Showing 55 results

Monochrome photostat facsimile of the Book of Llandaff (Liber Landavensis) (NLW MS 17110E), presented by the National Library of Wales to P. T. Davies-Cooke of Gwysaney in 1931 on receipt of the family's deposit of manuscripts at the Library.

Copies of 22 speeches given by Dame Margaret Lloyd George (1918-1921) relating to politics, charity functions, social work for the poor and the war wounded, the opening of schools, exhibitions, bazaars, an unveiling of a war memorial, presentations of awards, and addresses to major conventions. Also contains transcribed copies of the speeches, and also contains notes by the donor (grandson of Rev J.T Rhys) providing additional contextual information (2019). A booklet titled 'Mrs. Lloyd George Goes to Lampeter: 17th June 1919, A Rhys/Rees Story in Three Parts ' (see JTR MLG SP4 Lampeter Cardiganshire Liberals 17th June 1919) written by the donor is also included; originally a supplement to an exhibition in Lampeter Museum and a prior publication 'A Lampeter Family Story 1870-1971'.
Also contains copies of four letters from Viscountess Nancy Astor, 3 of which are to Mrs Lloyd-George, and 1 to JTR. Notes regarding the information and context of the letters from the donor are included.

Each speech has been referenced as follows:
JTR MLG SP1: Free Church Council Women, Social Rescue, Bloomsbury Central Church March 1918;
JTR MLG SP2 National Federation of Women's Institutes Exhibition, Caxton Hall, November 1918;
JTR MLG SP3 Garreglwyd, Holyhead, 14th June 1919;
JTR MLG SP4 Lampeter Cardiganshire Liberals 17th June 1919;
JTR MLG SP5 Women and peace on earth, 'Liverpool Courier' article 30th June 1919;
JTR MLG SP6 Bangor, Opening of the new Hostel for the Normal College, 21 October 1919;
JTR MLG SP7 Royal Dental Hospital, Roll of Honour and Prize Giving, 5th November 1919;
JTR MLG SP8 Plymouth in support of Lady Astor, afternoon of 14th November 1919;
JTR MLG SP9 YWCA Bazaar Opening Remarks, Central Hall Westminster, 4th December 1919;
JTR MLG SP10 On Temperance, notes written by MLG at Melchet Court, early March 1920;
JTR MLG SP11 Stockport Women's groups, 25th March 1920;
JTR MLG SP12 Camberwell Women's Rally for Dr Macnamara, 26th March 1920 by-election;
JTR MLG SP13 World Women's Temperance Conference, Central Hall Westminster, April 1920;
JTR MLG SP14 Browns of Chester, 28th October 1920;
JTR MLG SP15 Llandudno Women's Liberal Association, probably early 1921;
JTR MLG SP16 Baptist Women's League, Bloomsbury Central Church, London, 27th April 1921;
JTR MLG SP17 Sunday School Bloomsbury Central Church, London, May 1921?;
JTR MLG SP18 Llanfairfechan, circa May 1921;
JTR MLG SP19 Carnarvon Boroughs, May 1921;
JTR MLG SP20 On Temperance, Purity and Religion, Welsh Presbyterians, Porthmadog, 13th June 1921;
JTR MLG SP21 Milton Mount College 23rd June 1921;
JTR MLG SP22 Liverpool, British and Foreign Bible Society, The Sun Hall, Liverpool, 29th June 1921.

A photographic copy, May 1870, of a pedigree of Sir Peter Mutton of Llannerch, chief justice of north Wales, showing also some of the descents of his second wife Ellen (née Williams), compiled on parchment in, or soon after, 1634/5 by Griffith Hughes.
The roll is an example of a target pedigree (style 7 in Michael Powell Siddons, Welsh Pedigree Rolls (Aberystwyth, 1996)). It includes sixty coats of arms around the circumference, representing the most distant ancestors, with a further twenty-one mostly impaled shields dispersed within the body of the pedigree. At the centre is the personal coat of arms, with twenty-seven quarterings, of Mutton Davies, grandson of Peter Mutton, together with two cartouches. The copy is monochrome and on a reduced scale and is assembled from two photographs; it can be discerned that the majority of the coats of arms on the original were fully painted.

