The Rev. Thomas Price, another eminent Welsh antiquary, was a much safer and more candid guide than most of those who have been equally enthusiastic in the cause of his country's language and litera ture. He observed, in his Hanes Cymru,' while praising the care which had been taken to collect and print all the alleged productions of the primitive bards in the Myvyrian Archaiology, that it was only necessary to turn over the pages to see that some of the pieces did not, and could not, belong to the names they were ascribed to, and he acknowledged the difficulties with regard to the Historic Triads' and other documents, which are often quoted by others without a hint of unsoundness. Thomas Price was, like Edward Williams, the son of a stonemason, but of a stonemason who, having formed an attachment to a clergyman's daughter, had qualified himself to become a clergyman, and died a Welsh pluralist with a salary of fifty pounds a year. Mr. Price himself, who was born in 1787, and died in 1948, at the age of sixty-one, rose no higher in the church than to the vicarage of Cwmdu. He was so indefatigable a writer in Welsh periodicals, chiefly under the signature of " Caruhuanawc," that he contributed to fifteen, and wrote an article for one or the other of them every month. His chief production in Welsh is the Hanes Cymru a chenedl y Cymry ' (pub lished in numbers between 1836 and 18421, a History of Wales and the Welsh nation from the earliest times to the death of Llewellyn,' after which it is indeed continued, but on a very meagre scale. It is the only history of Wales in Welsh at all commensurate in size and importance with the histories of Wales in English by Warrington and Woodward. It comprises not only a political, but a literary history of the country during most of the period that it embraces, and well merits a translation. The best of his English works are collected iu the Literary Remains of the Rev. Thomas Price, with a Memoir of his Life by Jane Williams,' in two volumes (1854-55), the corre spondence in which presents, it has been remarked, the fullest picture yet drawn of a Welsh literary life.
One of the few instances of Welsh scholars who have obtained dis tinction in some other walk is afforded by the Rev. John Williams, archdeacon of Cardigan, author of Homer' and Gomez.; the former a treatise on the Greek poet, and the latter on the Welsh language. Born in 1792, and sent from the school at Ludlow to Balliol College, Oxford, Williams was fortunate enough to meet with Lockhart as a fellow-student, and to form a friendship with him which influenced his whole future career. Recommended by Lockhart as tutor to the second son of Sir Walter Scott, he obtained, by Sir Walter's support, in 1824, the rectorship of the new Edinburgh Academy, a sort of rival to the old High School and formed one of the circle of the great poet and romancer, over whose remains he finally read the funeral service in Dryburgh Abbey. His success as a teacher was marked, and the first Dux' in his school was Archibald Tait, the present bishop of London. After twenty years of life in Scotland, he returned to Wales, to the vicarage of Lampeter and the archdeaconry of Cardigan, and continued a career of authorship till his death at Bushey Heath in December, 1859. His best known work was a life of Alexander the Great, and as archdeacon of Cardigan, his ecclesiastical superior was the Bishop of St. David's, Dr. Connop Thirlwall, author of the celebrated History of Greece.' Both bishop and archdeacon were also Welsh scholars ; but Thirlwall acquired the language after his accession to the bishopric ; Williams had always been noted for his attachment to his country's language and literature, and was zealous in Scotland for the honour of Wales. His writings on Welsh subjects, however, did not raise his reputation. In ' Gorner,' a dissertation on the early forms and history of the language, he expressed himself with such positiveness on doubt ful subjects, and such vehemence on unimportant ones, as to weaken his authority. He had announced a translation of the poems of
Aneurin, Taliesin, and the other primitive bards, with a critical revision and re-establishment of the text, which was looked for with much in terest; but though tho announcement was made in 1841, nothing had been done towards carrying it out at his death in 1858.
Among the most eminent of living Welsh antiquaries is another John Williams, the Rev. John Williams ab Ithel, rector of Llanymowddwy, Merionethshire, and editor of the Cambrian Journal,' gainer of the prizes at numerous Eisteddvods, and author of numerous works on Cambrian subjects. Ab Ithel is an ardent believer in the discoveries and disclosures of the last seventy years, with regard to Cambrian history. In the year 1856 he edited, for the Welsh Manuscript Society, the Grammar of Edeyrn the Golden Tongued,' said to be composed about the year 1270, and to which Mr. Williams added a translation and copious notes. The first note is as follows :—" The British alphabet is said to be of divine origin. God in the beginning announced His name, and said /I , whereupon all things sprang simul taneously into life and being, and responded in a shout of extatic joy, /1‘. At the same time there appeared three rays of light, forming the divine name and the three first letters, which were also the source of all letters and sciences. Einigan Gawr, who was favoured with this sight, took three rods of mountain ash, and inscribed upon them the name of the Deity, but the people that saw them mistook the rods, thus bearing His name, for God himself, which caused Einigan to die of grief. (See Coelbren y Beirdd, pp. 6, 7, Iolo Manuscripts, p. 424.) After his decease, Menw ap y Teirgwaedd received a knowledge of the primary alphabet, and developed it, as it would seem, to the extent of ten letters. These letters, or, as they were originally termed, awgrym man (signs), coelbrai (omen-marks), or ystorrynau (cuttings), were kept a secret by the Bards until the time of Beli Mawr, or, as Llywelyn Sion says, even unto his own day. (Ielo Manuscripts, pp. 617, 618, 623.)" As Llewelyn Sion, of Llangewyd, of whom we have so often had occasion to speak, died about the year 1616, it must be ac knowledged that this was the best kept secret on record. Mr. Williams, it will bo observed, speaks of these statements, in regard to the British alphabet, not u the dreams of insanity, but an disclosures to be received with re•pect Ile adopts the same serious tone in the preface to the ' Brut, y Tywysogion, or the Chronicle of the Princes,' edited by him hi 1860, and ' published by the authority of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls.' " The voice of tradition," he begins, " would not lead us to suppose that the ancient Britons paid any very particular attention to the study of chronology previous to the era of Prydain, son of Aedd the Great, which is variously dated from the year 1780 to 480 before the nativity of Christ." The remarks which follow are of a similar character. Ab Ithel is now (1b61) publishing' The Traditionary Annals of the Cyrory ; reprinted from the Cambrian Journal,' in which many of the etatenients are based on the manuscript of Llewelyn Sion, and many others on what are simply quoted as " unpublished manuscripts." A more complete contrast to Ab Ithel, in the character of his criticism, can hardly be imagined than Mr. Thomas Stephens, of Merthyr-Tydvil. acknowledged even by his opponents to be one of the first of living Welsh scholars. In his ' Studies on British Bio graphy,' printed in the ' Cambrian Journal' in which the editor is in the habit of speaking of Prydain ab Aedd Mawr as a personage as historical as Llewelyn ab Jorwerth, or William the Conqueror, Mr.