THIS

HIS celebrated writer was born at Armon in Carnarvonshire, according to Wood, and having been educated at Winchester School, he was thence chosen scholar of New College, Oxford, and became fellow in 1584 and H. B. in 1590. The accounts of his life hitherto published, do not point out any particulars of the course or success of his studies whilst in Oxford, nor does it appear that he was as yet much noticed.

In 1591 he resigned his fellowship and removed to Trylegh in Monmouthshire, where he engaged in the laborious occupation of a schoolmaster, and from thence about three years afterwards he was chosen to be master of the Free-school at Warwick. This laborious employment seems not to have been agreeable, or perhaps very compatible with the temper and genius of Owen; for some years later he was in London, and supported principally by the

liberality of Archbishop Williams. As several of his epigrams are addressed to Prince Henry, the son of James the First, he was probably patronised by that amiable and excellent prince. Having in his epigrams been severe upon the church of Rome, he is said thereby to have sacrificed his good fortune to his wit (a rich uncle who was a papist having disinherited him on this account) and to have died in poverty in London, A. D. 1622.

His liberal patron the archbishop erected a monument to his memory in St. Paul's Church where he had been buried, that did equal honour to both. In person Owen appears to have been of very small stature from the first line of the epitaph.

Paron tibi statua est quia pasua statura.

As an epigrammatist, his merit has been universally acknowledged, and he was qualified for the character by uncommon endowments of his mind.

A

quick and happy perception, a lively imagination, and just discrimination. In the subjects the variety is unconfined, and his epigrams have that point and terseness, which at once please and impress them on the

mind. If Martial be considered as superior, still it will be remembered, that Owen had alone since his time acquired the same title, which the judgment of more of than a century has confirmed.

EDWARD

IN

a nation which traces back its annals to a remote antiquity, and has for ages preserved the purity of its language, the study of its history and language must have peculiar allurements, and has accordingly been cultivated with more zeal than any other department by the natives of the principality. To several names this study has given celebrity, but to none in a more eminent degree or more justly than to the learned and indefatigable Edward Llwyd. This able Archaeologist was the son of Charles Llwyd, Esq. of Llanvorde in Cardiganshire. Of the earlier part of his studies nothing farther appears than that being of Jesus College, Oxford, he took his degree of M. A., July 21, 1701. Here, under Dr. Plot, his studies are said to have been cultivated, and it may be ascribed to this connection that he made so eminent a progress

in natural history. After Dr. Plot's death he succeeded him as Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, a place which he retained while he lived. In this situation his study of Welsh literature became deep and extensive, and his application close and unwearied, and so high was the general opinion of his knowledge and abilities, that a public subscription was raised to enable him to travel several times over Wales, which he did for three years, and then in Ireland, Cornwall, Scotland, Armoric, and in Brittany, to collect information for his great work, which was intended to treat of the antiquities of Wales in general. Of this, however, he lived only to publish that part which relates to the language.

Previous to the commencement of his travels, he had collected a cabinet of fossils,* which

his journey enabled him to enlarge considerably, and on his return he published his Ichnographia Lithophylacii Brittannici. Of this work only one hundred copies were printed. The expense of printing was defrayed by nine persons. Lords Sommers, Dorset, and Montague, Sir Isaac Newton, Drs. Lister, Robinson, Sloane, Aston, and Geoffray; an honour as singular as it was well deserved. In his travels he collected amply for his Antiquities, and acquired so great a proficiency in the Irish language, and Cornish and Breton dialects of the Welsh as to have been able to write long prefaces in each in the several parts of his etymology. To this, as to most great designs some obstacles were opposed. The access to libraries was sometimes refused, perhaps through fear of disclosing their real value, or ignorance of their real use. Italy, when some celebrated astronomers were engaged in measuring a degree of the meridian, a parish priest absolutely refused to permit them to go upon the steeple roof to take measurements, till compelled to it by an order from Rome. In all places, that which is not within the common apprehension is liable to suspicion or neglect. The la

In

bours of Llwyd have however facilitated the inquiries of others, and British manuscripts are no longer suffered to lie in obscurity.

When in France, he is said to have been taken up upon suspicion of his being a spy, but to have been soon released. In his temper and manners he is represented as cheerful and pleasing. Desirous of obtaining and willing to communicate information; particularly that which related to British antiquities. Of his manuscripts the greater part are in the Seabright collection, and it is much to be wished that they may be examined, and what can be collected from them arranged and published. His death is said to have been occasioned partly by his lying in a damp room at the museum, and partly by too close an application to his studies. It is certain that while the body is inactive, it is more sensibly affected by cold or damp than otherwise, and therefore, both might have contributed to deprive the world of one who was an ornament to the age in which he lived, and will be highly esteemed, while genius and learning are respected. He died in July, 1709.

The Etymological Dictionary is so well known, that it would

would be superfluous to discuss its merits as it is vain to hope to add to its celebrity. Of his other work which is less known, it may not be improper to take a short review.

Till the time of Llwyd, though fossils had been collected and a few general names applied to them, they had not become the object of scientific arrangement. Of this department, as a science, Llwyd is the father. It is to him we owe the original nomenclature by which they are divided into classes and species. In his collection he enumerates 1766 specimens, adding to each the reference to the places where they were found. He appears to have been the first who remarked, that the impressions of plants and fishes upon stones found in Great Britain, are those of such as are not to be found at present in this island,

or the seas immediately surrounding it, which is now well known to be the fact, and evinces his great accuracy of observation. Of the estimation of the work, the great names so honourably prefixed to it will be a perpetual testimony. Nor is it less valuable as conveying the sentiments of a liberal and candid mind, a sound judgment, and a grateful heart, qualities that avail when all earthly judgments cease, and when the applause of man is valuable only so far as it is confirmed by him whose approbation alone is finally to be desired. In the Philosophical Transactions, the following numbers, treating partly of natural history and partly of Welsh antiquities, were written by Mr. Llwyd, viz. Nos. 166, 200, 208, 213, 229, 243, 269, 291, 334, 335, 336, 337, 462, and 467.

SKETCH