At Egryn, between Llanaber and Llanddwywe, was formerly an abbey, but of that nothing now remains, and its site is occupied by a farmhouse. Here lived in his early days William Owen Pughe, an enthusiastic antiquary and lover of all things Celtic. In 1785 he laid the foundation of his great work, a Welsh-English Dictionary, which was printed and published in London in 1803. Some idea of the richness of the Welsh language may be gained from the fact that, whereas Johnson’s English Dictionary, as enlarged by Todd, contains about 61,000 words, the first edition of Dr. Pughe’s Welsh Dictionary contained as many as 100,000 words.
Another great work in which he was engaged was the transcription and editing of the three volumes of the Myvyrian Archæology of Wales, a mine of information on the early history of Wales. It was published in 1801-7.
As a number of the MSS. printed have been since destroyed by the fires that have consumed so many Welsh houses and their libraries, we may well be thankful that the publication was then made.
One of the most disastrous of the fires which have caused so much of Welsh literature to perish was that of Llwyd’s collection. Edward Llwyd, born in 1660, devoted his life to the accumulation of materials relative to Wales. He visited Ireland, Cornwall, Brittany, and Scotland in quest of MSS., and formed a compilation of his collections in forty volumes in folio, ten in quarto, and above a hundred in smaller size. These were offered, after his death, to Jesus College, Oxford, but owing to Dr. Wynne, then Fellow of Jesus, having been on bad terms with Llwyd, the college, by his advice, refused the offer.
They were then purchased by Sir Thomas Seabright, of Beechwood, in Hertfordshire, in whose library they remained till 1807, when they were sold to Sir Watkyn Williams Wynn, Bart. Some years afterwards the greater and more valuable portion of these priceless documents was transmitted to London to a binder. His premises caught fire, and the result of Llwyd’s life-labours was consumed.
Another disastrous fire was that of Hafod, near Aberystwyth. This was a residence of the Johnes family, and in the library was a large collection of Welsh manuscripts on various subjects—history, medicine, poetry, and romance. The house and library were both destroyed in a conflagration that broke out.
“The fire,” says George Borrow, “is generally called the great fire of Hafod, and some of those who witnessed it have been heard to say that its violence was so great that the burning rafters mixed with flaming books were hurled high above the summits of the hills. The loss of the house was a matter of triviality compared with that of the library. The house was soon rebuilt—but the library could never be restored.”
Again, in 1858, the fine collection of Welsh MSS. at Wynnstay was destroyed by fire. Thus a literature perishes, and every effort should be made to print what remains.