large sale. Not only will it be more generally read, but a farther use will be made of its contents. We would not have the deeds of Arthur and his knights desecrated or turned to ignoble uses, but they will be made to supply the basis for many a fairy tale and libretto of an opera. Verily Wales is coming into the front!

The talented authoress has fallen into an error in her new preface. The Rev. John Jones (Tegid) was not a Fellow, although at one time a member, of Jesus College, Oxford.

THE GOSSIPING GUIDE TO WALES. By ASKEW ROBERTS. London Hodder and Stoughton; Oswestry: Woodall and Venables. 1877.

AN enlarged edition of this little book has just appeared, with at least twelve maps besides engravings. We have perused its multifarious contents with more than ordinary interest; and we can thoroughly recommend it to the tourist as an instructive and pleasant companion in rambles through North Wales. While professing to deal only with gossip, it gives valuable and reliable information. The writer touches scarcely a spot that he does not reanimate with life. Description, history, anecdote, and poetry, flow from hist pen as though they would chase one another for the precedence. The old heroes renew their prowess, and the bards re-sing their songs. In short, the "Gossip" is exactly what we would recommend to one seeking recreation and rest from the worries of daily life amid romantic and quiet scenery.

There are a few things, however, that we are sure its careful editor will correct in a future edition,-and we trust there will be many. His Glossary is not altogether accurate, Dyfrdwy is given as derived from dufr and du, 'black water'. But the beautiful Cymric name of the Dee comes from

dwfr and dwy,' divine or sacred water'. Hafod-tai is translated summer-farms', although the term contains nothing that can possibly imply 'farms'. Llafar is made to mean

'sonorous, applied to a brook, etc.'

Whereas llafar is simply

'speech', and can only be applied to a brook figuratively, as by the English poet, when he calls it :—

"The babbling brook."

Not so the follow

These, however, are pardonable errors. ing; and we protest against the desecration of Myfanwy's Castle into a rookery. In page 62, the heading of 'Stage II' is thus given :-"The Vale of Llangollen and Crow Castle." It is true that the author tells us, further on, that this Anglicised appellation of Castell Dinas Brán, the Castle of the City of Brennus,' is a vulgar one; but why adopt it in the heading of his chapter? We love the name of Myfanwy. A heroine of the twelfth century, her praises are handed down by her poet-lover in exquisite verse. Her love-story has also been admirably told by a poet of the present day. But although her castle is a ruin, there is no reason why its name should be a bye-word.

GLÂN-ALARCH, HIS SILENCE AND SONG. BY EMILY PFEIFFER. Henry S. King and Co., London. 1877.

THERE are some beautiful thoughts strewn over the pages of this book; and the volume will undoubtedly give its authoress a niche in the temple of song. The fair writer, however, scarcely does herself justice from want of condensation. Conceptions of a rare kind may be lost amid the verbiage of a sentence, just as we have known fruit, rich and ripe, lost amid the too abundant foliage of a tree. If Mrs. Pfeiffer will defer to our opinion, we believe we can predict far greater success on a future occasion, and that she will give us a poem worthy of herself and of Wales. Our advice is to

lop here and prune there, that the rich, ruddy grapes may be exposed to view.

How felicitous in its expression, for instance, is the following line :

"The smile which doubles all he gives."

Nor less so is the following passage:

". . . She swept from out the hall,

Proud and uplifted as a wave that rears

Its foam-capped crest, and glides before the storm;
But glides before the storm to break at last,
To sink, and to subside in helpless ruin!"

Had we space, we could transplant many and many a flower out of this volume into our pages; but we are compelled to content ourselves with what we have already given.

We have tendered Mrs. Pfeiffer advice, and we hope it will be taken in the spirit with which it is offered. But we must go further, and express our strong dislike to the liberty she takes in her book with our Welsh nomenclature. GlânAlarch is not Cymric in its formation, and sounds discordantly in our ears. It would have been better if both circumflex and hyphen had been discarded. Eurien has the appearance of a Greek word, prefixed, as it is, with eu; whereas Urien would have been thoroughly Welsh. Modwyth, on the other hand, is gifted with a Saxon affix. Crag-Eyrie again is English, although Crag is derived from the Celtic craig. Is Moelwythfa softer, or does it contain fewer consonants than Moelwyddfa? There is no consonant in any language softer than the dd of the Welsh. Cynorac has the accent on the antepenultimate syllable, whereas all Welsh words carry it on the penult. There are other equally unfortunate modifications of Welsh names in the volume. These, perhaps, may be deemed but slight blemishes; they are, however, best avoided, as they offend our Cymric prejudices.

EGYPT, A POEM, to which are added other Poems and Songs. By JOHN H. DAVIES, B.A., late Scholar of Jesus College, Oxford. E. W. Allen, London.

1876.

THIS poem is one of considerable promise. The writer's delineation of

is finely wrought. The poem, it is true, betrays inexperience in authorship; but that is no reason why we should not encourage the aspirant after the honours of Parnassus even in his earliest attempts to climb its difficult heights. Mr. Davies is steadily mounting upwards, and if he perseveres, will ere long reach a lofty elevation. The following little song is beautiful and would almost argue a practised hand:

"Eyes so blue, eyes so blue,

Laughing, loving, fond, and true,
How I fear to gaze in you,

To gaze in you,
Eyes so blue!

"Golden hair, golden hair,

O your sheeny braids so rare
Soon will drive me to despair.
To despair,

Golden hair!

"Sunny smile, sunny smile,

With a more than mortal wile
You bewitch me, you beguile,
You beguile,
Sunny smile!

"Lips so red, lips so red,

Roses ne'er such fragrance shed;

I'd wake to kiss you were I dead.

Were I dead,

Lips so red."

We must speak highly also of the poem entitled, "St.

David's Head".

Literary Entelligence.

ST. DAVID'S COLLEGE, LAMPETER.-Since some of the foregoing pages were written, the Jubilee Festival at St. David's College, Lampeter, has been held, and the result has proved highly satisfactory.

The College received its first students in the year 1827. Fifty years have thus elapsed. If any of its original alumni were present, and if so, they must have reached, or nearly so, the period allotted to human life,—we can conceive something of the satisfaction with which they would regard the brilliant scene that was being then enacted. As broad streams are formed of narrow threads rising out of mountain tarns, so in its first beginnings the College was scant as well of Professors as of Scholars-the professorial staff consisting only of two, the present Bishop of Llandaff and Dr. Llewelyn, who now holds the office of Principal. Difficulty after difficulty was overcome by the friends and supporters of the College; and it now stands forth a proof of what determination and perseverance can effect. It has, in the present stage of its existence, six professors at work in its various departments, and it gives away some £500 per annum in rewards for accomplished scholarship.

There was present at the Jubilee a numerous band of Cambria's most devoted sons, together with a goodly company of English visitors. Of the Bishops, there were those of Llandaff, St. Asaph, St. David's, and Hereford, with a long array of Deans, Archdeacons, Canons, and other Clergy. Nor was there a lack of the lay aristocracy. Altogether, about four hundred sat down to the luncheon prepared for the occasion.