1895-9 6. J WALES AND ITS LITERATURE. 67 



Welsh imagination, associated as the\- are with all that is dearest and 

 most worthy of remembrance in the traditions of the past. In their 

 devotion to their annual gatherings and contests, and in the natural 

 pride which every Welshman has in those time-honoured assemblies, 

 there is a force which is powerful enough to oppose the utilitarian spirit 

 of our age, to stem the tide of hostilit}' to the perpetuation of the Celtic 

 languages, and to insure for Welsh a long life of healthfulness, vigour 

 and independence. The biographer of the Re\-. Thomas Price, whose 

 bardic name was Carnhuanawc, and who was one of the best and most 

 enthusiastic Welsh scholars of his day, has this felicitous definition of 

 the Eisteddfoddau to give : " The word Eisteddfod signifies a public 

 session of persons formally convoked at stated periods in one part or 

 other of the Principality of Wales, for the enjoyment of intellectual 

 intercourse, for the exercise of mutual emulation, and for the promotion 

 of Cambrian literature, rhetoric, poetry, music and all ingenious and 

 useful arts within each specified district, that district extending in the 

 days of the nati\e princes throughout the four provinces of Wales and 

 the Marches. Such periodical meetings have their historic records from 

 the sixth century of the Christian era, and appear to have been held 

 among the Cymry from immemorial time, sometimes encouraged by the 

 auspicious countenances and liberal rewards of sovereign princes and 

 wealthy nobles, and at others solely sustained among the commonalty 

 by the irrepressible energy of native genius." In his introduction to his 

 Lectures on the Study of Celtic Literature, Matthew Arnold thus writes 

 to the Welsh : " When I see the enthusiasm these Eisteddfods can 

 awaken in your whole people, and then think of the tastes, the literature,, 

 the amusements of our own lower and middle class, I am filled with 

 admiration for you. It is a consoling thought, and one which history 

 allows us to entertain, that nations disinherited of political success may 

 yet leave their mark in the world's progress, and contribute powerfully to 

 the civilization of mankind." 



The Principality of Wales embraces twelve counties, of which Anglese}% 

 Carnarvon, Flint, Denbigh, Merioneth, Montgomery go to form North 

 Wales ; and Brecknock, Cardigan, Carmarthen, Radnor, Glamorgan, 

 Pembroke constitute South Wales. The population of Wales was 

 1,111,780 in 1861, and 1,217,135 in 1871. Those figures, so far as they 

 go, prove that the tide of emigration from Wales is by no means so 

 strong as it is from Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland. There 

 appears to be greater stabilit}' among the Celts of Wales ; and hence 

 arises a remarkable facilit)' for perpetuating their language and their 

 traditions, in spite of their nearness to the English-speaking inhabitants 

 of the counties that lie to the cast and south of them. The Celts whom 



