Among its parents the Cambrian possessed some men of rare grit and determination. Prominent among them was one who ranks high among the makers of modern Wales, whose name has become a household word not only in his native land, but wherever Welshmen congregate throughout the world, and is still, by happy coincidence, intimately associated, in the third generation, with the Cambrian to-day. The story of David Davies of Llandinam has been fully told in other pages, {4} but it is so closely woven around the romance of the railway which he did so much to bring into being that no record of that undertaking would be complete without some reference to it, however brief. Born at a small holding called Draintewion, perched on the hillside overlooking the Severn Vale near Llandinam, the eldest of a family of nine children, on December 18, 1818,--"three eighteens," as he used in later life jocularly to remark--his boyhood was spent on the little plot of land tilling its rich soil, or helping his father, in the work of sawing timber into planks, a commodity for which public demand was then rapidly increasing. His only schooling was received in a little seminary carried on in the village church, and that wonderful educational institution of rural Wales, the Sunday School. But at the age of eleven the desk was deserted for the saw bench, and the rest of his instruction was derived at "the University of Observation, in which he took not a mere 'pass' but very high 'honours'." A keen observation of human nature, a shrewd judgment of men and beast, and a ready aptitude for application of native wit to the problems of life developed David Davies into the man of wealth and power he ultimately became. Even in his school days, however, these latent traits were not unobservable. It is recorded that "he was the winner of every game." He may have had a generous portion of what men call "luck," but to it was added the still more valuable element of industry and perseverance and healthy ambition. He knew how to take the chances which came his way, which is probably the secret of success with many who "get on." When opportunity offered to enter a new path he readily seized it, and from the hewer of wood he became the modest contractor, and ultimately the greater builder of bridges, docks and railways. [Picture: Some Parents of the Cambrian: reading top left to bottom right: The later MR. DAVID DAVIES, M.P., one of the first contractors; The late MR. THOMAS SAVIN, Mr. Davies's first partner and a contractor of other parts of the line; The late MR. BENJAMIN PIERCY, Engineer of many of the early lines; The late MR. ABRAHAM HOWELL, Solicitor of the Oswestry and Newtown, and a promoter of Montgomeryshire Rys]