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CHAPTER IV.
INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION — LLANDOVERY GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND THE PROVISIONS OF ITS
FOUNDER FOR TEACHING WELSH — THE INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION COMMISSION OF 1880 —
ESTABLISHMENT OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGES — THE LONDON CYMMRODORION AND THEIR SYSTEMATIC
ENQUIRY FROM WELSH ELEMENTARY TEACHERS — REPLIES PRO AND CORE — THE ABERDARE
EISTEDDFOD OF 1885, AND THE FORMATION OF A SOCIETY FOR UTILIZING THE WELSH
LANGUAGE IN EDUCATION — OPPOSITION TO THE PROPOSAL — D. ISAAC DAVIES, HIS
LETTERS TO THE "WESTERN MAIL" AND "BANER AC AMSERAU CYMRU."
rpHE preceding Chapters having been principally devoted to -^ an elucidation
of the state of Elementary Education in Wales from forty to fifty years ago,
it will be necessary in the present one, to revert to the same period,
briefly noticing some facts affecting intermediate and higher education,
before following out at length the controversy started a few years ago by a
Welsh Society in London, and afterwards more or less in the cou]itry at
large, as to the desirability of a radical alteration in the existing methods
of dealing with Welsh schools principally with regard to elementary ones, but
also to some extent, including the whole educational system.
In Wales the ingenious educationalists of two or three generations past,
contrived a remarkable expedient for the employment, if not amusement of the
boys in middle class schools, which consisted in hounding their language down
by means of the Welsh note, which was a stick of wood passed on from one boy
to the next, who was heard speaking Welsh. At the end of a certain period,
the last possessor of the "note" or "stick" was punished.
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CHAP. IV.] WALES AND HER LAJNGUAGE. 107
The custom was not confined to middle class schools, as appears by the
following in H. V. Johnson's report of Llandymog, Denbighshire: —
My attention was attracted to a piece o£ wood, suspended by a string round a
boy's neck, and on the stick were the words, "Welsh stick." This, I
was told, was a stigma for speaking Welsh. But, in fact, his only alternative
was to speak Welsh or to say nothing. He did not understand English, and
there is no systematic exercise in interpretation, (p. 452.)
We ask what kind of metal were the masters of those times made of, when we
learn that "among other injurious effects, this custom has been found to
lead children to visit stealthily the houses of their schoolfellows for the
purpose of detecting those who speak Welsh to their parents, and transferring
to them the punishment due to themselves? See also
Appendix D.
I have had occasion to allude to the attitude, and think I am justified in
calling it the prevailing attitude at that time, of representatives of the
Established Church towards the Welsh language. I shall not, however, be
understood to imply that this was universal. The year 1847, saw the
foundation of a scheme which, though under the care of the Established Church
had for one of its express purposes the colloquial and literary cultivation
of the Welsh language, and is at the present day (apart from questions of
religion) one of the best, if not the best higher class school in Wales.
The following extract from a summary of the provisions of the Deed of the founder,
viz., Thos. Phillips, a London Welshman, who bestowed nearly £5,000 for the
purpose, gives some idea of his views: —
The scholars will be instructed in Welsh reading, grammar, and composition;
in English, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, arithmetic,
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108 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
_^ «a
algebra, and mathematics; in sacred, English and general history, and
geography; and in such other branches of education as the trustees, with the
sanction of the visitor, shall appoint. The Welsh language shall be taught
exclusively during one hour every school day, and be then the sole medium of
communication in the school; and shall be used at all other convenient
periods as the language of the school, so as to familiarize the scholars with
its use as a colloquial language. The master shall give lectures in that
language upon subjects of a philological, scientific, and general character,
so as to supply the scholars with examples of its use as a literary language,
and the medium of instruction on grave and important subjects. The primary
intent and object of the founder (which is instruction and education in the
Welsh language) shaU be faithfully observed.
So far we say so good, but the crucial test of a middle class school in
England or Wales now^-a-days, is generally looked for in its ability to
prepare for the preliminary examinations of English Universities, few
schools, if any, unless carried on under exceptional circumstances, think
they can afford to work to entirely independent standards of their own. This
has directly or indirectly affected the course of instruction at Llandovery,
so that the intentions of the founder have not probably been carried out to
the fullest extent, although they have been so far as to materially increase
the usefulness of the institution.
I have mentioned that Llandovery school was (and is still) under the care of
the Established Church, so is that called " Christ's College,"
Brecon, with a good organization and an annual endowment of £1,200; other
Welsh endowments were mostly either denominational or inadequate, and for a
number of years it was felt that the needs of the country demanded
considerable improvement in the facilities for Litermediate Education,
especially in such as Nonconformists would be likely to freely avail themselves
of.
In 1880, in compliance with representations made to it, the
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CHAP. IV.J HER LANGUAGE. 109
Government appointed a Committee, to enquire into the condition of
Intermediate and Higher Education in Wales, consisting of the following
persons, —
Lord Aberdare
Viscount Emlyn
H. G. Robinson (Prebendary of the Established Church).
Henry Richard, M.P.
Professor Rhys
Lewis Morris.
The main scope of the enquiry of this representative Committee was confined
to the question of the utilization of endowments for middle class schools in
Wales, and the best method of supporting such in the future.
As might be expected from its constitution, the Welsh Language received
considerably more respect from the Commission than from that of 1847. Its
power and vitality were acknowledged, but the Repprt offered no suggestions
as to any improved method of coping with the difficulties, created by the
existence of a household language, side by side with a system of education
which ignored its existence.
The immediate result of their labours was the establishment of University
Colleges for North and South Wales, and the giving of an annual subsidy to
the one at Aberystwyth, which, after considerable demur, the Government
wisely consented to retain.
A very important recommendation was made by them, viz.: — the creation of
what amounted to a Welsh University, with the representatives of the leading
colleges on its Governing Board, which was not, however, carried into effect;
but, perhaps we may, in some measure, trace the passing of the Intermediate
Educational Act for Wajes, with the powers it conferred on County Coimcils
for the establishment of middle class schools, to the labours of this
Committee. Nor
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110 WALES AND CIIAP. IV. J
was the work of the Commission iu any way directly related to that movement,
the rise, and progress of which I am about to trace; but inasmuch as the
establishment of these University Colleges has given some educated Welshmen a
vantage ground to co-operate vdth it, and as no single part of Welsh
education can be looked at without reference to the whole, it may not have
been out of place to give a few brief hints at its work.
At present this movement is confined within comparatively small limits, and
although it has gained some victories, there is still a possibility of its
retiring from the field without permanently occupying the ground gained. It
has, however, within itself the germ of an educational revolution for Wales,
which may yet wonderfully modify the future history of that country. Be that
as it may, there has been so much of interest bearing on the relation of the language
to the social and intellectual life of the people, evolved by enquiries and
discussions set up in connection with its operations, that a wise historian
cannot refuse to notice them, and in a work of this kind, it is deemed
necessary to give details somewhat more at length than may perhaps please
some persons to whom the power exercised by the language in the past and in
the present, is an unsolved and unsolvable enigma.
In 1884 the Cymmrodorion Society, having its head quarters in London, appointed
a committee to enquire into certain points relating to Elementary Education
in Wales, which were in brief the alleged defects of teaching English, and
the proposal that it should be taught through the medium of Welsh. Questions
bearing on these points were sent round to about thirty leading
educationalists in Wales, including Wm. Williams (the senior Inspector of
Elementary Schools). It was found on receipt of replies that only one
correspondent positively expressed depreciation of Welsh as a subject of
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. Ill
education, while the Principal of the Normal College, Bangor, was one who
strongly advocated its introduction.
The next step of the Committee was to address an enquiry to the head-masters
and mistresses of primary schools in Wales, as follows: —
Do you consider that advantage would result from the introduction of the
Welsh language as a specific subject into the course of Elementary Education
in Wales?
In the Spring of 1885, 628 answers were received, of which 339 were
affirmative, 257 negative, 32 neutrals. For a tabulated statement of these
replies, arranged according to counties. See Appendix E. By this it will be
seen that Flint and Pembroke were the only counties that shewed negative
majorities. Somewhat singularly, the county of Monmouth, where Welsh is not
much spoken as a family language, shewed a majority in the affirmative, while
the busy, industrial county of Glamorgan, shewed no less than a majority of
57 per cent, of affirmative over negative replies.
The replies of these teachers form in the mind of the writer, one of the most
interesting contributions to the literature of Wales, that have appeared
during the present century. To reproduce the whole would take up too much
space, I therefore propose to give selected extracts from them, or summaries
ranged under their respective Coimties.
The original printed report of the Cymmrodorion and the appendix, giving the
replies in full, are perhaps not easily accessible to most of my readers, and
as the negatives touch on nearly everything that can be said now against any
similar proposal, it is well they should be heard, although for the most part
their arguments were decidedly the weakest, except where any of them felt
that Welsh as a class-subject would meet the case better than as a specific.
It must be borne in mind that these replies were written
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112 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
before the subject had been canvassed by public discussion, and that early
prejudices doubtless biased some of the writers, from whose school and
collegiate courses Welsh had been excluded.
They are however valuable as the independent witness of a number of
intelligent men with trained minds in different parts of the country, and
surrounded by very different conditions,
I have not quoted the reference numbers given in the original, except
occasionally for the sake of clearness, but the reader will bear in mind that
each separate paragraph is written by a different teacher, and that it does
not in every case comprise the whole of the answer, ANGLESEY.
Negative. — I don't think that Welsh parents would welcome the introduction
of "Welsh" as a subject into our schools. They want us to prepare
their children to fight the "battle of life." But I am of opinion
that the G-overnment ought to raake some allowance for the difficulties we
hare to encounter in teaching English to our pupils.
The greatest opposition would be offered in this district to Welsh being
introduced, as all parents with whom I am acquainted are most anxious that it
should be altogether excluded from school work. My opinion is that
"well" is best let alone. So my answer is "No."
No. For: (1) Parents would not stand it. (2) Welsh is amply cared for by our
Sunday schools and literary meetings. (3) I cannot see the utihty of the
proposal. (4) Our schools are Welshy enough as it is. (5) After eight years'
experience I find the best plan is to use the Welsh language as sparingly as
possible. Of course we all love the old tongue, but school life is not a
matter of sentiment, but a serious preparation for the battle of life. (6) I
am certain if you succeed few teachers would care to teach it, as it would
seriously interfere with other more important work.
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[OHAP. IV. HER LANGUAGE. 113
No. Reasons: (1) Sufficient latitude is already given by the Educational Code
for the employment of Welsh as a medium of teaching English. (2) Teachers having
no knowledge of Welsh, and those who entirely discard it in teaching Welsh
pupils, are highly successful as such in Wales. (3) If Welsh were included as
a specific subject in the Educational Code, I, in anticipation, assert that
no more than one out of ten teachers would adopt it. (4) My knowledge of
people of both mining and agricultural districts enables me to say positively
that the teaching of Welsh in our schools would be much objected to. (5) The
introduction of Welsh into the curriculum of the schools would greatly hinder
the teacher in endeavouring to encourage English conversation among his
scholars.
