466
NOTES AND QUERIES. [* s. m. JUNE 17,
to Tudur Aled, William Salesbury, Henry
Rees, Gwilym Hiraethog, and lorwer.th Glan
Aled. Tudur Aled, who was born in 1470,
was the last of the great cycle of Welsh bards
which began with Dafydd ap Gwilym :
" Many writers have erroneously placed the birth of William Salesbury (1520-1600) at Plas Isaf, Llanwrst, the chief residence alike of his parents and himself, but he was probably born at Cae Du, Llansannan......Iu all probability the earliest ex- tant book printed in Welsh was the production of Salesbury, for his 'Oil Synwyr Pen Cymro' ('A Welshman's Proverbs ') is declared by the best authority to have been published in 1546. At any rate, only one copy of the collection he helped to edit is known ; it lies at Shirburn Castle, in the Earl of Macclesfield's collection. No doubt exists, however, that the dictionary issued by Salesbury in 1547, a quarto volume printed in London, was the first Welsh and English dictionary, and, as ex- plained in a dedication addressed to Henry VIII., was intended to facilitate the acquisition of Eng- lish by Welshmen. At a time when most of his educated countrymen thought it best that the Welsh language should be allowed to die as soon as possible, Salesbury desired to see Wales converted into a bilingual nation, and in this respect may be said to have pioneered the modern movement of
Young Wales After the Act of Parliament passed
in the reign of Elizabeth, charging the bishops of the Welsh sees and of Hereford to have the Bible and Common Prayer translated into Welsh, those ecclesiastical dignitaries entrusted the work to
Salesbury Skilled in no less than nine languages,
the Llansannan worthy, who died in 1600, seems to have grasped the value of the comparative method in studying languages, and to have been a pioneer in the science of philology. In his later years he was busily engaged in scientific and antiquarian studies. He had some ambition to rank as a poet, published a work on botany, and constructed an automatic mill."
Of the brothers Rees, the elder, William, was, after the death of John Elias, an un- rivalled preacher among the Calvinistic Methodists. Gwilym Hiraethog, who died in 1883, for a period of fifty years was in the eyes of his countrymen the greatest of their preachers and lecturers. He established, in 1843, the first successful Welsh newspaper, Yr Amserau (the Times), which he edited till 1853. lorwerth Glan Aled was a poet whose sweet, tender, and natural lyrics are still the joy of thousands of humble workmen on the hillsides of Wales. The memorial was origi- nated by the late Mr. Tom Ellis ; and Mr. Kearley, M.P., was also largely helpful.
N. S. S.
LIDDELL AND SCOTT. In a review in the Academy of 27 May of Thompson's memoir of Henry George Liddell, D.D., is the follow- ing passage referring to the celebrated lexicon :
"Of course, it is not infallible, and it was a great joy to the Sixth Form boys of Westminster to find
a weak point. Story had it that on such occasions
Liddell would say : ' I can't think what Mr. Scott
meant by saying that.' And an audacious wag
once showed up to the head master the following
epigram :
Two men wrote a lexicon, Liddell and Scott ; Some parts were clever, but some parts were not. Hear, all ye learned, and read me this riddle, How the wrong part wrote Scott, and the right part
wrote Liddell."
The tale is better told if not more truth- fully in Hare's 'Story of my Life,' vol. ii. pp. 9-10 :
" At this time [1856] my distant cousin Henry
Liddell was appointed to the Deanery of Christ Church. He had previously been head master of Westminster, and during his residence there had become celebrated by his lexicon. One day he told the boys in his class that they must write an English epigram. Some of them said it was im- possible. He said it was not impossible at all ; they might each choose their own subject, but an epigram they must write. One boy wrote: Two men wrote a lexicon,
Liddell and Scott ; One half was clever,
And one half was not. Give me the answer, boys,
Quick to this riddle, Which was by Scott
And which was by Liddell ?
Dr. Liddell, when it was shown up, only said, ' I think you are rather severe.' "
ST. SWITHIN.
RECOED BELL - RINGING. Assuming this statement of the Daily Mail for 24 May to be correct, it seems worthy of a corner in 'N. &Q.':-
" A record in change-ringing has been established at Kidlington, a small village about five miles from Oxford, a peal of Double Norwich Court Bob Major; containing 17,042 changes, being rung in eleven hours twelve minutes. Each man rang throughout the peal, which is the longest ever rung by one set of men in any method, and longer by 2,000 changes than any peal previously rung in this method. Con- sidering the weight of the bells, it is the greatest feat of endurance ever accomplished in bell-ringing, the tenor weighing upwards of 26 cwt."
C. DEEDES.
Brighton.
'GooD LINES' is the title of a monthly journal of the Commercial Travellers' Chris- tian Association. I desire to note the various meanings of the word "line" in its com- mercial sense. A traveller will say, " I had a good line to-day," meaning that he had a good order, and it is somewhat in this sense that " lines " is used in the above title.
An advertisement reads : " Wanted, two or three gentlemen calling upon grocers and oil- men to take up a line selling well." Here " line " is used as an article of commerce.
It seems to me a pity that some word was