A volume, 1681-2, in the hand of Huw Morys ('Eos Ceiriog', 1622-1709), poet, Llansilin, co. Denbigh, containing mainly holograph Welsh poetry in strict and free metres, including a poem dated 1681 (ff. 10-11), together with a cywydd by Siôn Tudur (f. 16 verso), prophetic verses, some attributed to Taliesin (ff. 12 verso, 25 verso), and anonymous englynion (ff. 36 verso-37, 42); the original parchment cover, preserved at the beginning, contains copies by H.M. of 'Diarhebion o waith Taliessin', 'Cynghorion Taliessin' (f. i verso) and 'Tri Thlws ar ddeg o Ynys Brydaine' (f. ii). The manuscript was probably written for the poet's brother John Maurice (d. 1699), Bodlith, Llansilin, whose name appears on f. 1; other signatures in the volume suggest it to have remained in the possession of the family until the [mid-18 cent.].

Diary, 1 May 1851-18 September 1852, of Lieutenant Herbert M[illingchamp] Vaughan, 90th Light Infantry, mostly while stationed at Ballincollig and Cork, Ireland. The diary contains an account of his various duties, his social and recreational activities, including balls, regattas, parties and picnics, and hunting and shooting.
Vaughan's company was at Ballincollig until late 1851, when it removed to nearby Cork; the regiment was sent to Dublin in August 1852 (f. 112 verso). Additionally Vaughan spent most of September 1851 on leave in London (ff. 38-46 verso) and was at home at Plas Llangoedmor, Cardiganshire, [9] October-[29] December 1851 (ff. 49-65 verso). Among the incidents recounted are the death by suicide of one of his men during an assignment to transport ammunition (ff. 8-11); [George W. Stone] performing Electro-Biology [i.e. hypnotism] experiments on some of his men (ff. 26 verso, 29 verso-30); several visits to the Great Exhibition in London (ff. 39 verso-43 verso passim); attending the Cork garrison races, [21] April 1852 (ff. 86-87 verso); and a riot by paupers at Cork workhouse, [9] May 1852 (f. 90 recto-verso). Vaughan assisted in keeping order during the Cork County by-election in March 1852 (ff. 82-83) and in Cork City at the General Election in July 1852 (ff. 102 verso-103 verso). His main preoccupation in open season was fox hunting and shooting game (ff. 49 verso-84 verso passim). A memo found loose within the volume, dated 31 July 1852 with additions to 1855, has been tipped in inside the back cover (f. 122, see also f. 109).

A manuscript copy, 1729, of Henry Rowlands's 'Antiquitates Parochiales', transcribed by 'G.M.' [William Morgan] (pp. 1-146). The synchronism of free tenants for 1300-1700, 'Synchronismi quinque lustrales liberorum tenentium comot Maenei', is included (pp. 127-146) but the manuscript also includes an addendum not recorded elsewhere, in the hand of William Morgan and possibly a later addition, updating it to 1725 (pp. 147-148). The tract entitled 'Bellum Mariscum', absent from some copies, is also present (pp. 151-160).
Items found loose in the volume have been placed in an archival envelope (pp. 163-168).

