2.22. MY LIFE 



child finds the difficulty of acquiring even the first rudiments of educa- 

 tion much increased by his being taught them in an unfamiliar tongue of 

 which he has perhaps only picked up a few commonplace expressions. 

 In arithmetic, the new language presents a greater difficulty, the method 

 of enumerating being different from their own; in fact, many Welsh 

 children who have been to school cannot answer a simple question in 

 arithmetic till they have first translated it into Welsh. Unless, there- 

 fore, they happen to be thrown among English people or are more than 

 usually well instructed, they get on but little with anything more than 

 speaking English, which those who have been to school generally do very 

 well. Whatever else they have learnt is soon lost for want of practice. 

 It would be very useful to translate some of the more useful elementary 

 works in the different branches of knowledge into Welsh, and sell them 

 as cheaply as possible. The few little Welsh books to be had (and they 

 are very few) are eagerly purchased and read with great pleasure, show- 

 ing that if the means of acquiring knowledge are offered him, the 

 Welshman will not refuse them. 



I will now conclude this brief account of the inhabitants of so inter- 

 esting a part of our island, a part of which will well repay the trouble 

 of a visit, as much for its lovely vales, noble mountains, and foaming 

 cascades, as for the old customs and still older language of the in- 

 habitants of the little white-washed cottages which enliven its sunny 

 vales and barren mountain slopes. 



