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CHURCH PROGRESS IN WALES.-LLANBADARN…

RHYDCWMERE.

MARRIAGE OF MISS M. E. DAVIES,'…

LLANILAR.

--------MARKETS.

THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF…

FARMING IN WALES.

CARDIGANSHIRE POLITICS.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH…

CRICKET.

---.----------------------ABERYSTWYTH…

APPOINTMENTS IN THE DIOCESE…

- ii. _ --DISESTABLISEMENT…

- THE EDUCATION BILL. 1

LLANYCHAIARN.I

- | BALA COLLEGE. !

AUBI ALTERAM PARTEM.

" GOD BLESS THE PRINCE OF…

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GOD BLESS THE PRINCE OF WALES." Mr J. C. Hughes (" Ceiriog"), manager of the Van Railway, Caersws, Montgomeryshire, supplies a Man- chester contemporary with the following as to the authorship of the song, God Bless the Prince of Wales" As Mr Brinley Richards could not well read or understand the original works of "Ar Dywsogaeth Gwlad y Bryniau," which literally means the "Prince of our Land of Mountains," he asked me for an English version. I told him to write to Heber's beautiful hymn, From Greenland's icy mountains," and that I would endeavour to find. him an English paraphrase in the course of a few days. I had one written by Williams, then a joint station-master at Staleybridge. Another version came to hand a few days afterwards from South Wales, written by a gentleman whose name at this moment I cannot re- call. I also wrote myself as well as I could, in English, a stiff literal translation. Mr Richards very rightly did not like these attempts of ours to "enter the English Channel in a coracle," meaning the Welsh idiom of our performances. He handed the papers over to a musical gentleman and a friend of his, who was more to the language born. Mr George Linley digested our efforts and managed like ourselves to be, as we thought then, much below the mark. Then the great events of the coming of age and of the approaching marriage of his Royal High- ness came to be common topics of conversation. Messrs Cocks and Co., the publishers, pressed at once for any sort of an English version, of the Welsh song they were asked to make terms for. Several lines then were hurriedly touched up. The chorus was an afterthought, and a medley in which we all had a finger, and the closinsr line, the title of the song, was invented and inserted by Mr Brinley Richards himself. As to authorship, the question of copyright of my original words should end all dispute. I never had a farthing for them, simply because we Welsh bards though ridiculed to death, are as proud as we are poor. It is only right to say that for the trifle I did in this transaction I never hinted to the composer, or to the publishers, anything about remuneration. The words I refer to'were written at my old Manchester home in Churchill-street, Hyde-road, in the autumn of 1862. Mr R. Jones, public accountant, 17, Mossly- street, assisted me in selecting the best of the three original melodies sent by Mr Brinley Richards for my approval. He turned from the piano scornfully and said he did not care for either of them. However, I spotted No. 2 melody as not very bad in its rhythm and swing for large audiences. Though there is no merit whatever in the song, you see it is no Leeds cloth, but a genuine Manchester piece of goods woven of Welsh yarn dyed on the Irwell. It was the rising tide of enthusiasm, with Sims Reeves's singing at the Horticultural Hall, that "carried us on to fortune." I happened to be the first to take the hint to write a suitable national an them, only intended for Wales, from the events that were likely to make my countrymen a bit over loyal about their Prince. I never thought or intended it to be translated into English, and still less into the languages of India.

GAZETTE MEWS.

FAIR WHITE HAXDS.

ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERY ON CWMWTTHIG…

LAMPETER.