Correspondence and other papers, 1947-1982, of the antiquarian J. D. K. Lloyd, Garthmyl, relating to his friend the poet Sir John Betjeman, including four letters, seven postcards and a compliments slip, some typed, 1970-1978 and undated, from Betjeman to Lloyd (ff. 1-4, 7-14). The letters are mostly personal, routine or frivolous; there are references to a print interview conducted by Wilfred De'Ath (f. 7) and to architectural conservation, with several mentions of Lloyd's brother, Wyndham E. B. Lloyd.
Also included are a postcard, 23 March 1970, from A. L. Rowse, Oxford, to Betjeman, later forwarded by him to Lloyd (f. 5), a postcard, 1 June 1973, from an unknown sender, enclosing a pasted-on press cutting of part of Betjeman's 'Lenten Thoughts…' (f. 6) and a carbon copy typescript letter, 23 July 1975, to Peter Topley, likely from Betjeman (f. 15); Betjeman's notes for a talk on poetry at Newtown High School, [18 December 1963] (f. 16); transcripts by Lloyd of '"9 AM" Unpublished poem by John Betjeman; of which Wyndham has his MS copy' (f. 17) and of the [12] March 1974 letter (f. 18; see f. 7); a list by Lloyd of poems omitted from [an unspecified edition of Betjeman's Collected Poems] (ff. 19-20); printed ephemera and invitations for Betjeman's Honorary Degree ceremony at Trinity College Dublin on 10 July 1975, attended by Lloyd (ff. 22-32); and press cuttings relating to Betjeman, 1947-1982 (ff. 33-40), including the 1974 Wilfred De'Ath interview 'The lonely Laureate' (f. 38; see ff. 7, 18). Betjeman signs several letters 'Evan ap etje' (ff. 3-4, 8-9, 10, 14) and addresses Lloyd as 'Widow' or 'Gwyddo' [i.e. 'Gweddw'?].

Papers of, or relating to, the poet and short story writer Alun Lewis, collected together by Jeff Towns, Swansea, comprising typescript copies, [?March 1941], of three lectures by Lewis (ff. 1-17); correspondence and papers of Charles Hamblett, Derek Sandford and Alun Lewis relating to the pamphlet Call Wind to Witness (London, [1942]) (ff. 18-34); and correspondence of W. G. Archer with Alun Lewis and others, [1943]-1944, 1974 (ff. 35-48).
Also included with the Charles Hamblett papers is a copy of Call Wind to Witness (now NLW MS 24178E(a)).

Notebook of George Henry Strick of Swansea and Brynaman, tinplate manufacturer, recording detailed notes and observations of a visit to America, September-November 1890, where he met with fellow industrialists and visited numerous blast furnaces, steelworks, ironworks and other industrial sites in several states.
Beginning apparently in Philadelphia, PA, 25 September-1 October (ff. 1-4), Strick then participates in a lengthy excursion, visiting the Warwick Furnace, [Pottstown, PA], 6 October (ff. 4-9), Lebanon [Valley] blast furnace, [Lebanon, PA], [?7 October] (ff. 10-11), Altoona Railway Works, [Altoona, PA], 8 October (ff. 11-12), the Edgar Thomason and Homestead works, the Isabella and Lucy furnaces, the Carbon Iron Co. works and adjoining aluminium works, all in Pittsburgh, PA, 9-11 October (ff. 12-17), Joliet Steel Works, South Chicago, IL, 14 October (ff. 18-22), various mines and limestone quarries, Bessemer blast furnaces and steel rolling plant, Bessemer Steel Works and the Ensley and Thomas furnaces, all in Birmingham, AL, 16-17 October (ff. 22-31), blast furnaces in Talladega and Anniston, AL, 18 October (ff. 32-35), Basic Steel Works in Chattanooga, TN, and blast furnaces in South Pittsburg, TN, 20 October (ff. 35-38), the town of Middlesboro, KY, 21 October (ff. 38-42), zinc works and a blast furnace in Pulaski, VA, 22 October (ff. 42-44), and Baltimore, MD, 24 October (ff. 45-46), before returning to Philadelphia, 26-28 October (ff. 46-48). While in Philadelphia and Baltimore particularly (ff. 1-4, 45-48) he discusses with fellow tinplate manufacturers and importers the state of the tinplate industry and the level of tinplate exports from Wales to America, against the background of the Tariff Act of October 1890 (The McKinley Tariff). The notes were compiled by Strick in November 1890 during the return voyage (see f. ii).

