Welsh Journals

Y Gwir er Gwaethed yw 1684. A Welsh story of the Popish Plot.' W. LL. Davies, M.A. A copy of this, a very rare and interesting Welsh book which we owe to Thomas Jones, of London, afterwards of Shrewsbury, known to all bibliographers as Thomas Jones yr Almanaciwr,' was purchased by the National Library of Wales in 1931. In it is told the story of the Popish and other Plots. The book is imperfect and consists only of pp. 5-26, 33-36, and 39-50. It thus lacks the first four pages (in- cluding the title-page), pp. 27-32, and probably about four pages at the end. Fortunately there is preserved in the Cardiff Public Library a Phillipps MS. (No. 6955), which contains a transcript1 of nearly all that the National Library copy lacks, so that it is possible to reconstruct the contents of the work as follows :­ I.-TITLE PAGE. Y I Gwir er Gwaethed yw. (1) yn Gyntaf, yn rhoddi Cyflawn yspysrwydd o fell- digedig gydfradwriaeth y Papystiaid i fradychu ein Brenin, ag i orchfygu gwir Grefydd y Deyrnas hon. (2) yn ail, yn rhoddi hanes Cyd- fradwriaeth diweddar I arall, o ddyfais rhyw rai a elwir Whigs ond pa un I ai Papystiaid ai pa beth arell ydynt hwy, ni fedra I ddywedyd. (3) yn drydydd yn dangos, Gwall Gwymp y bobl. (4) yn bedwaredd yn rhoddi Cyngor i'r Cymru i och\d\ I hudoliaeth y Papystiaid. (5) yn bumed, [y]n rhagfynegi y Troiadau anferthol a ddigwydd- 1 That the transcript of the title-page given in the Cardiff MS. is substantially correct is proved by an advertisement at the end of the Almanack for 1684, where Thomas Jones gives a full note of the contents of the book. I had noted this transcript some years ago and had been given, by the courtesy of Mr. Harry Farr, an opportunity of making photostat facsimiles of parts of it.