Welsh Journals

58 BYE-GONES. May, 1874. Camlas or Gamlas. I thank Chatterton for his com¬ munication upon the derivation of this word. Such words need ventilating. If "glas" is a corruption of "clais," can any other examples be produced of a similiar kind of corruption? E. Owen. Caersws. Camlas or Gamlas. Chaterton, on reference to words commencing with cl, as in clais, cledd, clwyf, and words commencing with gl, as in glyn, glan, glew, will find that clais is out of the question, and an impossible derivation to camlas. Without exception the cl softens to gl, and no further, and gl into I. Hence glas, or glais, become camlas. Had clais been the root, the word inevitably would have been camglas or camglais. May not the cam as in camva —a stile—mean a narrow water one may stride across ? J.C.H. CURRENT NOTES. The writer in the Academy from whom we recently quoted now writes to that jmrnal to say that since he sent the article on "Roman Inscriptions in 3ritain," he has seen reason to suspect the antiquity of the stone at Lanfihangel- y-Traethau, and that Professor Hiibner is to pronounce judgment upon it. The Saturday Review, in a notice of Mr Tegg's new edition of Hone's Calanders, says :—" There is scarcely an odd or obsolescent usage in regard to which Hone" has not been before us with curious observation. The divina¬ tion by Bible and Key, which crops up just now in an amusine story in the Cornhill is described in the Year Book. The superstition of the Sin Eater, a poor half-starved wretch, bribed by a dole of bread, beer, and a sixpence, to attend at a funeral, and by accepting such a tender to take upon him the sins of the defunct, is noticed in the same volume, and referred to certain counties in North and South Wales, where we have reason to believe it still exists." Can any of our readers tell us anything about this curious cus¬ tom ? The Review goes on to say, " In the Table Book an anecdotic article, headed ' The Right Lord Lovat,' curi¬ ously supports a claim well known and believed in the neighbourhood of Mona and Parys mines, near Amlwch in Anglesea, of the lineal descendant of Simon Lovat, sole brother and next of kin to the rebel Lord, who was attainted and executed, to the titles, honours, and estates of the Lovats, which were granted by the Crown to a collateral branch. The claimant is a miner of intelligence, and, like his father and grandfather, enjoys the prestige of a tradi¬ tional claim amongst his fellow-miners." Any notes on either of these subjects would be acceptable in our Bye-gones column. YSPYTTY YSTWYTH. The Earl of Lisburne laid the foundation stone of a new church at this place on May 20th, 1874. Before leaving the ground, Dr Rowland Rowland said it was singular how history repeated itself. Upwards of 600 years ago the ever-memorable Ma^lgwyn Vychan, or Vaughan, gave a piece of ground to the monks of Strata Florida to erect a hospitium (hospital or almshouse) in that very village where his illustrious descendant, the Right Hon. the Earl of Lisburne, that day had so kindly laid the foudation stone. Yspytty Ystwyth was an im¬ portant station of the pilgrims who travelled between North and South Wales. They came from Llanidloes to Llan- gurig, thenee to Eisteddfa Gurig (the stony rest) to Ys¬ pytty Cynfyn, where there was another '.odging-house or hospital, then to the Devil's Bridge (which ought to be called the Monk's Bridge),and then on to Rhyd-y-groes. The monks used to put up a cross where the pilgrims might pass and to direct their way to the great Abbey of Strata Florida. No sooner had the monks erected their hospital than Meredith Owain took possession of it for his army, but Malgwyn Vaughan and his army, in 1237, routed Owain and re-established the monks in the quiet possession of their hospital, and they held it up to the dissolution of the monasteries in Henry VIII.'s time. The spot, how¬ ever, had been held sacred by the church ever since, and it was a great pleasure to have one of Maelgwyn Vaughan's illustrious descendants, Earl Vaughan of Lisburne, to lay the foundation stone of their new and handsome church. They hoped that it would stand for another 600 years to flourish and prosper, for the benefit of the important parish and its neighbourhoed. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES. (From the Cambrian News.) WELSH PHILOLOGY. A lecture on the above mentioned subject was delivered on Monday evening, May 18th, in the Examination Hall at the College, by John Rhys, Esq., M.A., &c. There was a fair attendance, and the Mayor (Philip Williams, Esq.,) occupied the chair. After a few introductory remarks from the Chairman, The Lecturer said, as he could not give the audience a series of lectures on Welsh Philology, and as justice could not be done to it in one or two hours, the wisest thing for him to do was to give them a sketch of the linguistic posi¬ tion of the language and the state of Welsh Philology. If they cast a glance at that part of the Old World which extended from the Ganges to the Shannon,andconsidered the Babel of languages to be heard within that range, they might think it would be a tedious work to classify them. However that might be, it had been accomplished with con¬ siderable success, and the results were such as were not likely to be gravely compromised by future investigations. Roughly speaking they had, within that sketch of the Northern Hemisphere, three great groups or fami¬ lies of speech,—the Japhetic, the Semitic, and the Turanian. The first, of which it was his intention to speak more fully in the after part of his lecture,were spoken by the chief nations of Europe, and bv the Hindoos and Persians. The Semitic languages reckoned in their number Syriac, Hebrew, Phoenician. Arabic, and kindred tongues. As Turanian were regarded Hungarian, Turkish, Finnish, Lappish, Samoyedic, and a great number of nearly related dialects spokeu in the Russian Empire. That covered a considerable portion of Asia and all Europe, excepting the south west of France and the north of Spain, where Basque was spoken, a language whose place in the Turanian group had not been very satisfactorily established. It was certain that it was neither Japhetic nor Semitic. To return to the Japhetic family of speech, with which they were that even¬ ing more particularly concerned, trie analysis of the lan¬ guages formerly oi still spoken by Hindoos, Persians and the leading nations of Europe, had led to the conclusion that they were descended in common from a single tribe devoted mostly to pastoral pursuits, and to some extent to agriculture also. Its home was supposed to have been somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Caspian. When that primeval clan had grown strong in numbers it seemed to have broken up into two secrions,of which one proceeded east, and ultimately forced itself into Hindoostan and Per¬ sia, while the other made its way into Europe and was at the present time represented by Greeks, Italians, Celts, Teutons, and Letto-Slaves. It was agreed on all hands that all those nations were related, and of common origin, but