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" Old Brecknock Chips." 10 who was three times married, firstly to Thomas ap Rhys ap William Thomas Goch, of Ystradyffin, then secondly to Sir George Devereux, of Lamphey, and, lastly, to the notorious Thomas Jones, of Fountain Gate, alias " Twm Shon Catty; " (iii) Gregory, who married Mary, daughter of Humph¬ rey Coningsby, of Hampton Court, Herefordshire (one of the Coningsbys' was Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire and Radnorshire) ; (iv) Richard Price, of the Priory, Brecon, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Wm. Wightman—he was High Sheriff of Breconshire in 1564, and in the Chapel of the Men of Battle in the Priory Church is still to be seen the gravestone with outline figures inscribed thereon of this Richard Price and his lady; (v) John, who married Elizabeth, daughter of John Games ; (vi), William Price ; (vii) Bartholomew Price. Gregory Price was the eldest son and heir of Sir John Price ; he was High Sheriff of Breconshire in 1585 and 1593 ; upon his marriage with the daughter of Sir Humphrey Coningsby he settled in Hereford¬ shire, for which county he was elected one of the representatives in the 4th and 5th of Philip and Mary, and 39th of Elizabeth. Shakespea.be at Bbecon. The second son, Richard, appears to have been the scholar of the family: in fact there is every proba¬ bility in the statement so often made, that he was the intimate and personal friend of the Great Bard of Avon (Wm. Shakespeare), and it is thought, and is generally accepted both from a literary and his¬ torical point of view, that the scenery in A Mid¬ summer's Night's Dream is unmistakably Breconshire scenery, and that it is just possible Shakespeare was a guest at the Priory House, and that his classic feet may have trod the Priory grounds and majestic Groves. Richard Price was as great a favourite at Court as his lamented father had been. In fact we may well call this the Golden Period in so far as it relates to the nobility of Breconshire ; neither before nor since has any Breconshire family been so closely, so very intimately, connected with the ruling sovereigns of England, as was Sir David Gam to Henry V. and Sir John Price to Henry VIII. We repeat Richard Price was well-known, and was re¬ ceived at the Court of London during the reign of Edward VI., Philip and Mary, and the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. The Editob. (To be Concluded.) FEIDAY, OCTOBEE 21st, 1887. " Old Brecknock Chips " did not appear in this issue. FEIDAY, OCTOBEE 28th, 1887. I.—THE PEIOEY MANSION AND ITS OWNEES. (Continued from October 14th, 1887). The Pabson op Meethye Cynog and Shakespeabe. Undoubtedly it was to Richard Price, of the Brecon Priory, that Shakespeare is indebted for the comic character of "Sir Hugh Evans" in the Merry Wives of Windsor. This rollicking Parson was presented to the living of Merthyr Cynog, by Richard Price himself in 1572 ; Sir Hugh appears to have been a man of reading, and to have left what at that time must have been considered as a very valuable library. Sir Hugh died in 1581, and by his will, in his own handwriting, he gives to his brothers and sisters several legacies, amongst which are a black horse, fifteen lambs, ten hedes (heads) of shipe, " To Richard Davies, clerk, the third part of '' my books, and my will is that Mr Richard Price, " esquier, shall have the opening of my grete cheste, " and that he shall give and distribute the monie found " there between my brothers and sisters, Harry " Jeuan, John Jeuan, and Juhan, viz., Jeuan, I " give Mr Richard Price £3. To my sister—Lleiki, "viz., Jeuan 16d. I appoint David ap Jeuan '' and Jenkin ap David mine executors, and Mr "Richard Price esquier to be overseer of my will." Although a man of learning, Richard Price never published any work of his own, although he publish¬ ed several of his father's. He was High Sheriff of Brecknockshire in 1564 and 1570. He was very highly esteemed and honoured throughout the county; he resided at the Priory of Brecon, and held it during his life, either under a devise in his father's will, or as tenant to his brother Gregory. Mr Theo. Jones thinks the Rice Price who represent¬ ed the Borough of Brecon in Parliament in 1571 was Richard Price of the Priory. Richard Price died without issue about the year 1590. The Priory then came into the possession of John Price, the third son of the founder of the Priory family. This John Price was M.P. for the county of Brecon in 1625 (1st Charles I.) Gregory Price's eldest son was Thomas, and the only son. He married Anne Rudhall, sister and heir to John Rudhall, of Rudhall. He had issue (i) John Price, who married Anne, daughter and sole heiress of Mr Chute, of Wissesston, Hereford¬ shire ; (ii) Sir Herbert Price, the noted Royalist, who held Hereford for King Charles, and was Col. - General of Brecknock Castle when the unfortunate King passed through Brecon and slept at the Priory one night; he married Goditha, daughter of Sir Henry Arden, Bart, of Park Hall, Warwickshire; (iii) Richard Price; (iv), Elinor, who married, firstly, Edmund Morgan, of Llanspyddid, gent., and secondly, John Jeffreys; (v) Elizabeth, who married Humphrey Berrington, of Bishopstone, Hereford¬ shire. Regarding this lady, on a piece of board in the Vicar's Chapel in the Priory Church is the following inscription : " This epitaph on the death " of the right virtuous gentlewoman, Mrs Elizabeth " Berrington, wife of the right worshipful Hum- "phrey Berrington, of Bishopstone, in the countye "of Hereford, Esquire, and daughter of the right " worshippfull Thomas Price, of the Priorie of " Brecknock, in the countye of Brecknock, Esquire, "who dyed the fowerteenth day of Februarie, " 1626." It is singular that, numerous though the Price family seem to have been, there are only two monumental records preserved in the Priory Church to their memory. Sir Herbert Price, the great grandson of the founder, had four sons : (i) Sir Thomas Arden Price, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Denham, Knight; (ii) Sir Basil Price, who married Jane, daughter of Henry Vaughan, of Cilcennin ; (iii) Herbert Price, who married Jane, daughter of Sir Richard Head ; (iv) and a son who died at sea. The last-mentioned Herbert Price had a daughter