CAMBRIAN NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17219, 10 December 1923, Page 7

CAMBRIAN NOTES.

The following are notes on the National Eisteddfod, held at Mold :

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Edwards, speaking in Welsh, said the Eisteddfod was undoubtedly the principal assembly of the democracy of Wales, and it had characteristics and attractions that belonged to no other institution. Its history and traditions bad a stronghold in the imagination of the nation- The bards fostered the Welsh language and it was the great tia that bound Welsh people together, whether in London, Liverpool, other largo towns, or in America and other foreign countries. (He might have added New Zealand.) Some people said that the Welsh language is dying out, and that the monoglot Welshman was disappearing. He did not know a single Welshman who could not sell a cow in English, and there were more people in the world speaking Welsh at present than there ever had been before. The Eisteddfod inspired them with love of their country and their country’s language. There was a wonderful*.demonstration of approbation when the Ohio Choir won the choral competition, and the applause was renewed when it was announced that the conductor. Mr C liarlos D. Rowe, was a native of Port Talbot. During the debate on Welsh architecture at the Cymrodorian Society. Mr Taliesin Rees' of Liverpool, said that much of the ugliness of "Welsh buildings was a legacy of Puritanism, and a good deal was due to the poverty of the country.

Sir Herbert Lewis said the teachers of the elementary and secondary schools were taking pains to bring out the sense of .the beautiful, which was latent in all children.

Mr Saunders Lewis, of Swansea I niversity, said Goronwy Owen, the famous eighteenth cei\tury hard, of Anglesey, was tho founder of modern Welsh poetry. The ladies who presented the Corn Hirlas, filled with mead and honey, and the Aberthged, an offering of fruit and flowers, symbolical of the gifts of Nature, to the Archdruid at the Gossedd wore Celtic robes specially made for the occasion, and each was attended by two pages. There were 630 voices in the Eisteddfod Choir, conducted by Sir H. Walford Davies. The British Symphony Orchestra provided the accompaniments. In declaring the Eisteddfod open. Mr H. N- Gladstone, the Lord-Lieutenant for the county, said that Flintshire had been connected with it since 1100. when Gruffydd ap Cynan, ruler of North Wales, held an Eisteddfod at Caerwys, a place which, according to Penna.nt, attained a particular glory from the honour it had of being the meeting place of the bards and minstrels for many centuries.

Dr Vaughan-Williams, one of the adjudicators at - the Eisteddfod, is the third son -of the late Mr Vaughan-Williams, a County Court Judge, on the North Wales circuit, and Mrs Vaughan-Williams, an accomplished musician and composer of many pretty songs. His elder brother, Frank, married a daughter of the late Mr Peter Walker, ©v the well-known firm of brewers. His sister. Mrs Philip Martinean, was an exceptionally fine pianist, his younger sister marrier Viscount Maitland, son of the Earl of Landendale. She played and sang nicely, painted in water-colours, and has written several plays. Dr Vaughan-Williams Jias (evidently deserted medicine for music. Mrs Mary Davies, another adjudicator, was a beautiful singer and a most charming woman, always ready to encourage talent in others. In awarding the prize in the Welsh folk song competition to Miss Ceinwyn Rowlands, of Holyhead, she said her singing “was the perfection of folk song style and a pattern to all,” and “ her voice came like running water, and the words fell like pearls from her ups." One of tho adjudicators advised that the old Elizabethan music should he

practised and a perfec t ensemble aimed at, instead of striking for individual

expression. “ Singing,” said Sir Walford Davies, f should be as natura las speaking, only twice as beautiful.” The trains conveyed over 20,000 people to Mold for the Eisteddfod. There is a growing feeling in favour of a revival of harp playing in Wales. Sir Robert Thomas, M.P., speaking at the Eisteddfod, said, “ All one’s life is a music if one touches the notes rightly and in tune.” LOCAL NOTES. The collection taken at the Welsh service aj Trinity Congregational Church amounted to £5- After deductinf expenses and giving £1 os as a donation to the church, the balance was paid into the Welsh Benevolent Fund. The by mu sheets for use at the S. David's Day Festival service in the Cathedral are in the printer’s hands and will be ready shortly. The committee meets to-night to make all arrangements for the children’s Christmas party. Mrs A. Wildey. Antigua Street, re turned from «. visit to Redcliffs last-