

PRICK, THOMAS, THE REV. 



PUICUAKD, JAMES COW 





require* to be noticed under the present article. The problem wa* 

 ' Given the number of times an unknown event bu happened and 

 failed ; required the chanea that the probability of its happening in 

 (ingle trial lies somewhere between any two degrees of probability 

 that can be named,' and belongs to that diii-ion of the theory termed 

 inverse probabilitie*,' the more important of the two, and which may 

 be said to have originated with this problem, since it WAS the firt of 

 the kind that waa answered, and, notwithstanding its practical utility, 

 no successful attempt had been previously made to answer it Dr. 

 Price found a solution in an unfinithed state among the manuscripts 

 of the then lite Rev. Mr. Bayes, F.R.S., and his chief merit consisted 

 in immediately appreciating it* importance, and directing his mind to 

 its improvement and extension. A supplement to the solution was 

 inserted by Dr. Price in the 'Transactions' of the following year, 

 shortly after which he was elected a member of the tociety. It was 

 in the above paper that the important theorem was first announced, 

 namely, that the probability in favour of an hypothesis is propor- 

 tional to the probability which that hypothesis gives to observed events 

 (Lacroix, ' Traite dea Prob.,' p. 149, third edition) ; but as Mr. Lub- 

 bock, in his ' Essay on Probability,' published in the ' Library of Use- 

 ful Knowledge,' observes, either Bayes or Price appears to have 

 confounded the chance of the probability of the events happening 

 being comprised within the proposed limits, with the probability 



1'KICE, THOMAS, THE REV., one of the most distinguished 

 Welsh scholars of his age, was born on the second of October 1787 at 

 Pencaerelin, in the parish of Llanafan Fawr, near Builth, in Brecknock- 

 shire. His father, the Rev. Rice Price, had originally been a btone- 

 ma<on, but having at the age of seventeen formed an attachment to 

 Itary Bower, the descendant of a long line of clergymen, had acquired 

 by incessant diligence and frugality the means of attending the college- 

 school at Brecknock, and finally obtained ordination from the Bishop of 

 St. Davids, and in 1784 the hand he sought, after a courtship of 

 twenty years. He was so fortunate as afterwards to be presented to 

 three livings, but his income, like that of some other Welsh pluralists, 

 was never believed to exceed fifty pounds a year. He had two sons, 

 both of whom were brought up to the church ; the elder taking his 

 degree at Oxford, while the second, Thomas, was obliged to finish his 

 studies at the college of Brecknock. Welsh was the language the two 

 boys heard constantly in the family, English they acquired at their 

 second ichool, the elements of Latin and Greek were learned subse- 

 quently, and from some French officers, who were prisoners of war at 

 Brecknock, Thomas acquired an excellent knowledge of French. In 

 1812 he received holy orders, and in 1825 after performing for thirteen 

 yean the duties of various curacies near Crickhowel, he was appoint. .1 

 to the vicarage of Cwmdu. This was his last preferment. The rest 

 of his life was passed in Lis professional labours, and in a great variety 

 of voluntary pursuit*. Mr. Price carved in wood, modelled in wax 

 and cork, etched with some skill, could play on the Welsh harp by 

 ear, and bad the honour of presenting a bnrp from his own design to 

 the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 1S43. He made a great number 

 of drawings, some of which were engraved as early as 1809, in Ms 

 friend Thcophilus Jones's ' History of Brecknockshire.' He was a great 

 promoter of the Eisteddfods, or meetings for the cultivation of Welsh 

 poetry, literature, and music, and frequently bore off the prizes. He 

 was looked up to by most of his countrymen with enthusiastic admi- 

 ration as an accomplished champion of his country's language anil litera- 

 ture. His health began to fail somewhat early, and he died at Cwmdu 

 on the 7th of November 1848. 



The best of his English works are collected in the ' Literary Remains 

 of the Rev. Thomas Price, with a Memoir of his Life by Jane Williams, 

 Ysgafell,' 2 volf. Svo, Llandovery, 1854-55. The fint volume contains 

 an account of a ' Tour through Brittany,' made in the summer of 

 1829, written in a lively and agreeable stylo, and peculiarly interesting 

 as containing the observations of one familiar with the language and 

 literature of Wales on the kindred language and literature of Brittany. 

 'An Essay on the Comparative Merits of the Remains of Ancient 

 Literature in the Welsh, Irish, and Gaelic Languages ;' ' An Essay on 

 the Influence which the WeUh Traditions have had on the Literature 

 of Europe;' 'A Critical Esay on the Language and Literature of 

 Wale* from the time of Orufl'ydd np Cynan and Meilyr (in the eleventh 

 century) to that of Sir Gruffydd Llwyd and Owilym Ddu ' (in the four- 

 teenth), make up the remainder of the first volume. The second is 

 entirely occupied with Miss Williams's memoir, which in enlivened 

 with some interesting correspondence, and presents the fullest picture 

 that has yet been drawn of a Welsh literary life. By far the greater 

 part of Mr. Price's literary labours were in his native language : he 

 was contributor to fifteen Welsh periodicals, for one or the other of 

 which he made it a rule to write an article onoo a month, and under 

 such a variety of signatures, that it would now be impracticable to 

 form a collection of the whole. His favourite signature however was 

 ' Carnhuanawc ' (' Man of the Sunny Mound '), which was familiar! v 

 known to every magazine-reader in Wales. His great work in Welsh 

 waa the ' Hancs Cymru a cbenedl y Cymry or Cynoesoedd liyd at 

 Farwolacth Llewelyn ap GrtiHydd ' (' HUtory of Wales and the Welsh 

 Nation from the Early Age* to the Death of Llewelyn ap (jruflydd'), 

 when the country was united with England. It was published in 

 number*, sometime* with long intervals, the first of the fourteen of 



which it consisted appearing in 1830 and the last in 1842, the whole 

 forming a volume of about 800 pages. It luu been pronounced by 

 competent judges the bait history of Wales extant in any language, 

 and it is somewhat singular that no translation ha* yet appeared in 

 English. The omission may serve in some degree to justify the com- 

 plaint which Mr. Price was accustomed to make " of the extraordinary 

 neglect of Welsh literature and total ignorance of 1'ritish history 

 prevailing in England, and the consequent contempt evinced by the 

 English for everything relating to Wales, in contradistinction to the 

 high appreciation of Welsh literature shown on the Con'' 

 especially in Germany, and the superior knowledge and desiro for 

 information on all subjects connected with the principality by German 

 scholars." 



