A dissertation on the Welsh language, pointing out it's [sic] antiquity, copiousness, grammatical perfection, with remarks on it's [sic] poetry; and other articles not foreign to the subject

Cowbridge: for the author, by R. & D. Thomas, 1771. First edition of the first book printed in Glamorganshire, slim 8vo, 70pp., with the half-title, later cloth, unlabeled; dampstain pervades lower margin through first half, with minor loss of paper to the title and half-title. Walters' major work was the compilation of his English-Welsh dictionary (1770-94, issued in 18 parts), and it was in connection with this that the first printing press was established in Glamorgan. Rhys Thomas, his printer, removed to Cowbridge from Llandovery in Carmathan, in 1771 so that he could be within a few miles of the compiler. This dissertation was subsequently appended (truncated) to each edition of the dictionary which "even to the present day, is unrivaled for its excellence in the idiomatic renderings of sentences, and shows the compiler to have been a master of the idiom and phraseology of the Welsh language." The work, however, "proved a great financial loss to the author" (see DNB XX, 719). (Inventory #: 26045)