Afeiematite — ^The introduction of Welsh as a "specific subject"
wUl be of great benefit to schools where the children are entirely Welsh.
Many children now leave school when they can neither write English or Welsh
correctly.
Most of the young men, after passing the fourth standard in a day school, as
well as attending Sunday schools, are unable to compose either Welsh or
English. Whereas if they were all grounded in their "mothers'
tongue" in elementary schools it would be an inducement for them to
compete at Uterary meetings, Eisteddfodau, &c., and at the same time it
would assist them to understand the English language.
(1) It would afford a highly interesting (because thoroughly understood)
mental training, and English would be more efficiently taught than at
present, on the natural principle of proceeding from the known to the
unknown. (2) A child would comprehend the grammatical structure of his native
tongue, and compose in it with ease; thereby acquiring a power and model to
deal with English and other languages. The majority of children leave school
with very imperfect notions of English composition, and none of Welsh, as far
as school teaching helps them; and parents justly complain that their
children cannot write correctly " either an English or a Welsh
letter." (4) Such being the universal complaint, it follows
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114 WALES AND [OHAP, IV,
that the present mode of teaching English has lamentably failed (except to a
few talented youths in each school), and some course akin to the suggested
syllabus must be adopted before any better results can be obtained from the
great majority.
It would be a great boon to the children in order to aid them to understand
the English language. It would create in their minds when leaving school a
thorough love for higher education in science aftd literature.
The study of such a beautiful, poeticai,, and bxpebssite LANGUAGE as the
Welsh would carry its own intrinsic value in the possession of the full
command of such a language to. clothe his thoughts.
Though an Enghshman, I have been very much struck with the slight knowledge
of "Welsh grammar as evinced by the working class with whom I have been
brought in contact.
By placing the Welsh language among the specific subjects, I do not think
that any English teacher would find that he was handicapped in the matter. I
thoroughly endorse the opinion of Mr. Edward Eoberts, B.A., H. M.'s Inspector
of Schools. OAENAEVONSHIEE.
Negative — No; because (a) Welsh children's knowledge of Welsh being for the
most part only of colloquial Welsh, they would have to unlearn a great deal
before any progress could be made, (b) The parents of English children in Welsh
schools would very probably object to their children learning Welsh.
Our literary associations and Sunday schools are ample means of supplying the
required knowledge of the Welsh language.
No, a thousand times no. A discreet use of Welsh in the lower standards is
commendable, and may be for some time yet indispensable. * * Every Welsh
teacher I have yet spoken with emphatically condemns the idea. Indeed, most
of us have not even acquired a knowledge of the rudiments of Welsh grammar,
so utterly purposeless is its acquisition to successful teaching.
No. Perhaps it would be an advantage to teach it to the pupil-teachers, as
this would in time largely increase the number of Welsh
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 115
writers. The Go7ernment might be asked to set papers in the "Welsh
language at the scholarship and certificate examinations. I think I am not
wrong in stating that at present there are but very few of the Welsh teachers
who can write Welsh.
Afeiematite — Yes, provided it should be taught as a class subject, and not
as a specific subject.
Welsh-English translation being under existing conditions copiously
practised, I do not see that any material extra labour would result from the
adoption of Welsh as a " specific," nor that it would necessitate
the dropping of the ordinary class subjects. Though there is a cry for
English, yet parents are quite as anxious for their children to be able to
write respectable Welsh letters. I say yes, on financial and educational
grounds.
I maintain that nothing but a parrot-Hke knowledge of English can possibly be
imparted to scholars in Welsh-spoken districts, as far as Standard III.
inclusive, without freely using the Welsh language. This being done in the
majority of elementary schools in Wales, the teaching of Welsh as a specific
subject would require so Utile extra wjrk that there would be no need to drop
any of the ordinary, in order to introduce it. Having been engaged in schools
in Welsh-spoken district over fourteen years, I hope you will excuse me for
giving expression to the above statements.
It would be a good foundation for the learning of English. I have been
repeatedly asked by parents to teach Welsh composition (letter-writing) to
their children; of course, without neglecting English in any way.
Tes, I believe that the introduction of the Welsh language into the
curriculum of elementary syhools, wiU greatly facilitate the teaching of
English in purely Welsh schools.
I do really consider that the introduction of the Welsh language as a
"specific subject" would enhance even the speedy acquisition of
English, and a better grounding of the Welsh language than we have hitherto
possessed, providing that a Welsh grammatical primer suitable to the capacity
of the children would be supplied, containing sentences that would render a
mutual aid to acquire a
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116 WALES AND [OHAP. IV.
sound elementary knowledge of both languages. Whatever is said of Sunday
school teaching, my experience assures me that many a Sunday school scholar
does not know the difference between i'w and yw, and mae and mai, and in this
respect it is a complete failure, and the only remedy would be acquired by
the introduction of Welsh as a specific subject.
Being a most ancient and original langu9,ge, its knowledge could not fail to
be an inteoduotion to a classical education. In Welsh-speaking districts I
consider the vernacular the best medium of teaching EngUsh and of improving
the general intelligence.
Yes. It would be far more serviceable than Euclid, &c., to the lads of
the Welsh-speaking districts of Carnarvonshire, &c.
Few English families reside here, but I find that the English children in a
very short time are able to talk Welsh, and will insist upon speaking it
every chance they obtain.
Yes. It is an act of justice to an ancient people and their language. It will
give the rising generation an inteUiggnt and grammatical, as well as a
practical knowledge of their native tongue, and enable them to correspond
with facility in Welsh, whereas at present many Welsh people correspond with
each other in English.
Before the schools of Wales will be on an equal footing with those of
England, your plan should be adopted.
Netjteal — It would be of great advantage to these, if they were able to
write and compose in their native language. But they have had no practice and
no opportunities to learn these useful acquirements.
DENBI&HSHIRE.
Negative — No, I do not. I confess that EngHsh could be better and more
thoroughly taught through that medium, but it would very much retard the
progress of the scholar. The greatest objection I see to it, is the fact that
few schoolmasters, although Welsh, can write or understand Welsh correctly.
Also, it would take as much trouble to get the children to understand the
proper Welsh language as it would to do the EngUsh. I say proper.
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CHAP. IV.] HER LAITGUAGE. 117
because children do not speak it properly — and differently in different
districts.
Decidedly no. Because there is too much division in the British empire now,
and the giving legal sanction to another language will only increase the
division. Because there are too many subjects taught already.
No. But I think it would be good to give a small piece in English language as
home lesson, to be translated into "Welsh, such as a letter from a
friend. I have been doing so, and found it to do good.
I would most decidedly say "Yes" if it was introduced as a class
subject.
Afeiematite — ^Tes. I believe the knowledge of even two languages (Welsh and
English) to be stimulative to the mind, by exciting comparison and enquiry.
Welsh, being a root language, gives a good insight into the construction of
languages.
In my humble opinion, which is based upon a residence of more than
twenty-five years in North Wales, all tJie schools would do well to teach the
Welsh language as a " specific subject," as I fully beheve that
quite four-fifths of the children understand and speak the native tongue. I
would except the eastern portion of Montgomeryshire, and perhaps two or three
schools at Ehyl and Llandudno. A boy who is conversant with both languages
has, in more than one way, an advantage over a boy who simply knows English.
* * * I deem it a great advantage to know a bbatttiful, PHONETIC, HXPEBSSiTE
language, such as the Welsh is.
FLINT8HIEE. Nhgatitb — Eather than introduce the Welsh language as a specific
subject, it would be more fair to the teachers in the Principality for the
Committee of Council on Education to acknowledge the disadvantage under which
they work, especially in rural districts, and draw up a simpler and special
Code for the Welsh Schools, in order to put them on a more common-sense level
with the EngUsh schools, where the children know nothing but their
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118 WALES AND [HER LANGUAGE] CHAP.
IV.]
mother tongue, English, from their birth. What would the English teachers do
if they had to teach every subject in the French language to children who had
been taught English from their birth, and who heard nothing but EngHsh at
their homes and while at play; and those children again to be examined in the
same subjects as French children of the same age? The use of both languages
must be made by the Welsh teachers before English can be taught in the
schools of the Principality.
No. At least nine out of every ten of the teachers would require special
training.
AFFIRMATIVE — I do. I have had an opportunity of (more than once) lecturing
on Welsh grammar before "Young Men's Literary Associations," and in
each case a decided craving for such a move as you recommend was manifested.
As an old pupil of the Rev. Jenkin Davies, Rector of Bottwnog, Caernarvonshire,
I consider his method of teaching English one of the best for beginners in a
Welsh country school — e.g.: The
Verb "to be" Indic. Pres. Singular. — I am = yr wyf fi; Thou art = yr
wyt ti; He is = Y mae ef. Plural. — We are = yr ydym ni; You are = yr ydych
chwi; They are = y maent hwy. The introduction of the Welsh language as a
specific subject into the course of elementary education in Wales would, I
firmly believe, be of great advantage to both teacher and scholar. The most
successful teachers use it freely.
MERIONETHSHIRE.
NEGATIVE — And what a disadvantage a Welsh teacher and the children under his
charge would be labouring under in comparison with an English-speaking
teacher, even in Wales, and much more so in comparison with an
English-speaking teacher in a district exclusively English, who one and all
are expected to produce the same or similar results, independent of
circumstances over which they often have no control, or be involved
helplessly in professional ruin. See reply to No. 7 B., the said H. M. Senior
Inspector. "Edrych yn y drych hwn
dro, gyr galon graig i wylo."
No. The introduction of any Welsh into this school would be
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CHAP, rv.] HER LANQTJAGB. 119
very unfayourably met by the parents; even now they will blame the teacher
for explaining difficult passages in English by means of the "Welsh
language.
Reducing the number of readers in Welsh schools, so as to give teachers more
time to cultivate intelligence by means of translation, as prescribed by the
Code, would secure the same result.
Affirmatite — I consider that great advantage would accrue. I may state that
the Welsh is now universally made use of in the lowest standards; and ideas,
when expounded in Welsh, seem to adhere longer to pupils' minds, especially
in purely Welsh speaking schools. By the adoption of the proposed scheme,
both the Welsh and English languages would be more thoroughly known in the
Principality.
There is no doubt but that a very great advantage would result from it,
because the Welsh language is not properly taught at our Sunday schools,
&c., as asserted by some; but really it puzzles me to know how it can be
introduced into the course of elementary education in Wales with the present
requirements of the Code. The best teachers already groan under the drudgery.
Although my Welsh is very imperfect, I vote strongly for its introduction
into Welsh schools, not as a medium for teaching English, but as a sbpabatb
subject paid for by the Education Department as a class subject in the same
ratio as our other class subjects; and I would furthermore suggest that in
Welsh schools all teachers may have the option of teaching grammar (English)
and Welsh, instead of grammar and geography.
Wbttteal — After advocating beginning Welsh in the early Standards, "
There wUl, I know, be too much timidity to ask for such a radical change in
the Code, until Welshmen who would be listened to by the Department discover
the dreariness and the unnaturahiess of the present methods of teaching in
our infants' and junior classes. The handful of Gaelic-speaking population in
Scotland seem to have more official cognisance in this respect than our
Welsh-speaking population of one million, with a living literature to
boot."
