He usually interlards his conversation with passages in Welsh, which is his mother-tongue.

A friend has, however, done me the favour to translate two of John Jones's poems into English.
The first is 'The Telescope':-- "To Heaven it points, where rules the Sun In golden gall'ries bright; And the pale Moon in silver rays Makes dalliance in the night.
"It sweeps with eagle glances The sky, its myriad throng, That myriad throng to marshal And bring to us their song.
"Orb upon orb it follows As oft they intertwine, And worlds in vast processions As if in battle line.
"It loves all things created, To follow and to trace; And never fears to penetrate The dark abyss of space." The next is to 'The Comet':-- "A maiden fair, with light of stars bedecked, Starts out of space at Jove's command; With visage wild, and long dishevelled hair, Speeds she along her starry course; The hosts of heaven regards she not,-- Fain would she scorn them all except her father Sol, Whose mighty influence her headlong course doth all control." The following translation may also be given: it shows that the bard is not without a spice of wit.

A fellow-workman teased him to write some lines; when John Jones, in a seemingly innocent manner, put some questions, and ascertained that he had once been a tailor.

Accordingly this epigram was written, and appeared in the local paper the week after: "To a quondam Tailor, now a Slate-teller":-- "To thread and needle now good-bye, With slates I aim at riches; The scissors will I ne'er more ply, Nor make, but order, breeches."[12] The bi-lingual speech is the great educational difficulty of Wales.

To get an entrance into literature and science requires a knowledge of English; or, if not of English, then of French or German.