ᏢᎪᏩᎬ. Avebury and Stonehenge, The Monuments of. By J. H. Crawshay, William. By the Editor Abergavenny and its Environs. By Gladys BIOGRAPHY-with Portraits Foley, Admiral Sir Thomas. By J.B.H. ... Jones, Rev. Canon Powell, B.D. By J. Wyndham Lewis Rees, Rev. W., D.D. (Hiraethog). By Hiraethus ar ol Hiraethog Thomas, Daniel. By the Editor Williams, Roger. By Tal-a-Hên Cardiff, Reminiscences of. By John. Howells Carlyle's Holidays in Wales. By John Howells 523 505 289 97, 193 481 385 269 218 333, 461, 553 Funeral Customs of Wales. By W.R.H. Glamorgan Revel, The. By John Howells 95, 192, 286, 381, 478, 573 Gleanings of Social History from the Old Laws. By the Editor Gower, Caves and Castles of. By C. H. Perkins Grammar, An Old. By Charles Hanbury Williams "Hamlet." By John Jones Huntsman's Leap. By Howell Davies 351 434 130 513 309 449 153, 255 57, 163, 247, 342, 454 537 327 Leaves from a Criminal Note Book (with illustrations). By Merlin 87, 185, 280, 375, 470, 564 92, 189, 252, 378, 474, 568 London's True Drinking Fountain. By R. D. Green Price My Professor. A Woman's Love Story. By E. P. On the Point of a Pin. By Ruby To the Lark. By Dafydd ap Gwilym. Translated by A. J. Johnes Loves of Edith and Ronald. By Eliza Vaughan..... Storming of Moirosi's Mountain. By Welshman PAGE. 429 370 By Frederick Cooper 143 By J.H. 505 274 441 Tanwyn, an old Welsh Legend. By C. E. O. 264 367 The Cardiganshire Herring Dealer... 76 180 271 32, 237, 323 WELSH CHARACTER SKETCHES-with Illustrations.. By Ap Adda. The Welsh Farmer The Old Welsh Stocking Knitter Welsh Members of Former Administrations Welsh Poetry in English Dress Welsh Sculpture at the Cardiff Exhibition. By Jeannie Jones What Cannot Love Do? A Tale of Two Friends. By John Saunders 19, 119, 206, 293, 403, 488 6268 NOTABLE MEN OF WALES. ROGER WILLIAMS. According to a Welsh proverb, "Every country breeds brave men," and "little Wales" has bred a few, certainly not many if tested by an imperial gauge, but a multitude, which it would take some considerable time to count if tried by local and national measure. Of this host many might have been advantageously known beyond Offa's Dyke if they had not been "cribbed, cabined, and confined" by their own language, which restricted to a narrow strip of land the service of brain, tongue, and pen. One of the most effectual barriers between nations is language, an invisible fence, not made with hands, yet insurmountable. One of the many evils produced by the isolation it creates is the tendency to worship idols, and to miss the expansion and elevation begotten of intercourse with life-giving and inspiring god-men. Of the few-very few, alas !-of Wales's brave great men, the majority of Welsh people know little more than their names, and some not even that much, although they can be counted on the fingers of one's hand. John Penry, the initial founder of the American Republic; Roger Williams, the first man who legislated for freedom of conscience in matters of religion; James Howell, the author of "Familiar Letters ;" and John Rowland, better known as Henry M. Stanley, the celebrated African traveller and discovererthese four, taking timely advantage of "a tide" in their surroundings, were carried by "the flood" to heights of distinction not otherwise to be reached. The biography of great men is, as a rule, tantalisingly brief. The most condensed is that of Enoch, which could have been inscribed on his tombstone-" And Enoch walked with God, and he was not: for God took him." Of markless (dinôd) men who write their names on the sand, speedily to be erased, there are bulky memoirs containing, among other equally perishable items, long lists of all the ills and ailments to which their vulgar flesh was heir, chronologically registered, and which to peruse would constitute very severe penal servitude, and which to endure, without curses loud and deep, a larger measure of Job's proverbial grace than that grand old A philosopher-poet ever had any occasion to call to his aid. Utterly unavailing contests with death's chief obliterator, Oblivion, are these petty biographies of petty men, engaged in petty work, and on a petty scale. Far better is it to go "down into silence" as a voluntary act, and thus cheerfully anticipate the inevitable fate awaiting the majority of men and women. Ceiriog is right when he says that the It is a somewhat singular, and perhaps significant, fact that nine of the greatest benefactors Wales has had since the establishment of the Protestant Reformation may be formed into groups of three as to dates of birth and places of residence. At Cefnbrith, a farmhouse to the north-east of Llandovery, and within twelve miles of it, was born, in the year 1559, the martyr John Penry; and twenty years later, in 1579, was born at Llandovery the eminent Rhys Prichard, who was fourteen years old when Penry suffered. In 1606, four years after Prichard had commenced his public ministry, there was born at Maestroiddynfawr, in the parish of Conwil Gaio, about fourteen miles to the south-west of Llandovery, Roger Williams, the subject of this biographical sketch. Group the second consists of the learned translators of the Scriptures into the Welsh language, namely, Bishops Morgan and Davies, with the scholarly layman, William Salesbury--all three connected, either by birth or residence, with the lovely valley of the Conway. Group the third consists of the first systematic teachers of the Principality, namely, Griffith Jones, of Llanddowror, Thomas Charles, and William Bevan - all three connected, either by birth or residence, with the neighbourhood of St. Clears. It was indirectly by his efforts, in setting up a boundary fence between the provinces of civil and Christian law, that Williams may be said to have served his native country. His advanced views on this subject have, however, become the common property of all separatists from all churches established by Parliamentary law. Who and what was Roger Williams? How came he to emigrate to America? Why was he persecuted in that boasted land of liberty, and by the Puritans above all other people, since they themselves had fled thither in consequence of the persecution which they had suffered in England? And what was there in his conduct as the founder of Rhode Island State which entitles him to thankful mention, and the unqualified admiration of all advocates of freedom of opinion in matters of religion? To answer these questions as fully as is compatible with the limited space allotted to magazine articles is the object of the following biographical sketch. Roger Williams *It is the markless (nameless ?) who die." |