Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/38

 32witnesses to the latent power for art in the Welsh people. It is true that many of these have shown this latent power well over the border of Wales and in other lands, but I think they have almost all shown it with a personal pride in their early training and recollections and associations connected with their life in Wales. Take, for Distance, the fact, which must bring some pride to the heart of every Welshman, that the real father of the British school of landscape was Richard Wilson, who was brought up in comparatively humble surroundings in the little village of Penegoes. One of the most prolific and ablest of the sculptors who have brought glory to the British name in sculpture was John Gibson, of Conway, and in other spheres, Inigo Jones in architecture, and Owen Jones in laying down the principles of ornament. Welshmen have shown, that from time to time there will arise from Wales witnesses to the latent power which lies in the race and in our people.

In our own day, we have witnesses to this same power. Were it not for a happy meeting which I had with a fellow countryman after