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120 WALES AND [OHAP, IV.
M0NTG0MEET8HIEB.
Negative — [Answers 11, 12 and 13 allude to the preyalence of English in
their districts.]
I think no advantage would result from its introduction as a "specific
subject." (1) It would tend to isolate Wales from becoming assimilated
with England in every sense of the word. (2) No adequate return would be
obtained in after-life. (3) It would unnecessarily burden the already
hard-pressed teacher in rural districts. (4) It would tend to exclude English
teachers from taking charge of schools in Wales.
Affiemativb — Tes, especially where the Welsh language is likely to be
forgotten.
I have only been a master in Wales for a few weeks * * as far as I can teU I
think it would be greatly advisable.
As long as the object of the Education Act is to teach English, the least of
Welsh used in schools the better, untU the children have learnt to thinh in
English. When that point is reached, as in upper standards (sometimes), Welsh
may then be taken without being a hindrance to their learning English — the
original object.
I do: (1) The study of the Welsh language is as much a means of MENTAL
DISCIPLINE and development as the study of the Latin, the French, or any
other subject at present mentioned in Schedule IV. of the new Code. (2) If a
child speaks the Welsh language, and is likely to use it during its lifetime,
a grammatical and systematic knowledge of it would render it of much greater
value to him or her than would be the mere power to speak it.
As a teacher of public elementary schools for upwards of thirty-four years, I
would most strongly advocate that teaching Welsh should be made compulsory in
all schools located in Welsh-speaking districts. There is not a better mental
culture, or one so well calculated to enliven and bring out the mental
energies of Welsh children, than to combine the vernacular with English.
CAEDIGAN.
Negative— [Along with other references to parents' objections.]
The chief request of all the parents that call upon me is to
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chap; IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 121
make their children learn plenty of English. * * I have had experience in two
schools in different parts of Cardiganshire, and the chief and great desire
of the people is for the spread of English in those parts.
The introduction of Welsh in any form would seriously retard progress in
EngUsh.
Apmbmatite — ^Yes. Beason: In so much as I love Wales, and in particular the
Welsh language, I have always felt grateful towards St. David's College,
Lampeter, where the Welsh language is studied, and am glad of this present
opportunity of voting for the future existence of my mother's tongue.
Yes, as a "specific subject" if examined by Welsh inspectors. This
would bring Welsh children to have some regard and admiration for their own
language.
Yes, for it seems ridiculous that the present generation of children should
be able to express themselves better, on paper, in the English than in their
mother tongue. Welsh, as a 'written language, is falling fast into disuse in
Wales.
I am at a loss to see any objection, on the part of teachers, to its being
introduced as such. The correct rendering of Welsh in viriting is most
imperfectly known in these parts. The Sunday schools do nothing more than
teach the mechanical part of reading Welsh, leaving grammar, &c.,
entirely out of the question.
Yes. (1) I think the children would learn Enghsh better by such means than by
the present slipshod way of teaching, or rather not teaching it. (2) It would
be an invaluable exercise for the mind — i.e., the comparing the two
languages would be. (3) It would tend to keep alive the Welsh national
spirit, and although an Englishman myself 1 think this an hoxoubable and good
motive. (4) I think there is no doubt that Welsh literature would gain
immensely by such an introduction.
I do not hesitate for a moment to say "yes." But I am afraid
that the want of a proper staff in the majority of Welsh schools
to conduct the teaching of it as a specific subject will be a severe
check to the advantages thus to be derived. I should be incHned
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122 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
to place it among the class subjects, or at least to include it in the
present class subject English.
EADNOE.
Negatitb — [Eeason assigned by two writers — Welsh unnecessary.]
AnrFiEMATiTE — "Welsh parents hare been, and still are, more or less
anxious that their children should learn the English language, but the
feeling in my opinion is not so strong now as it appeared to have been ten
years ago, when the almost convincing and loud cry was raised that their old
and dear language would in a couple of years die out never to revive again.
The inhabitants of the PrincipaUty at the present time, however, and after ten
or fifteen years' experience of such hue and cry, are not the least terrified
about the extinction of their language; in fact, the Welsh as a nation begin
to feel jealous of their language; they think it worthy of attention, and
indeed heed is paid to it now more than ever, and in a much higher sphere
than hitherto. * * To learn, even a little, of the Welsh grammar, and to
write Welsh correctly, would be of advantage to Welsh boys and girls in after
years. I was asked last Christmas twelve-month to adjudicate some poetry at a
competitive meeting written in English and Welsh. The Welsh idea was superior
to the English, but the spelling was wretched.
BEECKNOCZ. Afeiemativh — I believe the more intelligent farmers here would
like very much that their children should be taught to write Welsh correctly,
in addition to being able to read it, which they are now taught to do in our
Sunday schools.
PEMBEOKE.
Nesative — [No Welsh spoken — Parents' objections — Majority of teachers
English.]
Again, the parents of children would soon repudiate such a step; the
unanimous feeling is to see their children progress in Enghsh, for "they
can get as much Welsh as they want at home," and any shortcomings of the
same would soon be noised abroad.
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 123
AiTiEJSiATiTB — ^Virtually I should say there would be an advantage to the
children themselves, but many "Welsh localities would discountenance
such teaching, owing to the notion that sufficient knowledge of Welsh is
being got at home, and that the school course should consist in the teaching
of the language of practical business, &c.
I am of opinion that children would be greatly deUghted and interested in
learning a subject so familiar to them, and it would be a great step towards
bringing out their intelligence.
I feel compelled to answer " Decidedly yes," as I am unable to
teach my Standard II. children nouns and verbs in the English language, and
am obliged to resort to corresponding "Welsh nouns and verbs. This is
more difficult as I am English. CAEMAETHENSHIEE.
Negative — Parents are very anxious that their children should learn English
well, and those who have learned English grammatically have Uttle difficulty
in writing a letter in "Welsh fairly. They learn to read in the Sunday
schools in "Welsh, and nearly every family takes a weekly "Welsh
paper in this locaUty. "Welsh is spoken by 99 per cent.
Children and teachers overpressed. ''' * The popitlab DELirsioN [that of
parents thinking the Sabbath school (so called) sufficient for picking up
Welsh] must first be removed before any general teaching of Welsh be
obtained.
Children, however, on leaving school take up Welsh or English papers, no
matter which. But although the rising generation is well able to speak
English in their business affairs (which I cannot say their parents can do),
the language at home is essentially as "Welsh" as ever.
This district is entirely Welsh, but, strange to say, no one writes or
carries on correspondence in Welsh; all is done in English.
No. I speak from an experience of eighteen years as a master of schools in
strictly Welsh-speaking districts. The teaching of Welsh as a specific
subject will not be advantageous because it
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124 WALES Al^D . [chap. IV.
will iacrease and not lighten the existing pressure. * * As a practical
teacher, and as a warm advocate of the retention of the Welsh language, I
should suggest as practicable and advantageous the substitution of Welsh
translations for the present burdensome and often useless learning by a rote
of a number of lines of poetry with meanings and allusions.
Apeiemativb — Tes; but I believe that parents would be very much opposed to
it.
In my opinion considerable advantage would result, but the parents would
object.
It might prove advantageous, especially when such encouragemant as that
offered by Dr. .Tohn Williams, of 11, Queen Anne Street, London, is given in
the form of an Exhibition of the annual value of £27, tenable for four years,
at The College, Llandovery, or Christ College, Brecon, to lads under fourteen
years of age from elementary schools in five surrounding parishes, one of the
subjects for examination being: " Welsh — Beading and translation from
Welsh to English,"
It would also be the mjans o£ cultivating the intelligence of the pupils. It
is a great pity, if not shame, that we (Welshmen) do not study our language
properly, so as to be able to enjoy the writings o£ our excellent authors, in
poetry and prose.
[Particularly thoughtful answer]. In my opinion it would be a decided
advantage, particularly so in country districts, where few attractions are
found for young people to employ their leisure time. It would be the means of
fostering a love of study, inasmuch as children leave school before their
thinking powers are greatly developed, and they require some subject as a
connecting link between the subjects adapted to the capibilities of boys and
men; and I believe that starting with a fair knowledge of Welsh would open
the field for more extensive reading.
Tes; for I believe it would improve the Welsh children in English and in
Welsh.
Yes. After reading the "Elementary Eeport" you sent me carefully
and studiously, I was surprised to find these gentlemen
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 125
differ so much upon a subject which ought to receive more attention from
every true Welshman.
I sometimes, and now often, write on the board colloquial Welsh expressions
for translation, and I iind the children soon pick up the idiom in English.
But there is no time for a teacher to take this method too freely, as his
labour is not acknowledged; for a Welsh teacher would not willingly pass over
false orthography in Welsh. But apart from benefiting the children in Welsh,
I am of opinion I could teach them English more thoroughly by such a method.
Would bs welcomed by many teachers as a boon, both to themselves and the
scholars, as the teaching of Welsh would be less laborious in Welsh schools
than other subjects now taught; and it would thus, to a certain extent,
relieve the over-pressure which now exists in Welsh district.
By taking Welsh as a "specific subject," the time (and labour)
spent in conveying English instruction through the medium of the vernacular
tongue (as is the case in the great majority of Welsh country schools) might
be turned into direct pecuniary advantage. The mental training it would
produce would be of considerable '^educational" advantage.
It would be a moral advantage. By the omission of the teaching of it in
school some children are led to regard their mother-tongue as being something
to be ashamed of, and (Dic-Shon-Dafydd-hke) to be forgotten and cast aside as
soon as possible. 1 beg to state that I heartily approve of some such scheme
as your "Honourable Society " has suggested, provided it undergoes
some modifications. Text-books should be provided for all the standards —
conversational dictionaries, somewhat like the book of the Rev. Kilsby Jones,
Llanwrtyd, with enough of work for one year. Unless you limit (a work for
each standard, to form a foundation to the next standard), the superstructure
will collapse, and Her Majesty's Inspectors will annihilate the
"plan" and the teachers. I have adopted that method of teaching
EngUsh through the medium of the Welsh for about fifteen years. If I had
text-
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126 WALES AND CHAP. IV.]
books we could succeed better. We simply use the black-board for half an hour
daily. We take special care with the irregular verbs, pronouns, moods, and
tenses. We make lists also of idiomatic phrases; those stumbling-blocks are
unsurmountable to the Welsh children but for the above method of elucidating
them. I do not approve of preparing a "specific subject" to be
examined in Welsh; I think there is ample work to learn English in general by
some such means as above. But some method should be adopted too to measure
our extra labour, and to pay for it according to the results. I do not know
in what standard in the "Elementary School" you intend your Schedule
IV., Welsh, to be applied. Erom my experience of the labour required, yours
is too hard after considering the time we have at our disposal. There is a
vast difference between translating Welsh to English and English to Welsh.
