Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/10

Llwyd Wales, but there is much doubt respecting his particular creed. He had a decided leaning towards quaker doctrines, on which account Baxter attacked his memory, but he was defended in a pamphlet published in 1685, and entitled 'A Winding Sheet for Mr. Baxter's Dead' (pp. 11,12). George Fox, in his 'Journal,' speaks with scorn of his failure to identify himself with the Society of Friends. He has also been claimed as a baptist, while his works show so much of the spirit of theosophy, that one of his editors (the in Llyfr y Tri Aderyn, edit. 1889, p. xviii) suggests that he was largely inspired by the writings of Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), the German mystic.

For idiomatic style and purity of diction Llwyd's works stand in the first rank among the prose classics of Wales. His published writings are the following: 1. 'Llyfr y Tri Aderyn,' 1st edit. 1653; 2nd edit. 1714, 32mo; 7th edit, (by the Rev. Owen Jones) 1889, 8vo, Liverpool: a dialogue between three birds, the eagle representing Cromwell, the dove standing for a puritan reformer, and a raven representing an episcopalian, possibly Laud. Many extracts are translated by A. N. Palmer, in his 'History of the Older Nonconformity of Wrexham.' 2. 'Gwaedd yn Nghymru yn wyneb pob cydwybod euog,' 1653; 2nd edit. 1727; 4th edit. 1766, Carmarthen, 12mo. 3. 'Gair o'r Gair,' &c, 1st edit. 1656, London, 24mo; 3rd edit. Merthyr Tydvil, 1829, 12mo. A translation by Griffith Rudd, under the title 'A Discourse of God the Word,' was published in 1739, London, 12mo. The four following works were published together in the order given in 1657. 4. 'Yr Ymroddiad, 'a work on self-resignation, supposed to be partly derived from an ascetic treatise by some catholic divine (see in Y Cymmrodor, vol. viii. pt. i.) 5. 'Y Disgybl a'i Athraw,' a work dealing with the future state, 2nd edit. Shrewsbury, 1765, 24mo. 6. 'Cyfarwyddyd i'r Cymro,' dealing with regeneration, 2nd edit. 1737, Shrewsbury; 3rd edit. 1765. 7. 'Gwyddor Uchod,' which has been happily paraphrased as 'The Higher Astrology,' 2nd edit. Shrewsbury, 1765, 24mo. 8. 'Can Anghyhoeddedig,' a song by Llwyd, edited with notes and memoir by J. Peter of Bala, 1875, Bala. 9. 'A Dialogue between Martha and Lazarus about the soul,' attacked by Baxter in his 'Catholic Communion doubly defended' (p. 36). Excepting No. 1 ('Llyfr y Tri Aderyn'), all Llwyd's works are supposed to be adaptations or translations from English, though none of the originals can be identified.

Several of Llwyd's letters are still extant, some have been printed in different Welsh periodicals, and three are included in Erbury's 'Testimony left upon Record.' Two letters addressed by him to Baxter are also preserved in Dr. Williams's Library. The letters addressed to him from Ireland by another correspondent, [q. v.], were published by Joseph Mayer in the 'Lancashire and Cheshire Historical Society's Transactions' for 1861.

[The earliest biography of Llwyd was published in Robert Jones's Drych yr Amseroedd ; a critique of his writings by Dr. Lewis Edwards of Bala appeared in Y Traethodydd for 1848, iv. 30-45. See also Y Cymmrodor, vol. viii. pt. i.; the Rev. Owen Jones's edition of Llyfr y Tri Aderyn; A. N. Palmer's Older Nonconformity of Wrexham; and Rowlands's Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry; in all of which full bibliographies are given.]  LLWYD, RICHARD (1752–1835), poet, known as 'the Bard of Snowdon,' was the son of John and Alice Llwyd of Beaumaris, Anglesey, where he was born in 1752. The early death of his father, a small coast trader, left the family in necessitous circumstances. After an education of nine months at the free school at Beaumaris, Llwyd at twelve years of age entered the domestic service of a gentleman in the neighbourhood, but utilised every spare moment for his self-improvement. By 1780 he was entrusted with the duties of steward and secretary to a Mr. Griffith of Caerhun, near Conway, then the only acting magistrate in that district. He finally acquired a competency, retired to Beaumaris, and published there his best-known poem, entitled 'Beaumaris Bay,' 1800, 8vo, with many historical and genealogical notes. His other productions were 'Gayton Wake, or Mary Dod; and her List of Merits,' Chester, 1804, 12mo, with a portrait of the author; and 'Poems, Tales, Odes, Sonnets, Translations from the British' (with notes), 2 vols. Chester, 1804, 8vo. Early in 1807 he removed to Chester, where he died 29 Dec. 1835, and was buried at St. John's Church. On the south side of the church wall a tablet was placed to his memory. Early in 1814 he married Ann, daughter of Alderman Bingley of Chester. She died in 1834.

A collected edition of his works, with a memoir and portrait, and an engraving of his residence, known as Bank Place, Chester, was published in 1837, Chester, 8vo. The notes by Llwyd show him to have been well versed in heraldry, genealogy, and Welsh archæology.

[The Poetical Works of Richard Llwyd; Williams's Eminent Welshmen, pp. 294, 295.] 