E. MORGAN HUMPHREYS - The Place where I used to play - Some of the author's Memories of his childhood in Talsarnau
I was born in Faeldref, in Dyffryn Ardudwy, and it was there that I spent most of the first eighteen years of my life. Most, but not all ; when I was almost four, my father moved to live to Cefn Gwyn, Talsarnau, and we were there for three years, or three and a half, before returning to Faeldref. And memories of Cefn Gwyn and the surrounding countryside, are my first clear memories. From the bank above Cefn Gwyn you can see across the Traeth Mawr and Traeth Bach. In those years the masts of the ships were seen as a forest at the quay in Porthmadog, over the water, and the Port ships turning into the open sea with the tide on some mornings, the sun shining on their sails.
The easiest way to get to Porthmadog from Cefn Gwyn was with Sion Robert's boat from nearby Clogwyn Melyn, and I crossed the river with my mother in that boat a number of times. At one time a ship came to the shore and my father took me to it. I was on the beach a few times collecting shells with a maid from Cefn Gwyn. And between everything, my interest in the sea has continued, and especially in sailing ships.
Talsarnau school was the first school I attended. One had to walk all the way; nobody dreamt of the need to transport children to school at that time. And upon reflection the route was quite hazardous for a five or six year old to walk by himself, crossing a deep stream under the shadow of the church cemetery, past Llanfihangel Island, along the tidal bank and over the narrow bridge and iron road. I walked along the old trail some years ago and noticed the deep waters under the bridge. The journey was long, but no one thought much of it at that time and a child had to learn to take care of himself.
I remember little about the school but do remember the headmaster clearly. He was J J Thomas and he must have been an exceptional man. It was said that he was a strict disciplinarian - and discipline at that time was extreme - but the children would look forward eagerly to going to school. There was a strange charm in his personality; one thing was that he was very comely with the most beautiful eyes I ever saw and there was an electrifying thrill in his personality. He had a beautiful voice and together with John Bennett Jones, Bryn y Felin would charm many when singing in chapel. I felt the same charm in J J Thomas when I grew up and believe that many of his old pupils would agree. He was an exceptional man.
As I said, I remember little about the school but one of the teachers had a bicycle, the old-fashioned iron horse, with one large wheel and one very small wheel. That, and the personality of the headmaster, are two impressions that have stayed with me. I did not know for many years that the well-known person known today as the Rev Dr David Tecwyn Evans was in standard six at the school when I was in the very junior section. But he also remembers J J Thomas and the bicycle.
It was in Cefn Gwyn that I learnt to read. My mother taught me and the first chapter of John's Epistle was the Welsh text book. Was that the usual thing I wonder? On looking back it would have been a difficult text for a child who had only just begun to understand letters, and the pages of the Testament had worn thin and black in that part. I remember that the English book was simpler, and had Iinen sheets adapted to suit little fingers that weren't too fond of washing. I did not like that book; my mother taught me English very early in life but I remember a time when I did know a word and an English book did not appeal to me. But it was English books that eventually came to be my companions, magazines like, "Sunshine," "The Children's Friend" and "Chatterbox." There was nothing of the sort in Welsh to attract a child. " The Children's Treasure" (Trysorfa'r Plant) " would probably come to the house but I had little taste of that until I discovered, in an old volume, a story about Red Indians and Albert Maywood. Most Welsh people of that time had an odd idea about providing for children.
On looking back, the thing that seems odd is that our world was strictly Welsh, both in Talsarnau and then in Dyffryn, although the language of both schools was English only. The Welsh life was probably so strong that what happened in the schools mattered little. Certainly, the life of the home, chapel and Sunday School was much stronger than that of the daily school, but it must also be remembered that the teachers of that school were usually dominant in Chapel and Sunday School as well. There they were men and women like everyone else, and we knew, if we thought about it at all (which I doubt), that English was part of their official uniform in school every day and that they were very Welsh through and through.
I have little memory of Talsarnau chapel, but I remember Owen Roberts leading the singing, moving slowly from side to side like a metronome. He was the father of Owen Roberts, the musician from Dolgellau. I also remember the little chapel at the Ynys and Ellis Edwards, Bala, preaching to the children on " Do not disregard the day of the little things". I was no more than six or seven years old at the time and I remember nothing about the sermon. But I still remember the text, and there must have been something special in a sermon that remained in the memory of a six-year-old boy to remember the text.
In Talsarnau and in Dyffryn "the people," to use the good old word of the area for the farmworkers, were very important to a lonely child. I am greatly indebted to them, to the young lads who had been kind to a little boy at the end of a long and hard day's work, and to a young farmhand who, though feeling himself quite a lad in his cordouroy trousers and new long sleeved waistcoat, was yet enough of a child to sometimes forget his importance and to play with another child. My only brother was seven years younger than me - and when you're seven or eight years old that difference is too great to bridge.
I see that Cefn Gwyn has been the main topic of this atricle. It was there that I began to notice and receive impressions. If I started to talk about Dyffryn as it was when I was a child and a boy, two editions of Meirionnydd would hardly have been enough room for me to elaborate!
Background and History Information E Morgan Humphreys
Edward Morgan Humphreys (14 May 1882 – 11 June 1955), was a journalist and novelist, a native of Dyffryn Ardudwy, Meirionnydd (Gwynedd). "Celt" was his best-known pen-name.
Career
In 1905, E. Morgan Humphreys joined the staff of "Y Genedl Gymreig" (The Welsh Nation) in Caernarfon and was appointed editor of the paper 4 years later. He also edited The North Wales Observer and "Y Goleuad" (The Light) and was a regular contributor as a columnist and reviewer to the Manchester Guardian and the Liverpool Daily Post under the pseudonym "Celt".
Literary Works
E. Morgan Humphreys devoted himself to writing adventure and detective novels suitable for young people in Wales and made a great contribution by filling that gap, as young people of that time, as today, tend to turn to English books. Though they were stories aimed at children in their teens, they are very readable and interesting for adults also.
He also wrote a book on the history of the Welsh press and two volumes of portraits of Welsh celebrities, along with a translation of Cwm Eithin, Hugh Evans' classic.
Books
For children and young people :
Dirgelwch yr Anialwch 1911 (The Mystery of the Desert )
Rhwng Rhyfeloedd 1924 (Between Wars)
Yr Etifedd Coll 1924 (The Lost Heir)
Y LLaw Gudd 1924 (The Hidden Hand)
Dirgelwch Gallt y Ffrwd 1938 (The Mystery of the Hill Stream)
Ceulan y Llyn Du 1944 (Black Lake Cave)
Llofrudd yn y Chwarel 1951 (Murder in the Quarry)
Others
Welsh Press 1945
The Gorse Glen 1948. Translation of 'Cwm Eithin' by Hugh Evans.
Formerly Famous Men 1950, 1953