Welsh Journals

248 BYE-GONES. June, 1875. circle ?), when lo ! upon a sudden after some time of in¬ vocation, Evans was taken out of the room, and carried into the field near Battersea Causeway, close to the Thames. Next morning, a countryman, going by to his labour, and spying a man in black clothes, came unto him and awaked him, and asked him how he came there ? Evans bv this understood his condition, and inquired where he was ? how far from London ? and in what parish he was ? which, when he understood, he told the labourers he had been late at Battersea the night before, and by chance was left there by his friends. Sir Kenelm and the Lord Bothwell went home without any harm, and came next day to hear what was become of him. Just as they, in the afternoon, came to the house, a messenger came from Evans to his wife to come to him at Battersea. I inquired upon what account the spirit carried him away ! when he said he had not, at the time of the invocation, made any suffumigation ; at which the spirits were vexed !" A. June 2, 1875. NOTES. A RUNAWAY UNDER-SHERIFF.—An adver¬ tisement appeared in the London Gazette in 1688, as fol¬ lows :— Whereas Mr Herbert Jones, Attorney-at-Law in the town of Monmouth, well known by being several years together Onder- Shenff of the same county, hath of late divers times robbed the Mail coming from that town to London, and taken out divers letters and writs, and is now fled from justice, and sup¬ posed to have sheltered himself in some of the new-raised troops. These are to give notice that whosoever shall secure the said Herbert Jones, so as to be committed in order to answer these said crimes, may give notice thereof to Sir Thomas Fowles, goldsiuith, Tenule Bar, London, or to Mr Michiel Bohune, mercer, in Monmouth, and shall have a guinea's reward. A small reward, rather, for so respectable an offender, but perhaps there was some sympathy with a culprit who stole ' writs V G. G. THE POET SHENSTONE.—"Shenstone was one day walking through his romantic retreat in company with his 'Delia' (whose real name was Wilmot), when a man rushed out of a thicket, and presenting a pistol at his breast, demanded his money. Shenstone was surprised, and Delia fainted ! ' Money,' said the robber, ' it is not worth struggling for; you cannot be poorer than I am !' ' Unhappy man !' exclaimed Shenstone; throwing his purse to him,'take it, and fly as quick as possible.' The man did so, threw his pistol into the water, and instantly dis¬ appeared. Shenstone ordered his footboy to follow the robber, and trace where he went. In two hours the boy returned, and informed his master that he followed him to Hales-Owen, where he lived; that he went to the door of his house, and peeping through the key-hole, saw the man throw the purse on the ground, and say to his wife, " Take the dear-bought price of my honesty !' Then taking two of his children, one on each knee, he said to them, ' I have ruined myjsoul to keep you from starving!' and immediately burst into a flood of tears. Shenstone, on hearing this, lost no time in inquiring the man's character ; and found that he was a labourer oppressed by want, and a numerous family, but had the reputation of being honest and indus¬ trious. Shenstone went to his house. The poor man fell on his feet, and implored mercy. The poet took him home with him, and provided him with employment." The fore¬ going is a ' Newspaper cutting,' so I am unable to quote any authority for it. Nemo. A WELSH PUNISHMENT.-A curious old custom, very unpleasant to the chief actor, was observed at Waenfawr, Carnarvonshire, in 1868. Between nine and ten o'clock in the evening a crowd of people assembled round a house where one Mrs Williams was staying, and called upon her to come out. Mrs Williams, having married a man who had deserted his wife, and knowing perhaps what was in store for her, at first refused, but at last weat outside and accepted an invitation to sit on a ladder. In this uncomfortable attitude she was carried about till mid¬ night, amid the hooting of the crowd. She was then re¬ leased, and, happy in having escaped so lightly, she thanked her persecutors for not killing her. Several men and women were summoned for the assault, and fined 20s. each. Mr Williams, solicitor, who defended them, said, although they might have handled her a little roughly, still it was an old fashion with the neighbours, and had been very preva¬ lent in Wales in former times. H.B. QUERIES. SALOPIAN THANKFULNESS.-On the front of a school at Nescliffe is the following inscription :— God prosper and preserve the public good, A school erected where a chapel stood. The school is said to have been founded in 1767, by W. Parry. What was the chapfcl that preceded it? t School Boeed. FOX-HUNTING ON SNOWDON.— Mrs Camp¬ bell in her Tales about Wales (1837) says " the guide told us that a gentleman, whom we had the pleasure of being acquainted with, had followed a fox to the very summit of Snowdon without dismounting." Miss Catherine Sinclair in her book called Sill and Valley (1838) no doubt alludes to the same gentleman, when she says, " Foxes abound on these hills, though it would require some macadamizing to make this a good hunting country; and few horsemen are such enterprising riders as Colonel E****} M.P., who is alleged to have pursued a fox over the loftiest peak of Snowdon without dismounting!" Who was this daring rider ? The only member of Parlia¬ ment I know of who could be described as Colonel E., with four stars after it, about the time these ladies wrote and published, was De Lacy Evans, but although an Irishman and a daring soldier, I never heard he was given to such pranks aa fox-hunting on Snowdon ! N.W.S. REPLIES. HERALDIC GRIEVANCE OF WALES (Jan. 14,1874).—It would appear that in the sixteenth century Wales was heraldically represented, at least in one of the Supporters of the Royal Arms of England. In a recent number of Notes and Queries (5 s., iii., May 15, 1875), under the title of " The Tudor Supporters," a writer makes the following note:— In a copy of the Breeches Bible, printed in London by the Queen's printers, 1579, the Roval Arms are supported on the dexter side by a scaly dragon, with upright bat wings, the sinister side by the British Lion. On the title page of the New Testament of the same date, comprised in the same volume, the crowned lion is on the dexter Bide, and the winged dragon on the sinister. The winged ied dragon represented the Principality oj Wales, and seems to have been alternately used with th<» English supporter during the Tudor iynasty. On the accession of James the lion became the uniform dexter supporter as rePf?' senting England, and the unicorn the sinister for Scotland, tM red dragon being discontinued. . . .