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WALES AND THE WELSH
QUIZ |
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The answers can be found at the bottom of this page.
QUESTIONS
1. Which country calls Wales 'the Land of Gentle Folk' ?
2. Who was the Welshman that Shakespeare called 'not in the role of common men'?
3. Which person 'brought English cooking into the twentieth century' ?
4. Where is the oldest narrow-gauge railway in the world ?
5. In 1998, what three men were voted the most sexy rock musicians in the world by readers
of the Melody Maker ?
6. Who was Italy's 'Player of the Year' in soccer in 1958 ?
7. In 1998, which building was voted Wales' favorite historic house ? (-in the NPI
National Heritage Awards).
8. What, according to the 'Guinness Book of Records', is the world's oldest company ?
9. Who and what inspired the formation of The Bible Society ?
10. What is the link between the world's highest mountain and Wales ?
11. Which Welsh cathedrals predate those of Canterbury, Winchester and Westminster ?
12. Who was called 'the modern world's first Socialist ?'
13. Where is the world's largest camera obscura ?
14. What is the link between Wales and the Boston Tea Party that sparked the American War
of Independence ?
15. Which American-Welshman revolutionised cinema techniques ?
16. What is the link between the 'mini-skirt' of the 'Swinging Sixties' and Wales ?
17. What is the origin of the 'V'-sign ?
18. Who gave the world the Peace Union, the precursor of the United
Nations ?
19. What is the 'Iron Ring' ?
20. Who was the most famous buccaneer in history ?
21. What legal precedent did he set ?
22. Who first wrote the phrase 'for whom the bell tolls' ?
23. Since 1787, Wales has had the largest 'Orangery' in the world - where is it ?
24. Where was the world's largest nickel works ?
25. What are the Welsh links with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ?
26. Wales had the world's largest copper mine. Where ?
27. Who invented the 'pi' sign, and in which century ?
28. Who invented the = sign, and in which century ?
29. Where was the very first game of lawn tennis ?
30. Who founded 'classical English' architecture ?
31. Who was football's first 'superstar' and oldest international player ?
32. Where in Wales is New Year's Day still celebrated in the middle of January ?
33. Wales had 'one of the greates shrines in Christendom'. Where ?
34. Why are St. David's and Santiago de Compostela comparable ?
35. The world's first passenger railway ran in 1807. Where ?
36. What is the common denominator in Wales, amongst snakes, ants, cattle, pigs, sheep and
horses ?
37. Who pioneered cremation in Europe ?
38. What is the link between Wales and Dr. Livingstone ?
39. Who influenced Marx, Engels and world history ?
40. Adolf Hitler said that one man was responsible for Germany losing the First World War.
Who ?
41. Which place has claims to the oldest university in Europe ?
42. What is the link between American whiskey production and Wales ?
43. What is the link between Wales and the American Declaration of Independence ?
44. Who was the most important Welsh figure in the American Civil War ?
45. In the second century, Wales had 'the most technologically advanced mining site in
Europe.' Where ?
46. Whyich Welshmen invented 'the Carnegie Process' ?
47. The most successful pirate in history, and most famous, was John Roberts from
Pembrokeshire. How is he more familiarly known ?
48. Which man, proud of his Welsh descent was possibly the leading architect of the 20th
century ?
49. Who designed Lady Diana Spencer.s wedding dress ?
50. Wales once had the highest literacy rate in the world - in chich decade ?
51. Who is Wales' only Nobel prize winner ?
52. The dark age illuminated gospel known as 'the book of St Chad' is in Lichfield
cathedral - what is its connection with Wales ?
53. There are two or three other contenders for the oldest living language in Europe,
besides welsh. Can you name one of them ?
54. Where are ?
a. mor hafren
b. pengwern
c. llanandras
d. treffynnon
e. ynys enlli
f. llanbedr-pont-steffan
g. llanymddyfri
h. ynys byr
i. ynys dewi
j. llanfair-ym-muallt
55. In the 19th century, welsh miners preferred to buy Caerffili cheese at 7 pence a
pound, rather than American cheese at 3 pence a pound. Why ?
56. What is legend court ?
57. Rhymney breweries (with its famous hobby-horse logo) and evan evans bevan of Neath
were taken over by Whitbread in successive years. When ?
