The under-mentioned Firms have been appointed sole Agents for the sale of Government Publications, including Parliamentary Reports and Papers, Acts of Parliament Record Office Publications, &c., &c. (with the under-mentioned exceptions), and all suc works can be purchased from them either directly or through retail booksellers, who, as well as the accredited Agents of Free Public Libraries, are entitled to a discount of 25 per cent. from the published prices : IN ENGLAND :-WYMAN AND SONS, LTD., Fetter Lane, E.C. IN IRELAND :-E. PONSONBY, LTD., 116, Grafton Street, Dublin. Hydrographical Works of the Admiralty are sold by Mr. J. D. POTTER, 145, Minories, E.C. Patent Office Publications are sold at the Patent Office. (Classified Abridgments of Patent Specifications are sold also by Wyman and Sons, Ltd.) The Publications of the Ordnance Survey and of the Geological Survey can be purchased from Agents in most of the chief towns in the United Kingdom, through any Bookseller, or from the Director General of the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, or, in the case of Ireland, from the Superintendent, Ordnance Survey, Dublin. In addition, Small Scale Maps are, as a rule, procurable at Railway Bookstalls in England and Wales. The Journal of the Board of Agriculture is published monthly by the Board, at 4, Whitehall Place, S.W. Prior to April, 1907, it was published by Messrs. Laughton and Co., Ltd., 3, Wellington Street, Strand, W.C. Price 4d. The following is a list of some of the more important Parliamentary and Official Publications recently issued :- Public General Acts, 1910. In separate chapters, at varying prices. 7s. 60. each. Statutes in Force. Chronological Table and Index of. 25th Edition. To the end of the Session 9 Edward VII. (1909). 2 vols. 10s. 6d. Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, 1424-1707. Revised Edition. 10s. Statutory Rules and Orders other than those of a Local, Personal, or Temporary Character. Issued in 1890 to 1909. 108. each. Statutory Rules and Orders revised, in force on Dec. 31, 1903. Vols. I. to XIII. 10s. each. Statutory Rules and Orders in force on 31st December 1909. Index to. (in the press) 10s. PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES. House of Lords and House of Commons; each daily part 3d. ; also issued in bound volumes with Index. VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. Sess. 1910. Subscription Price 30s. MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS. Sess. 1910. Subscription Price 30s. HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS. Reports of the Royal Commissioners. In course of issue. [Cd. 4949, 4945.] Poor LAWS AND RELIEF OF DISTRESS. Royal Commission. Majority and Minority Reports, with Index. 6s. Do. Octavo edition, in 3 vols., without Index :Vol. I. Parts I. to VI. of the Majority Report, 1s. 6d.; Vol. II. Part VII. to the end of the Majority Report, 9d. ; vol. ILĪ. Minority Report, 1s. 9d. [Cd. 4630.] Do. Report on Ireland. 9d. [Cd. 4922.1 Do. Report on Scotland. 2s. 8d. [Cd. 4671. PUBLIC HEALTH AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS. Statistical Memoranda. 5s. [Cd. 5094.7 STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 1894-1908. ls. 30. Tcd. 4805.1 Do. do. UNITED KINGDOM. 1894–1908. ls. 8d. [Cd. 4984. Do. 2s. [Cd. 4837.] Do. do. ls. 3d. i Cd. 5053.] Do. do. FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 1897–1907-8. ls. 7d. fcd. 5159.] TRADE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1909. Vol. I. s. 29 [Cd. 5165, 5166.] UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN LONDON. Royal Commission. First Report, with Evidence, &c. 2s. 330. [Cd. 5175, 5176.] PETROLEUM SPIRIT COMMITTEE. First Report, with Evidence, &c. 2s. Ca. 5180.] SMALL HOLDINGS. Report of Proceedings, &c. 1909. 103d. [cd. 5201, 5203.] BANKRUPTCY LAW OF SCOTLAND. Report of Committee, with Evidence, &c. 1s. 8d. [Cd. 5219, 5278.] LEAD, &c., IN POTTERIES. Report of Committee on the Danger arising from Dust; with Appendices. 3s. 2d. [Cd. 5229, 5230.] EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN ACT, 1903. Report of Committee, with Evidence, &c., into the working of. 4s. 8 d. [Cd. 5247, 5248.] RAILWAYS. IRELAND. Royal Commission, Final Report, Evidence, &c. 6s. 4d. [Cd. 5257, 5258.] SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES COMMITTEE. Report, Evidence, &c. ls. 13d. Cd. 5263.] INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY. Report. 