Description
[004683] Davies, Rev. Richard. Sermons &c. by the Rev. Richard Davies, A. M. Archdeacon and Vicar of Brecon, Addressed to the Inhabitants of the Parishes of Saint John the Evangelist, and Saint Mary, in Brecon. Brecon: Henry Hughes, 1815. First Thus. 8vo. Hardback. Fair. [3], iv-ix, [9], 3-463pp with four proforma report forms (including two folding, for the Brecon Benevolent School)
Original boards, lacking back strip and any covering, boards just hanging on to cords, title detached, tear to 2E4 catching text but with no loss, several pages opened a little roughly with a few nicks and tears, many pages unopened at head, title lightly damp stained, occasional light browning, but generally clean. One form frayed to top edge, another laid in loosely. Now housed in a cloth drop back box, with the title lettered in gilt
An interesting collection of sermons and reports, dated variously between 1801 and 1815, including an Account of the First Establishment of the Benevolent Schools Founded at Brecon in Honour of the Commencement of the 50th Year of His Majesty’s Reign. There is a long list of subscribers to the fund “for building a schoolroom”, details of payments into “a permanent fund for the use of this society”, a report on the progress of the boy’s school, 1811-1814, stating that during that period 172 boys had been admitted (and that 10 had been expelled). A similar report on the girl’s school recorded that 163 girls had been admitted. There is a lot of information about the school (of which Davies was the treasurer) and the philosophy behind it. In his Observations on the New School, Davies compares the “systems of education” of Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster and concludes that “as to the outfit of the school”, the “system of Mr. Lancaster … was greatly more applicable to the purposes and finances of a charity school than that of Dr. Bell, from the single circumstance of its not requiring a continued purchase of books” (page 69)
See Libri Walliae 1596 (this being a reissue of Libri Walliae 1594, printed in the same year, with additional material [ie. over twice the number of pages])