Manuscript journal of a tour of south and west Wales, as well as parts of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, 4 June-2 October 1805 (ff. 3-32 verso passim), also including several contemporary illustrations and later pasted-in engravings.
The writer is unknown but appears to be female and was travelling in the company of her 'Papa' and several other presumed relatives. Beginning in Gloucester (ff. 3-4), the journal then recounts a journey down the River Wye from Ross-on-Wye to Chepstow (ff. 7-8, 10-11 verso) and an extended stay at Swansea, 16 June-30 July (ff. 13-14, 16-17, 19, 21-22), before proceeding to Pembrokeshire (ff. 22 verso-23, 26-28 verso), Aberystwyth (ff. 29-31 verso) and Dolgellau (ff. 32 recto-verso), where the narrative ends abruptly, mid-sentence. The volume includes descriptions of Gloucester Cathedral (ff. 3-4), Margam Park (ff. 12-13), the Brownslade estate, [Castlemartin] (ff. 26-27 verso), St Govan's Head (ff. 26 verso-27 verso), the lower River Teifi (ff. 28-29), Devil's Bridge (ff. 29 verso-31) and the house at Hafod, Cardiganshire (f. 31 recto-verso). The illustrations are of pen and wash in a naïve style and comprise eight full page drawings (ff. 2, 6, 9, 15, 18, 20, 24, 25) and three text illustrations (ff. 8, 14, 17) all depicting views along the route. Conversely the fifteen engravings, [1831]-[1845], pasted into the volume depict various views in England, Wales and India and are, with a single exception, unrelated to the text (inside front cover, ff. 1 verso, 2 verso, 33-44 (rectos only)).

A notebook containing a medical list for the South Camp at Frongoch internment camp, Merioneth, 17 July-18 August and 22 October 1916, compiled by Tomás O Donncadha (Tomás O Donohoe).
The lists, compiled daily, 17-23 July, 25 July, 29 July-2 August (ff. 4-10, rectos only, 11-13, 14) and 3-18 August (ff. 3 verso-7 verso, versos only, 8 verso-10 verso, 13 verso, 14 verso-20), are variously headed 'Hospital List', 'Medicine' or 'Medical List' and include the names of patients and their prisoner numbers. Three further lists, 22 October 1916 and [n.d.], are included on loose sheets (ff. 21-23). The volume also includes lists of Irish words and phrases (ff. 1 verso-2 verso, 18 verso-19). The volume is written mostly in pencil. Frongoch housed over 1800 Irish republicans between June and December 1916; the South Camp was located in an old whisky distillery, the nearby North Camp consisted of wooden huts. O Donohoe writes 'Farewell' on f. 19 verso and the end of the volume coincides closely with the release of the majority of the prisoners in mid-August.

An exercise book, 1930-1955, in the hand of the Rev. W. P. Jones, Principal of Trevecca College, Talgarth, containing an annual record of students admitted to the College for the years 1930-31 to 1954-55 (ff. 2-51 verso). Entries include the names of students and typically list their home and college addresses and, less frequently, ages and subjects studied.
The volume also includes various memoranda, notes, accounts and lists (ff. 1 recto-verso, 60, 70-82 verso and inside the covers), including petty cash and other accounts, 1932-1941 (ff. 60, 73 recto-verso, 75, 76-80 verso, 82), details of scholarship exams and awards, 1936-1940 (f. 72 verso, 74 verso, 75 verso-76), lists of new students, 1949-1952 (ff. 70 verso-71) and a list of landladies at Talgarth (f. 74). Items found loose in the volume (now in an archival envelope) comprise a letter, 14 January 1955, to W. P. Jones from Ieuan Ll. Jenkins, Dowlais (f. 83), and eleven printed copies of the Trevecca College Regulations, each signed by students of the 1954-55 intake (ff. 84-94). From 1906 to 1964 Trevecca was run by the Calvinistic Methodist Church as a preparatory college.

