Welsh Journals

YR ESGOB BURGESS A CHOLEG LLANBEDR/BISHOP BURGESS AND LAMPETER COLLEGE. By D. T. W. Price. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1987. Pp. 93, eight illustrations. £ 3.50. This book, published in the St. David's Day bilingual series, is divided into two parts. The first is an account of the life and times of Thomas Burgess, sometime bishop of St. David's, and the second the story of the college which he founded at Lampeter, tracing its history up to the present day. Thomas Burgess was born in Odiham in 1756, the son of a grocer. He was educated at Winchester and at Oxford where he distinguished himself early as a classical scholar. He became tutor and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, was ordained and appointed chaplain to Bishop Barrington of Salisbury; with Barrington he shared enthusiasm for the Sunday School movement. When the bishop moved to Durham, Burgess went with him and became rector of Winston and prebendary of Durham. It was there that Burgess married. The Prime Minister, Henry Addington, his contemporary at Winchester, recommended him to the king for the see of St. David's and there he inherited the second largest diocese in England and Wales, and a poor one at that. It was a diocese that was witnessing a rapid growth of Protestant nonconformity. From his palace at Abergwili this gentle, pious, unassuming, quiet man made great efforts to know his clergy and his people. He was deeply concerned about the spiritual torpor of his time, about the lack of Christian teaching and lack of adequate education for the young intending for the ministry. It was to that end that he determined to establish a college within the diocese; at first he thought of Llanddewibrefi, but with the aid of John Scandrett Harford, Lampeter was chosen and the foundation stone was laid in 1822. The college was supported and encouraged by George IV. In 1825 Burgess left to become bishop of Salisbury but his interest in the college continued. He bequeathed some 10,000 volumes to its library, among them over one hundred books and pamphlets which he had written, and also endowed scholarships there. But Burgess had other interests, too. He opposed Roman Catholic emancipation, he opposed slavery, he supported the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Church Missionary Society and the London Society for the Jews. He recognised the importance of Welsh culture and hoped that the Church would use the Welsh language in its services to check the progress of Welsh nonconformity. He believed in the notion of the Ancient British Church, and his patronage of the Cambrian Society, which gave the Eisteddfod a new impetus and associated it with the Gorsedd, was recognized by lolo Morganwg when Burgess was initiated into the Gorsedd of the bards. He died on 19 February 1837 and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. The second part relates the history of the college which Burgess founded at Lampeter and recounts its many vicissitudes. One early writer described it as a 'University in miniature, unique and remote in its pastoral setting'. Its first 'advertisement' showed how unique it was; it provided for 'The Welsh Language as a necessary and essential qualification in a country in which it is the ordinary dialect of the people'. It was to be a residential college offering a curriculum combining