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Summer Time" is an ideal love-song of the rustic order. It was written by Will Hopkin, the bard, who was born about 1700. The tradition respecting the hapless love entertained for him by Ann Thomas (" The Maid of Cefn Ydfa") is widely known and still recited in parts of Wales. The Bard wrote many songs in her honour, the best being " Idle Days in Summer Time." I present the first verse, trans-lated by Walter Maynard:
" Idle days in summer time,
In pleasant sunny weather, Amid the golden coloured corn
Two lovers passed together. Many words they did not speak,
To give their thoughts expression, Each knew the other's heart was full,
But neither made confession."
But to " The Maid of Cefn Ydfa." The song in which the minstrel poured out his love is called "Bugeilio 'r Gwenith Gwyn" (Watching the Wheat"). According to "Cambrian Minstrelsie," the subject of the song is " Ann Thomas, com-monly known as the ' Maid of Cefn Ydfa/ who was born at a house of that name, in the parish of Llangynnwyd, Glamorganshire, in the year 1704. She was the elder child of well-to-do parents. Her father died before she was four
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