Cylchgronau Cymru

A NEW ACCOUNT OF SNOWDONIA, 1693, WRITTEN FOR EDWARD LHUYD INTRODUCTION It is becoming increasingly clear that Edward Lhuyd's collection of primary data for the geography, natural history and antiquities of Wales was on the heroic scale. Much has been lost, whether or not permanently lost remains to be seen. Some has been printed, although the editing of it is not always in proportion to the excellence of Lhuyd's own work, while from time to time there is the discovery of hitherto unknown papers that were written by, or more usually for, Lhuyd. In the present case, an original account of Snowdonia drafted in 1693 has been in print for more than a century, but it is not well known. Written in Latin for Lhuyd, it is sufficiently noteworthy to merit a descriptive analysis and translation. Given the contemporary interest in Snowdonia by scholars working on the ecology, archaeology and other aspects of the National Park, new information of this kind is to be welcomed. Broadly, there are six topics in the material: the meaning of place-names in Snowdonia; the duration of snowfall; mortality in the population; wild animals and birds; stone monuments; legends and stories, particularly to do with Ambrosius and Saint Peris. A manuscript that had belonged to Lhuyd passed into the hands of Canon Robert Williams of Rhydycroesau (1810-81), whose interests in Celtic philology incidentally followed those of Lhuyd. Extracts from it were published by him in The Cambrian Journal, 1859, pages 142-50, 208-16, and again in Archaeologia Cambrensis, VI (3rd. series), 1860, pages 237-40. The former are written in Welsh, the latter (the account of Snowdonia) in Latin. After Canon Williams's death, his collection of printed books was sold in London, but his many manuscripts and papers were not included in the sale (Bye-gones, 1880-1, p. 349), and their whereabouts is not known. The three extracts published by Canon Williams were originally written for Lhuyd, rather than treatises by him, although they may all have been transcribed by him into the Robert Williams manuscript. Both in Camb. Journ., p. 211 and in Arch. Camb., p. 237 Conwy is derived from cownen, but this is not the derivation adopted by Lhuyd in his additions to Camden's Britannia, edited by E. Gibson in 1695. Not only the cownen derivation, but also croesor from croes and awr (Camb. Journ., p. 212; Arch. Camb., p. 237) and Gwydir from gwaed and ir (Camb. Journ., p. 209; Arch. Camb., p. 239) are common to both the Welsh and Latin pieces. In both, too, poetry of a similar kind is quoted. It seems extremely likely that they were written by the same person.