Welsh Journals

Mar., 1876. BYE-GONES. So MELVERLEY GOD HELP (Dec. 1, 1875.)-Mel- verley is remarkably subject to floods, and in wet seasons, the inhabitants, being seriously distressed, are called "Mel- verley God helps." Some of them used to go begging round the farm houses in the parish of Worthen, and when asked whence they came, they would answer, with doleful countenances and in sad tones, "From Melverley, God help us." In favourable seasons, however, the land being very fertile, they are blessed with abundant crops, and then, being asked the same question, they reply triumphantly, "From Melverley ! Where do you think?" R.E.D. Shrewsbury. March 29, 1876. LANDOWNERS OF DENBIGHSHIRE.-In the Domesday list we published March 1. on page 26, our readers will find " Lloyd, John, Plas Issa, 675 acres, £530 rent." Described cor¬ rects, at the present date it should read "Lloyd, Alfred, 28, Park'Road, Haverotock Hill, London, 784 acres, £560 rent." NOTES. TRAVELLING IN WALES.—Sydney Smith, writing in September, 1799, when he made a short tour in j Wales with his pupil, says, " We have been miserably de¬ layed by the state of Welsh post horses, finding it difficult : to get on thirty-five miles a day. From Machynlltth to Dolgelley, eighteen miles of excellent road, we were more j than five hours and a-half, though we gave the horses corn j on the road, got out of the carriage and pushed with all our might."—Memoirs of the Rev Sydney Smith, page 21. ] Aberystwyth. ELIOLA. j ROMAINE AT SHREWSBURY.—Soon after the j expulsion of the Methodistical Oxonians in 1768, the Rev. Mr Romaine visited Shrewsbury, and he was permitted to ! preach at St. Chad's. The sermon caused quite a sensation, and Dr Adams, the incumbent of the parish, followed him into the vestry and said in a very angry tone, " Sir, my ! congregation is not used to such doctrine, and I hope will never hear such again." A fortnight after Dr Adams de- livered a sermon in reply. This was afterwards printed, ! and roused the indignation of Mr Richard Hill (afterwards | Sir Richard) of Hawkstone, who published a letter to the doctor, vindicating the doctrines of Mr Romaine. Mr Hill j charged Dr Adams with being an advocate of ' Rational Religion ' and of being at variance with the Articles and Liturgy of the Church of England, in not placing due prominence to the Atonement. Mr Romaine also wrote a j letter, and, altogether, the county town was in a polemical ferment for a month or two. The proceedings are narrated in Sidney's Life of Sir Richard Hill. H.E.T. WELSH DECAMERON. — In The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine and Celtic Repertory, for 1831, being \ the third volume of that periodical, occurs in page 248, this I paragraph, namely,—"In the press in three vols., post I 8yo., the Welsh Decameron, or Tales illustrative of Cam- | orian Life, Customs, &c. Report speaks highly of this work." In pp. 467-86, of the same volume appeared an article on " Ceubren yr Ellyll, or the Bride of Nant Uwrtheyrn," stated to have been selected from the Welsh Decameron, shortly to be published." In a foot note to the heading of a poem entitled " A Bard's-Eye View of Wales, by a Hermit Poet," commenced on page 300 of volume four, it is asserted, '«some of the following stanzas form a poeti¬ cal preface to the Welsh Decameron, now in course of pub- "wi011, In PP' 25*36 of the 8ame volume was inserted a letter from an Amateur Gipsy," professing to be from his " Tent in the Valley of the Pyscottwr, Caermarthenshire,', the signature appended to it being " the Rural Doctor." In volume five, pp. 496-507, was added a "second letter of an Amateur Gipsy," transmitted " from his cloister in the Abbey of Llanthony." In volume four pp. 168—89, was published an account of " a Welsh Shepherd's Tra¬ gedy, founded on fact," taken "from the Journal of the Rural Doctor." In pp. 220—22. there appeared a poem entitled "A Lyric Elegy" on "Conjux Eju?, the only words left of some inscription on an ancient sepulchral stone between Brecknock and Trecastle," the name affixed to which is "J. Downes." In pp. 433—55, there was in¬ serted an article professing to contain "conversations of poets among the Mountains," to which no name was at¬ tached. In volume five, pp. 524—45, there appeared a " Glamorganshire Legend, of the Lord of Dunraven Castle, by the Rural Doctor." The author of this and the other forementioned articles, whether under the assumed desig¬ nation of " A Hermit Poet," "An Amateur Gipsy," " The Rural Doctor," or of J. Downes, I take to be, from internal and other evidence, one and the same person, namely, Doctor Downes, of Builth, Breconshire, who, in 1836, pub¬ lished in three post 8vo. volumes a work of fiction under the title of The Mountain Decameron. In the first page of the " Glamorganshire Legend" referred to above (vol. v. p. 524), he speaks "of the remote fishing village of Aber- ayron, Carnarvonshire," on the promontory of Lleyn, meaning, I presume, Aberdaron, as Aberaeron is far south, some fifty miles distant, in Cardiganshire. In the second volume, p. 76 of The Mountain Decameron, the very same error is made where Lleyn is said to terminate "in the wild fishing village of Aberayron, off which lies the island of monastic ruins, Bardsey," where again Aberdaron is evi¬ dently meant. If any reliance may be placed on what is affirmed in the passages which have been adduced, in reference to the " Welsh Decameron," namely, that it was in the press in 1831, that the romance of "Ceuhren yr Ellyll, or the Bride of Nant Gwrtheyrn," was selected from it, and that some stanzas from " Bard's Eye View of Wales " formed a poetical preface to it, it will appear that it is a separate and distinct work from the Mountain De¬ cameron of 1836, by the same author, since the selections alleged to have been taken from the former are not to be found in the latter. In 1848 there resided at Senny Bridge, ne?tr Brecon, a Mrs Downes, but whether she waa related to Dr Downes, of Builth, I have no means ef knowing, nor can I tell what became of him after 1836, as I can find no mention of his name as that of the author of any new work subsequent to that year. The character of the Mountain Decameron as a work of fiction, its delineations of human nature devoid of credit, and its narratives of palpable improbabilities, will be best explained by the following review of it, which was pub¬ lished soon after its appearance. " While we praise the power and skill with which many- parts of these tales are written ; the picturesque deli¬ neations of nature, the transcript of manners, and the general conduct of the fable t we must protest against the groundwork of the histories themselves, which are founded on circumstances, as that of Ruth and Marmaduke, most improbable and unnatural; as love growing up between a fathei and daughter, ignorant of their sacred relation to each other—their unhallowed hopes—their disappointment and their death of despair. Nearly all the stories are of the same cast, containing descriptions of strong uncontrollable passions, despe¬ rate resolves, fearful vicissitudes, and violent and tragic ter¬ minations. The skill with which such tales are written only adds to the evil they are too apt to occasion; and the syinp-. thies they excite are so powerful and distressing, as to acr most disadvantageous^ on the mind. If Mr Downes will take up ano.her