A bit O/T, I know, but here's a two-sentence item from an 'Odds and Ends' column in the Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 26 December 1849. That places it around the about the time my great-grandparents were born. Not sure whether the comment is intended as optimistic about the language or implies some fear of the foreign nature of Welsh to the English: 'In Cardiganshire only 3000 people out of 68,706 speak English. Double the number of persons now speak Welsh who spoke it in the reign of Elizabeth.' David Canberra