Bala Eisteddfod Medal

Description

Silver medal given by the Gwyneddigion Society Medal as a prize for the best poem at the Bala eisteddfod in 1789.

Fuller story, linked to silver pen: Sponsored by the Gwyneddigion, a society of Welsh exiles in London, the eisteddfod held at Bala in May 1789 drew up the blueprint for the kind of modern competitive Eisteddfod so familiar to us today. However, it was not without controversy. Gwallter Mechain, the winner of the medal donated by the Gwyneddigion, was thought by some to have cheated and was chaired in a storm of protest and talk of fighting duels. Among the protestors was David Samwell, who was the surgeon who had accompanied Captain Cooke on his final voyage. He himself donated this silver pen to the runner-up Twm o'r Nant as a consolation prize.