THE WELSH DEE 



the gentleman's name in some of my researches.' 

 This was enough and more than enough. 



Ultimately the late Dr. Evelyn Abbot of Oxford, 

 then editing for Messrs. Putnam their ' Heroes of 

 Nations ' series, took a different, and, as it proved, a 

 shrewder view of my representations. And the 

 Anglo-American publishing house have not, I am 

 happy to say, had cause to regret it. In forecasting a 

 popular subject the publisher is generally right and 

 the enthusiastic author generally wrong, but there 

 are exceptions, and this was one. It was not to be 

 expected, however, that eminent publishers should 

 know very much about the mysterious heart of Wales 

 and its unproven attitude towards the biography of a 

 national hero. Perhaps I didn't know a very great 

 deal, but I knew more than they did, though they 

 would not believe it. I did misdoubt however, and 

 naturally, the native attitude towards the intrusion 

 of a Sassenach into this holy of holies though they 

 had shirked it themselves. But in this I did an in- 

 justice to a generous people, for nothing could have 

 been nicer than the way in which this little offering 

 of an alien to their national literature was accepted 

 by scholars, professors, antiquarians, and schoolmasters, 

 as well as by the unlearned masses. Even New 

 Englanders and Pennsylvanians were persuaded by 

 Messrs. Putnam to take an interest in Owen. So all 

 was well and more than well. 



And all this came about from fishing, communicated, 

 so to speak, by the trout of Owen's own river, and the 

 atmosphere which, thanks no doubt to the magical 

 personality which all contemporary England believed 



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