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Wales -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
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Tour in North Wales

  • NLW MS 16351C.
  • File
  • [18 cent., last ¼]

A volume containing an account of a tour in North Wales in the form of transcripts, [18 cent., last ¼], of four letters, dated 20-28 September 1776, sent from Caernarfon (pp. 1-25), Tan-y-Bwlch, Merioneth (pp. 27-49), Denbigh (pp. 50-74) and 'Rhyd Dyn' [Rhyddyn], Flintshire (pp. 75-95), commenting mainly on Welsh history and castles.
The transcripts have been heavily corrected and emended in a different hand. The author, who appears to have resided at Rhyddyn, is not named but may be the Rev. William Warrington. His correspondents are identified as a Mr Eyton (p. 1) and a Dr Jeffries (p. 49). Also included are a preface (ff. v-vii) and several versions of a passage, in the same hand as the emendations, relating an encounter with some Irishmen (f. i verso).

Warrington, William

Kyvrinach y Beirdd, &c.,

A manuscript written c. 1573 (see f. 1) containing Kyvrinach y Beirdd (ff. 2-14a); and Humphrey Llwyd's English version of Brut y Tywysogion (ff. 1-227). The manuscript also includes poetry of Iolo Goch (f. 1); a rental of lordships in Powys (f. 228); and a Powys genealogy (f. 228b). Folios 229-232 are fragmentary and repaired.

Iolo, Goch, active 1345-1397

Giraldi Cambrensis Cambriae

The 'Itinerarium Kambriae' and 'Descriptio Kambriae' of Giraldus Cambrensis, written on vellum, with initial capitals, etc., in red and green.

Quaker's journal,

  • NLW MS 23002A.
  • File
  • 1747-1750

A journal of John Griffith (1713-1776) of co. Radnor and Pennsylvania, Quaker, recording his voyage from America to England, 1747-1748 (ff. 2-13, 67v); his itinerary of England and Wales, visiting Quaker meetings and including a visit to his mother in co. Radnor, 1748-1750 (ff. 14-35); his return voyage to America, 1750 (ff. 55-62v, 35v-7v); his second voyage to England, 1750 (ff. 38-54); and personal memoranda (ff. 63v-7, 68r-v). The writer describes his detention at Bayonne (f. 7r-v) and Dax in France in December 1747, his ship having been seized by a French privateer off San Sebastian, and comments upon the superstitions and religious customs of the inhabitants (ff. 7v-11v). Much of the contents of the manuscript was later used in his autobiography, A journal of the life, travels, and labours ... of John Griffith (London, 1779).

Griffith, John, 1713-1776.

Lewis Morris's copy of Drayton's Poly-Olbion

  • NLW MS 24100C
  • File
  • [1622], 1755

A volume comprising Michael Drayton's Poly-Olbion, Part 1 (London, 1622, STC 7228, ESTC S121639), and Part 2 (London, 1622, STC 7229 or 7230, ESTC S121637 or S121634), extensively annotated, 1755, by the Welsh polymath Lewis Morris.
Part 1 appears to be the 1622 edition, omitting however that version's letterpress title page and binding the index after Part 2 (now pp. 169-176); the title page of Part 2 is also missing. Morris's annotations consist of marginal notes and occasional footnotes glossing the printed text, together with underlining of text and manicules. The annotations are mostly confined to the introduction by John Selden and the notes (or 'Illustrations') supplied by him to each song in Part 1 (pp. xi-xvi, 15-21, 34-36, 50-52, 54, 66-74, 83-85, 95-99, 108-110, 122-132, 143-156, 164-169, 182-189, 191, 193-194, 209-210, 224-225, 234-235, 244, 253-256, 267-272, 274-279, 281, 300-303). There are further annotations by Morris to Drayton's songs and elsewhere (Part 1, pp. i-iii, v, vii, ix-x, 1, 4, 29, 83, 87-89, 91, 95, 102-103, 158, 213, 250, 283, 295-297; Part 2, pp. i, iii-iv, 171). Morris's notes, partly in Welsh, mainly concern the Welsh language and Welsh and Ancient British history; he has also emended the text in line with the corrections listed in the errata (Part 1, p. xx).

Morris, Lewis, 1701-1765

A Direction for the English Traveller ...

  • NLW MS 6994A
  • File
  • [17-18 cents]

A copy of A Direction for the English Traveller ... with maps of the counties of England and a map of Wales engraved by Jacob van Langeren, 1643. On the backs of the maps are written brief descriptions, believed to be in the hand of Thomas Hearne (bap. 1678-d. 1735), of the respective counties.

John Leland's 'Itinerary through Wales',

  • NLW MS 12693B.
  • File
  • [17 cent., first ½ ] /

A small, quarto volume (86 ff., with ff. 3 verso, 8 verso, II, 14 verso, 15, 16, 24 verso, 86 verso, blank), containing a variant copy of the section or volume (No. 5) of John Leland's manuscript account of his 'Itinerary', which deals largely with his travels through parts of Wales. The whole volume is reputedly in the hand of Sir Simon Archer (Warwickshire antiquary), but ff. 4-24 are written in a much more cramped, irregular style than the remainder of the work, and they contain a number of corrections, particularly of place-names. A notable omission from the present text are the notes on Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, arid part of Shropshire, which appear in the original account [see Hearne: op. Cit., pp. 21-31 (see note below)]. On one of the fly-leaves are two manuscript notes, the first [by J. O. Halliwell Phillipps], stating that the work 'is valuable as supplying several lacunae in the printed edition', and the second, by T[homas] C. A[rcher], expressing the opinion that 'this MS. Itinerary was, in great part at least, compiled, as well as written, by Sir Simon Archer'. From a comparison with the published editions of the work, however, it does not appear that these claims can be substantiated. The volume is lettered on the spine '5 . . . Leland's Itinerary through Wales'. Inset is a holograph letter from Sy[mon] Archer, from Tanworth, to Thomas Habington, April 1638, requesting the recipient's aid in obtaining information regarding 'Sir Lewes Cliffordes father, knight of the garter in Richard the secondes tyme'.

Archer, Simon, Sir, 1581-1662