Welsh Journals

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May, 1874. BYE-GONES. 51 formerly the cavalry of Wales; for it should be known, that the Welsh had cavalry as well as infantry, during their hard-fought struggles for independence. General Elliott was not the first officer who saw the ad¬ vantages arising from employing squadrons of light horse. The palfreys were light and exceedingly active, and many time did they lead the heavy squadrons of the invaders of their pastures, into bogs and swamps, never to be seen more. A regiment of foreign heavy cavalry in the service of one of the Kings of England, when he invaded North Wales, is said to have been engulphed in a bog in Denbighshire, since called ' Cors y Saeson;' and horse shoes of uncommon size are still occasionally dug up there in cutting peat fuel. This breed has been too much neglected : and is now in many parts of Wales nearly extinct. Some suppose it to have been produced by a strong working-horse and the small Welsh merlins, a spirited pigmy race, still occupying seme hilly walks in the interior of the Principality. It has been a question with people of judgment, even with the knowing ones of the turf, which could show most blood in proportion to bone and muscle, the English race-horse or the Welsh merlin. Childers's feats are recorded at New¬ market ; and the merlins are not without their calendar. Tally-ho. CURRENT NOTES. The head of the fiue Cashmere goat, of the 23rd Welsh Fusileers, has been made into a regimental trophy by Mr Emanuel, 3, The Hard, Portsea ; and the skin is made into a drummer's apron. The goat came from the Queen's herd, at Windsor, and succumbed to the effects of climate, two days after landing at Cape Coast. Her Majesty has pre¬ sented another Cashmere goat to the regiment. The Daily Telegraph, April 14, says :—" But when we are asked to accept the ' Iliad' in its integrity because Dr. Schliemann has come across the ruins of an old city under the mounds of Hissarlik, we cannot but think of the biblio- logist who found conclusive proof of the Mosaic narrative of the Deluge in the fact that he picked up an oyster-shell on the top of Snowdon." Who was the bibhologist referred to ? At a recent meeting of the Archaeological Institute, Mr Burtt read an autograph letter of the Earl of Marr, the well known Jacobite leader, dated " From ye Councell Board att Inspruck, April 17, 1717," written by " ye per¬ mission of the King my master" to "Lewis Pryce, E q., att Gogurthan," the representative of the most influential family in the county of Cardigan, informing him of an in¬ tended descent upon the coast of Wales, in favour of the Pretender in that year, which appears, however, not to have taken place. The original is preserved among the MSS at Peniarth, and was exhibited by Mr W. W. E. Wynne. MONTGOMERYSHIRE COLLECTIONS. Our notice of the new part of the Montgomeryshire Collections of the Powys-land Club, last week, was con¬ fined to one subject, viz., the article on Oswestry Church. It will be well here to say that the part before us contains, in addition, a continuation of Mr Hamer's Parochial Account of Llanidloes ; some further illustrations of Rood Screens, by Mr JDavid Walker; a continuation of Mont¬ gomeryshire Words and Phrases ; several interesting letters of the Herbert family ; the Battle of Rhyd y groes, and more of the Rev. W. V. Lloyd's genealogical notes on Public Officers of Montgonu ryshire. To this list must be added a paper on the Parish of TJan- wddyn, by the Vicar, in which, under the heading of "Folk Lore," we have two or three subjects mentioned that are extremely interesting. First, as to the Rosemary Plant, Mr Evans says :— Many of the people maintain that this plant blossoms on Christmas morning. About sixty years ago, one Rowland Richards was preparing for the plygain, which was to be held at the " Garris," and between the hours of four and five in the morning went to the rosemary bush with a candle in his hand, and there, according to his tale, saw " three blossoms" thereon; he at once called his wife and four children to witness the same. Two of these are still living, and testify to the truth of this story. The moral construction they give is, that the •• three blossoms on one plant represent the Trinity in Unity, condes¬ cending to confirm the nativity of our Saviour on that day to a faithless people." In one of the Old Games of the parish the author cites Y Maen Camp, as follows :— Throwing a heavy stone was a game in great repute in the parish up to the present century. The fete days were Christmas Day, Good Friday, and the Feast of St. John th< Baptist, the patron saint of the parish. One of these (meini) stones was kept in each parish, and was the property of the old man called '• Y Maenwr," who hired it out. The stone last used we have already alluded to weighs 75Jlbs., and bears the initials of the " Y Maenwr " (stone man) At these games it is said that a man called Llewelyn Fawr (Llt-welyn the Great) a native of the parish ef Llanymawddwy, could throw this last stone a distance of fifteen yards; and if any particular party, or parish, feared to be beaten in the game by any strangers attending, they would from the first engage Llewelyn Fawr to be among thei own per¬ formers, and invariably he came off victorious. It had become a bye-word if any one threw some distance beyond the rest, " Dyna dawliad Llewelyn Fawr" (that is throwing like Llewelyn the Great.) This Llewelyn the Great was mentioned in Bye-gone* (Mar. 14, 1873), as a benefactor to the parish of Llany¬ mawddwy, and on July 3i), 1873, there was a short account of him. Another subject interesting to our readers, viz., the powers of Seventh Sons, is also mentioned in connection with Llanwddyn, and we are told that— Whooping Cough could only be safely and perfectly cured in the following manner. The father of the child suffering was to go to a seventh son of a family of sons only, and get him to make a piece of bread and bu ter, and in doing this he was to breathe over it seven times, and then give it to the sufferer. This was believed to be an infallible cure for the whooping cough. We beg to congratulate the editors on the increased in¬ terest of these Collections. No better volume has been issued than the one we have here noticed. May 6,1874. BENT IN HIS TWO DOUBLES—In reference to tnis expression (see Apr. 8, 29), J. H.M. says the Wslch expression to which he alluded is " Yn ei dd tu ddwbl " : and Bonwm observes that it i^ highly expressive when applied to an old and de- crepid man, gone at the knees and stooping in body. Such a man would literally be in his two doubles ! NOTES. ASSEMBLIES AT CHESTER AND SHREWS- ^ BURY.—There is an account of Salisbury in A Journey Throvgh England, taken in the time of Queen Audo, and published in 1722, in which mention is m*de of the 'Assembly,' where "you drink tea and coffee, play at cards, and often country dances, you pay half-a-crown a quarter towards the expense." The writer in enumerating the advantages these sive observes that " formerly country ladies were stewed up in their father's old mansion houses, and seldom saw company, but at an assize, a horse¬ race, or a fair. But by the means of these Assemblies, matches are struck up, and the officers of the army have had