58. What is skull attack ?
59. What is the link between the group 'soft machine' and the classical music hit
'Adiemus' ?
60. There are many descendants of the original welsh settlers in Patagonia. Name three of
the most common five welsh surnames in the telephone directory of gaiman, trelew and port
madryn.
61. What has been voted Wales' favourite historic house ?
62. In 1850, Ferdinand Walter of Bonn wrote 'from this point of view, the welsh
outdistance all other people in the middle ages ... In Wales justice and right blossomed,
founded on - - - - -, into a perfection of beauty unlike anything found among other people
in the middle ages.' fill in the blanks.
63. Who won plaid Cymru's first parliamentary seat, where and when ?
64. The longest river in Britain is the Severn. Roughly how long ?
65. W. H. Auden called 'the anathemata ' 'very probably the finest long poem written in
this century'. T. S. Eliot placed him in the same literary category as Eliot, w. B. Yeats
and ezra pound.
66. Which war correspondent, and regular at Haverfordwest's county hotel, was the first to
land on the invasion beaches of Normandy ?
67. Which chancellor of the exchequer introduced national health insurance and old age
pensions ?
68. Where were the following roman sites ?
A. bovium
B. alabum
C. luentinum
D. moridunum
E. isca silurum
F. gobannium
G. nidum
H. blestium
I. venta silurum
J. mediomanum
69. Where is Wales' last working windmill ?
70. Which welsh poet was nominated for the Nobel prize ?
71. What is the second verse of
'taffy was a Welshman
taffy was a thief
taffy came to our house
and stole a leg of beef' ?
72. Who said 'no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical and social seduction, can
eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the tory party... So far as I am
concerned they are lower than vermin'.
73. Owain ap gruffydd ap gwenwynwyn was created a baron by Edward I, and allowed to keep
his lands on condition that he changed his name from a welsh one. What was this welsh
prince of Powys then called ?
74. In 1919, the 'Peterloo massacre' of Manchester weavers hit the headlines and made the
history books. In 1831, there were far more serious disturbances with over twenty welsh
protesters killed, which received little publicity. Where ?
75. Where was the first official visit by the queen to be officially cancelled following
police advice ?
76. 'King john' was born at Manselton, Swansea. Who is he ?
77. Which one-legged tramp wrote:
'What is this life if, full of care,
We have no need to stand and stare ?
78. Name the 'seven wonders of Wales'
79. Where was the world's oldest passenger railway, ripped up in 1960 after being bought
up by a competitor ?
80. Where is the world's oldest narrow gauge railway ?
81. Which are the four oldest cathedrals in Britain ?
82. Which famous Welshman was selected as the 'most promising athlete' by the welsh games
committee in 1964, had a final trial for the welsh youth soccer team, but captained his
country in another sport ?
83. What is the maximum height of the Severn bore ?
84. What superb, but sadly neglected poet, who was admired by T. S. Eliot, wrote these
lines ?
'oh what can you give me ?
say the sad bells of Rhymney'
85. The name of the famous welsh singer once married to Roger Moore ?
86. When was plaid Cymru founded ?
87. Who was 'the most original thinker born in Wales' ? He died in 1791, and this
statistician, preacher and philosopher influenced the American revolution and was
officially mourned in France.
88. Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones radically altered the nature of shopping in 1861. How ?
89. In the 18th century, sir John Pryce used to sleep between the embalmed bodies of his
first two wives. Where did he live ?
90. Which Welshman became junior Wimbledon tennis champion, and later a first class squash
player. He made a record number of appearances for his country in another sport.
91. Name the original 'thirteen counties'
92. What has been called 'the most striking man-made boundary in the whole of western
Europe' ?
93. In what decade did the principal garter king of arms state that Wales could never have
a national flag because 'it had never been a kingdom' ?
94. What was the first piece of land in Britain to be declared 'an area of outstanding
national beauty' ?
95. In the prestigious 'q' awards of November 1998, which was 'the best band in the world'
?
96. Pastor Jack Stahl of Sacramento has been voted America's strangest man. He said 'i
believe - - is a god and i worship him. Seeing him in concert is a very spiritual
experience.' fill in the blanks.
97. Cnapan, played by up to 1500 naked men, is the spiritual ancestor to which sport ?
98. The first recorded locomotive that ran, drew wagons with men at Penydarren, 21 years
before George Stephenson's locomotion. Who designed it, and in what year ?
