Perfect arte of navigation
I left Montgomery early next morning. By then the snow had turned to rain and it came teeming down as I made my way through the town.
I passed close by the house that the novelist and short story writer Geraint Goodwin (1903-1941) spent the latter part of his short life and eventually died. The National Library holds much of his archives. By now I had my waterproofs zipped up to my eyeballs as I hurried towards Tref-y-clawdd (Knighton). I arrived at my accommodation late afternoon.
The grounde of artes
I woke up to a fine winter’s day so I didn’t dawdle but made my way towards Kington (Ceintyn) straight after breakfast. Within a couple of hours I approached the village of Llanddewi yn Hwytwn (Whitton). Nearby stands Nant-y-Groes, the ancestral home of John Dee (1527–1609), the Elizabethan antiquary, astrologer and mathematician. He was the first to use the term ‘British Impire.’ It appears in his General and rare memorials pertayning to the perfect arte of navigation (London, 1577), a copy of which can be seen in the Library. He also edited the Tenby born mathematician Robert Recorde’s (1512-1558) work The Grounde of Artes (London, 1579) as well as the first English translation of Euclid’s Elements of Geometrie (London, 1570). These are also in our collections. Incidentally, it was Robert Recorde that invented the ‘equals’ (=) sign.
Another famous Welshman left his mark close by. On the 22nd June 1402 Owain Glyndŵr gained a famous victory over his English adversaries at the Battle of Bryn Glas, capturing Sir Edmund Mortimer, the head of the opposing army in the process. Shakespeare mentions the battle in his play Henry IV, Pt I.
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight,
Against the wild and irregular Glendower,
Was by the rude hand of that Welshman taken,
A thousand of his people butchered
A facsimile copy of Glyndwr’s Pennal Letter was recently presented to the Library by the Heritage Minister. I arrived at the border town of Kington just before the Castle Hill Antiquarian Bookshop closed. This is a place I have spent many happy hours over the years. Unfortunately I was unable find any John Dee or Robert Record first editions on sale.
Gwyn Tudur Davies