Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4.1 Edward Lhwyd
(1660-1709) (from R. M. Owens,
Trilobites in Wales (Cardiff:
National Museum of Wales,
1984), p. 4). Courtesy of the
National Museums and
Galleries of Wales.
on Parks Road. There, through the rather unassuming front door, can
be found the remains of the geological collections of Edward Lhwyd
(Figure
4.1
), fossils that he illustrated in a now classic pocket-sized
topic published in 1699 (see Figure
4.2
).
Edward Lhwyd, whose name has been spelt in a numbing variety
of ways: Floyd, Lloyd, Llhwyd, Lhuyd, Llwyd, Luid, Fluid, or in Latin,
Luidius (he signed himself as 'Lhwyd' in correspondence, so that is the
form used here) was a man of numerous interests - natural history,
Celtic philology, antiquities, to name but three - who travelled widely
in Britain and Ireland at a time when such trips must have been both
time-consuming and arduous. Born at Glan Ffraid (or Llanvorda) near
Oswestry in Shropshire in 1660, he spent much of his childhood living
on his father's estate nearby. His father Edward Lloyd was unfortunate
in being a Royalist at the time of the Cromwellian disputes, and
consequently lost much of his estate, becoming destitute. His mother,
Bridget Pryse of Gogerddan in Cardiganshire, with whose family he
frequently spent his holidays, had the stigma of bearing Edward as an
illegitimate child. Edward senior died young, and it is all the more