99. Pistyll Rhaeadr in the Berwyn hills is the highest waterfall in England and Wales -
how high ?
100. What is the connection of William Wallace -'Braveheart' with Wales ?
ANSWERS
1. Japan.
2. Owain Glyndwr, in 'Henry IV Part 1'.
3. Elizabeth David, born Elizabeth Gwynne (1919-1992).
4. The Ffestiniog Railway, running from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog, on a 23.5 inch
gauge.
5. Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers was followed by Kelly Jones of the
Stereophonics and James Dean Bradfield of the Manics.
6. The great John Charles from Swansea, when playing for Juventus, where he scored 93
goals in 155 games, winning 3 championship and two cup-winners cup medals. His statue
stands outside the ground, and he is still a legend in Italy.
7. Powis Castle, home of the family of Gwenwynwyn, the Princes of Powys. They were forced
to change their name to 'de la Pole' by Edward I in order to keep their lands.
8. The Royal Mint.
9. Mary Jones from Llanfihangel-y-Pennant walked barefoot over the mountains to Bala, in
1800, to buy a Welsh Bible, using all her savings. This inspired the foundation of The
Bible Society, and its London headquarters still displays her Bible.
10. George Everest from Crickhowell, after whom Mount Everest was named, was India's
Surveyor-General.
11. St David's, Llandaf, St Asaf and Bangor - Christianity was not wiped out in Wales when
the Romans left, unlike England which was pagan for centuries.
12. Robert Owen of Newtown.
13. At Aberystwyth, overlooking 26 mountain peaks and 1000 square miles of sea and
landscapes.
14. Samuel Adams (1722-1803) was Welsh, and the second cousin of John Adams, the second
president of the USA. He organised the opposition of the colonists to the hated Stamp Act
in 1765, and instigated the Boston Tea party in 1773, starting the War of Independence.
The famous Samuel Adams Boston beer is named after him, and he was the first man to call
England 'a nation of shopkeepers'.
15. David Llywelyn Wark Griffith - D.W. Griffith innovated fade-in, fade-out, close-up and
flash-back techniques in his epic films 'The Birth of a Nation' (1915) and Intolerance
(1916).
16. The designer and innovator Mary Quant is Welsh.
17. The Welsh archers who won the battles of Agincourt, Crecy and Poitiers were hated by
the French, and if caught, the two first fingers of their 'draw' hand were cut off, to
prevent them ever using a longbow again. As a result, they used to gesticulate to the
French, waving their two fingers at anyone they captured.
18. Several Welshmen were involved. Joseph Price (who tried to save Dic Penderyn from
hanging) founded it, and its first secretary was Evan Rees, the author of 'Sketches of the
Horrors of War'. It is most associated with the pacifist Henry Richard of Tregaron, 'The
Apostle of Peace'.
19. The World Heritage Site of Edwardian Castles in North Wales built to encircle and cut
off Gwynedd. Designated sites are Conwy, Caernarfon, Beaumaris and Harlech, plus the town
walls of Conwy and Caernarfon.
20. Captain Henry Morgan, later Admiral and Governor of Jamaica.
21. He conducted the first recorded libel case, objecting to passages in Esquemeling's
book on privateers. (see 'The Book of Welsh Pirates' - T.D. Breverton, published by
Christopher Davies, June 1999).
22. John Donne (1571-1631) was of Welsh origin - his 'Meditation' XVII reads 'No man is an
Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a
clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell
tolls; it tolls for thee.'
23. At Margam Abbey, 330 feet long.
24. Swansea, in the mid 18th century.
25. They lived amongst the Welsh settlers, breeding horses in Patagonia. They escaped over
the border to Chile from Sheriff Perry of Pinkertons in 1907.
26. Parys Mountain, in Anglesey, from 1758 onwards.
27. William Jones of Anglesey in 1706.
28. Robert Recorde of Tenby in 1550.
29. In 1873 at Nantclwyd Hall, Llanelidan, the game was first played, patented under the
name 'sphairistike'.
30. Inigo Jones.
31. Billy Meredith from Chirk played for Manchester City and Manchester United, and was
football's first media personality with personal appearances and product endorsements, in
any country. In 1920, he played against England aged almost 46. On the right wing, he
still scored nearly 500 goals in his career.
