Sir Oxford March 6 1777

I received the Books on Tuesday Morning very safe, and your Letter in the Evening, for which I beg you will accept my most sincere Thanks. The Book that accompanied the MS, is highly acceptable to me, as there are in it some particulars relating to the most obscure Musick in the whole M.S., namely "the 24 Accompanyments of vocal Song". It is not clear that the manuscript under discussion here can be identified as the . John Jones's reference to the pitch range of the manuscript in question later in this paragraph can be compared with his discussion of this issue in relation to the ap Huw manuscript in a letter of 17 November 1770 to Richard Morris, a comparison which reveals that the range detected is not identical in both cases. It is notable too that, whilst Jones appears sanguine about the prospect of interpreting the manuscript discussed in this letter, his remarks on the ap Huw manuscript on 23 April 1777, 1427, contrastingly, suggest the difficulty involved in 'Decyphering' it. See Hugh Owen (ed.), Additional letters of the Morrises of Anglesey (1735–1786), 2 vols. (London: The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1949), II, pp. 775–7. On the identity of the book mentioned, note that several items relating to the history of bards and musicians are mentioned in further correspondence between John Jones and Pennant. See for example 1425 and 1427. I flatter myself that I shall be able to make out the whole of it in Time, having already conquered what appear to me to be the greatest Difficulties. I find to my great Surprise that some of the Strains in the MS run uncommonly high. One in particular goes frequently up to the highest F upon the modern Harpsichords, and sometimes to G. above it; but I have not found any Bass lower than CC below Gamut. –

The Commission issued for a Congress to be held at Cairus (Caerwys) is printed at large in the Appendix to Dr Brown's ,See John Brown, A dissertation on the rise, union, and power, the progressions, separations and corruptions of poetry and music (London, 1763), pp. 243–6. Pennant reproduces the Commission in A tour in Wales 1770 [1773] (2nd edn., 1784), I, pp. 464–7. For a digital image of the document, held at Mostyn Hall, Flintshire, see here [accessed 13 September 2019]. but I never could find the Names of the Persons on whom Degrees were conferred, before, either in Print or M.S, which determined me to take the Liberty to send them to you.This suggests that a list of the graduates of the 1567/8 Caerwys eisteddfod may have been sent as an enclosure with this letter. Pennant included their names in A tour in Wales 1770 [1773] (2nd edn., 1784), I, pp. 467–70. I am with the greatest Respect

Sir your much obliged humble Servant Jno Jones