Welsh Journals

recovery of the entailed Gogerddan estate had been effected in 1813, Lovedon pressed Pryse to sell the property and to abandon Wales altogether. Pryse, who held a genuine affection for Gogerddan and Cardiganshire, retorted angrily, 'I cannot acquiesce in your wishes at present and I trust you will cease to urge it as it totally destroys the pleasure I should otherwise receive in hearing from yoU.16 Sensing Pryse's determination to remain at Gogerddan, many of Lovedon's acquaintances exhorted the father to allow his son to enjoy the estate without interference in the interests of harmony between the two men. In April 1813, William Garrett advised Lovedon: 'You are for the world and all it's blushing honors; Pryse for retirement and its peaceful comforts. You are perfectly independent of each other, in God's name why not enjoy yourselves-each in your own way- Pryse would I assure you be more frequently at Buscot and enjoy it if you will let him enjoy without remonstrance Gogerddan also .7 In the months following his first wife's death in January 1813, Pryse apparently descended into the depths of a most profound depression and came very close to having a major nervous break- down. During this critical period Pryse was attended by the physician Dr. Rice Williams, the sister of his dead wife, and a Jane Cavallier, daughter of Peter Cavallier of Guisborough in Yorkshire and eventually his second wife. Besides counselling Pryse as to the thera- peutic virtues of riding and sea-bathing, Rice Williams did little to improve his patient's condition. A close friend of Edward Lovedon, Williams regularly reported Pryse's progress to Buscot, making especially sure to incense Lovedon against Jane Cavallier, whom he believed to be exercising far too much influence over the young widower.8 In this endeavour he was aided and abetted by a particu- larly obsequious and unpleasant individual, the Reverend Charles Cross, chaplain to the Corbet family of Ynysmaengwyn, whose reports to Lovedon hinted at a wide range of scandals taking place at Gogerddan, not the least of which was the suggestion that Pryse may have been having an affair with Jane Cavallier. Not unnaturally Pryse deeply resented Cross's constant prying: 'Crosses behaviour to me has been treacherous in the extreme. I was convinced from your Pryse Pryse to Edward Lovedon, April 1813. A 'recovery' was a legal devise by which an entail could be broken prior to effecting a re-settlement of an estate. 7 William Garrett from Gogerddan to Edward Lovedon, April 1813. The reference to 'blushing honors' may well refer to the fact that Lovedon was a Fellow of both the Royal and Linnaean Societies, a member of the first Board of Agriculture, a correspondent of many of the leading figures of his day and a parliamentarian of some influence. Rice Williams to Edward Lovedon, 14 April 1813. Pryse's wife, who had been bed- ridden with a rheumatic complaint for some years, was burnt to death as a result of a fire in her bedroom. At the time it was rumoured that this fire had been caused by a lamp thrown on to Mrs. Pryse's bed by one of the Cavalliers.