32. The Gwaun Valley, near Fishguard.
33. St Winifred's Well at Holywell has been a centre of pilgrimage since the 7th century.
known as the 'Lourdes of Wales' the superb renaissance building was not vandalised in the
Reformation, and Richard I and Henry V were patrons who visited the well. James II went
there to pray for a son and heir.
34. In 1120, Pope Callixtus II decreed that two visits to St Davids or Santiago equalled
one to Rome, and three visits equalled a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
35. From 1807, the Mumbles Railway ran until 1960 when it was bought by a competin local
bus company.
36. There is a Welsh Black Mountain Sheep, to fit with our famous ancient (pre-Roman)
Welsh Black Cattle. The Welsh Black pig could be the most ancient breed in the world.
There is also a Black Bog Ant found in Dyfed, and the unique British Black Adder, only
found in Tregaron Bog.
37. Dr William Price of Llantrisant cremated his son Iesu Grist in 1884, paving the way
for legalised cremation after a sensational court case. His own death in 1893 was the
occasion of the first legal cremation in Europe. He sold tickets for it, and the pubs ran
dry.
38. Henry Morton Stanley, of 'Dr Livingstone, I presume' fame, was born in Denbigh, the
illegitimate son of John Rowlands and Elizabeth Parry. From an upbringing in St. Asaph
workhouse, he carved out a huge colony in Africa for his friend King Leopold of Belgium.
39. Robert Owen of Newton (again).
40. David Lloyd-George.
41.Llanilltud Fawr, Llantwit Mahor (-see 'The Book of Welsh Saints', T.D. Breverton,
published March 1st, 1999).
42. The Jack Daniels distillery was started around 1820 by Cardiganshire emigrants using
local recipes, and a descendant, Lem Motlow, still controls the company. Southern Comfort
is based on an old Welsh liqueur, and the first whiskey distillery in the USA in 1740 was
that of Evan Williams from Dale. It was set up in Bardstown, Kentucky (named after the
origin of Welsh whiskey production, Bardsey Island), and still sells 2 million cases a
year.
43. Thomas Jefferson wrote it, and was the Welsh third President of the USA. It was based
on the work of another Welshman, Cr Richard Price, who wrote 'Observations on the Nature
of Civil Liberty'.
44. Jefferson Davis was named after Thomas Jefferson. A war hero, then Secretary of War,
he became leader of the Southern Democrats and led their secession from the Union. He was
President of the Confederate States for the bitter Civil War of 1861-65.
45. Dolaucothi near Pumsaint, where Roman slaves mined ahundredweight of pure gold each
week to fed the Imperial Mint in Lyons.
46. On the Forge site at Blaenafon, Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and his nephew Percy Carlyle
Gilchrist, developed a new process of steel production in 1878. Their patent
revolutionised steel production, and it was sold to andrew Carnegie, who gave his name to
the process.
47. 'Black Bart' was responsible for the capture of around 400 ships between 1718 and
1722, and almost brought transatlantic trade to a stan-still. 'Newsweek' called him 'the
last and most lethal pirate'.
48. Frank Lloyd Wright called his homes Taliesin, and Taliesin West.
49. David and Elizabeth Emmanuel.
50. 1750, because of Griffith Jones' 'circulation schools' that started in 1737. By 1757,
it was estimated that 150,000 out of a population of 450,000 had learned to read. Despite
the grinding poverty of Wales, no other European country appears to have approached this
level of learning.
51. Brian Josephson, the Cardiff physicist.
52. Formerly kept in Landeilo Fawr, it was later stolen from Llandaff Cathedral.
53. Basque, Hungarian and Finnish.
54. a Severn Sea/Bristol Channel
b Shrewsbury - the former capital of Powys
c Presteigne
d Holywell
e Bardsey Island
f Lampeter
g Landovery
h Caldey Island
i Ramsey Island
j Builth Wells
55. Because it had a high salt content to replace what they sweated underground.
56. A proposed new half-billion pound theme park at Pencoed Castle, near Magor in
Monmouth, covering 1000 acres.
57. 1966 and 1967. Their excellent beers vanished, to be replaced by a heavily advertised
low-alcohol chemical called 'Welsh Bitter'. The author is one former Rhymney drinker who
is Welsh and still 'bitter' about the takeover.
