AUGUSTUS
,
WILLIAM
(‘
Wil Awst
’),
a prescientific weather forecaster and translator
.
He lived at
Cil-y-cwm
, near
Llandovery, Carms.
, at the
close of the 18th cent.
The precise dates of his life are unknown, but he was living in
1794
when
John
Ross
of
Carmarthen
printed
The Husbandman's Perpetual Prognostication
. This work is a curious collection of weather lore written partly in
Welsh
and partly in
English
. The source of the
Welsh
portion (which is largely a translation of a well-known
English
text) is acknowledged by
Augustus
at the close of the section in the following terms:
‘Rhai o'r pethau hyn a argraphwyd yn Saesneg ac a gyhoeddwyd yn gyffredinol mewn llyfyr a elwir “
A Prognostication for ever made by Erra Pater
”.’
Apart from this publication we know little of
Augustus
except the great reputation which he possessed locally for his
ability to forecast (within the hour, it is said) the onset of rain, frost, gales, or thunderstorms
.
William
Augustus
would appear to be in the succession of the ancient
Greek
meteorologists
, and, as the title of his work indicates, he writes (as they did) primarily for the
husbandman
, who from primitive times belonged to the class most likely to be directly concerned with
weather prognostication
.
Bibliography:
-
W. Rowlands
,
Cambrian Bibliography
, Llanidloes, 1869
, 689-90;
-
Rhestr gyda nodiadau byrion, o Enwogion
Cymreig o 1700 i 1900
. National Eisteddfod
Association, 1908
;
-
J. H. Davies
,
Rhai o hen ddewiniaid Cymru
, 1901
.
Author:
Professor Emrys George Bowen, M.A., F.S.A., (1900-83), Aberystwyth
