File NLW MS 13095B. - Miscellanea,

A composite volume consisting of papers and note-books containing miscellaneous material in the hand of Edward Williams ('Iolo Morganwg') bound together. The contents consist largely of miscellaneous Welsh word lists, the words in many instances being followed by English definitions and/or illustrative excerpts from the works of Welsh poets. Pp. 25-47 contain an incomplete transcript of a letter in Welsh sent in 1726 by the Rev. Edward Gamage, rector of St. Athan [co. Glamorgan], to Llewelyn ab Ifan of the parish of Llangrallo [co. Glamorgan], providing the recipient with genealogical and historical data relating to the Stradling family ('achau y Stradlingiaid o Gastell Llan Ddunwyd y Fro . . .'). This appears to be a variant, much fuller version (but wanting the end section) of the letter sent by Gamage to Llewelyn ab Ifan in November 1726, a copy of which, in Gamage's own hand, is to be found in NLW MS 13077B (for other transcripts by Edward Williams of letters from, or allegedly from, Gamage to the same recipient see also NLW MSS 13091E, 13100B, and for observations on this correspondence and doubts as to the authenticity of the present and other Williams transcripts see IMCY, tt. 58-60, TLLM, tt. 107, 195, and IM, tt. 245-6). Other items in the volume include pp. 60 + 57, a list of Glamorgan place names found in genealogies; 74, 193, brief lists of Glamorgan idioms or proverbs; 78, 103-04, two short, incomplete lists of Welsh triads with the superscriptions 'Llyma drioedd a gafwyd yn y Bewpyr . . .', and 'Trioedd o Lyfr Gutto Ysgolhaig o Lanhari'; 82, brief notes headed 'Cadeiriau Morganwg a Thir Iarll'; 87-91, lists of, or notes relating to, households in the parishes of St. Athan, Eglwys Brewis, Flimston, and St. Mary Church, and parts of the parishes of Penmark and Lancarvan [co. Glamorgan], ? in the late eighteenth century, showing how many contained infants under the age of ? sixteen; 92-3, brief notes attacking the assumption made by the advocates of paedobaptism that the families of Lydia and the jailor [whose baptisms are recorded in Acts, chapter XVI] contained infants who were baptised, and utilising the statistical evidence extracted from the lists in the preceding item to demonstrate that the majority of families at any given time did not contain infants; 130, a note on 'the modern Literary Dialect of the Welsh language'; 144-5, 147, 149, lists of early bishops of Morganwg, early and pre-Saxon bishops of Landaff, and pre-Saxon archbishops of London; and 179, a list of 'Glum[organ] names of grasses'. Also to be found on various pages are grammatical and etymological notes and other miscellanea. In one instance notes have been written on the reverse side of an imperfect copy of a printed handbill announcing an 'eisteddfod' to be held in Caerwys [co. Flint] in 1798 under the patronage of the Gwyneddigion Society.