Literature history Essay

Wales is one of the most attractive tourism centres in the United Kingdom. The lush green countryside, the hills and the meadows, peaceful towns and neighbourhoods, more over the Welsh language are the important attracting features of this region. The Welsh language quite distinguished from the English language is very intriguing for the tourists. They feel strange to find such a fairytale language spoken in the homeland of English, though it is because of the common misconception that English is the native language of the entire British Isles. The Welsh people are a Celtic people who were predominant in the region before the Anglo-Saxon invasion. So there language and culture is quite different from the Anglo-Saxon language and culture. Many Welsh language adhering families through out the history have preserved Welsh literature. Recently a large and valuable collection of Welsh books has been disclosed for the first time for the public. The Myddleton family, which lived in the Chirk Castle, near Wrexham, had a large collection of Welsh books held away from the public eyes for centuries. The collection, which originally constituted 3,000 books currently, has 1827 books. The Chirk Castle has been opened for tourists for more than 30 years but these books were located in the private East wing of the castle. In the year 2004 the Myddleton family left the castle and the East wing of the castle was opened for the public for the first time thus making the book collection also public. One of the most remarkable books in the collection is a miniaturised copy of the first Welsh translation of the Bible. This book according to the historians has played a pivotal role in preserving the Welsh language throughout the centuries of English dominion. The books in the collection are dated back as far as early 16th Century. Many books have been well preserved and have their original bindings. The National Trust has started a campaign to show and interpret these books to tourist visiting the Chirk Castle and other stately tourist attraction. The trust hopes that this campaign will turn these valuable books into a constant tourist attraction.