222 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. XIV] 



is hospitable even to the Saxon. His fire, a jug of milk, and bread and 

 cheese being always at your service. He works hard and lives poorly. 

 He bears misfortune and injury long before he complains. The late 

 Rebecca disturbances, however, show that he may be roused, and his 

 ignorance of other effectual measures should be his excuse for the illegal 

 and forcible means he took to obtain redress — means which, moreover, 

 have been justified by success. It is to be hoped that he will not have 

 again to resort to such outrages as the only way to compel his rulers to 

 do him justice. 



A broader system of education is much needed in the Principality. 

 Almost all the schools, it is true, teach the English language, but the 

 child finds the difficulty of acquiring even the first rudiments of education 

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

 he has perhaps only picked up a few common-place 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, therefore, 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, showing 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 interesting 

 a part of our island, a part 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 inhabitants of the little 

 white-washed cottages which enliven its sunny vales and barren mountain 

 slopes. 