Brilliant children wiU not do the former, while they can do the latter with
ease. So I would confine the latter to the 3rd Stage; but with better
advantages, such as home-lesson books, and the subject becoming honourable,
perhaps indeed yours could be adopted. * * The Education Department cannot
form an idea of the WBAB.Y WOBK of teaching the children to comprehend the
most commonplace words in a consecutive order. Should this scheme ever come
into a practical form, I would be glad to see in each series Bnghsh
diphthongs grouped together, according to their sounds in Welsh. I teach the
infants to read English in that way, using the phonetic system through the
medium of Welsh. I need not explain, you understand the system better than I.
I beg to thank your Honourable Society for labouring on behalf of us teachers
and our beloved language. " Oes y byd i'r iaiih Gymraeg."'*
It would be becoming, and also polite [to the Welsh] to allow them the use of
their much-loved language, and make it a " specific subject" for
schools.
I am afraid that but few men clearly perceive what immense advantage would
accrue from the introduction of the Welsh
* This long answer is inserted nearly entire through an error of the
compositor. Having heen set up in type I leave it stand.
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 127
language into the Code as the thin end of the wedge. The subject should have
been well discussed in the Welsh newspapers and periodicals before soliciting
an expression of "opinion" from all teachers, &c.,
indiscriminately.
The introduction of the Welsh language, in Welsh-speaking districts, as a
special school subject, woiild greatly sharpen the intellects of the children
for the reception of moral impressions when in attendance at religious
services (inasmuch as the colloquial Welsh in all districts is very
imperfect), making them virtuous in hf e; and certainly accelerate the
acquisition of English. GLAMORGAN.
Negative — [Eight replies from districts, considered unsuitable for the
experiment.]
No. Generally speaking the answers to this question wUl, to a very great
extent, reflect the ability of the teacher to teach the Welsh language.
No. Neither H.M. Inspector nor parents would approve of it, and it would be
of no benefit to the children as a class.
The Welsh children of my district (Waunarlwydd, near Swansea) understand
Shakespeare better than they understand Islwyn. The teaching of Welsh,
therefore, would require much time. Because the knowledge of Welsh possessed
by some children is far more extensive than that possessed by others. Because
Welsh people in fairly good circumstances ignore the Welsh language and
discourage it in their children; such is the fact.
Children in the Ehondda speak Bnghsh habitually in the playground; this
results from the immigration of EngUsh people. Summary of Objections — (1)
Many refining influential English teachers incapable of taking up the
subject. (2) Many Welsh-speaking teachers quite unable to teach Welsh. (3)
Districts like the Ehondda too mixed; English increasing. (4) To teach it as
a "specific" would only add another burden to the already
over-taxed powers of the children. (5) Welsh too elaborately inflectional.
Suggestions— {1) That it be taken up in night schools. (2) That a suitable
set of Welsh readers for Welsh Sunday schools, with
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128 WALES AND CHAP. IV.]
illustrations, be compiled to make the Welsh reading therein interesting and
attractive, thus utilizing Welsh teaching already in existence with great
effect.
No. Because the Inspectors do not allow children the privilege of answering a
question in "Welsh at present, although the Code stipulates that such a
liberty should be allowed. The great majority of Inspectors are bank
Englishmen, whose hobby is to stamp out the Welsh language altogether. There
would be great difficulty in concUiating the parents to such a course.
In this district (the Tstradyfodwg) we have scarcely any mistresses able to
teach Welsh; the masters, as a whole, would be able to do so. * * Bnghshmen,
as a rule, do not possess "very strong love" towards anything
Welsh, and rather than assist it would prefer crushing it under foot. As a
thorough warm-hearted Celt, I would gladly hail this new attempt at
perpetuating the old language, but cannot see any hope.
Afeibmativb — Tes; and not only at elementary schools, but I think that at
higher schools and universities it should have a place amongst the other
languages taken, and candidates for degrees, &c., should be allowed to
take it as an alternative language, just as they now can take French or
Latin, G-reek, &c.
Tes, to Welsh country schools. (1) Country teachers have often told me that
they have recourse to the Welsh language to make the lessons intelligible;
therefore, by its introduction into the Code, they would get some credit and
pecuniary benefit for labour which is now often unrecognised and unpaid for.
(2) It would materially aid towards securing Welsh Inspectors for Wales, who
can properly sympathise with Welsh-speaking children, and understand the
difficulties they have to contend with in grasping the subjects.
Tes. The children attending my school are not conversant with the language,
although their parents are as a rule Welsh. This seems a pity. If Welsh were
taught as a specific, it would, in my opinion, be an inducement to Welsh
parents to bring up their children in the mother-tongue. Again, it would be
the means of aiding those who are already Welsh-spoken to obtain an accurate
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[OHAP. IV. HER LANGUAGE. 129
knowledge of their language. It is to be regretted that but few in comparison
can speak and write Welsh properly.
Having been the head master of, probably, the largest schools in the
Principality for a period of over forty-one years, and having observed the
comparatively little change in the use of the Welsh language among the
resident population of this district during that time, I venture to express
my decided opinion that " advantage would result" from the
introduction of Welsh as an optional "specific subject.''
Yes. I beUeve it could be taught with great advantage. I find it easier to
teach French to a chUd who knows Welsh. The meanings and allusions in the
reading lessons are better understood in many cases where the explanation is
given in Welsh. Enghsh boys and girls strive to learn it if they hear the
teacher explain the reading matter thus, and the petty jealousy between the
races diminishes.
Yes. Welsh children naturally speak Enghsh veiled in Welsh idioms. This is a
great obstacle in the way of teaching English effectually. The introduction
of the study of the Welsh language into our elementary schools would give
teachers an opportunity to teach children how to translate properly. As a
consequence the children would learn to express themselves in purer English.
I feel certain that much advantage in every way would result therefrom;
chiefly, the intelligence of the children would be greatly improved thereby,
and school would be more of a pleasure to them. I know that these things
would follow from their having done so in my school by my taking my upper
standards through a Welsh grammar side by side with an English one, and I
have no doubt but that it would be the case to a much greater extent were
Welsh taught as thoroughly as it would be, were it a paid subject.
Yes. The knowledge, intelUgence, and the thinking powers oi the children
would be increased immensely; instead of their being as they are at present,
learning everything by rote.
I am not a Welshman, but I sincerely appreciate your intention.
I have always felt a desire to introduce Welsh as a "specific
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130 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
subject" into my school. My experience as a teacher enables me to
confirm Professor Powell's remark, "that the "Welsh language is a
powerful agent of education." * * It is a mistake to think that our boys
and girls will become better Englishmen and Englishwomen by ignoring what one
recently called " our beautiful "Welsh."
Although I do not understand "Welsh, I am of opinion that a grammatical
knowledge of their own language would be a much greater advantage to the
Welsh working classes than most of the ordinary specific subjects.
I find it easier to teach French to a child who knows "Welsh.
Our pupils s^ieak fairly good English but very bad Welsh. (My experience
extends as far as "West and North Pembrokeshire and the Glamorgan
"Valleys.) (1) It would be a good mental discipline.
(2) It would tend to accuracy in expressing ideas. (3) It would enlarge both
vocabularies (English and "Welsh). (4) It would give an excellent
opportunity for learning the idioms of th English language. Welsh teachers
have quite enough to do in preparing for the G-overnment examination, and as
Welsh counts for nothing at the certificate examination, it is of course
neglected. To remedy this some good Welshmen should establish classes in
connection with the Welsh colleges, and the Welsh professors should hold
periodical examinations and grant diplomas to those who have attained a
certain standard of excellence. As Welsh is learnt noiv it is simply a
hindrance to progress in English, and consequently in aU other subjects of a
common school education. Schedule I"V. More stress should be put on a
thorough knowledge of the accidence and syntax, and also on the idioms in
translation.
Advantages: (1) The usual mefital discipline in the systematic learning of
any language. (2) The language would in the future be spoken in a much purer
and more correct form than at present.
(3) It would stimulate patriotism, so necessary to the well-being of the
community. (4) The realisation of the "prophetic dreams" of our old
bards. (5) Being placed amongst the specifics there is no possibility of its
interference in the acquisition of English, which is of such vital importance.
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 131
Much is said about " cultivating a taste for reading." I cannot
conceive of a better aid. Children in this district read Enghsh in the Sunday
schools untU they are about thirteen or fourteen years of age, then they prefer
the "Welsh classes. Objections: Masters are not capable of teaching the
subject. The Code demands too much already. Many inspectors I am afraid would
be unfavourable to it, hence disheartening those who would take it up. There
are diilerent opinions with regard to the merit of our literature, but I iind
that those who read "Welsh as well as Enghsh (although they are lovers
of Milton, Shakespeare, "Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Morris) feel they
cannot aiiord to neglect Hiraethog and Islwyn.
Netiteal — The English language ought to be taught in "Welsh districts
(such as Anglesey) the same as any foreign tongue would be taught — viz., by
means of the vernacular. I beheve that if the children were systematically
taught the English language instead of picking up what little they do by
accident, that in twenty or thirty years a revolution would have taken place
in the mental condition of the people. Eor this purpose we would have to go
in for a Welsh Code (optional, as some schools in Anglesey, and most in other
parts, such as Grlamorganshire, would prefer working under the Enghsh Code).
* * As a "Welshman, I am afraid that such a course would accelerate the
death of our dear "Welsh language, and gwell fuasai genyf hyny na
gwrthod allwedd fawr pob gwybodaeth i blant ein gwlad.
MONMOUTHSHIRE.
Nhgatitb — No. I consider that its introduction would result in greater
"over-pressure" in schools in "Wales. Managers would insist
upon its being taken up in all schools to increase the Government grant.
Ai'MEMATiTB — Yes, as it would be a great assistance in teaching Enghsh to
the "Welsh children. From my twelve years' experience as teacher in
"Welsh districts, I have found it necessary to impart my instruction by
means of the "Welsh language, and I know that the knowledge of the
Enghsh language, which is gained by the
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132 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
Welsh as a channel is far more sound and perfect than that which is acquired
by leaving the Welsh entirely out of the course of instruction. In spite of
the prejudice which some of H. M. Inspectors hare against Welsh, I have never
failed to give the children as much instruction as time would allow me in
their mother's language.
Most decidedly. It ought to be an extra subject in every school.
My children, although they were instructed first in English, but now being
able to converse in Welsh, would be benefitted by a further knowledge of the
Welsh language, and to the Welsh it would be a greater advantage.
The educational advantages would be very great, and surely the adoption of
such teaching would add a delightful work to many a Welsh teacher and scholar
and help to keep "yr hen iaith" alive.
To the scholars themselves it would give a sense of reaUty to grammar which
the subject does not now possess. And by its giving a power of comparison it
would greatly facilitate the teaching of historical English. The great
drawback is the ignorance of Welshmen of the grammar of their own language. I
may state that the vUlage in which I Uve has four EngUsh places of worship
and six Welsh ditto, the size of the latter being to the former as two is to
one.
Tes. Those of my scholars who read with true expression have a knowledge of
the Welsh langnage. They are certainly ahead of those possessing no such
knowledge.
