Cylchgronau Cymru

VOLUME XV THE NUMBER V WELSH OUTLOOK Where there is no vision the people perish NOTES OF THE MONTH ON May 9th, the Millenary of Hywel Dda will be celebrated throughout Wales, more particularly in our schools and col- leges. The suggestion that 1928, when a thous- and years had elapsed since the King's famous visit to Rome, should be made the occasion of a national commemoration, came originally from Mr. T. P. Ellis, who has given such solid proof of his interest in old Welsh law in his two autho- ritative volumes on the subject. It was taken up by the University, acting through its Board of Celtic Studies, and the ground has already been prepared, first by the publication of an attractive booklet on "Hywel Dda," which will serve to provide teachers and others with powder and shot for the local gatherings, and, secondly, by holding at Caermarthen (the nearest convenient spot to Hywel's own "Ty Gwyn ar Daf") an inaugural meeting, presided over by Professor J. E. Lloyd, and addressed by leading authorities from various parts of Wales. Now that the University, which is sometimes charged with neglect of the national culture, has taken the lead, it is to be hoped that other educational agencies will not be slow to follow suit. For the Millenary of Hywel Dda affords an oppor- tunity, not only to bring out the significance of the career of this peace-loving King, but also to reconstruct the social conditions reflected in the laws, to depict the life of bygone Wales. In the study of mediaeval history, the emphasis is more and more being removed from the purely politi- cal to the social and economic side, from the quarrels of kings, nobles and churchmen to the daily life of the various classes of the com- munity, and it is well that pupils who study the history of independent Wales should learn that, behind the rivalries of warring princes and efforts to maintain independence, there was a lively social background, a fascinating scene of which we get MAY 1928 glimpses from Giraldus and the Mabinogion and a full length picture in the Laws. The Board of Education, co-operating cordially with the University in this matter, are calling attention in a special memorandum (Wales-Circular 165) to the many avenues opened up for the teacher by the proposed celebration, how char- acters may be assumed and scenes enacted, how drawing and modelling may lend their aid-all with the one purpose of stirring the imagination and giving new life to the vanished past. It is hoped that a practical issue of the cele- bration will be the establishment of a fund, from the income of which a Hywel Dda Scholarship or Prize may be provided for the encouragement of the study of Welsh law and Welsh history. There is here a wide field for research, which has been greatly neglected by Welsh lawyers; something, perhaps, will now be done in this domain, when the Welsh people are again led to realise-what their ancestors never doubted- that they have in Hywel one of the great legis- lators of history. ENGLAND is not altogether unaccustomed to Prime Ministers with marked literary tastes and great literary gifts, but there is a very peculiar charm about the adventures of our present Prime Minister in the realm of literature. Lord Oxford, Lord Balfour, Lord Salisbury, Lord Rosebery, and Mr. Gladstone-all within living memory-have thought literature worthy of an occasional quite ardent flirtation; but thev were obviously happily married to politics. Mr. Bald- win, however, always gives us the impression that, although he is now sedately wedded to that much courted lady, his heart is elsewhere in the possession of a lovelier dame, to whom he still pays surreptitious court. He devotes himself with great assiduity to politics, he talks of pipes