66 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITDTK. [VOL. V.. 



of very great value and interest. For faithfulness to their language and 

 traditions; for a resolute determination to uphold their language and to 

 cultivate it assiduously in these modern days; for a liberal, national 

 recognition of excellence in writing their language either in prose or 

 verse ; for a refreshing absence of everything that betokens a desire to 

 ignore or forget their language ; for a well-arranged system to make every 

 Welshman proud of his language and of his people and country, the- 

 palm has to be awarded to the Welsh among the Celts of Great Britain 

 and Ireland. A Welsh clergyman, the Rev. Griffith Jones, of Llan- 

 dower, was instrumental in exciting among his fellow-countr\-mcn a 

 love of their native language and a desire to be able to read it and to 

 study its literature for themselves. He was the first who made an 

 attempt of any importance to erect schools for the instruction of the 

 people in their own language. It was in 1730, that he began his 

 patriotic labours which have proved of incalculable service to Wales. 

 Mr. Jones devoted thirty years of his life to his patriotic work, and had 

 the satisfaction of gaining many co-adjutors in his laudable efforts to 

 educate his countrymen in their own language. He was successful in 

 establishing two hundred and twenty schools during his life-time. It 

 redounds to the credit of the Britons that they were able, in the face of 

 the legions of Rome, to preserve their, distinctive existence to a very 

 large extent. The Welsh exhibited all the characteristics of the genuine 

 Celts in their long, determined and gallant resistance to the attempts 

 which English monarchs made to deprive them of their liberty and to 

 annex Wales to the kingdom of England. It may be conceded that 

 from the departure of the Romans in 446 A.D., until Llywellyn ap 

 Gruffydd, was killed in 1282, and with him the liberty and independence 

 of Wales were lost, the Welsh had to fight for their homes and firesides. 



The Eisteddfoddau — those sittings or sessions or congresses of bards 

 or literati, which are now held every year — have always possessed 

 an immense power, so far as inducing the Welsh people to love their 

 language, their literature and the traditions of their country is con- 

 cerned ; so far as determining to be faithful to their nationality is 

 concerned ; so far as refusing to forget their language on grounds of 

 strict utilitarianism, and to ignore or think lightly of their literature, 

 is concerned. A very remote antiquity is assigned to the Eisteddfod. 

 It is said that it originated in the time of Owain ap Maxen W'ledig, who 

 at the close of the fourth century was elected to the chief sovereignty of 

 the Britons on the departure of the Romans. It is said that the Gorsedd 

 or Assembly, from which the Eisteddfod has sprung, is as old as the time 

 of Prydain, the son of ^dd the Great, who lived many centuries before 

 the Christian era. The Eisteddfoddau have a very strong hold on the 



