A Letter from the Late Mr. Edward Lhwyd, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, to Dr. Tancred Robinson, F. R. S. Containing Several Observations in Natural History, Made in His Travels thro' Wales

IV. A Letter from the late Mr. Edward Lhwyd, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, to Dr. Tancred Robinson, F. R. S. containing several Observations in Natural History, made in his Travels thro' Wales. Swansey, Glamorganshire, Sept. 14. 1696. Honoured Sir, At Snowdon Hills we met with little or nothing additional to what is in Mr. Ray's Synopsis; only the little Bulb I found plentifully in flower; and in one of the Lakes I gather'd a small Plant, which I suspect to be undescrib'd. I have given Orders to watch the Subularia; but the Lake where it grows is so high, that Men have seldom occasion to come near it, so that I have but slender hopes of any account of its flowering. I sent Roots of what rare Plants I met with, to the Duke of Beaufort's, my Lord of London's, and the Physick Garden at Oxford; and planted many of them at the Bishop of Bangor's Garden, which is about 7 Miles from these Mountains. I have dried several Paterns of most of them; as also of such Plants as our Sea Coasts afford, which are considerable for Number; amongst which I think I have two or three undescrib'd. I searched diligently in these Mountains for Figured Stones; but met with none at all, except cubical Mar-chasites, and Crystals, whereof I found one about 9 Inches long, and thicker than my Wrist, transparent as Glass for the better half, but opaque towards the Root like white Marble. Some small ones I met with of the colour colour of a Topaze; and was inform'd of others purely Amethystine, found in the Valley of Nant Phranicon. I find our Ancestors (for want of more precious Stones) made themselves Beads of opaque, or Marble Crystal; for I have one given me, cut like a Lottery-ball, and perforated; found not long since in Meirionyddshire. I desire to know whether you are satisfy'd, that those transparent Stones figured by Dr. Plot, and by Dr. Lister [Phil. Transact. No. 201.] by the name of Ombria, &c. are so form'd naturally. One of them was lately given me (set in Copper with a little Handle to it) by the name of Tlás Owen Kyveiliog, i.e. Owen of Kyveiliog's Jewel; so call'd, because found in an old Crig or Barrow, near the Place where he lived. Sir William Williams hath several Welsh MSS. (tho' I think no Dictionary) that would be of use to me; but his Son tells me, he's resolv'd never to lend any. They are chiefly Modern Copies out of Hengwrt Study in Meirionyddshire, which I am promis'd free Access to; and have this time taken a Catalogue of all the ancient MSS. it contains. There are the Works of Taliesyn, Aneuryn gwawdydh, Myrdhyn ab Morvryn, and Kygodio Elaeth, who lived in the 5th and 6th Centuries (but the small MS. containing them all seems to have been copied about 500 Years ago) as also of several others valuable in their kind. I must intreat you to direct me, if you can, how to procure the use of the Cornish MSS. you mention at Mr. Anstisse's. I have been told one Mr Keygwyn, who died of late Years in Cornwall, left a sort of Dictionary of the Language: Perhaps Mr Moyle, or some other of your Acquaintance in that Country, can tell us whether it be true, or a mistake. We have neither the Ibex nor Rupicapra in Wales, nor any other Goat but the Common. In our Language the Park Deer is call'd Geivr Danas: The former Word signifies Goats, but whether the latter implies Danisb (as (as if Deer had come from Denmark) or somewhat else, we know not. The Grey Game (tho' I have not heard of the name) seems to be the Female of the Black; which we call Gryg-ieir, i.e. Gallinæ ericetorum. The Red Game we call ieir y mynydh, i.e. Gallinula montana; because in our Country they keep to the highest Hills, or Alps, [in Welsh bannau,] especially if heathy. There came this last May into Cardiganshire two strange Birds (as I guess by the Description given them) of the Aquatic fissiped Tribe. They say they were almost two Yards tall, and of a whitish colour, with the Tips of their Wings dark. I took 'em to be some sort of Exotic Crane; which, whether they portend a Commonwealth or not, I leave to their Interpretation who regard Omens. This time two Years, there came a Flock of Birds [about a Hundred] to a Hemp-yard, at a place called Lhan Dhewi Velfrey in Pembrokeshire; and in one Afternoon destroyed all the Hempseed. They described the Cocks to be all over red as Scarlet; the Hens greenish above, and red underneath; about as big, or little less than Blackbirds; with Bills more stubbed and bigger than that of a Bull-finch. I suspect these to have been Virginia Nightingals; otherwise, I know not what to make of them. Our Lakes (tho' they are very numerous) afford no Fish that I can hear of, besides Trout and Eel, and Tor-goch and Gwiniad, i.e. Shelley and Charre. A Fisherman protested to me, that in a Lake called Llyn y Cwn near Lhan Berys, he had several times catch'd Monocular Trouts, the Heads whereof were always somewhat distorted or contracted awry. They farther assured me, that the two highest Lakes of Snowdon (Phynnon Vrêch and Phynnon las) afford no Fish at all; and that the Trouts of the other Lakes differ much in colour: But these these things must, and shall (God willing) be better inquired into. Next Summer come Twelvemouth, I intend to try the Barometer and Thermometer on the Top of Snowdon and Cader Idris, and to take their perpendicular Height, and do any thing else that you shall advise, which may be done conveniently. There is no Brimstone or Pumice-stones on the Tops of our Mountains, nor any thing else that I suspect to have been the Effects of Vulcano's. What seemed to me most strange, were waste confus'd Stones, and (to appearance) fragments of Rocks, standing on the Surface of the Earth, not only in wide Plains, but on the Summits also of the highest Mountains. I have never seen any Lake or Spring on the Summit of a Hill. There are indeed on the tops of some Hills, where stood anciently Castles or Forts, certain Wells called in Welsh Pydew; a Word of the same Signification as well as Sound with the Latin Puteus: But no Water runs out of these; and several of them I found quite dry. I am, Sir, Your most obliged humble Servant, E. LHWYD.