Meantime, fair one, thou carest not Tho' thine the hand which dealt the blow, Freed from them, tho' with grief I burn, With laurels crowned, my golden lyre I've struck, and, filled with love's glad fire, Yet no, beloved! this cannot be ; Drayton Rectory, Norwich. AGNES R. HOWELL. LITERATURE, ART, AND ARCHEOLOGY OF THE MONTH. A public library has just been opened at Llangollen, North Wales, to which upwards of one thousand volumes have been presented, about two hundred and fifty of them being contributed by Sir Theodore Martin, author of the Life of the Prince Consort, joint author with Professor Aytoun of the well-known Bon Gautier Ballads, a gentleman who, with his wife (Helen Faucit, the actress, herself an authoress), has taken up his permanent abode near the town. A second edition is to be published soon of A History of Ancient Alban, by W. F. Skene, in three volumes:-1. "History and Ethnology;" 2. "Church and Culture;" 3. "Land and People." A new edition is announced of the celebrated book called Y Bardd Cwsg, or The Sleeping Bard, containing the vision of the world, heaven, and hell. The author, the Rev. Ellis Wynne, was born in 1671, and died in 1734, and lived in an old manor near Harlech Marsh, called The Lasynys. It is an interesting old book and written in good, vigorous Welsh. Also a new edition is to be published at the beginning of 1887 of the poetical works of Williams, Pantycelyn, with the exception of the hymns, with a biography and critical estimate of his works, edited by the Rev. N. Cynhafal Jones. Madame Patti has been attracting immense audiences in the States. At Philadelphia the Welsh-born citizens presented her with two silver vases about two feet high. The chairman of their committee said to her :-We simply pray that Almighty God will bless you with peace and plenty, and that your days in beautiful Craig-y-Nos Castle may be brighter and brighter until you are called to sing the sweet songs of Zion in that blessed hereafter, where the harps of gold will gladly welcome "Duw a'ch bendithio chwi." you. The net surplus of the Carnarvon National Eisteddfod is stated to be sixty pounds odd. The committee have decided to make a donation of thirty pounds to the National Eisteddfod Association, the balance being applied to the funds of the Carnarvon Literary and Scientific Institute. The death is announced of the Rev. Evan Evans, a Nonconformist minister, generally known throughout the Principality by the name of "Evans, Nantyglo." Mr. Evans, who had been for more than half a century a prominent figure in Welsh public life, visited the United States some years ago, and recently died there, at his daughter's house in Arkansas, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. He was the author of a number of books in the vernacular, and his two volumes of printed sermons, Doctrine and Duty, have ranked high among the publications of Welsh Dissent. At the time of his decease he was engaged in writing "Reminiscences of Eighty Years' Changes in Welsh Life," a number of articles which have appeared in Cyfaill yr Aelwyd, edited by his son, Mr. Beriah Gwynfe Evans. At the Utica Eisteddfod held on New Year's Day, the prize of fifty dollars and a carved oak chair, of the value of one hundred dollars, for the best poem on the "Tower of London," was awarded to the well-known bard "Dyfed" (the Rev. E. Rees), of Cardiff. This is the seventh bardic chair won by this the most promising among the younger generation of Welsh bards. Mr. Robert John Pryce ("Gweirydd ap Rhys "), the wellknown linguist, historian, compiler of Welsh-English and English-Welsh dictionaries, vocabularies, &c., has just been informed that a grant of one hundred and fifty pounds from the Royal Bounty Fund is about to be made to him. Mr. Pryce, who is eighty-one years of age, has done most useful work for his country during his long, laborious, and exemplary life. The seventy-third district in Republic county, Kansas, will be represented in the next United States Legislature by Mr. Gomer T. Davies, editor and proprietor of the Republic City News, probably the only Welsh speaking member in the whole body. Mr Davies is a native of Pontypridd, Glamorganshire, where he was born January 25th, 1855. The death is announced of Iolo Trefaldwyn, a well-known "penillion" singer and bard, whose poem upon "Light" won the chair prize at the Liverpool Gordovic Eisteddfod. He was expected to take a leading part in the organisation of the Wrexham National Eisteddfod of 1888. Professor Rhys and Mr. J. Gwenogfryn Evans have finally revised the first volume of their old Welsh texts. It contains the "Mabinogion" of Pwyll, Branwen, Manuwyddan, and Math, the Welsh Sagas, entitled "Maxen's Dream; "the Adventures of Lludd and Llevelys; How Kulhwch won Olwen, and Rhonabwy's Dream; the Arthurian Romances of Owein and Lunet, Peredur, Geraint, and Enid, and the historical and mythical triads, with a full index and a list of subscribers. The issue is limited to five hundred copies. Mr. Edwards Laws, Tenby, an old contributor to the National Magazine, has sent to the press a contribution to the history of Pembrokeshire from the earliest times. It will be "profusely illustrated," and is to be issued from the same press, at Tenby, as The History and Antiquities of St. David's, by the present bishop of the diocese and Mr. E. A. Freeman. The death of Mr. Mark Anthony, a landscape painter of considerable merit, is recorded in a recent number of the Graphic among those of men of note lately deceased. Mr. Anthony was the son of a draper at Cowbridge, and in early life was apprenticed in that town to an apothecary of the name of Harrison. He always manifested a greater liking for the brush and palette than he did for the mixing of medicine, and at the expiration of his term went to London to