Welsh Journals

64 THE CAMBRIAN REMEMBRANCER. JIHY, 1878. xaune given to t Ms place, some asserting: that it simply meant "the White House," others that it was a drinking place. Mr Bngley gives the following account of the origin of its name:— "About the reign of Ed ward IV., and for f ome years subsequent 15 that period, the gentlemen of Wales frequently invited their friends, in large parties, to exercise in wrestling, tournaments, and other feats of activity: bdt as these meetings, in consequence of the numbars invited, were usually attended with great expense, they were always held in the house of som > neighbouring tenant, who was supplied w.th wine from the lord's cellar; this was sofa to the visitors, and his master; received the profits. These houses were denominated Gwyndy, or wine houses; and, from this circumstance, the present place had its name." Ruthin. Denbighshire Worthies.—When Mr Salisbury, some years since, sent an account of our worthies to the • Herald,' he mentioned the late Rsv John Lloyd, of Caerwys, as one of them, but he did not say how he was called Blodyn, or the flower of Llanarmon. Eft's father was a younger brother of the Lloyds of Cwm-bychan, and had discended from Cadwgan, so that he was by blood a thorough Cambrian, and we know by his learned writings how entirely he was devoted to the best interests of his country. So indeed was his daughter, Anghared Llwyd, whose life was spent in the study and elucidation of our antiquities. Ap Llwyd. Ancient Tombstones.—As I am a constant taker of your paper, and have been for years, I feel inter¬ ested in the " Cambrian Remembrancer." I seldom see an account of ancient tombstones. There is one at Llanrhaiadr-yn-cimerch, in the Vale ©f Clwyd, to the memory of John Wynne, of Porth, with a mul¬ titude of aps, and the last ap being the Prince of Powis, all in capital letters; it used to be cleaned when Dr Howard was vicar. Rhyl. C. H. S. The Tricks or the Teace.—There is a capital Story told of Robert Evans, who at one time was dean of Bangor. He had married, and this grave offence deprived him of all his Church preferments when Mary became queen. Among his livings he held Llanengan, and this he lost for the reasrin stated, when one Peter Tudor got it. But Peter Tudor himself was a married man and was deprived of Llanllechid for the same cause,, and on his depriva¬ tion Robart Evans got that. It was all a trick, fur the law was enforced in London, and the two places exchanged as above stated were dealt with by the local authorities. Good management doubtless,, but not very honourable for all that. In 1557 Evans gol back his deanery, and sat in the Convocation of 1562. He died in 1570, and is buried at Bangor Cathedral. The Archbishop of York says we are doing some very wicked things now, let his grace look through the past and he will find that' we. are no worse than out fathers were. Hen Bebsojj. , ..,, JULY 6th, 7878. NOTES. HOLYWELL.—The old parochial history of England and Wales is always very! full of interest to any one who has a love for antiquities, but it hap a strange influence upon the mind of man when he reflects upon it from some long past standpoint of his own, or when after years of enforced absence from his native country he returns to his ancient home and begins to study it upon the lines which had impressed themselves upon his boyish memory. In taking up Mr Thomas's excellent history of the Diocese of St. Asaph, I was surprised to see the " Deanery of Holywell" spoken of as an existing fact, a description quite unknown to me when I spent some of the happiest days of my boyhood at the old Grammar School in Holywell. Then we spoke of the town as Tref-y-ffynnon, the old home which had derived its name from the great well, which indeed had given it both name and fame. '1 he parish of Holywell in like manner con¬ veyed to us a clear and definite idea of a district which had a history of it3 own, and we knew pretty well how far it extended and where it was bordered by other parishes in proximity to it. The parish church too was a central figure in our thoughts, and .without caring very much for the services conducted within its walls, we had a proper reverence for the churcbitself.and did obeisance,aslads were expected to do, to the vicar, who was looked upon as the chief cleric in the town; but the " Deanery " was never so much as mentioned then, and I now see that it dates no further back thari 1844, a time when Holywell affairs occupied but a very small place in my busy thoughts. Of course it will be understood that it is the "Rural Deanery" which is meant. I have a reason, which will appear anon, for remem¬ bering Holywell in the year 1837; just three hundred years from the time when the Abbey of Basingwerk was dissolved, and when Maurice ap David is first mentioned as vicar cf Holywell. Mr Thomas wouid seem to fix upon the year 1093 as the date for building the ancient parish church, and if he is right in that, then we may suppose it to be " the clrrche of Halliwalle " mentioned in an old grant of 1291, and it is probably the very place 'where prayers and penances were daily made according to Romish form from the year in question down to that year when, by the will of Henry VIII., the good old Servitors, at the altar within its walls, had to make way for the vicar of a new form, who refused to acknowledge the Pope as the head of the English Church, but who was content enough to call the king supreme ruler of. it. In 1490 the adjoining chapel over thew^Ilw said to have been erected, and I conclude fromwr Thomas's narrative that this "chappelle" had » priest of its own, and that the Rev Peter PowIeT was such priest in 1535, and that he received 10/ per annum for the performance of divine servita therein; Probably he had to take his departure' in ... ,0 - - . s -. ■-