Welsh Journals

evening. In returning thanks to Mr and Mrs Barn9a, Professor Morris spoke of the very great kindness and respect they had shewn to the Association, which had never been so hosoitably entertained as it had been during the visit to the North Wales border. Mr J. B. Barnes spoke of the pleasure it had been to Mrs Barnes and himself to welcome them. Mr Hudleston, as secretary, offered the thanks of the Association to those who had so ably directed them. Professor Morris was their able and genial friend. It was through the writings of Mr Davies, which were known among geologists for their accuracy and the breadth of their teaching, that they had made this visit. Though never in the district in the bodybefore,he had often been there in spirit. He wished Dr Hicks had been there to speak for himself, as well as Professor Hughes. Mr Davies said it had been a great pleasure to him to see so many well known geologists in the midst of the scenes in which he had been years a»o a solitary worker. He thought the visit of the Association had not been a mere dilettante one, but that some real work had been done, and many questions mooted of which they should hear again. He was obliged by Mr Hudleston's re¬ ference to his recent paper on the " Drift "of this region, the drift of which, he thought, was, that after a while t h« Associa¬ tion would like t© pay another visit, and he hoped it would. He would convey the best wishes of those present to Mr Barnes, sen., who was present.—Mr Barnes thanked them, and said it seemed to him the more there was found out concerning the earth, the more there remained to be dis¬ covered. August 2, 1876. NOTES. THE WELSH LANGUAGE.-Mr Hawthorne, the American author, who resided in England in 1854, refers in his Note Book more than once to the Welsh language. In the omnibus from Ruthin to Denbigh he listened to some women talking, and remarks " It has a strange, wild sound, like a language half blown away by the wind," Going from Conway to Llandudno (also in an omnibus) he hears two young ladies speaking Welsh, whereupon he says: " They were pleasant-looking girls, who talked Welsh to¬ gether—a gutteral, childish kind of a babble." Y.H.L. QUERIES. THE BATTLE OF CHIRK BANK.—Will son>e one of our elders relate for the benefit of the rising genera¬ tion the story of the Battle of Chirk Bank, which occurred many years ago, and which was won without a struggle by the North Shropshire Yeomanry ? The oft-quoted " Min- shull the Printer" wrote a ballad on the occasion, I have been told, of which the last line of each verse was "Where clinkers sore did rattle." Has any one preserved the ballad ? Young Oswestry. REPLIES. SIR ROBERT VAUGHAN (June 28, 1876),— There is no doubt, as Fbednd suggests, that in the neigh¬ bourhood of Dolgelley and Llanfachreth will be found among the older inhabitants as many anecdotes of the generous deeds and noble actions of the old Baronet of Nannau as would make a nice little volume, if they were only collected. The recollection of the old Sir Bobert Vaughan of Nannau is held in the greatest reverence by all the old inhabitants of this neighbourhood. One anecdote from many will serve the present purpose, to show his hospitality, and also bis fondness for the droll and plain old " characters" of his country in his time. The old town crier, " Cadwalader," .had some slight business with Sir Robert at Nannau. After being well treated by his orders in the servants' hall, the old crier was called into the library to transact what business he had. The floor was richly carpeted, and the old crier being a great chewer of tobacco, Sir Robert had provided a "spittoon," and, after two or three heavy splashes on the carpet, he was told to use the spittoon, when the " crier" said, "Na 'n wir, Sir Robert bach, mae byn yn ormod o groesaw; mae 'r carpad yn ddi-fai i mi." I shall send you a few more of his anecdotes, if acceptable. Lewis Evans. Dolgelley. PISTYLL RHAIADR (June 21, 1876).—The reprint of the correspondence upon Pistyll Rhaiadr, brings to my recollection a statement made by Mr Edward Parry, of Chester, which is altogether confirmatory of Mr Hancock's view; and he undoubtedly was a good authority upon all that affected the life and works of Dewi Wyn. On the other hand,however, Mr Hugh Jones (Erfyl), held a different opinion, and of the two, he probably was far more intimate with Mr David Thomas than the first named gentleman. The transcendent beauties of Wales have not been so fully explored by tourists as one would wish, for as a rule they follow the old beaten tracks, and are content to accept upon trust the statements made to them, by idle guides, that there i9 nothing particu¬ larly new to be seen, in any given locality of North Wales. Some years ago the late Sir Stephen Glynne, and a party who accompanied him, ascended Snowdon from a point which is never or but rarely used by sight-seers. Mr W. H. Gladstone, M.P., who was of the party, described the route they had taken, in the visitors' book, then open at the Inn, at Penygwryd, and if any of your readers can find it, and would take the trouble to transcribe what he wrote, and then send it to you, it might lead to further remarks of a like nature. I know that there are numerous poincs of interest in divers parts of North Wales that have never been described in print, and although we have plea« sant and agreeable "routes" laid out in our numerous " guide books," they might be added to, and indeed greatly extended if local antiquarians would but tell us all they know. Llanrhaiadr, for instance, need not be " shut up in a bottle" for any great length of time, if all its beauties and the delights of its surroundings were but properly written up. Make a place known, let the public be led to explore it, and in a very short time you will find the rail¬ way extended beyond Llanfyllin, and the whole country opened up to crowds of people who know nothing of it now. Gladwin. HENRY VAUGHAN, OF MORETON SAY (June 14,1876).—Moreton Say is a township in the parish of Hodnet, in the Drayton division of the hundred of Bradford North, and must not be confounded with Mor¬ ton near Oswestry. I have before me as I write the "Testimony of the Ministers of the Province of Salop to the Truth of Jesus Christ and to the Solemn League and Covenant," which was "printed bv F. N. for Tho. Under¬ bill at the Bible in Wood-street, 1648," and amongst the list of names attached is that of " Henrv Vaughan, Pastor of Moreton Say.^ In Williams's Life ef Philip Henry it is stated that, in 1657, when H*nry was ordained, five others were ordained at the same time, and that one of the party was " Mr Dickins of Moreton Say," so I presume Vaughan was only a few years in his Shropshire living. Puritan.