rightly
regarded as the literary model. Three-fourths of the inhabitants of
Wales belong to the various Nonconformist sects, and therefore pass
almost without exception through the Sunday school, where they are
drilled in its sole object of study, the Welsh Bible.

With the increasing employment of Welsh owing to the Nonconformist
movement there was also awakened a new interest in the past history of
the principality. A society calling itself the _Cymdeithas y
Cymmrodorion_ was founded in London in 1751, and during the succeeding
half-century two periodicals exclusively in Welsh were started, the
one, _Trysorfa y Gwybodaeth_, in 1770, the other, _Cylchgrawn
Cymraeg_, in 1793. The year 1792 witnessed the creation of an
important society, the _Cymdeithas y Cymreigyddion_, in London, in
which the moving spirits were William Owen (Pughe), Owen Jones and
Edward Williams. The results of their indefatigable search for ancient
Welsh manuscripts were published in three volumes under the title
_Myvyrian Archaiology_ (London, 1801-1807). Owen further published an
edition of the greatest medieval Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, and also
the first copious dictionary. But this was not all. In Goronwy Owen
(1722-1769) a poet had arisen whose works could stand comparison with
the compositions of the medieval writers, and it was owing to the
efforts of the three men above mentioned that the national Eisteddfod
(=session, from _eistedd_, "to sit") was revived. The origin of these
literary festivals is shrouded in obscurity. It is recorded that a S.
Welsh prince, Gruffydd ap Rhys, held a festival lasting forty days in
1135 to commemorate a victorious campaign at which poets and minstrels
competed for gifts and other rewards. Gruffydd's son Rhys ap Gruffydd
is reported to have instituted a similar contest in 1176, at which the
successful competitors received a chair whilst the others were given
presents. It would seem that after the loss of Welsh independence a
carefully graded order and a system of jealously guarded rules came
into existence. Similar national festivals were held under royal
patronage under Henry VIII. in 1523 and again under Elizabeth in 1568.
From 1568 until 1819 no general eisteddfod for all Wales was held.
Since 1819 the national festival has been held annually and every
little town has its own local celebration. Hence the Nonconformist
Sunday school