His chief characteristic was his unremitting industry. He was a good and successful teacher, but a stern disciplinarian who did not suffer fools gladly. And, as he was no respecter of persons, he made no effort to placate the great men of his denomination, so that he was never given any office in it — he sought in vain on more than one occasion to be given a chair at Bala College. He was a substantial, but not a popular, preacher, and, in spite of his academic qualifications in that subject, it is doubtful whether philosophy was his strong point. He was much better at languages and was an excellent Latin scholar; at Bangor it was E. V. Arnold rather than Henry Jones who left his mark on him, and this bent was confirmed by his close friendship with Hugh Williams (1843-1911) (q.v.). He was a frequent contributor to the periodicals, and published commentaries on S. Luke and S. John. In Cymru (O.M.E.), 1894-6, he published translations of the chief Latin sources for the early history of Britain, and in 1899 these were published in book form under the title O Lygad y Ffynnon. In 1905 he published a translation (Dilyn Crist) of Thomas à Kempis which ran into a second edition in 1907; and he had from time to time been translating the Confessions of S. Augustine in the Drysorfa with a view to publishing them in book form.