It is the case in this school, which numbers over 200 children, all Welsh
except eight. I frequently use Welsh to explain difilcult terms, and the last
school report contains this remark: "The very intelligent work of the
three highest standards is deserving of special mention. * * Many look at it
now with contempt and as a thing to be forgotten; if introduced into school
it would be looked at in quite a different Ught.
It does seem very unscientific to attempt (more correctly to continue) to
make Welsh children learn English by UteraUy gulling them with it. We hear
much of "bi-lingual difficulty."
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 133
This I don't admit; the "difficulty'' is altogether in the means used to
teach EngUsh.
I heard the advocates of an alteration in the present system of Welsh
education spoken of lately by a person who had been a Carmarthenshire
teacher, as a "few agitators." The answers that are given above
will sufficiently disprove such a crude assertion, at least for the recent
date of 1885. Persons who make similar statements, and adopt a hostile
attitude, are frequently either Welshmen who have, through an imperfect
education, had to suffer disappointment in some way or other, and blame their
language instead of the system, or else persons who are really in good
degree, ignorant of the language, at least from a literary point of view.
Bearing in mind that we are not deaUng with the views of impractical
enthusiasts, but with the opinions of practical men, although in fact they
had no experience of systematic teaching of the language, except in a few
isolated cases, also bearing in mind the magnitude of the changes which might
be expected to take place in the event of the bilingual system being
universally adopted, I subjoin further summaries of leading points in the
answers, which may enable the reader to obtain a still clearer view of the
arguments for and against, than would be obtained by a cursory perusal of the
foregoing pages.
EEASON POE. BBASONS AGAINST.
WouIdassistinacquiringEnglish. Would hinder EngUsh conversation.
In Welsh-speaking districts in- Children would have to unlearn
telligent farmers wish their colloquial Welsh.
children to write Welsh letters.
Parents' desire for children to Parents would object.
write Welsh letters.
English hoys try to learn it when Would isolate Wales from com-
teachers explain in Welsh, plete assimilation with England.
and race jealousy diminishes.
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134
WALES XSB. CHAP. IV.]
BBASON EOE.
"Would be a pecuniary, an educational, and a moral advantage.
Young people noiv unable to compose Welsh letters.
(Successful teachers use Welsh freely.
Would aid in securing inspectors who could properly understand the
difficulties of Welsh children.
Children could then be taught to translate properly.
Stimulative to the mind.
English children insist on speaking Welsh every chance they get.
Means of mental disciphne — systematic knowledge of great value.
Should be compuisoby on all
SCHOOLS.
English taught more thoroughly thus.
Would require little extra work.
Children would be greatly delighted.
Would foster a love of study.
Open the field for more extensive reading.
Would induce parents to bring up their children in their mother-tongue.
Easier to teach French when Welsh is learnt.
Would enlarge both vocabularies.
Especially [wanted] where Welsh is likely to be forgotten.
EBASON AGAINST.
Want of utility.
"Sunday" schools and literary meetings provide for it.
Some successful teachers do not understand it.
Inspectors rank Englishmen.*
Present Code gives sufficient
latitude. Language too inflectional. English predominant in certain
district.
Most teachers ignorant of Welsh, and would require special training.
Because a special Code for Wales is wanted worst.
* It would not be fair to speak of the Inspectors of 1891 as rank Englishmen.
There are now notable exceptions to the old rule, but the Department is not
yet sufficiently alive to the advantage of having Welsh-speaking Inspectors
and assistants, even in bilingual districts.
OHAP. IV.]
HER LANGUAGE.
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135
PEEDICTED EESTTLTS OF PROPOSED SYSTEM.
Would create a thorough love for higher education and science.
The study of it would giye full command of a beautiful and expressive
language.
Would be an introduction to a classical education.
Would keep alive the Welsh national spirit.
Welsh literature would gain immensely.
Would relieve over pressure.
Would sharpen the intellects of the children for the reception of moral
impressions during preaching.
[Under a Welsh Code] in twenty or thirty years a revolution would have taken
place in the mental condition of the people.
It will be admitted that if we except, on the negative side, the parents'
objections, induced by what Carmarthen (61) styles "a popular
delusion," and the much more reasonable fear of overpressure, or
inability to keep pace with the then requirements of the Code in other
respects, that the affirmatives had an immensely preponderating weight of
evidence on their side, tending to strengthen the opinion that there were solid
grounds for introducing Welsh, experimentally at least, as a specific
subject, and in some places as a class subject. It is to be feared that the
Education Department, with their inspectors, have done but little to remove
the popular delusion referred to. Yet, one of the primary objects of
education is to improve the judgment, weaken superstition, and healthily
expand the
* This was written under the old Code, but doubtless is still true to a large
extent in Wales.
EESTJLT OP PEBSENT SYSTEM.
Present mode has lamentably failed except to a few.
Parrot-hke knowledge of English in most elementary schools.
Many "Sunday" school scholars does not distinguish between i'w and
yw.
Best teachers groan under drudgery of the Code.*
Present methods dreary and unnatural.
Welsh as a written language going into disuse.
"Present slipshod way of teaching, or rather not teaching English.
Children ashamed of their
mother-tongue. Weary work.
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136 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
mental-powers, in attaining which latter object competent judges allege, as
will be seen in this chapter, that the present system of ignoring Welsh is
sadly defective.
As a matter of fact, School Boards, composed in many cases of persons of
narrow or inferior education, continue, apparently, satisfied with results
which, although fairly good in contrast with the rest of the country, are by
no means the best attainable under a more intelligent system.
Considerable excuse however, must be made for many of these, because it is
not long since, as we have seen, the "Welsh note," was in use in
certain schools, so that the meaning of the term education in the minds of
many teachers, as well as parents, who observe how necessary a knowledge of
EngHsh is for purposes of material advancement, rather excludes the idea that
Welsh may at the same time, if properly handled, be made a powerful
instrument of education in the correct sense of the term, conducive to habits
of correct speaking and thinking, and supplying, in conjunction with English,
a means of mental disciphne even to boys in elementary schools, far superior
to that evinced by the present "sUpshod," hap-hazard, rule of
thumb-way, in which there is ground for believing many Welsh children think
and speak.
Even in semi-Anghcized districts where the mother-tongue of most of the boys
is English, but they are more or less familiar with Welsh, either by hearing
it spoken, or by connection with the religious denomination their parents
belong to, a course of Welsh can be introduced in the higher standards,
without much, if any strain on the teacher, as has been practically proved
where the experiment has been tried. Any other bilinguistic training involves
far too large an expenditure of time and talent to be at all practicable in
elementary schools. The attempt would, intellectually speaking, be
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[chap. IV. HER LANGUAGE. 137
expensive. It is held that a bilingual method as advocated here would, in the
same sense, be remarkably cheap.
It should be borne in mind, too, that the objectors were speaking for the
most part of what they had not tested by actual experience, and veiy few of
them have done so, even up to the present time. This is true of the
affirmative, but the onus of proof, to shew that such a proposition should
not be tentatively adopted, lay with the negatives, which proof they failed,
on the whole, to establish.
Although I am somewhat anticipating my subject, I may mention the singular
fact that while theoretically the most thoroughly Welsh schools in Wales
would seem the most to need instruction in the language, in the practical
working out of the idea, it is in bilingual districts where English prevails
more or less largely, that the teachers or school Boards have shewn most
willingness to make the necessary changes, for instance, Ruabon in North
Wales; Merthyr, Gelligaer, Mynyddislwyn, in South Wales; while the teachers
in the country around Merthyr, which is more Welsh than the town, have
opposed the scheme. There are, however, one or two exceptions such as Llanarth,
in Cardiganshire, but this was previously an exceptionally well taught
school, and though in a thoroughly Welsh district, is ahead of most in Wales
or England. Probably this peculiarity is due to the fact that hitherto we are
only dealing with Welsh as a specific language taught to the higher standards
only, and it corresponds to the idea of one teacher— "especially where
Welsh is likely to be forgotten."
To resume now the thread of our history, very soon after the Cymmrodorion
Society had drawn up their reply, giving teachers' replies in extenso, the
National Eisteddfod in Aberdare, of 1885, was held, and presided over by Dr.
Isambard Owen: it was decided to form a Society for promoting the utilization
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138 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
of the Welsh language in education, and agreed to leave the organization to
Dan Isaac Davies. D. I. Davies, B.Sc, was a Sub-Inspector of Elementary
Schools, who had served the Education Department some years in England, and
then returned to Wales under the impression, as he expressed it, in 1887,
that he should find the Welsh language fast receding, almost disappearing,
but "at every step since my return on the 1st October, 1882, rather more
than four years ago, I have found the Welsh language has turned the corner,
and it has passed out of the time of, we may say an English teaching
reaction, I am glad to say not into a time of Welsh teaching reaction, but
into a time of bilingual teaching reaction."
In his earlier life it appears that D. I. Davies was inclined to depreciate
Welsh. He called himself an "Anglophile," but now at once threw
himself heartily into this movement so contrary to what had been for years,
the general current of education feeling in Wales, and so contrary to the
traditional policy of the Department in London.
As an illustration of the character of the opposition that was evoked, I vdll
quote the Western Mail, 8mo " Aug." 28th, 1885, which, in the
course of a long leader, remarking on the increased facility which it was
said systematic instruction in Welsh in day schools would give to the
children in understanding sermons etc., said —
"We were rather surprised to find in a report drawn up in the interest
of a people so determinedly opposed as the Welsh hare been represented to be,
to all religious instruction in their day schools the statement that,
"by accustoming the children to correct Welsh, it would greatly improve
their understanding of the religious instruction given in that
language." This, if it mean anything, means that an adoption of the
Committee's recommendation, that Welsh be taken as a specific subject in the
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 139
day schools, must eventuate in a tremendous accession of strength to the
Sunday schools.
Tlunk of that, you Nonconformists. Here is a champion of the Established
Chm-ch fearing that if systematic instruction is given in your language, a
"tremendous accession of strength" will accrue to your schools.
At the meeting in Aberdare above mentioned, a somewhat singular scene took
place; D. 1. Davies said that Tudor Evans (a CardiflF architect) —
Had impugned the action of the Committee of the Cymmrodorion Society in
appealing for information to the teachers of Wales, and had said that other
persons ought to have their say. There was a strong feeling that he, as one
of those other persons, should come forward, and have his say now.
Mr. Evans, who occupied a front seat in the body of the hall, and who
resolutely declined to comply with repeated appeals made that he should
ascend the platform, said he was not prepared that morning to be immolated on
the altar of bigotry (Cries of "Shame")!
