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Camden News - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 19 February 2009

Dannie Abse

Welsh bard of 1700s to be honoured

PRIMROSE Hill’s little-known links to Welsh history are due to come to life after the Royal Parks gave permission this week for a memorial to the Romantic poet Edward Williams.
Known in Welsh as Iolo Morganw, he organised the first meeting of the “Gorsedd of the bards of the Isles of Britain” – an 18th-century poetry event – on the slopes of the Hill on summer solstice in 1792.
Welsh poet Dannie Abse, who lives in Hampstead and has written lines honouring the bard, welcomed the plan. He said: “He is very important in terms of Welsh poetry and Welsh nationalism. He is also considered to be the patron saint of Druidism.
“He is a terrific character – he was a bit of a rogue. He forged poems and passed them off as being by others, and spent some time in Cardiff gaol.”
The memorial will be designed by Welsh artist John Meirion Morris and set into the ground near the summit of the hill. He has designed a frieze in bronze with an image of the poet set into Welsh slate and then laid into Anglesey marble which Morganw, who was also a stonemason, had claimed was his favourite material. The Welsh Assembly is due to approve the design in March.
Primrose Hill has extra resonance for those interested in Welsh history: Welsh myth says it is a burial mound for a giant from ancient Celtic mythology called Bendigeidfian.

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