Mesur a'r Hugain and become a bard, so in after years he would let nothing hinder him from taking a full course of study in order to qualify himself for the sacred ministry. As his short life drew near its close, the one burning desire of his heart was to preach Christ and Him crucified.
Risiart Ddu, when a child in arms, had an accident that caused permanent lameness, one limb being a little shorter than the other. A friend of the family thus relates how it happened:—"The fact about R.'s lameness is that in consequence of the injury caused by a wire found imbedded in his limb when a babe the thighbone gradually became dislocated, causing the limb to become shorter than the other; and he wore a cork sole in order to lessen the limp." This lameness disabled him to undertake long journeys on foot; but with all this disadvantage he was very quick in his movements, and could walk a short distance as fast as any ordinary man.
Three of the Edwards' children were great students, and much given to literature and poetry. These were John Edwards (Mafoniog), the eldest; Risiart Ddu; and their sister Emily (Eigen o Wynedd). They were much together; but were soon separated.
In 1850, R. Ddu was a lad of 14, when the father sent his eldest son John to the United States to buy a farm for the Edwards' family; which he bought at Rosendale, Wisconsin, and prepared for the coming of the family; because the father had planned to take his wife and children over there in the spring of 1852. They did leave Ty'n-y-celyn, as planned; but instead of emigrating to Wisconsin, they moved to a smaller farm called Plas Llanychan, near Ruthin. This was, probably, an unwise move; but it was