A manuscript volume containing abstracts of title, [c. 1816] (watermark 1814), relating to the estates of Sir Mark Wood of Gatton, Surrey (formerly of Piercefield, Monmouthshire), in the counties of Monmouthshire and Glamorgan.
The volume is in three sections (labelled A, B and F), abstracting Wood's title to the castle and manor of Pencoed, [Llanmartin], the manor of St Brides [Netherwent] and other properties in Monmouthshire, purchased from Thomas Mathews (pp. 1-106); Mathews' title to leasehold estates in Monmouthshire, including Gillylaes [Gelli-las, Llanfihangel Llantarnam] (pp. 107-145); and a supplemental abstract of Wood's title to estates in Monmouthshire and Glamorgan purchased from Mathews and others (pp. 146-346). In all some thirty-eight deeds are abstracted, the majority in abstract A. Abstracts A and B also include legal opinions of J[ohn] Holliday, Lincoln's Inn, dated 1794 and 1795 respectively (pp. 105-106, 143-145). The abstracts contain no reference to Wood's ownership of Piercefield, which had been sold in 1800.

Papers of Thomas Charles Edwards, Ampleforth, 1918, 1935-1976, including fifty-seven letters, in Welsh and English, from Saunders Lewis to him, 1935-1976 (ff. 1-5, 7-11, 13-15, 18, 20-45, 47-48, 50-55, 58-69), to his wife Imelda, 1940-1941, 1950 (ff. 16-17, 19, 49), or to both, 1939 (f. 12), containing personal news and discussing politics, current affairs, the Catholic Church and articles by TCE.
Also included are letters to TCE from David Jones, 17 June 1937, seeking to send Lewis a copy of his 'In Parenthesis' (f. 6), G[riffith] J[ohn] Williams, 16 July 1948, concerning an R. W[illiams] Parry englyn (f. 46) and John B[arrett] Davies, St Dogmaels, 22 October 1962 (ff. 56-57); together with a letter, 19 May 1918, from TCE, Shrewsbury, to his mother (ff. 70-73); a script for Lewis's radio talk 'A Prospect of Wales: 7. Welsh Writers of Today', as transmitted on the Welsh Home Service, 25 April 1961, being the copy sent by Lewis to TCE (ff. 74-84); and seven press cuttings, 1935-1936, mainly relating to Lewis and the burning of the bombing school at Penyberth (ff. 85-91).

A transcript, 1853, in the hand of Matilda Pasley, of a version of George Owen of Henllys's 'Description of Milford Haven', dated 17 December 1595 (ff. 2-26), together with a note by the transcriber (f. 1).
The manuscript mostly agrees with the texts of Cardiff 2.46 and BL Add. 22623, as published in George Owen, The Description of Penbrokshire, ed. by Henry Owen, Cymmrodorion Record Series, 4 vols (London, 1892-1936), pp. 529-562; where Henry Owen lists minor variations between those two manuscripts the present transcript does not consistently correspond with one or the other. The wording of the title page (f. 2) is significantly different (see Henry Owen (ed.), p. 533), while the section beginning 'For the more ease…' which concludes the other manuscripts is here interpolated on ff. 17-18. A memorandum concerning Owen's methodology for drawing his map of Milford Haven does not appear to be recorded elsewhere (f. 22). The present manuscript is itself copied from an intermediate transcript made at Worsley [New] Hall, Lancashire, on 22 October 1852, by Mary L[ouisa Egerton, Viscountess] Brackley, from the original 1595 manuscript belonging to her father-in-law [Francis Egerton, 1st] Earl of Ellesmere (probably the manuscript now Huntington Library MS EL 1145 (34/B/32)) (see f. 1). In 1853 Matilda Pasley's husband, Sir Thomas Pasley, Bart, was in command of Pembroke Dockyard and the Pasleys became acquainted with Lady Brackley during visits to Stackpole Court, the seat of her father, the 1st Earl Cawdor (see Lawrence Phillips, 'Captain Sir Thomas Sabine Pasley, Bt., R.N., and Pembroke Dockyard, 1849-1854', Mariner's Mirror, 71.2 (1985), 159-165 (pp. 160-161)).