58. Brains S.A., beloved by Cardiffians, extremely easy to drink in large quantities by
the unwary.
59. Penclawdd's Karl Jenkins was in the group, and wrote 'Adiemus'.
60. There are 108 Jones, 85 Williams, 42 Pugh, 40 Roberts, 38 Hughes (followed in order by
Thomas, Evans, Owen, Lloyd, Lewis , Price, Griffiths and Davies.
61. Powys Castle near Welshpool, followed by Erddig Hall near Wrexham and Penrhyn castle
in Bangor.
62. The Laws of Hywel Dda.
63. Gwynfor Evans, Carmarthen, 1966.
64. 220 miles.
65. The wonderful painter-poet, David Jones.
66. Wynford Vaughan-Thomas
67. David Lloyd George in 1908 and 1911 respectively.
68. a Holt in Clwyd, plus either Cowbridge or Boverton in
Glamorgan
b Landovery
c Dolaucothi Gold Mines
d Carmarthen
e Caerleon
f Abergavenny
g Neath
h Monmouth
i Caerwent
j Caersws
69. At Melyn Llynnon, near Llanddeusaint in Anglesey, with working machinery on four
storeys, it dayes from 1775.
70. R. S. Thomas
71. 'I went to Taffy's house
And found him in bed
I took a big cudgel
And hit him on the head'
- this dates from the days when the English were legally entitled to kill Welshmen and
burn their houses down.
72. Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan, who launched the National Health Service in Britain, based on
Tredegar's Workmen's Medical Aid Association.
73. Baron de la Pole.
74. The Merthyr Rising, where the 'red flag' of revolution was raised for the first time.
Poor Dic Penderyn was executed for a crime he did not commit.
75. Aberystwyth University, 1996.
76. John Charles, the first non-Italian to become Italy's 'Footballer of the Year', who
played for Leeds, Roma, Juventus, Swansea and Cardiff.
77. W. H. Davies of Newport.
78. 'Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham Steeple, Snowdon's Mountain, without its people, Overton
yew trees, St Winifrede's Wells, Llangollen Bridge and Gresford's Bells.'
79. The Mumbles Railway, from Swansea to Oystermouth, opened in 1807 and destroyed by
South Wales Transport.
80. The Talyllyn Railway has operated continuously since its opening in 1865, running from
Tywyn to Abergynolwyn.
81. St David's, St Asaf, Llandaf and Bangor.
82. Gareth Edwards, who was Wales' youngest ever rugby captain in 1968.
83. Six feet.
84. The great Idris Davis from Rhymney - the most approachable and socialist of all our
poets.
85. Dorothy Squires
86. 1925.
87. Richard Price of Tynton, Glamorgan.
88. He began mail-order, to sell Welsh linens from Newtown.
89. Newtown.
90. Dr J.P.R. Williams, who changed the nature of modern rugby.
91. Monmouth, Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Pembroke, Cardigan, Brecon, Radnor, Denbigh, Flint,
Caernarfon, Merioneth, Anglesey, Montgomery.
92. Offa's Dyke.
93. In 1953, George Bellew of the College of Heraldry displayed his lack of knowledge, and
was backed up by the English Assistant Secretary of State, Sir Austin Strutt.
94. The Gower Peninsula in 1956.
95. The Manic Street Preachers, deservedly so. Catatonia received the 'best single' award
for 'Road Rage'.
96. Tom Jones - the vicar gyrates like him around his church as an act of daily worship,
and performs exorcisms with a signed portrait of the star.
97. Rugby.
98. Richard Trevithick, 1804.
99. 240 feet (73 metres)
100. William Wallace, or William Wallensis, means William the Welshman - he came from the
area of Strathclyde that spoke Welsh until the 12th century, and whose inhabitants were
called by the Scottish King David 1 (the Lion) 'my loyal Welsh subjects'.
"I sincerely hope that those who looked at this quiz will have a better
appreciation of what it means to be Welsh. In the nineteenth century Jacques Chevalier
stated 'Wales was the only country in Europe in the tenth and eleventh centuries which had
a national literature, apart from an imperial one in Latin. The people of Wales were the
most civilised and intelligent of the age.' Wales must return to the forefront of
civilisation."
