Sian, Thanks for that. Im a local from the Vermont slate districts and interested in trad music but did not know of Benjamin Thomas.
The 19th century slate belt was very Welsh and Irish and in places like North Poultney many Irish quarrymen were trilingual speaking English, Irish and Welsh! This may seem a stretch from our perspective but my own Irish American aunt who grew up in the teens and twenties had a smattering of Welsh and she was far more a flapper than folkie.