The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-22
YR HEDDGEIDWAD
GWIR LENGAROL
lie Is now Engaged on the Middle Hill
Manuscripts.
UNIQUE AND DISTINGUISHED RECORD

UNIQUE AND DISTINGUISHED RECORD
The Author of Many Valuable Boo Ks
Receives One Hundred Pounds in
Gold from Her MGesty's Govern.
ment in Recognition Of his Super.
iOr Talents.
literateur, is at present at Cardiff, and
located in one of the alcoves of the
reference rooms of the Free Library.
Here he may be found industriously
engaged from early morn till late at
night pursuing with avidity the magni-
licent collection of manuscripts which
formed part of the Middle Hill collec-
tion recently purchased for the Cardiff
Free Library. Two years have not
elapsed since Mr.. Ashton, after a
lengthy service of twenty-five years,
retired from the Meronethshire police
constabulary, and it will ever remain a
marvel how he. a humble rural police
man, deprived Of the advantages of an
early education, and with his time
pretty fully occupied with the multifar-
ious duties of his office. could have the
leisure, much less the disposition, to
accomplish the great work that he has
for the literature of his native land.
And, yet. the literary policeman has
for years been known throughout the
length and breadth of Wales as a hard
working prize winner at the great Ma
tional eistefoddfodau. and the author
of many volumnous works of original
research involving years of painful toll
and persevering industry. a sufficient
testimony to the value of his work in
this respect is to be found in the graft
flying fact that last year his labors
We're recognized by q grant of one hun
dred pounds voted to him by the treas
ury out of the Royal Bounty Fund,
and, having regard to his published
works, and the advantages that would
accrue to Welsh literature were he able
to prosecute these labors free from the
cankering anxieties of worldly circum-
stances, 1t is to be hoped that the grant
may be continued as to an annual PEN
sion.
UNIQUE AND DISTINGUISHED
RECORD.
1t would not be fair to Mr.. Ashton
himself to specify the work which he Is
now engaged, and which took him tc
Cardiff to dig for treasures in the Middle
Hill manuscripts. 1t will suffice to ex-
plain that he Is engaged on another
work of original research, and thai
there is every reason to believe thai
when published it will be found of in
estimable value to Welsh literature
Mr.. Ashton is best known as a biblio'
grapher and yet his own photography
demands some space to set it forth. AL
though a frequent winner of prizes N
local Eisteddfodau, it was not unit
1856 that he became known as success
full competitor at the National Eistedd'
fod His first attempt in connection
with Welsh matters was an essay or
the laws of Hywel Dda, and for this ht
shared q $50 prize at the Carnarvor
National Eisteddfod of 1856 with Mr.
Edward Owen. of the India Office Thi!
essay which was one Of ten sent in fol
competition, was subsequently pub
lished in serial from the now defunc
Cyfaill yr Aelwyd. At every succeed
ing eisteddfod for many years after
wards his name invariably appeared
among those of the chief prize win
ners. In 1887, at the London Eistedd
fod, he was awarded $50 and silver
medal for an English essay on the His
tory OF the Act of Union between Wales
and England; and in 1883, at the Wrex
ham Eisteddfod, out of four competi
tors, he took similar prize for Welsh
essay on Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydian
aftrwards published in the eisteddfot
transactions. In 1889 he devoted his en-
ergies to the compiling of an essay or
the Life and Times of Bishop Morgan
for which a prize of G100 was Offered
by n committee, and though that mag
nifcent prize was eventually awarded
to another he had the satisfaction of
seeing his composition bracketted fol
second place. That work has since beeI
published in book of 1852 PIP. crown. A
the Bangor Eisteddfod in 1890 his essa,
on Rural Life in Wales in the Present
Century" brought him q prize of G1O
This he published in the Eisteddfot
transactions of that year. In 1891 Mr..
Ashton took q bolder flight. and sue
cessfully competed for the $50 offered 10y
the swansea EisteddfOd for the His
tory of welsh Literature from 1850 t.
1850" which is now published in book
Of $50 DD. by the National Eisteddfod
association. The Rhyl Eisteddfod of 1892
came next, and here again the literary
policeman was in evidence as the win
ner of prize of $50 for the best worl
or original research, the work which Sc
cured for him that distinction, being his
Welsh Bibiogra ply Of the present cen
tury. The photography was ther
brought down to 1890, but it is crafty.
ing to find that Mr.. Ashton has contin
ued the work and brought it up to date,
and that he has now sufficient materia
TO make six volumes of $50 pages each
large octave, with an additional vol
umc for the index. The work contains
about 70 GEO entries, and the first vol
ume will shortly be published by the
National Eistoddfod Association
Gwilyu Lleyn, in his "Cambrian Biblio
Craphy." covered the ground up to 1860
and Mr.. Ashton's photography is really
continuation of that of Gwilym Lieyn
carried or- on much the same plan. II
1888. the literary policeman was success
ful out of four competitors at the Chi
cago eisteddfod fo- a handbook of the
Welsh boards from Gvilyrn Lleyn G250)
to Gwilyn Hlraethcr Gs35), for which
he was awarded prize of one hundred
dollars in cash, ard 4 piece of building
land Of the value of two hundred dol.
lars. Tie handbook will shortly see the
Iirht Of dny in n volume of 300 M fCOlS-
cap octave. The Csrnarvcn Nationa
National Eisteddfod in 1894 offered f5t
prize for a collection of the works oi
IOlo Goch (surposed to have been tine
poet Of owen Clyndwr). with notes
historical and critical. and once agair
the successful author was found to be