JAMES WARD, R.A. (DERBYSHIRE 1769-1859 HULL)

This drawing may date from Ward’s 1802 visit to Wales or his later tour of 1807 when the Cader Idris guide Robert Edwards took Ward to visit Mary Thomas, the starving woman of Tanyralt (Ward had also visited her in 1802). After the visit Ward and his young travelling companion Robert Garle were taken up the mountain by their guide to find Mary Thomas’s brother so that Ward could question him. Ward was fascinated by this woman and privately published the results of his visits as Some account of Mary Thomas, Tanyralt, Merionethshire, who has existed many years without taking food; and of Ann Moore, commonly called The Fasting Woman of Tutbury, 1813.