D. I. Davies did not remain satisfied with the initial steps to organize this
Society, he wrote a series of six letters to the Western Mail on the
"Utilization of the home language in Wales," in the last of which
he said —
"We owe an apology and an explanation to our readers. We have seldom
written to the Press, and lay no claim to literary ability and yet we have
ventured to take up their time. Our life has been devoted to the spread of
Enghsh in Wales, and yet we have felt compelled to say a word for Welsh in
the interests of our people. Our University degree proves that our own tastes
flow in the direction of exact mathematics and science and not towards
literature and languages, and yet conviction urges us to plead, however
imperfectly, for a side of education which better qualified men should have
placed in its true light. We are personally disposed to
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140 WALES AND [CHAP. IV,
think that Welsh should be used as a frequent means of illustration in
teaching the infant classes and lower standards, and taught as a specific
subject in the upper standards, the secondary schools, the Colleges, and the
University, and not as a means of teaching English, and yet see that we ought
to give a patient hearing to those teachers who claim that English can only
be taught efEectively in "Welsh-Wales through the medium of Welsh. We
feel that we must rest our case on purely practical educational arguments,
and fear not the result of any fair experimental trial of the plan we
recommend, yet our Cymric heart cannot help glowing at the thought that the
fair trial asked for will show that the practical utility of to-day and the
ancient glory of our race or nation (whichever "Gwyliedydd" may
prefer) will be found to be inseparably bound up together. Some of our
poetical countrymen are fond of making touching references to the death of
the Welsh language. * * * Infinitely to be preferred to the sentimental,
cruel tenderness of those who love to contemplate the agonies of what they
think to be an expiring language is the healthy, inspiriting advice of Dean
Vaughan, which we take from the valuable volume referred to in Letter III.: —
' I take things as I find them, and I presume to say that the one hope for
Wales of to-day, her one hope of learning, or of influence, or of usefulness,
is that at least she be bilingual. No nation ought to part willingly with her
distinctive speech. She ought to cUng to it with all fondness. The only limit
to this tenacity should be that which common sense and self-interest conspire
to impose upon it. If the language isolates her from all nations, if it risks
her cosmopolitan character, as the disciple of the wise and the instructress
of the ignorant, then, and then only, should she accept the omen, and make
the very best of the inevitable. But what then? Is she to fling away the
speech which was her differentia among the nations? Only treachery and
cowardice would counsel it. She has a patriotic and a religious duty stiU
towards the tongue in which she was born. She has, first, to see that it be
articulately and grammatically formed and shaped in all its particulars, so
that
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 141
it shall be no patois of chance and trick, but a language worthy of the
respect of other languages, worthy to become the study of the learned and the
training speech of the young. Next, that it shall have a literature all its
own, a literature without a knowledge of which the education of a scholar
shall be confessedly incomplete — a literature unapproachable sare through
its language, and, therefore, securing to that language the undying interest
and unstinting eSort of all who would think or know.'
Bear in mind, readers, that a literature is "unapproachable save through
its language." You ask for translations of Welsh literary eflfbrts.
Learn the language and translate them yourselves — that is in effect, the
advice of a leading representative of the Established Church, not a
representative of what has been tiU lately its leading policy, but a
representative of the views of a minority represented, we may suppose, by
such names as Gwallter Mechain and Silvan Evans.
D. I. D., himself formerly a teacher, makes an eloquent appeal to those with
that calling and responsibilities —
Day school teachers of Wales! Tour opportunity has arrived. Tou complain from
time to time that you work hard for the nation, where no one sees your
self-denying exertions which, it seems to you, are in danger of being too
little appreciated. How has the Cymmrodorion Society treated you during the
last year? Has it not supplied you all vidth a report of its preliminary
inquiry? Has it not asked you, one by one, what you thought of their
suggestions? Has it not printed a thousand copies of your replies and placed
them in the hands of every Cymmrodor? Does it not suggest the formation of a
society, with headquarters in the Principality, of which every one of you may
become a member, and the action of which you will be able to guide and
largely control by your superior knowledge of the practical bearings of the
question it is to deal with? Will you hesitate to join in a national movement
which, whatever may be its ultimate outcome, must elevate the position of the
educators of Wales? Will you allow others to
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142 WALES AND CHAP. IV.]
take the place marked out for you? "Will you follow when you might lead;
and blindly obey when you might help to frame the word of command? I believe
better things of you. Tou wiU prove you are the hope of Young Wales, that
longs to elevate Welshmen by means of a thoroughly effective, because truly
national, system of education, and will not flinch from patriotic work
because it is going to give you some trouble at first. A nation that now
possesses for the first time the political power to obtain an alternative
Code for Welsh districts will not forget you, nor fail to lessen your burden,
if you will only with patient clearness show it, why some of the present
educational arrangements are too hard to be borne. We appeal with equal
confidence to non-Welsh-speaking teachers as we do to the Welsh-speaking
teachers. They know well the aspiration of Young Wales is not for "Wales
for the Welsh." The policy of the rising Welsh party is not to ask
candidates for any ofilce — Parliamentary or local — " Do you speak Welsh?"
but, "will you support a school system that will give your children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren opportunities for learning
Welsh!" We do ^jot wish to exclude Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Irishmen
from Wales, but, when they are settled in our midst, to include them and
their good qualities in our own national life.
How many teachers of Wales have read and considered these words, "Will
you follow when you might lead, and blindly obey when you might help to form
the word of command.'' Did not this man know what he was writing about? Was
he not perfectly well aware of much that constitutes the life and work of a
teacher in Wales? A large number of you have confessed the need of an
alteration, but how much have you done "towards obtaining a thoroughly
effective, because truly national, system of Education f Make that your
watchword at all your district Association meetings for the next five years.
Don't quietly say, "Yes, very good, very good," fold your hands
complacently, and then discuss superannuation questions.
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 143
or anything but "patriotic work, because it is going to give you some
trouble first."
If there are a few renegades or Saxons in your midst, who either will not or
cannot understand that sense and reason demand a new and "thoroughly
effective" system which gives proper consideration both to the existence
of Welsh and to its educational value in elementary education, be satisfied
that the time will come, if you persevere, when you will be able to
demonstrate to them that their mountains are molehills, and that an
enlightened public opinion supports you, and that practical results have
amply justified your pains.
In addition to this series of letters there appeared another (consisting of
eight in all) in the " Barter ac Amserau Cymru," by the same
author, which was reprinted in pamphlet form, under the title of " Tair
Miliwn o Gymry Dwyieithog yn 1985." These letters have never appeared
before the public in an English dress, and some of my readers may be
interested with a summary of the leading points in each of them.
In Letter I., he apologizes for appearing before the Welsh public inasmuch as
he could not recollect ever having written a Welsh article before, except one
which he had just written for " Y Geninen," and he had written but
Uttle for the English Press, his bent of mind having been principally towards
mathematics and science.
The reader wUl, I hope, excuse me in endeavouring to offer translation of
D.LD.'s own words. To some, this and much that follows in the chapter may be
uninteresting, I scarcely think, however, that it will be so to many who are
engaged in Welsh Education and understand the important bearing of the
subject. He says —
It is not a bard or a litSrateur or an eisteddfodwr of the old school who
addresses thee, but one who is quite content (wrth fodd ei galon,) when
seeking to impress on the minds of Welsh
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144 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
children and the friends of education in our country the need of teaching
English, science and art. My life has been devoted to the spread of these
indispensable acquirements. This year I have turned out of my usual path on account
of a strong conviction of the importance of this period, in our history as a
nation, to speak a word as an educationalist, because no one who has enjoyed
the same opportunities (of observation) is ready to address the Welsh on the
subject which incites me to this employment, viz.: Would not the knowledge of
two languages — English and Welsh — be very advantageous to the Welshman. I
had better confess the following facts before going a step further: —
I. Though I have not been in any sense one of the family of “Dic Sion
Dafydd" I formerly shared for a long time the feeling which is to be
found commonly diffused that the extinction of the Welsh language would be,
on the whole an advantage to the Welshman.
II. I do not believe very strongly in "Oes y hyd i'r iaith
Gymraeg," because as I shall try to shew further on, the attitude of
many Welsh people to it, shews that they are entirely indifferent, if not
antagonistic to its preservation.
III. Notwithstanding, I have not entirely lost hope, since Welsh appears to
be increasing in strength and influence in these days, in spite of the
neglect and opposition of those who ought to defend and uphold it. There is a
need to spread information about the blessings which have come to us as a
people through the old language, and about the possibility of receiving many
other good things through its medium in the future.
He next notices the action of the Cymmrodorion Society, and gives an extract
from the Gaelic Journal, published in Dublin, which says in reference to the
almost national system of teaching children to read Welsh in those called
Sunday schools.
Had the system of teaching Welsh children through the medium of English been
persevered in during the last 150 years, as in the
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 145
100 years preceding the time of Griffith Jones of Llanddowror, the people of
the Principality would now have been as low at least in respect of education
as the people of Donegal and Connemara." Letter II. refers at large to
the testimony of the eminent Charles o'r Bala, written perhaps about 1811,
and from which I extract the following: —
More than 150 years ago, in "Wales, the whole country was in a most
deplorable state with regard to the acquisition of religious knowledge. For a
long time previous, fashionable people had been trying to stamp out the
language of the country, and to have the children taught altogether in
English. Against these people, and against this state of universal ignorance,
the Eev. Griffith Jones, of Llanddowror, was raised up. He asked: —
"Should all our Welsh books, and our excellent version of the Bible, our
"Welsh preaching, and the stated worship of God in our language, be
taken away, to bring us to a disuse of our tongue?" So they are in a
manner in some places — the more our misery; and yet the people are not
better scholars, any more than they are better Christians for it. Welsh is
stiU the vulgar tongue — and not English. * * Sure I am, the Welsh charity
schools do no way hinder to learn English, but do very much contribute
towards it J and perhaps you will allow. Sir, that learning our language
first is the most expeditious way to come to the knowledge of another; else
why are not your youths in England, designed for scholars, set to Latin and
Greek before they are taught English? .... Experience now proves beyond
dispute, that if it ever be attempted to bring all the Welsh people to
understand English, we cannot better pave the way for it than by teaching
them to read their own language first. This method will conduce, more than
any other I can think of, to assist whatever attempts may be made to spread
the general knowledge of the English tongue in this country.
This is a contribution so the history of the status of Welsh in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which brings us
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146 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
face to face with an attempt to "stamp out the language," that is
stUl bearing fruit to-day.
In the early days of the Society of Friends in Wales many of them were
Merionethshire and Montgomeryshire people, who emigrated to America from 1680
to 1700, and who have left various letters and records behind them which are
mostly in English, even when written before their departure, though in their
new home the ministry at public worship was for some time generally Welsh.
I have by me some early minute books ot Monmouthshire Friends beginning 1703,
which are wholly English, except a kind of introduction or compendium of
rules placed at the beginning in Welsh; but Thomas Story, when he visited
Pontypool Friends, about 1717, mentions hearing ministry in Welsh from a
friend of that town. What I have seen of Merioneth and Montgomery minute
books circ. 1730 is of a similar character.
I think that we must place these cases parallel with that of a Carnarvonshire
or Cardiganshire youth, who writes home to his parents in English, because
the famiHarity he has acquired at school in writing that language seems to
make it the easiest thing to do, but thinks and speaks almost entirely in
Welsh.
The conclusion then we arrive at is, that as early as the seventeenth century
English was the dominant language of written communications even in
Merionethshire, perhaps more so than now, though far less universally
understood.
