Cylchgronau Cymru

A History of The Cymmrodorion I. "ANTIENT BRITONS THE Council of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, when it decided to publish this bi-centenary memorial, was far from wishing to confine its compilers to a bare historical account of the Society itself. Rather, it instructed them to relate the history to its background-to sketch, as far as space permitted and materials were available, the story of Welshmen in London during the past two centuries, and of the links connecting them with their native land. Obviously, there would have been no Cymmrodorion Society at all had it not been, firstly, for the presence in London of a relatively large number of exiles from Wales, and next, for the desire of influential members of the London-Welsh community to create and maintain some form of corporate life and activity. The history of the Cymmrodorion Society proper is dis- continuous three Societies in succession have borne that name. But the essential features have been uninterruptedly present the influx of Welsh people into London and the nostalgia which has impelled them (or at least a number of them) to cling together in that Babylon-admittedly a Babylon in which on the whole they found life agreeable and indeed profitable-to revive memories of the homeland. It is noteworthy that even when the First Cymmrodorion Society suffered eclipse, there yet arose other London-Welsh societies which kept the flag flying and the compilers have been instructed to include an account of these as well. In the long interval between the Second and Third Cymmrodorion, the circumstances had become rather different. London Welshmen were considerably more numerous, and their interests were therefore more widely dispersed, less easy to focus. Again, the vast improvement of communications between London and Wales made London less of an exile, and contact with home easier and more frequent. Few