1s. 3d. [Cd. 5268.1 AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS, 1909. Prices and Supplies of Corn, &c. 9d. [od. 4804.] RAILWAY RETURNS, 1908. Capital, Traffic, &c. 1s. 30. fcd. 4874.1 COLONIAL IMPORT DUTIES. 1909. 2s. 9d. ca. 5127.] NEW FRENCH TARIFF, as amended by law. Translation of. 111d. REPORT ON MANUSCRIPTS IN THE WELSH LANGUAGE. VOL. II.- Part IV. THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty. LONDON: BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, LTD., And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from 32, ABINGDON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W.; or E, PONSONBY, LTD., 116, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN, [Cd. 5353.] Price ls. INTRODUCTION. The history of the greater number of the documents catalogued in the following pages is a brief one. Lewis Morris, as well as his brothers* William and Richard, began to copy Welsh manuscripts about 1725, and for forty years they were assiduous in copying and collecting. In course of time most of their manuscripts passed to the Governors of the Welsh School, London. Owen Jones (1741-1814), the London furrier who financed and partedited The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, likewise copied and collected Welsh manuscripts which passed to the custody of the old Cymmrodorion Society. Neither of these bodies could give facilities to students to consult the documents in their charge except by lending them, a practice which, we believe, ended in some manuscripts getting astray. In those days Wales had no University College, no large Public Library, and the very idea of a National Institution was unbegotten. Under the circumstances the custodians of the respective collections naturally turned to the British Museum as the safest place to deposit their manuscripts. So in 1844 they were transferred to Bloomsbury Square, and since that year the Morrisian collection has been known as ADDITIONAL MSS. numbered 14,866 to 14,961, and the Myvyrian collection bears the Addl. numbers 14,962 to 15,089. The other manuscripts included in this report are sufficiently described by the respective names of the great collections to which they belong. * The Correspondence of the Morris brothers has been edited, and recently published by Mr. J. H. Davies, M.A., Registrar of the University College of Wales, Aberystwith. A more fascinating contribution to a period of Welsh social and literary history is scarcely possible. 98617. 1500. 9/10. a 2 е Owing to revised Treasury instructions, issued during the progress of the work of inspection, manuscripts of a date later than 1650 are not included in the present report, with the exception of a certain number which had, at that time, been already examined. It was also decided to omit the pedigree manuscripts, of which there are a considerable number in the British Museum ;, all these are later, fuller but less reliable, than the older pedigrees in the Peniarth collection, lately transferred to the National Library of Wales, at Aberystwith. The manuscripts of the Welsh Laws are both numerous and valuable. Of these No. 4 is the most important. Though only a transcript of Peniarth MS. 29, yet it is an exceptionally accurate transcript; and, notwithstanding its several lacunæ, it contains all those sections now missing in its original. We are thus able, by its means, to complete the text of the most ancient recension of the Howelian Laws which has survived in the Welsh language. In No. 5 we have an abbreviated, and in No. 6. an amplified, text of the same version. It has been surmised that No. 6 was drawn up for the use of the Council of Edward I., prior to the promulgation of the Statute of Rhuddlan. Viewed in the light of a commentarial expansion of the oldest known version of the Laws, that is to say, as an embodiment of what was deemed to be Welsh Law at the death of Llewelyn, the “last” prince, MS. 6 has a certain historical interest. But it cannot be seriously regarded as representing the primitive text of the Howelian codification and enactments. Quite a false importance was assigned to it by the editor of The Laws and Institutes of Wales. In No. 10 we have the oldest and best manuscript of the “Gwentian” code,t which belongs to the same time, and owes its existence, possibly, to the same cause as No. 6. There are several MSS. of the “ Dimetian” code, but all are of secondary importance. * The writer does not guarantee that all Welsh MSS. in the British Museum before 1650 have been examined for this Report. † The full text of this MS. has been edited by Rev. A: W. WadeEvans, M.A. (Clarendon Press, 1909). |