Welsh Journals

98 BYE-GONES. Oct., 1872. At the last meeting of the Ludlow Town Council, it transpired that amongst the items of expenditure there appeared an amount of £2 17s. 9d. for weeding the streets. The sum was objected to, and one of the councillors told an anecdote of a tradesman who came to Ludlow to look for premises with a view of commencing business in the town. In one of the streets, however, he saw a cow grazing, and that sight put an end to all his ideas of start¬ ing a business in Ludlow. We have lost one of our very few remaining Peninsular veterans in the person of William Anthony Bale late of his Majesty's 58th Regiment, who died at " The Avenue," Ashford, near Ludlow, Salop, on Sunday, October 6th, in the ninety-first year of his age. He served as lieu¬ tenant through the campaign, and had the Peninsular medal, with clasps for Salamanca, Badajoz, and Albuera. He was present also at the battle of Bussacco, Pyrenees, &c. His recollection of the war was vivid to the last. QUERIES. HALLOW E'EN.—Pennant records that in North Wales "there is a custom upon All Saints' Eve of making a great fire called C<>el Coeth, when every family about an hour in the night makes a great bonfire in the most conspicuous place near the house; and when the fire is almost extinguished, everyone throws a white stone into the ashes, having first marked it; then, having said their prayers, turning round the fire, they go to bed. In the morning, as soon as they are up, they come to search out the stones ; and if any one of them is found wanting, they have a notion that the person who threw it in will die before he sees another All Saints' Eve." They also dis¬ tribute ' soul cakes' on All Souls'-day, at the receiving of which poor people pray to God to bless the next crop of wheat. Mr Owen's account of the bards, in Sir R. Hoare's Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, says, " The autumnal fire is still kindled in North Wales on the eve of the first of November, and is attended by many ceremonies ; such as running through the fire and smoke, each casting a stone into the fire, and all running off at the conclusion to escape from the black short-tailed sow; then supping upon parsnips, nuts, and apples; catching at an apple suspended by a string with the mouth al >ne, and the same by an apple in a tub of water ; each throwing a nut into the fire, and those that burn bright betoken prosperity to the owners through the following year, but those that burn black and crackle denote misfortune. On the fol¬ lowing morning the stones are searched for in the fire, and if any be missing they betide ill to those that threw them in." All the foregoing, and much more, appears in Hone's Every-day Book, and many of the older of my readers will remember some of the All Saints' eve customs as here described, common on the Welsh Border. I should very much like to see, in Bye-gones, an account of the manner in which the festival is kept this year of grace, 1872, in the Borders of Wales.—Ctnog. REPLIES. BARON OWEN OF LLWYN. (O.A. Mar. 27, Apr. 24, June 5, 1872). Some months since, one of your querists asked for infor¬ mation relative to the burial-place of Lewis Owen, Esq., who was Vice-Chamberlain of North Wales, Custes Rotulorum, and several times M.P. for the county of Merioneth,and was murdered near Dinas Mowddy, upon the Uth (or 12th) of October, 1555, being then Sheriff for the ceunty. I replied that the place of the Baron's burial was unknown, but that it was probably at DolgeUey, as the distance of the spot where he was murdered is not so great from that town, but that it is probable his body was con¬ veyed to Dolgelley, the place of his residence. I added other information relative to the Baron and his family, to which another querist demurred. I have not his own letters nor my reply before me, but I can recollect much of their contents, and I think the statements I am about to make, rest upon authority which may be pronounced all but incontrovertible. You would have had them some time since, but one of the manuscripts from whence they are col¬ lected was at the binder's. Lewis Owen was not born at Dolserey, nor ever owned it: For amongst the records at Nannau, is a document re¬ lating to a law-suit, showing that long after his time Lewis Gfwynne was owner of '* Dolserey," aDd that he was born in or immediately about the year 1577. His ownership of it is proved by a MS. in the autograph of Robert Vaughan, the antiquary of Hengwrt (Hengwrt M.S. 96), the Baron's great-grandson. Another MS. in his autograph (Peniarth MS. 6), however, shows that Robert Owen, the fifth son of the Baron, was "of Dolserey," and was "an Attorney in the Court of the Marches of Wales." His family owned it for many generations, sinking into the position of small gentry or yeomen, never attaining the rank of magistrate, sheriff, or esquire, and in the present century, some fifty years since, they became extinct. It is true that there are two Dolsereys, one being part of the Nannau estate, and is called Dolserey ucha, but if this had been the place re¬ ferred to in the above-mentioned authorities, surely they would have so styled it. Llwyn never was in the ownership of Baron Owen.—I prove this by the following extract from some notes taken from a brief in a law-suit relating to parts of the estate, in the time of Wm. Lewis An will, Esq., of Park, who pur¬ chased it from Richard Ireland, who had purchased it from the Baron's grandson, Lewis Owen, a spendthrift, living in 4 James I. Mr Anwill was contemporary with Baron Owen's children and grandchildren i — " Garthmaelan. — Gutto moyl, owner of _. . . in the township of Garthmaelan, died thereof seized about Ao., 1554. "Elisse his son, who dying without issue, the inheritance fell to his sister Gwen, wief of Wm. ap Rees ap Meuric, who sold Llwyn to John Owen. "Lewis Owen (the Baron) being owner of Maes Mawr and Maescaled, carried the hay and corn thereof to his dwelling house in Dolgelley all his dayes. "John Owen, aforesaid (the Baron's eldest son, M.P. for the co : of Merioneth), having bought Llwyn, did build a house there about 1576, and dwelled there. "Lewis Owen, his son, sold the Llwyn to Richard Ireland, and the Maesmawr and Maescaled, and alsoe the mill—he (Rd. Ireland) at last sould the Llwyn and the rest to Mr Anwill." If your correspondent should wish it, I can give him the names of the occupiers in the lands to which the law-suit relates. The following extract from the funeral certificate of Mathew Herbert, who died in 1658, will show that Plasyn- dre, in Dolgelley, was the residence of Lewis Owen, the Baron. Plasyndre, shown to tourists, sight-seers, and photographers, as the Parliament house of Owen Glyndwr, where, if I mistake not, there is not one stone standing, of the time of Glyndwr ! ! "Mathew Herbert (the deceased) was the Sonne of Samuel Herbert, who was the 2d Sonne of Mathew Herbert, of Dolgeog, who was the 2d sonne of Edward Herbert of Mountgom.,esq.