PREFACE. HE life of a village teacher, is rarely pre THE sented to the general reader; and the ordinary career of a schoolmaster in humble life, affords but few materials for biography. It was, however, the lot of the subject of the present work, to acquire more fame than is usually attained by humble merit; and, before his own labours were terminated by death, several brief memoirs of his life were given to the world. The first of those publications was called, A Brief Memoir of James Davies, Master of the National School on Devauden Hill, Monmouthshire; and consisted of a letter written in year 1823, by the Rev. James Ashe Gabb to Miss Buchan. Mr. Gabb was appointed in 1817 to the curacy of Newchurch, a parish that comprises the Devauden Hill; and the acquaintance which he had formed with the village schoolmaster some years before, now ripened |
