610 HEPORT — 1880. 



metallurgical industries -which are centred in this county. The temptation of 

 hio'h wages, offered in seasons of prosperity, lias attracted hither a large number 

 of settlers from different parts of the United Kingdom. Occasionally, too, recourse 

 has heen had to the technical skill of foreigners ; and thus ethnical elements have 

 been introduced, to a limited extent, from outside the British Isles. Even the 

 typical industries of the district have not always been of indigenous growth. 

 Colonel Grant- Francis, who acted at the Swansea meeting of 1848 as secretary to 

 the ethnological sub-section, the equivalent of our present anthropological depart- 

 ment, has written an interesting history of Welsh copper-smelting,' — an industry 

 which is pre-eminently characteristic of the Swansea district. It appears from 

 this historical sketch that the art was introduced in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 

 by * that very honest and skUfuU man,' Ulricke Frosse, and his ' Right worshipfull 

 and very singuler good M'r," Thomas Smith. The verj^ names mentioned here as 

 those of the founders of the industry indicate a commingling of nationalities which 

 is typical of what so frequently occurs in our great manufacturing districts, to the 

 undeniable benefit of society at large, but nevertheless to the embarrassment of the 

 anthropologist. 



It is worth while noting that the movement of population towards South 

 Wales has been mainly determined by the geological structure of the district. It 

 was the occurrence of coal that originally tempted Ulricke Frosse to bring his cargo 

 of copper-ore across from Cornwall to be smelted in the Vale of Neath ; and it is 

 still the working of coal which maintains the local industries and supports the 

 vast population of Glamorganshire. The connection between the geological struc- 

 ture of a district and the social and ethnic characteristics of its inhabitants has 

 been recognized by no one more clearly than by the distinguished geologist who 

 is presiding over the present meeting of this Association. - 



Had it not been for the abundant occurrence of coal and iron ores in South 

 Wales, the land of Morganwg might have been at the present day a peaceful agri- 

 cidtural district. But even then the ethnologist would have found it hard to study 

 the racial characteristics of its native population aloof from all disturbing in- 

 fluences. For it is matter of history that as far back as the twelfth century 

 South Wales was colonized at several points by Flemish settlers. Most of these 

 colonists settled in Pembrokeshire, where they helped to disturb the ethnology of 

 the county, and ultimately obliterated from certain districts most of the Welsh 

 characteristics.^ Their Low-Dutch speech would be readily assimilated with the 

 English, while it refused to blend with the Welsh, and thus the English-speaking 

 people remained sharply separated from their Welsh-speaking neighbours — the 

 ' Englishry ' distinct from the ' Welshery.' Possibly the Teutonic element may be 

 partly due to an earlier settlement of Northmen.' Camden mentions the English- 

 speaking part of Pembrokeshire under the name of Anglia Transivalliana, and 

 everyone knows that it is still referred to as ' Little England beyond Wales.' 



It is generally supposed that what took place in Pembrokeshire was repeated 

 on a smaller scale in the promontory of Gower, and thus it happens that we still 

 find ' Flemings ' in the immediate neighbourhood of Swansea. The EngUsh- 

 speaking people of Gower,^ composed probably of Norse, Flemish, Norman, and 

 English elements, were so distinct from the neighbouring Welsh, that the districts 



' ' The Smelting of Copper in the Swansea District, from the Time of Elizabeth 

 to the Present Day.' Printed from the Camhrianior: private circulation. Swansea : 

 1867. 



- One of the most charming chapters of Professor Ramsay's Physical Oeolor/ij and 

 Geography of Great Britain is devoted to this subject, and especially to the Ethno- 

 logy of Wales. 



" ' In the swaynes and labourers of the countrey you may often trace a Flemish 

 origin.' So wrote the observing antiquary, George Owen, two centm-ies and a half 

 ago, as quoted by Fenton in his HigtoHoal Tour through Pembroheskire. 



* The Land of Morgan. By G. T. Clark, Esq. Archceological Journal, vol. xxxiv. 

 1877, p. 18. On the occupation of Gower by the Danes, see A History of West Goiver, 

 by the Rev. J. D. Davies, M.A., 1877, Part 1, chap. ii. p. 16. 



' The vocabulary of Gower is said to contain no exclusively Flemish elements. 

 See Dr. Latham's English Language, vol. i. 4th ed. p. 424. 



