Welsh Journals

July, 1874. BYE-GONES. 73 July 1, 1874. NOTES. THE SEVERALL SHIRES.—"A briefe note of the chiefest commodities every severall shire in England yieldeth, extracted from 'A Newe Almanacke and Prunos- tication, for the yeare of our Lord God 1615, being the thirde after Leap Year, and ect. by Thomas Bretnor, Pro- fessour of the Mathematicks and Student in Physicke, in Cowlane, London.'" After enumerating the Counties of England, the author continues— Gloucester, woods, and blessings more. Shropshire, cottens passiDg good. Hereford woll and sheepe doth breede. Monmoth, stony, for Wales is cold. Glamorgan, a spring that flows with tyde. Radnor, rivers the banks that fill. Brecknocke, salmon and trout beside. Cardigan, pastures and meeres at will. Caermarthen, cattle, corn, and coales. Pern Brooke, haukes, fish, barley, grame. Montgomerie breedeth goates and foales. M>rionith, rocks and mountains maine. Denbighe, leade, and cannal for fire. Flint hath rie, and once had mines. Anglesey all heart can desire. Caernarven, hilley, and fruit sometimes. --------- Eliola. QUERIES. TRIGG.—Is the sir-name, Trigg, Welsh, and, if so, what is its origin, and in what part of Wales did it first appear ? An answer to those queries would be of interest to a very large family in the United States bearing that sir-name. The family are of opinion that the name is Welsh, and the tradition is that the first immigrants of that name to America came from Wales to Virginia about the year 1700. The name can now be found in all of the Southern and South-Western States of the Union. All of that name in America trace themselves to the Virginian settlers. The name is not without distinction in this country. There were two of the name in the American Congress, from Virginia, between the years 1794 and 1806. I find the word, trig, signifying neat, used by Burns and other writers who wrote in the Scottish dialect, but do not conceive that the name is derived from the word. MlSSODBI. REPLIES. PARR'S LIFE PILLS (June 3, 1874.)—One of your correspondents mentions a portrait of Parr, published by the proprietors of the Pills, and said to be by Rubens. Sir Baldwyn Leighton wrote an account of Parr for the Alberbury Almanack for 1874, in which he enumerated the following portraits of th>' Shropshire Centenarian. He says:—" There are pictures of the old man known to be ex¬ tant at the following places, some of which are duplicates of a picture probably by Dobson. 1. The Ashmoleian. 2. The Dresden Gallery. 3. Belvoir Castle. 4. Moor Park, Ludlow. 5. Condover Hall, Salop. 6. Rowton Castle. 7. Loton Park, Salop. There are prints of some of the portraits by Vosterman. G. White, T. Grainger." lo number six of this list, Sir Baldwyn appends the follow¬ ing note: " This portrait, painted by Vandyke, was originally in the collection of Charles I. After his execu¬ tion it was sent to Paris with many others of his pictures. « was afterwards brought back to England, and became, °7 purchase, the property of the late Earl of Warwick, who xx . presented it to its present owner, Lady Charlotte Lyster." How far is Chambers, quoted by Blackpool (June 3,) correct in saying that Parr was painted by Rubens ? Had that illustrious artist not left England before Old Parr was taken to London? Vandyke, I think, came to London after Rubens left, and Rubens's mission to our country was in 1630, when he was knighted by Charles I. P«rr was not taken to London until 1635 and died the same year. Sir Baldwyn Leighton inclines to the belief that Parr did really attain to the age of 152 years, relying chiefly on the authority of Taylor and Harvey. To the first of these I would give but little credence, because it doubtless paid him to make the most of the seven days' wonder Lord Arundell, " in his innated, noble, and Christian piety," took into " his charitable tuition and protection!" Besides the Water Poet got all the facts (?) from the pocrypbal " daughter-in law, named Lucye," and the other parties who exhibited Parr, when he was " living in the Strand." Harvey, too, could be no authority. When he made his post mortem examination he was of course told that the subject died at 152 years of age; and his examinatioD, if worth anything as evidence, (see May 13) goes to prove that the body he opened was that of a man many years younger. Sir Baldwyn's account of Old Parr is interesting, and although much of it will doubtless be known to most of your readers, a few extracts will not be out of place. He says :—" It appears from contemporary records that John Parr, the father of Thomas, was a petty farmer at Winnington, holding his cottage and a few acres of land on lease from a Mr Lewis Porter. Thomas lived with his father till he was 17, and then went to service: there is a tradition that he was in service at Rowton castle, and the picture (a half length of the school of Vandyke) which hangs in that dining-room is one of the best extant of him. At the age of 35 he returned home on his father's death, who left him 4 years of the lease of the place. In 1522, at the age of 39. he re¬ newed his father's lease from Mr Lewis Porter, for 21 years, and at the age of 60 (in 1543) he renewed again for 21 years from Mr John Porter, the son of Mr Lewis Porter, and at the mature age of 80 he married Jane Taylor, by whom he had a son and a daughter, both of whom died young. In 1585, at the age of 102, he renewed his lease again from Mr Hugh Porter, the son of Mr John Porter, and three years afterwards, at the discreet age of 105, he did penance in Alberbury Church for disorderly conduct with Katharine Milton. "When towards the end of his life, King Charles I. asked him, after having lived so long what he had done more than other men, he is said to have related to him this occurrence: How for having satisfaction 'twas thought meet He should be purged by standing in a sheet; Which aged (he) one hundred and five year , In Alberbury's Parish Church did weare, Sh uld all that so offend such Penance doe, Oh what a price would linen rise unto. In 1595. when Thomas Parr was 112 years old, his wife Jane, to whom he had been married 32 years, died, and 10 years afterwards this mature juvenile, »t the age of 122, married another Jane, perhaps in memory of his first. She was the daughter of Jo*n Lloyd (or Flood) of Gilsells (possibly Guilsfield) in Montgomeryshire, and the widow of a Mr Anthony Adda. He lived with her ; 0 years, but had no children. After having again renewed his lease (this time for life, of which he saw 50 years) from Mr John Porter, the son of Hugh, and grandson of John, who had granted him his second lease, his fame reached the Court, and in 1635 Charles I. sent for him." Sir Baldwyn then goes on to quote Taylor, but I am at a loss to know how he reconciles Taylor's assertion that Parr's daughter-in-law, Lucy, accompanied the old man to London, with his own 19