The following appears to be an extract from an Irish writer: —
The parents in Wales were as much opposed to the teaching of the "Welsh
language as the Irish parents haye been to the teaching of Irish; but they
gave up the conceit at the persuasion of the Eer. Thomas Charles, as he himself
teUs us in continuation: —
At first the strong prejudice, which universally prevailed against teaching
them to read Welsh first, and the idea assumed that they could not learn
English so well if previously instructed in the
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CHAP, IV.] HER LA^TGUAGE. 147
language, proved a great stumbling-block in the way of parents to send their
children to the "Welsh schools; together with another conceit they had,
that, if they could read English, they would soon learn of themselves to read
Welsh. But now, these idle and groundless conceits are universally scouted.
This change has been produced, not so much by disputing, as by the evident
salutary effects of the schools, the great delight with which children attend
them, and the great progress they make in acquisition of knowledge.
I take the liberty to republish these extracts, because it is rather
comforting to a Welsh education reformer, to find that Thomas Charles had
exactly the same diflBculty to contend with in his day, as we have in our
days, from the prejudices of ignorant parents, though the system he espoused
was one which contributed greatly to the material advancement of Wales, and
has lived through all opposition to become as before hinted to a large extent
a national one. And though we still have the aforesaid prejudice to contend
with, both from parents and from some who ought to know better, it is
believed the time is at hand to extend and perfect such a national, we might
almost say utilitarian system, and relieve schools that are professedly
devoted to religious purposes from the work that ought more properly to be
performed in elementary day schools, viz., teaching boys and girls to read
their mother-tongue, as well as write it, and that in a more thorough and
efficient way than can be attained by comparatively untrained, amateur
teachers.
Letter III. alludes to a recent speech of A. J. Mundella's, at Sheffield, in
which he said, after alluding to a conversation he (A. J.D.) had in
Switzerland with a young shop-woman who spoke idiomatic English —
The story I was going to teU you was this: — I was in Switzerland, in the
Engadine. At the door of the hotel was a shop, where all
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148 WALES AMD [CHAP. IV.
kinds of souvenirs, for people to carry away with them, were sold — whether
they were Swiss carving, or some French, German, or EngHsh articles. There
was a bright clever young woman selling all kinds of souvenirs for people to
carry away with them when they went home. A gentleman, very well known to
English people, was staying at the same hotel with me, and he said: —
"That's a very bright girl that keeps that shop. I recommend you to go
and buy something." So I made a pretext to buy some trifle, and she
addressed me in perfect idiomatic English. I asked her where she learned Eaghsh;
and she replied, "At Lucerne." "You speak excellently," I
said, "and of course you speak French and German, for they are your
native languages?" " Of course I do," she answered.
"Anything else?" I asked. "Oh, yes: Italian and Dutch:'' and
she afterwards confessed she also knew a little Spanish, and was studying it.
I found, on making further enquiry, that the girl was taught at Lucerne, and
that it cost a franc a year — that is, only tenpence — which was spent on
paper and pencUs. . . . . The Director of Schools in that canton told me —
"All our schools are free — all our children attend school — every
child, however poor, masters two languages, French and German; and those who
go to the Secondary School must learn at least one other.' I said, "Who
pays for these things?" "The commune city." "But don't
they grumble?" "No: they know it is the safety of the rich, and the
best inheritance of the poor."
Ah! say some of my readers, there is more sense and reason in teaching
children for a second language — one spoken by some great nation, such as the
French or the German, which may some day come in useful in the counting
house, rather than Welsh, which is nowhere so far as business is concerned.
In reply to such an objection, which is not unfrequently heard, I would say
that the possibility of effectively teaching such a foreign language in
elementary schools, either in Wales or England, is a mere figment of the
imagination which has been "weighed in the balance and found
wanting," with very
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OHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 149
slight exceptions. I speak of the nineteenth century: what may be possible in
the latter half of the twentieth, I do not venture to assert.
The advantages of some education in a second language, where it can be
arranged, are frequently considerable. In England there is however no
opportunity for introducing one. In the largest portion of Wales there is
such an opening, even in districts partly Anglicized, where the children
speak Enghsh among themselves, because they are so frequently brought in
contact with this second language in one shape or another, that it is not a
wholly foreign one to them, and the results of experiments appear to shew
that it can be efFectivply and profitably introduced.
In the beginning of Lettek IV., D. I. D. remarked that when the history of
Wales should be written with the necessary exactitude, he beheved it would be
shewn that English had sometimes lost ground after gaining it, and that Welsh
had gained ground after losing it; instancing the testimony of WiUiam Rees
(Gwilym Hiraethog), that Welsh had recovered part of Flint; he refers to his
article ("Cymru Ddivyieithog" ) in the Geninen, saying, that it
would there appear that the English, Irish, and Scotch were learning Welsh by
thousands. The article itself is of an interesting character, and I will
endeavour to summarize some of the facts it contains.
As an Inspector of Schools, he says, he was daily surprised to find Welsh
[speaking] children bearing English or Scotch names. He gives a list of lOO
such names, as Grant, Whittaker, MacDonald, Puleston, Hamer, Frazer, Donovan,
Randell, Frost, Dyke, etc. D. Roberts, of Wrexham, tells him that Scotchmen
in that Anglicized town are to be heard teaching the children of Welsh
parents on the first day ("Sunday") to pronounce the old language
properly. "The superficial spread of Enghsh gives an English face to the
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150 WALES AND CHAP. IV.]
country to the face of an Englishman, and the travellers who quickly travel
through it. But the centre and heart of the land is Welsh." The
followiag statistics are worthy of being preserved for their historical
import, even if they are considered of no immediate interest.
Statistics of coal mine in Cwmsaerbren Parm, Treherbert, Grlamorganshire: —
Number in the Pit . . 500
Welsh WorJimen 353
Of other nations ..... 147
Of the 147 able to speak Welsh well . . 80
Do. moderately well ..... 40
Able to understand it when spoken by others . . . . 20
Unable to understand or speak Welsh . . . . 7
In Abermorlais School, Merthyr Tydfil, out of 510 children in the Second
Standard and above, the statistics were as under:^
Of the 510 able to speak Welsh 215
Understanding it but not speaking it . . . . 96 Unable to understand or
speak, although of Welsh
parents . . . . . , . . . . 100
EngUsh Children 99
I might extract more, but the following must suffice: —
If my words could reach the ears of the indifferent Welsh people of
Grlamorganshire towns, I would say to them— one thing is clear, the children
of the West and North, the sons of Cardigan and Merioneth are going to take
appointments in your county from your children on account of your neglecting
Welsh.
Since those words were penned Merthyr has taken some steps in the direction
of reversing the old barbaric policy, and as time goes on will be called on
to take further ones.
To return to Letter IV., — he expressed his great surprise at finding the
daughter of a country squire near Cheltenham able to speak Welsh, learning
which had been a self-imposed
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CHAP. IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 151
task, he adds — "Is there not here an example worthy to be followed by
the great men of Wales. Why is their influence so small in comparison with
what it might be?"
One reason of that is their neglect to the language of the people. As an
illustration of the class of men alluded to by D. I. Davies, we will take the
Lord Penrhyn, who died a few years ago, and who regretted on his death bed he
had not been master of the language, so as to communicate more fuUy with
those around him. But what has his successor in the title profited by such an
experience?
Not one whit, so far as can be seen. He is now just as far from knowing
Welsh, or intending to know it, defended and backed up in his cogitations and
purposes by an immense pile of £ s. d., drawn from the bowels of the earth by
the labours of Welsh quarrymen, than whom he would not easily find in
England, a more intelligent or intellectual body of men in a similar condition
in Ufe.
D. I. D. goes on to say —
No system of education for Wales will be complete, if it does not give
opportunities to learn it, to the children of those who have neglected Welsh.
In this way again it is possible to reunite our upper classes (jpenaethiaid)
to the people of the country, and prevent the middle classes of the
population from losing their influence on the mass which is one of the great
dangers of democratic days.
Bear this in mind, you members of School Boards, teachers, sub-inspectors;
these are the words of a practical Governnient Educationalist, they are the
words, moreover, of a man about whom, after his lamented death, the Chief
Inspector of Schools in Wales remarked in his 1889 report to the Imperial
Government: —
I think it only right to say that by the death of Mr. Davies the Department
has lost an able, a zealous, and a valuable officer, and his
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152 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
native country an enlightened educationalist, who strongly felt the loss
arising from not utilising, to a far greater extent than has been done, the
home language of "Welsh-speaking children in cultivating their
intelligence and in teaching them English in the elementary schools.
Note. He did not merely recommend utilizing the home language of
Welsh-speaking children, but also the actual teccching of it afresh to those
whose parents had neglected it, or neglected them.
In the same letter he proposes the insertion of six questions relative to
language in the Census of 1891.
Judging by the way in which an actual attempt to take an account of language
was carried out in that census by the officials, it is perhaps best that D.
I. D.'s more minute proposals were let alone.
Letter V. gives an anecdote told the author by Andrew Doyle, who for many
years was an Inspector of Workhouses, and had in North Wales became
acquainted with a German, a tutor in a private family. One day he started on
a journey into a mountain parish, accompanied by his German friend, but found
to his dismay that no one in the room where he conducted his business
understood English, hence he was fain to send for an interpreter, when the
young German offered himself for that office, and fulfilled its duties
satisfactorily.
Coming in the course of a journey to Builth, a town almost, if not entirely
Anglicised, D. I. D. quotes the almost astounding testimony of the manager of
the National Provincial Bank there, viz., that there were 1,500 customers of
the Bank who had rather do their business in Welsh than EngUsh.
In Letter VI. we again find incidents of his journeyings, and consequent
reflections. Carmarthenshire is now his central point, and he instances the
testimony of Shadrach Pryce, M.A.,
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[chap. IV. HER LANGUAGE. 153
Inspector of Schools,* that the knowledge of Welsh is not decreasing in that
county — travels with the wife of a Welsh coal trimmer, who has learnt
French, and relates the vicissitudes of the language in semi-Anglicised
districts as follows: —
Ask the children of Gwent and Morganwgt in Standard V., what language they
can speak best — "Welsh or English. The answer you may expect is —
English. They have been so accustomed to it in the day schools for years, that
both children and teachers think Welsh is dead; but let two years go by, you
meet with those boys again when they are fifteen. Ask them " what
language do you like the best now?" "Welsh" is the answer.
When they are eighteen other reasons may incline them to English; but when
they are thirty, and settled in the world, they are members of Welsh causes,
etc. Sometimes their inclination is Welsh sometimes EngUsh! In the long run
the man will generally to 'be Welsh. How is it often now in Wales? Here are 300
people together, and none except 10, 20, or 50 of them, according to the
nature of the meeting or the linguistic condition of the neighbourhood are
ignorant of the Welsh: — The 290 must give way to the ten, and the business
go forward in English. "Should not the ten learn Welsh for shame?"
Tou say, is it not a serious consideration to think how many persons fall
down on a footstool to the small minority?
It is very serious, if you choose to look at it from that comic standpoint.
But the seriousness changes into disgust when we consider how much weakness
to the nation is in this cringing spirit that rejoices in educational
arrangements which do not give fair opportunities to the ten, and their
children, to learn Welsh, so that there may be a way open to make use of one
of the two languages, according to the taste of the teacher, without there
being any cause to fear that any would misunderstand the addresses.