Manuscript journal of a tour of New York State and the Niagara Peninsula, Upper Canada (now Ontario), 15 August-1 September 1816, written by a Welsh Old Etonian, possibly Pierce Wynne Yorke.
The writer and his companion (identified only as Richard, see ff. 18 and 45) leave New York City on 15 August 1816 (f. 1) and travel by steamer and wagon up the Hudson River valley (ff. 1-10 verso) to Albany, staying there 17-20 August (ff. 10 verso-16); they then continue overland, visiting Utica, 21-[23] August (ff. 21-24 verso), the Finger Lakes (ff. 28 verso-33 verso), and Buffalo, 28-29 August (ff. 35 verso, 38 verso). After crossing the Niagara River into Upper Canada they visit Niagara Falls, 29 August-1 September (ff. 40 verso-45), and continue to Newark [Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario] on 1 September (f. 45 verso). The volume contains frequent references to their accommodation, travel arrangements and the often unseasonable weather (1816 being the so called 'Year without a Summer'), as well as descriptions of the scenery and flora, agricultural practices, Indigenous Americans, American manners and politics and the effects of the War of 1812. Also included, in pencil, are a verse on Col. Cecil Bisshopp (inside front cover), brief accounts of bills paid (f. i) and mostly illegible notes apparently relating to the contents of the journal (inside back cover). The author is not named but evidently has close connections with North Wales (see ff. 4 recto-verso, 5 verso, 27 verso, 28 verso-29 verso, 45), is an Old Etonian and a schoolfriend of Bisshopp, whose grave he visits at Lundy's Lane, Niagara (see f. 44); Pierce (or Peirce) Wynne Yorke of Dyffryn Aled appears to be the most plausible candidate.

Some ninety-nine letters and postcards, 1975-2013, from the poet and local historian Ruth Bidgood, Abergwesyn and later Beulah, Powys, addressed to the Rev. James Coutts, and frequently also to his wife Stevie, discussing her poetry, publications and public readings, her daily life and her family, containing frequent references to friends including Anne Cluysenaar, Angela Morton and A. M. (Donald) Allchin (ff. 1-188, 191-214).
Also included are typescript copies of eighteen of Bidgood's poems and sequences of poems, published and unpublished, [c. 1979]-2014, notably 'Hymn to Sant Ffraed' (ff. 215-225), most given by her to Coutts and a few re-typed by him, and cuttings and photocopies of a further fifteen poems from periodicals, 1983-2002 (ff. 25, 37-38, 52-53, 70, 116, 120, 215-265); typescript drafts, cuttings and photocopies of articles, interviews and reviews, [1978]-2006 (ff. 266-299), including two typescript articles by Donald Allchin (ff. 279-293); and a letter from Bidgood's friend Mary [MacGregor], of Myddfai, to James Coutts, 2 June 2009 (ff. 189-190). Many of the letters were written on the backs of sixty-three of Bidgood's own photographs, so as to resemble postcards; besides these a further twenty-nine of her photographs are also included amongst the letters.

An uncorrected, bound, proof copy, [?April 1937] of David Jones, In Parenthesis: Seinnyessit e gledyf ym penn mameu (London: Faber & Faber Ltd, 1937).
The proof is effectively identical to the three sets used to produce the corrected proofs now NLW, David Jones (Artist and Writer) Papers LP4/4-6, dated 7-17 April 1937; parts of the subsequent revise (ibid, LP4/8-9) were passed for press. In Parenthesis was published in June 1937, corresponding to the date inscribed on the front cover.

A manuscript draft, [1946], of David Jones's introduction to the BBC radio production of his war poem 'In Parenthesis', first transmitted on the Third Programme, 19 November 1946. The draft contains deletions and revisions in ink and pencil in the hand of the author.
This draft is much closer to the script in its final typescript form (see NLW, David Jones (Artist and Writer) Papers LP5/3, ff. vii-x) than are the other extant drafts (ibid, LP5/4, ff. 1-9). The only significant changes that remained to be incorporated are: a new sentence to replace the line at the beginning of f. 2, the loss of a reference to Brittany (f. 2), the truncation of a section on Maximus the Great (f. 2) and a much expanded ending, with a list of four quotes to be taken directly from the book's introduction substituted with the full quotations (f. 3). The introduction was pre-recorded by Jones; the remainder of the programme was performed live by the cast on 19 November, with a live repeat the following evening.