Welsh Journals

July, 1873. BYE-GONES. 181 but there was so much power in bis simple and earnest piety, that his prayers were always touching and impressive, whether offered in the social prayer meeting or at the bed¬ side of the sick—where he was always soon to be found if he thought he could do any good." Mr Bihney remarks that " From his father Dr Cooke inherited his healthy constitution and physical vigour; but it was to his mother —a little woman of Welsh origin, whom he much resembled —that he was indebted for his intellectual activity, his liveliness of remark and conversational power. Like most Welsh women, she had an intense reverence for preachers and a delight in sermons. The large honse in which she and her husband lived became, as did her son's afterwards, eminently a ministers' house. Whether they came on a deputation, and needed to tarry for a night or two, or whether they dropped in t© enjoy her racy talk, and, according to the habits of the olden time, to lunch or sup on her widely famed cheese and her husband's equally well-known ale, they were always welcome, whatever their denomination, especially if 'the root of the matter' was thought to be in them ! Few, indeed, even of the neighbouring clergy, though they might not sympathise with the Nonconformity or the Methodistical ways of Draw-well House, were found to be indifferent to its well-known and long-lived hospitality." I On coming to London, Dr Cooke "EnteredatSt.Barthelomews Hospital, where Abernetby was his favourite teacher, and Lawrence his fellow student. In 1806 he 'passed the college.' After a short assistantship in the country he settled in practice at Plaistow, in Essex—at that time a suburban village, affording retreat as well as residence to City merchants. Here he married the eldest daughter of Robert Humphrey Marten, Esq., then a well-known merchant and distinguished philanthropist—a Nonconformist when Nonconformity required more courage for its avowal than at the present day. With Mr Marten Dr Cooke was intimately associated in many religious and benevolent enterprizes." In connection with his professional life we are told that " In 1819, with a few colleagues who have all long since passed away, he established the Hunterian Society, which recently celebrated its fifty-fourth anni¬ versary ;—once only before bad this festival missed his genial presence. This society he served for half a century as secretary or treasurer. How fully and kindly his services were appreciated he had memorials on his sideboard and on his walls to show, In 1839 he delivered the annual oration before the Society. ' Mind and the Emotions considered in relation to Health and Disease' was the subject he selected. His address was first published as a pamphlet, and afterwards expanded into a volume. His other works, besides a few pamphlets, were an abridged translation in two volumes of a Latin medical work; and a treatise on the disorders of the digestive organs. It may be here stated, as an interesting fact, that soon after Dr Cooke's settle¬ ment at Plaistow, feeling the advantage it would be to ministers of religion to have some knowledge of the structure and functions of the body, he volunteered to give a course of lectures on the subject at Stepney College, which was near his residence, with the president of which he was on intimate terms. These lectures were also delivered at the Hoxton and Homerton Nonconformist Colleges." In 1829 Dr Cooke removed to Tower Hill, and became a member of Mr .Binney's Church at the Weigh House Chapel, and for a long period of years was active in person and purse for the good of these around him. He died at Upper Clapton, March 2, 1873, as we have previously stated in our obituary. Mr Binney is mistaken in calling Dr Cooke's mother a Welsh¬ woman. She was a Miss Bickerton (a descendant of Philip Henry) born in Shropshire, and belonging to an old Shrop¬ shire family.—Oswestry AdverHzer. July 2, 1873. NOTES. OF VALEY CRUCIS THLANGOTHLAN, AND THE CASTLE DYNOSBRANE. I noticed in Archceologia Cambrensis, some time ago, a complaint about a httle book under review, that it so bar¬ barously spelt Welsh names as to add to the difficulty of tourists. It turned out that the author, in making quota¬ tions, followed the spelling of the books he quoted. So have I done in the heading here, and I would suggest to English directors of Welsh railways that some such method of spelling the names of Welsh stations might not be amiss on their boards and time-tables, if the natives are to understand tourists when they make enquiries as to their destination. For instance, if spelt as above, at least we should not hear people asking for "Lan-gol-len! " But to the point. This heading introduces the last poetical (?) chapter of Churchyard's Worthines of Wales, a funny old book more than once quoted in Bye-gones. And here is what the sixteenth century rhymster has to say about Castell Dinas Bran and Valle Cruris. Thlangothlan then, must yet come once in place, For divers notes, that gives this booke some grace. The Abbey of Valey Cruris. An abbey nere, that mountnyne towne there is, Whose wnlles yet stand, and steeple too likewise; But wbo that rides, to see the truth of this, Shall thinke he mounts, on hilfes unto the skyes. For when one hill, behind your backe you sea, Another comes, two tymes as hye as hee ; And in one place, the mountaynes stands so there, In roundnease such, as it a cockpit were. Their height is great, and full of narrowe waies, And steepe downe right, of force ye must descend: Some houses are, buylt there but of late daies, Full underneath, the monstrous mountaynes end: Amid them all, and those as man may guease, When rayne doth fall, doth stand in sore distresse For mightie streames, runnes ore both house and thatch, When For their lives, poore men on hilles must watch. Castle Dynosebrane. Beyond the same, and yet on hill full hye, A castle stands, an old and rnynous thing: That baughtie house, was buylt in weathers eye, A pretie pyle, and pleasure for a king. A fort, a strength, a strong and stately hold It was at first, though now it is full old: On rocke alone, full f arre from other mount It stand-, which shewes, it was of great account. A goodly bridge of stone here. The towne and the bridge with the vyolent river before that towne. Betweene the towne, and abbey buylt it was, The towne is neere, the goodly river Dee, That underneath, a bridge of stone doth passe, And still on rocke, the water Tunnes you see A wondrous way, a thing full rare and straunge, That rocke cannot, the course of water chaunge : For in the streame, huge stones and rockes retnayne, That backward might the flood of force constrayne. From thence to Ohirke, are mountaynes all a rowe, As though in ranke, the Battaile mountaynes stood And over them, the bitter winde doth blowe, And whirles betwixt, the valley and the wood. Chirke is a ploce, that parts another sheere, And as by trench, and mount doth well appeere: It kept those bounds, from forayne force and power, That men might sleepe, in suretie every bower. H. B.