CHAPTER III.—Early Life.
RICHARD FOULKES EDWARDS (Risiart Ddu o Wynedd), was born Jan. 14, 1836, at Hendre, Llanfair, Dyffryn Clwyd, N.W., the sixth in a family of ten children. He came of a poetic ancestry through both his parents. Talhaiarn was a distant relative on the father's side, Caledfryn on the mother's. So the boy Richard became early imbued with a passion for poetry.
While Richard was still in his infancy, his father moved to Ty'n-.y-celyn, Bodfari, near Denbigh. On the Ty'n-y-celyn farm was a cottage called Hwlkin. This cottage he converted into a schoolroom for his children. At the village hotel boarded John Luthner Outlaw, the son of an English clergyman of the Established Church. Mr. O. had led an adventurous life, but had now retired to Wales, where he lived on the income of a legacy that had been left him. This Mr. O. was the man whom the father of R. P. E. hired to be the tutor of Hwlkin school. Years after, a pulpit and some seats were placed in this school-room, and the Congregationalists held services there. It was Hwlkin school during week days and Hwlkin chapel on Sundays. The rector of Bodfari, while going his rounds, would call at Hwlkin to have a chat with Mr. O., who was a member of his church. The rector, pointing to the pulpit, would jocosely ask "Which one of your pupils is going to fill that?" To which Mr. O. would unhesitatingly reply by pointing to R. P. Edwards. The rector's bantering elicited, in this case, a prophetic reply. As in boyhood, his one great hobby was to master the Pedwar
