to recognise the centenary of Joseph Jenkins's departure and his unique record of the life of a rural worker in Victoria. His own words were cited: Through this [diary] I am building. . . my own monument (pictured at right). Return and controversy On returning to Wales, he entrusted the diaries to his daughter Elinor (Nell) who stored them in the attic of her home, Tyndomen farm, near Tregaron. They came to light some 70 years later when a great-granddaughter, Frances Evans, recovered and protected them, permitting her uncle, Dr William Evans to read and edit the contents. Destruction of the diaries had been favoured by some family members who were concerned by their potential to arouse adverse reflection on reputations, especially that of Joseph's wife, Betty, whose alleged infidelity and at least one specific physical assault on him by her and others: [26 May 1868] . . . my ribs and breastbone were fractured . . . I have an ugly black eye with about a dozen other different wounds. were consistently blamed by him as the cause of his leaving home. However, no conclusive evidence has emerged that Betty was other than a loyal and capable wife—and one who may herself have had good reason to find fault with Joseph's own personality and behaviour. E.g., in Pity the Swagman, Bethan Phillips argues that Joseph drank excessively while at home, though he generally abstained in Australia, and that he became disliked by neighbours for actively supporting landowners and their politicians at a time when they were oppressing many tenant-farmers–who were consequently promoting liberal candidates. Historical studies In 1904 a body of information with a photograph of Joseph and a selection of his poetry in Welsh was included in the book Cerddi Cerngoch by Daniel Jenkins and David Lewis. (The title is Welsh for 'Poems of Redcheek'—the bardic name of Joseph's brother John—but the book also records writings of several other distinguished family members.) Most of the book is printed in the Welsh language but some prefatory pages are in English. In 1998, Dr Bethan Phillips of Lampeter, having devoted many years to the project, including a visit to Australia, published her extensively researched account in Welsh: Rhwng Dau Fyd: Y Swagman O Geredigion, followed in 2002 by Pity the Swagman—The Australian Odyssey of a Victorian Diarist. References and sources Further reading Jones, Bill. Jenkins, Joseph (1818–1898) in online Australian