WILD WALES ITS PEOPLE, LANGUAGE AND SCENERY

by

GEORGE BORROW

Published by Collins London, hardcover, illustrated, first published in 1862, this edition 1955


With an Introduction by
CECIL PRICE
Their Lord they shall praise,
Their language they shall keep,
Their land they shall lose
Except Wild Wales'
TALIESIN : Destiny of the Britons

INTRODUCTION
Wuási Wild Wales was first published, it was not much of a success. The reviewers considered Borrow eccentric rather than original and did not appreciate, as we do, his zest, energy, and
• inexhaustible interest in human beings. And because tours in Wales had regularly appeared in print in the previous seventy years, the critics thought Borrow's theme was no longer novel. Posterity has proved them wrong: the pen of a great writer makes every subject delightful. But it is easier to understand their point of view if we remember that the tour through Wales had become by Borrow's day an outworn literary fashion.

Before the middle of the eighteenth century, Wales was thought a foreign land, where people spoke a strange tongue and lived mainly on toasted cheese. Englishmen who settled there did so because the tost of living was low. Travellers went through the whole of the country only for the purpose of making political, economie or ecclesiastical surveys. The idea of touring Wales for pleasure did not become popular until the beginning of the Romantic movement, towards the end of the eighteenth century.
Painters who entered the country were delighted to find that many a Welsh panorama resembled the much admired pictures 'of Claude and of Salvator Rosa. The tourists looked for just these " picturesque " qualities in the landscape and found a new source of pleasure in the sight of the lofty mountains, the mysterious oak woods, deep valleys and awe-inspiring waterfalls. When Thomas Pennant made his famous tours of Wales in 1773 and 1776, he declared that the valley between Llandderfel and Llandrillo needed Salvator Rosa to do it justice. As for Craig Cai, on Cader Idris, he himself could never hope to equal in words the incomparable painting of the subject by Richard Wilson.

Pennant did much to attract English tourists to his native Wales. He described landscapes, local customs, trade returns and mineral resources; and he made them all interesting. He noted the appearance of rare birds, plants and animals; he itemised the old pictures, furniture and architectural features, of the mansion he visited. Pennant had many friends among the Welsh gentry and was able to use some of the unique manuscripts they possessed whenever he referred to the history of prehistoric and medieval Wales. Altogether, he presented a most vivid picture of the Wales of his day and the Wales of the past. It is little wonder that Dr. Johnson remarked about him, " He's the best traveller I ever read."