Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/138

 OBITUARIES.

RT. HON. SIR JOHN RHYS.

the 17th December last the world of scholarship suffered a serious loss by the sudden death of Sir John Rhys. He was born in 1840, in Cardiganshire. His parents belonged to that class of yeoman farmers which has produced so many distinguished sons of Wales, few or none of whom have been more greatly gifted, or have rendered more honourable or permanent service to the state and to their fellow-countrymen than Sir John Rhys. Through circumstances little favourable to learning he fought his way up to the University of Oxford, and there became the first occupant of the Chair when the Professorship of Celtic was established, the Principal of Jesus College, and one of the foremost philologists of his day, an authority whose reputation was everywhere recognized as of the highest rank. The recipient of abundant honours at home and abroad, he preserved to the end his intense sympathy with his Welsh fellow-countrymen in their political and social struggles: he was before all things a Welshman and a patriot. His labours on the various Government Commissions in which he took part from time to time have thrown much light on the history and condition of the Welsh peasantry, and have contributed valuable assistance in dealing with Welsh problems. The same sympathy was a prime condition of his success in his researches on the subject of Welsh folklore. Combined with it, his wide and intimate knowledge of the land, the people, and their history enabled him, not merely to collect their traditions, but to interpret those traditions and the ancient and deeply interesting literature wherein so many of them are embedded, and of which indeed they form an organic part. His Celtic learning was profound.