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164 BYE-GONES. Dec, 1876. December 6,1876. NOTES. MAJOR ORMSBY GORE.—The Sun newspaper, in one of its issues in Dec, 1822, made the following an¬ nouncement:—" Major Ormsby Gore, who married the great heiress of Oswestry, is keeping open house to the sporting world. That gentleman has the finest crack hounds in Europe." Oswald. QUERIES. TAFOD-Y-MERCHED.— I have heard this name is commonly applied to the aspen poplar, in Wales, as signifi¬ cant of the wagging of a woman's tongue. Is such the case ? Eliola. Aberystwyth. POEM OX WELSH FLANNEL.—If Dyer could extract poetry out of The Fleece, why not George Thomas out of the manufactured article ? Mr. Hulbert tells vis in the course of his trip down the Severn (see Hist, of Salop, p. 54), that "George Thomas, a Montgomeryshire poet, in his poem entitled 'Welsh Flannel,' thus emphatically describes IS ewtown :— " The harp had slept, and commerce bless'd our vales, When Newtown rose, the busy Leeds of Wales; Where cattle grazed and meadows once were green, Fair streets are formed, and crowds of people seen; Industrious mortals seeming well to thrive, All useful bees in the commercial hive." Who was George Thomas ? When and where did he live, and has his poem ever been published in full? G.G. REPLIES. SAMUEL BRADBURN (Sep. 20. 1876).—A story— and very likely a 'story'—related of more than one pair of eccentric ministers, has been told of Samuel Bradburn. The version I give is from the pen of Mr. Hulbert, whose book on Salop more than one of your correspondents have quoted :—" It is related of him that in his earlier years having formed an acquaintance with a shrewd Dissenting minister, it was agreed they should preach in each other's pulpit, from texts chosen one for the other, and that without either being acquainted with the subject until the moment of the sermon commencing. The Dissenting minister having made the proposition, chose the text for Mr. Brad- burn, Joshua ix, 5, ' Old shoes and clouted.' Mr. Brad- burn, without a moment's hesitation, commenced a dis¬ course, astonishing in its display of talent and ingenuity. . . It now became Mr. Bradbum's turn to select a passage, when, after the minister had conducted the service to the commencement of the discourse, Mr. Brad- burn conveyed to his hand on a slip of paper, ' Am not I thine ass?' Num. xxii., 30." The text, I need not say, was not given out. Gossip. BLUE STONE, A CURE FOR HYDROPHOBIA (Nov. 22, 1876).—I have known Brecknockshire for up¬ wards of forty years, and am not aware of a single in¬ stance in which Lithfaen (alluring stone) has been admin¬ istered. Neither am I aware that there is a specimen in the possession of any person in the county. Some forty years ago there was an old man of the name of David Matthew, a tiler by trade, living in Dyffryn Caidrich, a hamlet in the parish of Llangadock, co. Carmarthen, who used to administer Lithfaen. About sixty years since an old woman who resided at Blaen-y-dd&l, a farmhouse in the extreme S.E. of the parish of Mothvy, where Profes¬ sor Phillipps, the eminent geologist's father, was born, and on the occasion of a "Bidding" given in the adjoining parish of Llanddausant, a large quantity of rice pudding tea-cake, &c, were consumed, and in the course of a few days one of the cows showed symptoms of hydrophobia, and had to be destroyed. The consequence was that every person who partook of the good things at the Bidding re¬ paired to Blaen-y-dddl, and took the remedy and it is needless to say that the desired effect was the result. It is said that the stone never diminishes in size. Happily such superstitious observances are fast dying off. ' J. Brecon. PARKER ON GATES (Nov. 22, 1876.)—In his Leaves out of the Booh of a Countru Gentleman (Oswestry, Price 1847), I find :— No. 10. Diagram showing the composition and resolution of forces in hanging turnpike gates, elevation and plan of Gallows Tree Bank Gate, lower hinge of turnpike gate, with a bevelled wheel, outlines of hanging posts for turnpike gates. No. 11. Outlines of upper hinges of turnpike gate. No. 12. Outline of upper hinge of turnpike gate, with short shaft of thimble adopted at the Mile Oak, Porthywaen, and Wolf s Head gates, cap and pivot for hinge of hanging post, &c. At page 7 he says :— If it may be wished to enter more fully into this branch of the subject, I must beg to refer the reader to Rees' Cyclopaedia ed: 1819, where he will find under the head "Gates" copious extracts from the second edition of my former publication on Gates which has been for sometime out of print. The plan, elevation and description of Gallows Tree Bank Gate presents the opportunity of giving a full ac¬ count and estimate of the whole, and of settling the terms upon which the same may be contracted for by Mr. Griffith Morris and Sons, builders, Oswestry. J.S.D. THE LATE T. J. OUSELEY (Nov. 22, 1876).- The death of this gentleman was recorded in the reprint of Biie-gones 1874, p. 56. Nearly thirty years ago he was well known as a newspaper editor and proprietor in Shrop¬ shire. Amongst others the Shropshire Conservative, the Ten Towns' Messenger and the Shropshire Mercury, were creations of his brain, all of which died for want "of sup¬ port. When the late Mr. S. Roberts published, and the late Mr. Sabine, sen., and Mr. Whitridge Roberts edited, a periodical called Osivald's Well, 1847-8, Mr. Ouseley was a contributor. In the number for March, 1848 a poem, "Old Dreams," of more than usual merit appeared from his pen. When he left Shropshire I believe he first settled in Liverpool, where he edited a violent orange paper, and soon got at loggerheads with the Roman Catholics. Then he retired to the Isle of Man, where he died. Mr. Disraeli was an old patron of his, and shortly before his death Mr. Ouseley was put on the pension list by the Conservative premier. He was not a native of Salop, I believe. Jarco. In Shreds and Patches, 1875, p. 150, " J.L.," writing on the Dialect of Shropshire, says, "In reference to the word ' cack,' I once heard a good—if a little dirty—appli¬ cation of the word. One evening, some years ago, there were present, among others, at 'The Bull,' Ouseley and George Maxon. < luseley had been composing rhyming epitaphs upon the names of several persons. Maxon de¬ clared that his name was too difficult for rhyming, when Ouseley burst out in his stammering style :— " Beneath this stone lies one George Maxon, A name that every little child cacks on." Spot. Thomas John Ouseley, in 1849, published a 12m°. volume of poems, dedicated to the late Viscount Bin- He at that time resided at Hadnal, near Shrewsbury, and was the editor of the Shropshire Conservative. In tn0 preface he says :—" Most of the following,poems have ap-