3o8 ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 



alfo been made to introduce the Englifh tongue Into 

 general ufe among the lower claffes, but hitherto 

 with no great fuccefs. Englifh charity-fchools have 

 for many years been inftituted in various parts of 

 the principality, but thefe feem to threaten nothing 

 feiious againft the language of the country. The 

 little that the children learn from Inftrudors who 

 themfelves know but httle, Is foon afterwards loll In 

 the natural preference they have to their own tongue, 

 and the little occafion that they have to fpeak any 

 other. To fay that the majority of the Wellh are 

 entirely ignorant of the Englifh language would be 

 wrong, for In thofe parts of Flintfhire, Denbigh- 

 fhire, and Montgomeryfliire, adjacent to the Englifh 

 (Counties, they fpeak It very fluently. It is in Angle- 

 tez, arid the mountains of Caernarvonfhire and Me- 

 rionethfhlre, where the greatefl Ignorance of It is 

 to be obferved ; but here, in the great roads, I had 

 commonly Englifli anfwers to my queftlons; and 

 even In more obfcure fituatlons, by a Httle perfe- 

 verance, or by the exhibition of money, I have ob- 

 tained the anfwers I fought for. 



A late Welfh writer has remarked that " fome 

 advocates for the abolition of the Welfh tongue are 

 vain enough to prognofllcate a near approaching 

 day, when it Vviil be numbered with the dead lan- 

 guages. They fee fome few families on the borders, 

 and about a dozen innkeepers upon the poft-roads, 

 w^ho fpeak Englifh only 5 but there are thoufands, 



and 



