Welsh Journals

304 BYE-GONES. Nov., 1877. virtue." Her Diary she bequeathed to the grand-daughter of Philip Henry, afterwards the wife of the Rev. Thos. Holland, a Dissenting Minister in Wem." It was to this " Thomas Hunt" that Mr. Charles Owen, in 1707, dedicated the Life of the Rev. Mr. James Owen, who has been previously mentioned, and who was the first minister of the Old Chapel, Oswestry, on the removal of the Congregational Church from Sweeney to Oswestry. Mr. Charles Owen, in this dedication, refers to the thirty- years intercourse between Mr. Hunt and Mr. James Owen. From this time I can give no record of the Hunt family until the advent of the patriotic and benevolent grand¬ father of the deceased Lord of the Treasury, to whom there have been several references in Bye-gones. Nor can I say when the family forsook the ranks of Nonconform¬ ity for those of the Episcopal Church. The late Mr. Winterbotham, M.P., in a speech he delivered at Bristol shortly before his death, said that "when a Dissenter set up his carriage, you could safely predict that his grandson would be a Churchman." But that conscience rather than snobbery actuated the Hunts, may be seen in the kind feeling they have usually manifested to the professors of the faith of their fathers. Even so far down as the present generation has this feeling existed, and I have been told by parties who know from the best source, that a dissenting minister in the neighbourhood of Wadenhoe, in Northamptonshire, had no kinder or more considerate friend than the Right Honourable George "Ward Hunt. In all this I have not answered the query of "O.C.," relative to Col. Hunt's connection with Nonconformity in Oswestry, but I should say that if "Thomas Hunt" ever was a trustee of the Old Chapel, it must have been the grandson of the Colonel. That it could not have been the first Thomas, the date of his death shows. Puritan. NOVEMBER 7, 1877. NOTES. PRESENTING THE STANDARDS.—The re¬ cent depositing of the standards of the 52nd reg. in the church of St. Chad, Shrewsbury, recals a note I once made of a presentation of standards to a Salopian Volunteer regiment. The record runs as follows :—Nov. 29, 1798. Gala day in Shrewsbury on the occasion of presenting the Standards to the three troups of Yeomanry Cavalry, by the Corporation. Grand procession to St. Chad's, the Standards being borne by the three senior aldermen— Thomas Wingfield, William Smith, and Robert Corbett. On the arrival of the troops and Corporation at the church, the standards " were placed on the altar," and a sermon was preached by the Rev. Hugh Owen, chaplain to the Corps. After service all parties assembled in The Quarry, when Mr. Joseph Loxdale, deputy-recorder, de¬ livered an address, and the Mayor [qy. Nath. Betton] presented the Standards to Lieut. Beck, Cap. Powys, and Cap. Hanmer. The day's doings concluded with sundry dinners. Scrobbes Byrio. "GUY FAUX" AT WEM.—I observe in the papers that the superintendent of police applied at the last Wem Petty Sessions for " an order to be issued for¬ bidding fire-works in the streets of Wem on the 5th of November." The officer complained that last year " six hundred roughs assembled, aided and abetted by several respectable people in the town," and the scenes were dis¬ graceful. It would appear tha an unruly Fifth of November is by no means a new thing in Wem. I have before me a cutting from a newspaper—how old I cannot say, perhaps half a century—which gives an account of a trial heard at the Shrewsbury assizes before Baron Vaughan. The case is headed " The King versus Richards and others," the " others " being Kynaston, Wycherley, and Chidloe. Mr. Camp bell appeared for the prosecu¬ tion and Mr. Bather for the defence. From the evidence it transpired that on the 5th of the previous November, "between six and seven in the evening, between 300 and 400 persons had assembled in the street at Wem, opposite Mr. Walmsley's, draper," where they lighted a bon-fire. Mr. Walnisley and his partner, Mr. Ireland, put it out, whereupon their windows were broken by the mob. Mr. Campbell stated that it had been the practice " for 30 years, to light a bon-fire every 5th of ^November, before the house of Mr. Walmsley."^ Some day I may give the case in full, in Bye-gones, as it is not long; meanwhile can any of yoiir readers give an approximate date ? At the same assizes there were cases heard " Lord Shrewsbury v. Pickering and 67 others," also "Walton v. Darlington," a Wem action for alleged false imprisonment. My " cutting " only leaves the names of these. Tell. QUERIES. DOLGELLEY "DIRTY FAIR."—In the Cam¬ brian News of Friday last I observe that the fair held at Dolgelley on the 16th of December is called by people in the district the " Dirty Fair." Is the term an old one, and what is its origin ? Taffy. CHESTER ROBBERY. — From a newspaper of May, 1795, I copy the following:—" A remarkable rob¬ bery was committed at the last Chester races : every lodger at a principal inn in that city being deprived of his watch, cash and bills, with which the villains got clear off." Was there not a similar robbery at a Chester hotel during the race-week a few years ago ? Wrexhamite. REPLIES. TOPOGRAPHICAL NAMES (Oct 3, 1877).- Malpas.—I extract from Camden's Remains a peculiar anecdote connected with the name of Malpas, which may possibly interest readers of Byz-gones. It is from page 160, published 1614, as follows :— Hitherto may be referred that which Giraldus Cambrensis re- porteth. An Archdeacon named Peccatum or P<JcAc, a ruraJl Deane called De-vill, and a Jew travelling together in tne Marches of Wales, when they came to Illstreate, the Archdeacon said to his Deane, that their Jurisdiction began there, ana reached to Malpasse; the Jew considering the names of tne Deane, Archdeacon, and limits, said by Allusion : Marvel may it be if I escape well out of this Jurisdictio, where Sinne w Archdeacon, the Diuell the Deane, and the bounds Illstreate ana Malpasse. Landwof. Brynibo.— Owen Jones, in his Cymru, suggests Bryn-bwa to have been the original form of Brymbo, ana the way in which the name should now properly oe written. Bryn-bwa translated into English would w bow-hill or curve-hill. But if that be not physically•de¬ scriptive of the hilly range of the township, it cannot;w accepted as the real meaning of the name. The respects claims of Brynbaw and Bryn-bwa to the origin on should be duly weighed, by considering the circumstance and natural formation of the locality, and prelere^ should be given to the most descriptive.