gth the celebrated Lewis Morris chancing to be at
Llanfair, became acquainted with the boy, and, struck with its
natural talents, determined that he should have all the benefit which
education could bestow. He accordingly, at his own expense, sent him
to school at Beaumaris, where he displayed a remarkable aptitude for
the acquisition of learning. He subsequently sent him to Jesus
College, Oxford, and supported him there whilst studying for the
Church. At Jesus, Gronwy distinguished himself as a Greek and Latin
scholar, and gave proofs of such poetical talent in his native
language that he was looked upon by his countrymen of that Welsh
college as the rising bard of the age. After completing his
collegiate course, he returned to Wales, where he was ordained a
minster of the Church in the year 1745. The next seven years of his
life were a series of cruel disappointments and pecuniary
embarrassments. The grand wish of his heart was to obtain a curacy,
and to settle down in Wales. Certainly a very reasonable wish, for,
to say nothing of his being a great genius, he was eloquent, highly
learned, modest, meek, and of irreproachable morals; yet Gronwy Owen
could obtain no Welsh curacy, nor could his friend Lewis Morris,
though he exerted himself to the utmost, procure one for him. It was
true that he was told that he might go to Llanfair, his native place,
and officiate there at a time when the curacy happened to be vacant,
and thither he went, glad at heart to get back amongst his old
friends, who enthusiastically welcomed him; yet scarcely had he been
there three weeks when he received notice from the chaplain of the
Bishop of Bangor that he must vacate Llanfair in order to make room
for a Mr. John Ellis, a young clergyman of large independent fortune,
who was wishing for a curacy under the Bishop of Bangor, Doctor
Hutton. So poor Gronwy, the eloquent, the learned, the meek, was
obliged to vacate the pulpit of his native place to make room for the
rich young clergyman, who wished to be within dining distance of the
palace of Bangor. Truly in this world the full shall be crammed, and
those who have little shall have the little which they have taken
away from them. Unable to obtain employment in Wales, Gronwy sought
for it in England, and after some time procured the curacy of
Os