. I have read that it has a suggestion of Barrie and "the intellectual subtlety of Pirandello." It may, though I doubt it. More likely it claims a moral godfather in Tchehov, and perhaps a great uncle in Maeterlinck-but it is certain that its roots go down to Wales. And this in spite of the fact that all the characters are English and that the scene is laid in "a house on a rock surrounded by a pool in the Italian Alps. Beneath the lake is the church, where the waves sometimes