An Interview With Helen Forder, Author of ''High Hats And Harps''
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"According to some, Lady Llanover was the best friend Wales ever had!"
AmeriCymru spoke to Helen Forder, author of ''High Hats And Harps'', a new book on the life and times of Lady Llanover, a 19th century champion of the Welsh harp and Welsh culture in general.
Buy ''High Hats And Harps'' here
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AmeriCymru: Hi Helen and many thanks for your recent book ''High Hats And Harps''. Care to introduce the subject of the book, Lady Llanover, for our readers?
Helen: According to some, Lady Llanover was the best friend Wales ever had! She was born Augusta Waddington, 6th and last child, all daughters, of Benjamin Waddington and Georgina Mary Anne (née Port). Although English, Benjamin and Georgina had come to live in Wales (Llanover, near Abergavenny, MON.) where Augusta was born on 21st March 1802. Only two of her sisters, Frances and Emilia, had survived beyond infancy, and Emilia later died a young woman, not long after she had married. By this time Frances had married and moved abroad, leaving only Augusta living with her parents.
In 1823 Augusta married Benjamin Hall (III), the son of a family living at nearby Abercarn. They were devoted to each other and shared a love of Wales, its people and its traditions. Throughout their lives they used their position and wealth to champion Welsh culture.
Their social status rose gradually, Benjamin being created a baronet in 1838, and then raised to the peerage in 1859, becoming Lord Llanover of Llanover and Abercarn.
Sadly, Benjamin died in 1867, but Augusta continued the campaign to preserve the Welsh culture and traditions throughout the long years of widowhood. She died in 1896, in her 94th year.
AmeriCymru: You have a family connection with Lady Llanover. Can you tell us more?
Helen: Although unknown to many, Lady Llanover’s name has been familiar to me all my life thanks to my mother’s stories of her mother and grandfather. Her mother, Elizabeth Ann Williams, Nanny to us, was a member of Lady Llanover’s band of harpists and Mum would show us a photograph of Nanny, sitting at her triple harp while telling us of the time she won ‘the eisteddfod’ playing the instrument. Her grandfather was Lady Llanover’s under-agent.
AmeriCymru: How important was Lady Llanover''s contribution to the preservation and popularisation of the Welsh harp?
Helen: Lady Llanover learned to play the harp, having lessons from Elias Parish-Alvars, but it is thought that her interest in the ‘Welsh’ triple-stringed harp was aroused in 1826 when she attended the Brecon Eisteddfod where she heard John Jones play the instrument so beautifully. Later, John Jones became the Llanover family harper, after the building of Llys Llanover was completed. The position of family harper was maintained for the rest of Lady Llanover’s life.
AmeriCymru: Lady Llanover was often in dispute with another well known harpist from the period, John Thomas. Care to elaborate?
Helen: At the age of twelve John Thomas won the chief prize of a triple harp at the Abergavenny Eisteddfod of 1838. He attracted the attention of Lady Ada Lovelace, Byron’s daughter, who helped him financially to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he more or less abandoned the triple harp, which was played on the left shoulder and, changing shoulders, he learned to play the pedal harp, which is played on the right. A very able student, John found fame at home and abroad with his playing and his compositions. Lady Llanover encouraged him, but when she began her campaign to save the triple harp, he found he could not support her wholeheartedly, as he saw the benefits of the pedal harp and the limitations of the triple.
Lady Llanover was angry with him, seemingly offended that he did not share her enthusiasm for promoting the triple harp, but he regretted the tension between them, saying that this had risen mainly from his ‘inability to view matters connected with [his] artistic pursuits in the same light as herself.’ However, he never forgot her kindness towards him at the start of his career.
Undoubtedly their relationship became strained, but in her nineties Lady Llanover, while in London, attended a Welsh concert arranged by John Thomas, when ‘twenty harps played by ladies in white’ were heard. Doubtless they were pedal harps. Perhaps more has been made of their ‘bitter quarrel’ than was true!
John Thomas had not completely abandoned the triple harp. At the Swansea Eisteddfod of 1863 it was announced that he had secured sufficient money from people such as Lady Llanover, Maria Jane Williams and the Dowager Duchess of Dunraven to establish a triple harp scholarship for ten- to eighteen-year-olds.
AmeriCymru: What was her greatest achievement and what in your opinion can we learn from Lady Llanover''s example?
Helen: Some years ago one might have been justified in thinking that in spite of her life-long efforts Lady Llanover had fought a losing battle. When I was a schoolgirl our music teacher told me there was no such instrument as a triple harp! I knew there was – we had a photograph of ‘Nanny’ with hers, but one did not argue with teachers in those days!
In spite of my grandmother having spent some years, from the age of twelve, living under the ‘Llanover influence’ I never heard her speak Welsh, although Welsh was her family’s first language; and although my mother was brought up as a Welsh speaker she never spoke to us in the language, and we children were actively discouraged from taking Welsh lessons in school. At least she kept the name Lady Llanover and knowledge of the triple harp alive with her stories of her mother and her grandfather and their time at Llanover.
As far as the women are concerned, Lady Llanover did not ‘invent’ the Welsh costume, as many people think, but she did create a Llanover ‘livery’, which is what today’s national costume seems to be based upon. While picturesque, the Welsh costume is not practical today, so it is hardly surprising that it is only worn at eisteddfodau and other Welsh cultural events. However, when it comes to the costume for men, one only has to look at what her family harpers had to wear to realise that costume design was not one of her talents!
Welsh folk dances, however, continue today, with Folk Dance Societies keeping some of the old dances, which were danced at Llanover, alive, for example, Rhif Wyth and the Llanover Reel.
One has the impression here in Wales that there is a resurgence of interest in Welsh culture. Many people are attending language classes, and the harp is a very popular instrument. Thanks to people like Llio Rhydderch ( www.lliorhydderch.com ) and Robin Huw Bowen ( www.teires.com ) the triple harp is alive and well! The first triple harp ‘choir’ since 1913 was formed a few years ago, and they have produced a wonderful CD of toe-tapping music. Consisting of five fine triple harpers, they are carrying on the tradition.
So, in spite of many years in the wilderness, Lady Llanover’s efforts seem to be bearing fruit. Long may it continue. Oes y byd i’r iaith Gymraeg.
AmeriCymru: Whats next for Helen Forder?
Helen: What Next? My website - http://augustaladyllanover.coffeecup.com – is very much in need of updating, so I must spend time on that! Also, I have two harps, a guitar, a piano and a recorder, all rarely played! It is time I settled down to some serious practice. Maybe I will begin again with the harp, not a Welsh triple-stringed harp I am sorry to say, but I know many Welsh tunes to practise.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Helen: Lady Llanover’s mother had been brought up by her great-aunt, Mrs Patrick Delany, who had said, ‘I like, and love, and dislike with all my might’. Georgina exhorted her daughters, ‘Whatever you do, do it with all your might’. This was what Lady Llanover did.
To all my Americymru friends who are trying to learn the old language, ‘Daliwch ati’. – keep at it. The language is well worth saving from extinction, as is the triple harp, and other aspects of Welsh culture.
