8 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR 



tion, he entered Lampeter College, where he 

 spent two years, at the close of which he 

 emerged as the best man of his year. Pro- 

 fessor Hugh Walker has written the following 

 appreciation of his Lampeter career : 



LAMPETER, 



13th July, 1919. 



Mr. T. A. W. Rees matriculated at St. David's College 

 in October, 1906. At that time I had read none ot his 

 writings, but I knew that he was the author of a volume 

 published by Murray, and I looked forward with interes 

 to his essays. They were at first so feeble and so ill- 

 expressed that my interest in Rees's writings withered 

 and, as I believed, died. Towards the end of his first 

 term, however, a friend handed me lanto the Fisherman 

 and asked me to read it. I took the volume without 

 enthusiasm, sat down by my fire and began to read. 

 At once I was fascinated, and I read on without a pause 

 until I had finished the book. I naturally asked Rees 

 for an explanation of the singular fact that for me he 

 wrote drivel, and drivel that could hardly be called 

 English of even the humblest sort, while in his published 

 writings he showed himself not merely an accomplished 

 naturalist but a master of style. His reply was that 

 when he wrote lanto the Fisherman he chose his own 

 subject, wrote in his own study and was undistracted 

 by the slightest noise. The College essays were of the 

 nature of exercises in the art of being examined. The 

 subjects were dictated, the men were gathered together 