* The usual alsbreviatibii H.M.I, is not used in this book, as it involves
acquiescenee in the term Sis or Her Majesty, applied to a frail, mortal
creature.
t Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire— this paragraph would not be applicable to
a large extent to Monmouthshire, ir
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154 WALES AND [CHAP. IV.
* * but let a position be given to the old language in the day and evening
schools, there it will be out of the quarrels of political or religious
parties. If it (the language) sets its feet down there, it wiU remain in the
Sabbath schools, as well as increase in influence, there vidll be fewer English
classes to be seen in "Welsh schools, and more "Welsh classes in
English schools. In a bilingual country that is how things ought to be.
Once more the lesson he would teach is, let English-speaking children in
Wales have opportunities to learn Welsh — such a course is more than is
generally supposed, possible, practicable, profitable.
Letter VII. alludes to the fact that some Welsh people speak at times as
though giving up Welsh would be equivalent to giving up poverty, and as
though adopting Enghsh in its place would be the same thing as entering into
the possession of fullness and plenty. * * "Thousands are to be found in
Wales in these days who have gained nothing in either sense, either
temporally, morally, or spiritually, by changing Welsh for English."
Turning to the East End of London, he mentions the Jews' Free Schools, for
over 3,200 children, in Spitalfields, where the working hours are those of
the School Board, except that they work from nine to one, instead of nine to
twelve, in order to find time for an additional subject, namely — Hebrew.
Ninety percent, of the children are foreigners, but the 7th Standard children
are exactly thirteen times more numerous in proportion, than those of the
general schools in the country.
This appears to be an exception to the rule that it is visionary to attempt
generally to teach a second language in English schools; I account for this
in two ways —
First, by heredity.
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CHAP. IV.] HEK LANGUAGE. 155
Secondly, by constant contact with the second language in the synagogue and
at school.
In semi-Anglicized Wales, both the principles of heredity and " constant
contact" come into play, but cannot of course be applied generally to
the study of French and German in England.
The following incident is worthy of note: —
I have heard of an Englishman, an extensive landowner, going to a Welshman,
who is known to his nation in every corner of the world, and who stands high
in the estimation of every patriotic Welshman, and addressing him in the
following manner, only the conversation was in English [D. I. D.'s version
is, of course, in Welsh]: — "I should be very glad to be able to
speakWelsh as well as you can: if you will give me instruction in your language
I will pay you five hundred pounds when I can speak Welsh as well as
you." "I cannot,'' was the reply, "other engagements (
goruchwylion) take up all my time, and they would take up more if I were
master of it." "I am very sorry for that," said the other,
"my parents (he spoke with a regretful feeling) made a great mistake in
my early education. They paid hundreds, if not thousands of pounds to finish
me in the Greek and Latin languages, which I have never had occasion to use,
but they entirely neglected the language of the people, among whom they knew
I should have to spend my lifetime." '■' * The Welshman who
refused the £500 is my authority for this anecdote.
I am glad to be able to add that his friend, who is of English lineage, but
with Welsh sympathies, can speak our old language fairly well to-day
notwithstanding the mistake made by his parents in his early education.
In reading the foregoing narrative, we cannot help remembering the father,
not of an Englishman, but of a Welshman, mentioned elsewhere in this book,
who so neglected his education that his son, it is believed, even at the
present day is unable to read the Welsh books or manuscripts which pass
through his
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156 WALES AND [OHAP. IV.
hands ia the transactions of a well known publishing business, with an
extensive sphere of operations in Wales, although it is probable that it was
thought he received an "advanced education" before entering the
family concern.*
D. I. D., after alluding to the desire to learn Welsh, which is common among
English people in Wales, queries whether the present parents of Wales will
learn a lesson from their mistakes? He quotes A. J. Mundella, M.P., as to the
importance of learning languages, and the dislike of English boys and girls
to speak a different one, alluding to Glamorgan as a favourable field for
bringing up children as bilinguists.
Letter VIII. alludes to the fact little recognized by the public, that
everything taught in Elementary Schools is at the choice of the local
managers, and is not compulsory, except reading, writing, arithmetic,
spelling, and sewing. From this he draws the lesson, on the one hand, that it
is not possible to introduce Welsh into a district against its will, and on
the other hand, that though Erse and Gaelic are paid for in Ireland and
Scotland, not a brass penny is paid for Welsh in Wales. This was in 1885.
He asks why Welsh papers should not be set at pupil teachers' examinations
for Queen's scholarships? — Should there not soon be a change in that
direction? — It would be easier to some Welsh youths and girls, who gain
certificates after successful service as assistants to obtain an eflicient
education in Welsh than in Latin, French, or German.
"Do you want to teach Welsh in the English parts of Wales," says one
of the doubting brethren? Since you pointed at our English Wales, we wiU try
to show that a certain amount of Welsh could easily be taught there to the
advantage of every one without distinction.
* "The ignorance of the is a source of loss to themselves, and
the nation." Extract from a letter from a well-known Welshman to the
author received since the paragraph was written.
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CHAP, IV.] HER LANGUAGE. 157
Queries why the Board Schools should read the English Bible instead of the
Welsh. There is no (legal) necessity for this. He says it is the choice of
the Board School itself to give an ineffectual education in English to the
children, instead of giving an effectual religious education in Welsh.
Alludes to the desirability of Welsh Kailway Companies having bilingual
officials, etc.
Letter IX. "If the proposed scheme is accepted at Aberdare, it will take
years in point of time, and a multitude of opportunities to study the details
of the changes which we wish to see. The judgment of one man is not important
in a matter of this kind, but we must arrange to have what the doctors of our
country call a Collective Investigation Committee. The first place in the
investigation belongs to Welsh schoolmasters of every description, if they
are patriotic enough to take the trouble to explain the matter to the nation.
We firmly believe that they are lovers of their country and their language,
and that they will not allow others to stir themselves in this matter without
their cordial co-operation."
"On the other hand, since the reins (awenau) of authority in country
governing bodies have fallen at last into the hands of Welshmen themselves,
in the greater part of the thirteen counties, which make up the Welsh
[educational] division, we believe they will not allow the school teachers of
Wales to suffer much longer from the heavy disadvantages of the Educational
Code, prepared by Englishmen for England, and which is not on that account
suitable in every respect for the Welsh of Wales." * *
"The first hint of the importance of forming a National Society to carry
forward the movement, came from one of the Cardigan J.P.'s, Mr. Henry T.
Evans, of Neuadd Llanarth, who wrote at once aftet the appearance of the
abstract of my paper in the South Wales Daily News, to thank me for what I
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158 WALES AND CHAP. IV.]
had done, and to say that the time for making a movement of the kind was at
hand."
The above three paragraphs are translations or condensations of the original.
Note the farsightedness of the man — years required to study details of
changes — the necessity for the expression of judgment by a great many
persons.
It is hoped that the present volume wiU in some degree supply the deficiency
of the " Collective Investigation Committee," by presenting, after
the lapse of a few years, evidence from various sources that has accumulated
in the meantime.
D. I. D. also thanks his fellow workers under the Education Department, viz.,
W. Edwards, M.A., John Rees, and Corner Jones, B.A., for the assistance they
had rendered him. He quotes the words of the Marquis of Bute, "For a man
to speak Welsh and willingly not to be able to read and write it is to
confess himself a boor;" and goes on to say that on reading the above
apothegm he felt as if a fire had fallen on his skin, and that he was aware
that hundreds of thousands were speaking Welsh without ever trying to write
it. On thinking of the matter, he says, he clearly saw that the fault lay
with our system of education, and not with individuals in many instances,
mentioning one of the most enterprising and successful Welshmen in the South
Wales coal field, with whom he had recently conversed, who, with his wife and
some of his children could speak Welsh, but never trusted "himself to
write it for fear of making mistakes, but how easy it would be to remove this
difficulty out of the w^ay."
Very shortly after Letter IX., which was the last of the series, had been
written, a paragraph appeared in the Globe, of 8th mo., 1883, commenting on a
speech made by the Lord Aberdare, in which he said that he felt sure that
although undoubtedly EngUsh wasmaking progress, Welsh was advancing,
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[chap. IV. HER LANGUAGE. 159
and that there were more people speaking Welsh than at any previous period.
Lord Aberdare, who ought to know, believes that there are now more
Welsh-speaking people in Wales than there have ever been before. If he is
right, as in all probability he is, it is mere affectation on the part of the
Saxon to turn the Welshman's attachment to his ancient language into
ridicule. It is far easier to inake fun of Taffy's love for what ignorant
people imagine to be consonants, than it is to seriously find fault with any
man's preference for the tongue to which he has been born and nurtured. Of
course, the practical importance of the matter lies in its connection with
education; and Lord Aberdare struck an exceedingly suggestive point in
pronouncing that a thorough and grammatical instruction in Welsh is better
than the loose education that most of us have received in English. English
has this fatal defect, from an educational point of view — that it is a
congeries of vague idioms and superfine distinctions, while a Celtic language
can be learned with almost as good a mental result as Greek or Latin.
Moreover, a bUingual person, as a genuine Welshman is bound to be, has a
distinct intellectual advantage at starting, over one who is nursed into the
belief that there is only one language in the world, and that all other modes
of speech are foreign jargons. Then, to the advantage of Welsh over Erse or
Gaehc, it has a real and living literature — and a Uterary language is hard
to kiU. We consider that it is not a mere matter of sentiment that Welshmen
should be ambitious of learning English without prejudice to Welsh — indeed,
to be disloyal to one's mother tongue is well-nigh equivalent to be false to
one's father-land. The narrower the spirit, the more intense; and we cannot
afford in these days to lose much more of that local enthusiasm in which vapid
cosmopohtanism find its best and most natural corrective."
How extremely hard it is to dislodge from the minds of Englishmen (this
writer in the Olobe was an exception), and I am sure it is from the minds of
a large number of influential persons in
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160 wat.es and her language. [chap. IV.
Wales, the idea that the bilingual education movement is a sentimental one.
They see Welsh sentiment on the right hand and on the left in Eisteddfod
speeches, and the like, and they imagine that bilingualism is propped up, or
intended to be, on the same foundation. It would be quite idle to deny that
sentiment affects the matter, but if we eliminate its influence entirely, and
decide on what course to pursue from a solid, cold matter of fact basis, I am
justified in saying that right thinking people will severely criticize and
repudiate traditions of three centuries of Welsh education, that they will
not in a milk and water way simply confine themselves to utilizing Welsh in
learning English, but that they will not be ashamed to make provision for
positively teaching it within safe limits, which may be later indicated, to
future artizans, labourers, domestic servants, and tradespeople.
Va;pid Cosmopolitanism expresses a state of mind to be met with at Cardiff,
Swansea, and elsewhere. Cosmopolitanism is essential to a man with an
enlarged mental horizon and a liberal mind, but the true sort goes
hand-in-hand with the development of those natural qualities and gifts with
which each nation, race, and individual is endowed, and it ultimately tends
to the well-being of the whole.
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Statistics for
Welsh Texts Section / Ystadegau’r Adran Destunau Cymraeg