study art. In early life he was the companion and friend of the late Alderman Alexander and Mr. John Bird, of Cardiff. As a memento of his Parliamentary representation of the Carnarvonshire Boroughs, Sir Love Jones-Parry, Bart., has presented the Corporation with the replica of its ancient seal, set in solid silver, and bearing a suitable inscription. An excellent bronze medallion of the Rev. John Griffith, late rector of Merthyr, has been produced by Mr. Bertie Harris, son of Mr. Harris, artist, Merthyr. For vigour of execution and faithfulness of portraiture it is deserving of great credit, and promises well for the young artist-sculptor. The Rev. Thomas Morgan, minister of Caersalem Baptist Chapel, Dowlais, has forwarded to Mr. Gladstone a copy of his work on "Names and Places in Wales and Monmouthshire," announced some time ago in the Red Dragon as being on the eve of publication. The writer having asked the ex-Prime Minister's consent to have the work dedicated to him, has received the following reply :-"The subject of your work is of high interest. I hope it will be beneficial in giving yet more life to the self-consciousness of the Welsh as a people. I do not feel myself worthy or proper to receive the dedication, notwithstanding. With thanks, I beg you to use your own free discretion." We have to thank Mr. Alfred Mee, Llanelly, for a nicely bound copy of his really interesting and readable" South Wales Press Almanack," now in its second year of issue. The strong feature of this publication is its calendar of events notable in Welsh and in local history. As the conductor of a magazine from which everything of a controversial nature in religion or politics is rigidly excluded, we last year hesitated somewhat, on account of the colouring it contained, in recommending this calendar to a general acceptance. Mr. Mee took our advice in thoroughly good part, the result being a most marked improvement in both the form and the matter of the calendar, which we can now most cordially commend to the notice of everybody who takes the slightest interest in Welsh history. We read through the whole of Mr. Mee's "fifteen hundred interesting events," pleased with the occupation, and grateful to the compiler for the chance of brushing up our memory from the pretty considerable store of cobweb which had accumulated there. Notes and Queries. [CONFINED TO MATTERS RELATING TO WALES AND THE BORDER COUNTIES.] NOTES. UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF IOLO MORGANWG.-Considerable interest was shown in the pages of the National Magazine for 1886 in regard to the exact year of the birth of this famous character, and in the details (mostly apocryphal) of his career. I forward you what I believe to be a hitherto unpublished letter of Iolo's, extracted from the British Museum, Additional MSS. 15024, folio 183, et seq. Much injudicious praise has been lavished upon one of the most extraordinary men of his time; but his more sterling virtues, his long and persistent efforts at self improvement, his love of literature, his unwearied journeyings in the search after the manuscript treasures of his country, his inextinguishable zeal-often without knowledge, as is that of every man who is enthusiastic in his labours--have never received their due acknowledgment. The following letter appears to have been written at the outset of his acquaintanceship with Mr. Owen Jones (Myfyr), to whom he seems to have been recommended by Mr. Walters, rector of Llandough, Glamorganshire, though it apparently is not the first of the series scattered in almost hopeless confusion through the volumes presented by the old Cymmrodorion Society of London to the British Museum. I need hardly add that the remarks of such a competent critic as Iolo upon questions of Cymric dialects, and upon mediæval and modern Welsh poetry, will be sure to be welcomed and carefully regarded by all who make those and kindred subjects their study. Dear Sir, I have not yet had an opportunity of going to Sandwich for my Books, which is the cause of my not writing to you till now. I had by me the first rough copy of Cywydd y Daran, which I have improved as well as I was able, and here you have it enclosed, with a little English piece of mine (for want of better matter) to fill the sheet, it was wrote at the desire of a friend at Sandwich who was married last May-day. The Cywydd is much too long, I think, indeed I am very apt to be superfluously prolix on every subject. If you, and my ingenious countrymen of your acquaintance, would be pleased to take the trouble of pointing out its imperfections, what might be retrenched, where amendments and improvements in the conduct of it would be necessary, and what its errors of Language and versification, I should esteem it a very great favour: there are in the Cywydd some words and phrases that are, I think, peculiar to the Silurian dialect (Gwenhwysig) as Lluched, lightening, Llaidd, smooth, delicate, Rha (substantive) in the compound Rhuawr, Bel, war, tumult, whence hyfel (from Rh, which see in Richards, and Bel, and Bela, to wrangle, which are also in Richards). Some may say that Bêl is a corruption of the Latin Bellum, but Beli (Belinus), derived from Bel, signifying warrior, hero, or the like, was a name amongst the Britons and Gauls, long before the Roman Conquest-besides the Latin is evidently of Celtic extraction. I think I could put this in a stronger point of light than any have done hitherto. Perhaps you think this a bold assertion but to return to the Silurian words, I think the use I have made of the few in my Cywydd as they are, I think, purely Welsh, cannot be objected to. The North Wales Poets have always taken a liberty, bordering on unwarrantable licentiousness, of using their local words and phrases in their works, certainly a |