C Y M R A E G

Walter Davies (1761-1849)


Walter Davies (Gwallter Mechain)

Walter Davies (Gwallter Mechain)

In choosing his bardic name, Gwallter Mechain, the priest, poet and antiquary Walter Davies paid tribute to his native Llanfechain, Montgomeryshire. He was educated at St. Alban's Hall, Oxford. Ordained in 1795, he spent most his ecclesiastical career as vicar of Manafon (1807-1837), and then of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant. He is renowned as one of the 'Old Literary Parsons' (yr Hen Bersoniaid Llengar) and a keen supporter of the eisteddfod and Gorsedd. One of the founders of the magazine Y Gwyliedydd (1822-38), he published the poetical works of Huw Morys and Lewys Glyn Cothi, as well as Salmau Dafydd (1827) by William Midleton and two volumes of A Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1833) by Samuel Lewis.

Walter Davies's relationship with Iolo is interesting on several counts. Firstly, at the request of the Board of Agriculture, he wrote a survey of the economic situation of north Wales (1810) and south Wales (1815). Iolo collaborated with him on this project and the extent to which he relied on Iolo's researches is clear in the completed volume, A General View of the Agriculture and Domestic Economy of South Wales (2 vols., London, 1815). Secondly, Walter Davies was a fervent member of the Gorsedd and his attempts to promote it within the Regional Eisteddfod movement ensured that the Gorsedd, after Iolo's days, grew into a truly national institution. Finally, he knew Iolo well enough to know how to handle him. For example, he suspected that the bardic alphabet (Coelbren y Beirdd) was a fabrication, but he expressed his views with subtlety and tact (NLW 21280E, Letter 72, Walter Davies to Iolo Morganwg, 16 May 1793). Further proof that Walter Davies had got the measure of Iolo is that he was one of a few people to maintain an uninterrupted friendship with him.
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