Cylchgronau Cymru

been fitted out in Aberystwyth, containing agricultural laboratories. In connection with these, about thirty acres of land are now being used as a plant breeding station, and experiments are being carried out to obtain inform- ation, by means of which it is hoped to improve the forage crops of the country, especially clover and grasses. It is intended, as funds become available, to obtain and stock a farm for experimental purposes. In Zoology, considerable work is being carried out in connection with sea fisheries. Around the coast are several cockle beds, such as that at Borth, which could be worked. The Cambrian Railways have offered special facilities for the transport of the cockles. A boat has been acquired by the Zoological Department of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, by means of which it is intended HENRY OWEN OF POYSTON HENRY OWEN of Poyston, like his distinguished namesake George Owen of Henllys, prided him- self upon the fact that he was a Pembrokeshire man born." That he had a great affection for Wales may go without saying, but he would be the first to forgive me, if I emphatically declared that the best place in his heart of hearts was reserved for the Little England beyond. The preference is quite character- istic of those who, like him, belong to the premier county." Henry Owen was the youngest son of William Owen, a gentleman of Haverfordwest, who eventually became the owner of the Withybush Estate, to which Poyston was attached. It is an interesting property, doubly interesting to Henry Owen because of its historical associations,-the associations which in later years, no doubt, drew him back to his native county. To William Owen was born several sons and daughters. Of the latter one survives in the person of Mrs. Pugh Evans, the widow of a former well-known Rector of Lampeter- Velfrey. All the sons have now passed away. The eldest, William Stevenson Owen, was a barrister who became and remained until his death Judge of the County Court at Cardiff, and Chairman of the Pembrokeshire Quarter Sessions. The second son was George Leader Owen, a man of great undeveloped ability, and the author of Notes on the History and Text of our Early English Bible, and of its translation into Welsh (London, 1901) and the third was the Rev. James Owen, of Cheltenham College, to whose virtues and attainments his brother Henry paid touching tribute in the monu- ment which he set up to his memory not long ago, in the church at Rudbaxton. After receiving the first elements of education at home, Henry Owen was sent for further training to the Grammar School at Cowbridge, and (according to a short memorial notice in the Oxford Magazine) went from Cowbridge to Corpus Christi in 1862, not many years after the College had thrown open its scholarships to general competition, and had begun to admit com- moners, of whom Henry Owen was one." He took his degree of B.A. in 1866, and his B.C.L. in 1869. Thirty years later, as we shall see further on, he submitted a thesis for and obtained the degree of D.C.L. On leaving Oxford with a First Class in Law and History he joined the legal profession as a solicitor, passing his final exam- this summer to follow the herrings, in order to obtain information as to their migrations and spawning grounds. This may lead to the re-establishment of the herring fishing, which was once so prominent a feature in the life of the Welsh coast. The foregoing are very brief summaries of certain phases of scientific activity, but, perhaps enough has been suggested to show that pure science is prepared to play its part in reconstruction work. Without becoming merely a technical study, science can contribute much towards the improvement of the general conditions of life. All that is needed, is still closer co-operation between the world of scientific thought and the various phases of our national existence. By Sir Vincent Evans, F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S. ination in 1870, and becoming a partner and subsequent- ly sole member of the firm of Jenkinson Owen & Co., of Moorgate Street, afterwards of Frederick's Place, Old Jewry. He practised law for more than 40 years. It is interesting to note, and it is very characteristic of his fond clinging to old associations and old friends, that from his early days as an articled pupil up to the time he left London, a little before the war, he retained the rooms and afterwards the house (of course for the special benefit of others) that he first occupied as a young man in Oxford Terrace, Hyde Park. At the early stage of his career to which I refer, he had not, so far as I am aware, been specially connected with any Welsh movements, but lie took a very keen and practical interest in philanthropic and charitable work as carried on in some of the London hospitals.. Wales is indebted to Sir John Williams for the introduction of Henry Owen to the current of Welsh life in London. It is by no means the least of the many invaluable ser- vices which the patriotic Welslunan of Blaenllynant has rendered to the land of his birth during his long and wonderful career. In a communication which I had the pleasure of receiving from Sir John Williams a short time ago he writes thus When Sir Francis Champneys and I took charge of the General Lying-in Hospital, Lambeth, Henry Owen was a member of the Committee. I soon became acquainted with him and found him to be a Welshman, interesting and to be interested. I asked him to join the Cymmrodorion Society, which he did. Then you took him in hand and invited him to read a paper before a meeting of the Society. He accepted the invitation, and the result was Gerald the Welshman, which was published as a special volume later on. This was his first literary act, but the itch never left him-for ever since until his death he was engaged on Owen's Pembrokeshire. Gerald was published, as stated by Sir John Williams in an edition de luxe, in 1889, becanse the author thought that it might be useful to Welsh students if he published in a more extended form the lecture on Giraldus Cambrensis, which he delivered before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion on Nos Wyl Dewi Sant in this year." The Rolls Edition, he added, on which my lecture was founded, is not accessible to all, and seven ponderous volumes of mediæval Latin are deterrent to many. I have added some notes, as Gerald would say, for learners, not for the learned."