On the subject of hit native language Mr. Price was so enthusiastic 

 that his feeling* sometimes outran his judgment. At the Eit< 

 at Welshpool, in 1824, he exclaims, in an oration in the 

 language, " We are told our language cannot last ; but let them 

 inform us what language will last, and we will instantly adopt it 

 When we are chafed and goaded to it when we are taunted with the 

 extinction of our native tongue shall we not reply 1 shall we i 

 that we likewise perceive the seeds of decay in the English ! Who 

 can tell but that when the present English sleep* with the Latin, the 

 Saxon, and the Norman-French, the accents of our mountain tongue 

 may yet rouse some remains of the Britons to patriotism and glory." 

 Most Englishmen, we believe, who have urged the adoption ( ill- 

 English language in Wales, have supported the measure not on the 

 ground of its supposed superior duration in the future, but of its 

 evident superior usefulness iu the present. 



A notion of Mr. Price's, to which he appears to have attached con- 

 siderable importance, was, after communicating it to the ' Athenrcuin' 

 and the ' AlUemeine Zeitung,' made the subject of a separate publi- 

 cation, ' The Geographical Progress of Empire and Civilisation ' i I. Ian- 

 dovery, 1847-48). Every one is familiar with the idea of the 'westward 

 progress of empire,' which the Americans are so fond of quoting from 

 Bishop Berkeley's fine stanzas ; but Mr. Price fancied he had made a 

 discovery, " that the average rate of progress corresponds with th it of 

 the retrogradation of the equinoctial points, which is 60 seconds and 

 a fraction in a year, or a degree in 72 years, something short of a 

 British mile, subject to periodical retardations and accelerations." 

 " The focus, or pole, was in 1847," according to his speculations, 

 " located iu the northern portion of this island, near the Frith of Forth 

 in Scotland, moving in the direction of the Solway Frith at the rate of 

 four miles a year." On the whole, Mr. Price's works arc more remark- 

 able for vigour, animation, and learning, than for sound judgment. 



PRICE, SIR UVEDALK, was burn in 1747, of an ancient \\M-li 

 family, which had settled at Foxlcy in Herefordshire some years pre- 

 viously. In 1761 his father died, and he succeeded to his estates. He 

 had been educated at Oxford, and in 17SO he published a translation 

 from the Greek of 1'atieauias of ' An Account of the Statues, Pictures, 

 and Temples in Greece.' His next work, and the one on which hi* 

 reputation chiefly rests, was ' An Essay on the Picturesque, as com- 

 pared with the Sublime and the Beautiful ; and on the Use of Studying 

 Pictures for the Purpose of Improving Real Landscape,' first published 

 in 1794. A second edition was issued in 1796, and a third, coi 

 ably enlarged, in 2 vols. in 1797 and 1798. It was principally c<: 

 to the department of landscape gardening, and developed a purer and 

 more cultivated taste than that introduced by the practice of llrn. n 

 and Rcptou, who were then iu fashion as layers-out of grounds. The 

 publication involved him in a controversy with Mr. Hepton, to whose 

 letter he replied at some length in 'A Letter to 11. Kqiton, Esq., on 

 the Application of the Practice as well as the Principles of Landscape 

 Painting to Landscape Gardening,' issued in 1795. He also published 

 in 1801 'A Dialogue on the Distinct Character of the Picturesque and 

 Beautiful, in Answer to the Objections of Mr. [Payne] Knight, pi 

 by an Introductory Essay on Beauty ; with Remarks on the Ideas of Sir 

 Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Burke upon that subject' A new edition of 

 these works, collected in one volume, was published by Sir T. 1 ). I 

 in 1842. In 1797 Mr. Price published a pamphlet entitled ' Thoughts 

 on the Defence of Property;' and in 1798 'Two Appendixes to an 

 Essay on Designs in Gardening, by George Mason.' In 1827 'An 

 Essay on the Modern Pronunciation of the Greek and Latin Languages' 

 was published by him at Oxford, in which he endeavours to show that 

 the pronunciation taught iu our educational establishments is altogether 

 erroneous. In this work bo says ho had the assistance of Mr. Knight 

 and of Dr. Parr. In 1828 he was created a baronet, and on September 

 11, 1829, he died at his residence at Foxley. 



I'UICMAUn, JAMES COWLES, an eminent ethnologist, was bora 

 at Koss in Herefordshire in the year 1785. He was educated for tho 

 medical profession, and took his degree of M.IX at Edinburgh. Ho 

 chose for the subject of his inaugural thesis the physical history of 

 mankind. Thin seems to have determined the current of his thoughts 

 throughout life, for he subsequently became distinguished as one of 

 the most laborious ethnologists of his dny. He commenced the practice 

 of his profession at Bristol, and in 1810 was appointed rihyj-ician to 

 the Clifton Dispensary and St Peter's Hospital. He also had a private 

 dispensary, to which he devoted considerable attention. Although 

 much engaged with hU professional duties, he still kept the subject of 

 hi* inaugural thesis before hi* miiid, and in 1813 he published his 



