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122 BYE-GONES. Nov., 1878. belfry, and a south porch. The general condition is very- dilapidated, but it shows proofs of having formerly been a handsome edifice. The east end has been rebuilt at no very distant period, and rough tie-beams thrown at the same time across the chancel to hold the bulging north wall in its place. The perpendicular east window of five lights has been happily retained, and still preserves frag¬ ments of rich early glass of a star and diamond pattern, as well as some aureoles which once crowned the heads of apostles and saints. An early English window stands on either side of the chancel, and on the south there still re¬ mains the priest's door of about the same date. The roof retains a portion of its old panelled ceiling, with bosses at the intersections, and the seats are rude open benches without backs, with the names of certain tenements carved upon them to indicate their former owners. The lower portion of the old rood screen still remains in situ at the division of the chancel and nave, and retains some of its original traceried panels. The desk on the north wall bears the inscription, in characters of the sixteenth century, ' Cronogr Dirigatur oratio nostra quasi incesum in visv patris gratie Sedes impens Ro Davies structa in vsvm paroche Gwyddelwern.' And beneath it the TJcheldre seat, formerly belonging to the Kyffins, has several panels of Jacobean carving, representing dragons, pelicans, doves, &c. The walls of the nave are in good preservation, and the old oak roof with its trefoiled braces and collars is of good design, but some of the seats are primitive and literally more like pens than anything else. The gallery bears the inscription "Gabiiel Hughes, 1634, A geisio ddaioni a ennill ewyllys da ; ond a geisio ddrwg, iddo ei hun y daw. Diar xi., 27.' Beneath it stands the old parish chest, formed of a single trunk and secured by its four locks. The windows of the nave are some of them of three lights with segmental heads, and others of two with flat heads, but all of them with foliations. The old north door has been closed up and the present entrance lies through a porch on the opposite side. The font is octagonal and plain, of perpendicular date; the com¬ munion table, which is small, was ' the gift of Gwen Davies, 1752.'" NOVEMBER 6, 1878. NOTES. MUNICIPAL FINES AT OSWESTRY.—Mr. Francis Campbell was the second mayor elected by the Oswestry Council, after the passing of the Municipal Corporations' Act, and he was appointed Nov. 9, 1836. At the same meeting "certain fees were agreed to, the highest the Act permits, to be levied on all who should decline to act as Mayor, Alderman, or Councillor; other fines were also agreed to for non-attendance of members at the meetings of the Council." Jaeco. PRESENTS TO SHERIFFS AND MAYORS.— Pennant in his History of Whiteford and Holywell, p. 37, says it was formerly the custom for friends and neighbours to make presents to the Sheriff to assist in defraying his expenses. He gives one list as a specimen, when Pyers Pennant was sheriff in 1612. In this list we have money, cows, wethers, geese, wheat, butter, chicks, capons, muttons, &c. At the time he wrote, 1799, I presume the custom had died out, for he speaks of it as one that prevailed earlier than his time. It would appear, how¬ ever, that the custom was observed in relation to Mayors at a period subsequent to the date at which Pennant wrote. I have seen a list, in MS., which has been preserved by the family of a Mayor of Oswestry, dated very early in this century, in which the presents to him on his accession to office are enumerated. They consist of wine, tongues, rum, turkeys, cake, sugar, game, geese, nuts, fowls, cheese, candles, malt, &c, but no money. In those days the Mayor was expected to give at least seven dinners during his year of office, viz. :— The grand feast after election, one more select on the Sunday he marched to church, one each quarter to the grand jury after the sessions, and one to the various officials and hangers-on of the corporation. At "The Feast" given by the Mayor I am referring to, 105 gen¬ tlemen sat down to dinner, and 129 bottles of wine were drunk. And the officials, who enjoyed the chief-magis¬ trate's hospitality at the Cross Keys, were not by any means behind their betters in their performances, for 27 of them drank 31 bottles of wine, besides malt liquor, cyder, perry, and punch. Jaeco. GUNPOWDER PLOT DAY IN CHESTER, 1772.—The following somewhat singular, and exceedingly frightful accident took place in Chester on the 5th of Nov., 1772. The writer, communicating the particulars to the papers on the following day, says :— Yesterday being the anniversary commemoration of the gunpowder-plot, a great number of people of both sexes ; men, women, and children, went in the evening to see George Wil¬ liams's puppet-show, exhibited at a place called Eaton's dancing- room, in Water-gate street; it unfortunately happened, that a neighbouring grocer had, within a few days before, lodged a quantity of gun-powder in a cellar under the show-room, which proved the cause of the most dreadful catastrophe ever known in these parts : for between eight and nine o'clock the powder took fire, (how, or by what accident is not yet ascertained) and blew up the floor, a room over it, and the roof; shattered the walls, which were of stone, and amazingly thick, and communi¬ cating with the scenes, cloaths, &c, instantly set the whole room in a blaze. Thus in a moment were the major part of the com¬ pany buried under massy ruins, surrounded with flames, without any possibility of extricating themselves; so that (besides those who were burnt to death, or killed upon the spot by the fall of heavy stones and timber) scarce one escaped, without being either so miserably scorched or crushed, that few can survive. The explosion was very great.and attended with a convulsion which was felt in the extremity of the city and suburbs. This alarming circumstance incited many people with a curiosity of enquiry into the cause; which, when known, it is impossible to express the dread which every one was possessed with for the safety of their family and friends. But when the dead and wounded were seen borne upon men's shoulders along the streets, the scene became affectingly deplorable. Some fainting away, others cry¬ ing in the bitterest anguish, distracted with the loss of hus¬ bands, wives, children, and relations; in short, the general horror and confusion on this melancholly occasion, is much easier to be imagined than described. The number of dead are computed at forty; that ot the maimed, scorched, and wounded, forty-two, in the general infirmary. Among the former are Williams, the showman, his wife, and a child about four years old. The number of the wounded are, by later accounts, in¬ creased to sixty-six. Much damage is likewise done to the adjacent buildings; several houses being overthrown, and win¬ dows shattered to pieces at an incredible distance by the ex¬ plosion. The foregoing is taken from the Annual Register for 1772, pp. 136-7; and your readers will find a reference to the event in the notice of John Bowden, in Mr. Salisbury's Worthies; second series, now publishing in your pages. Nemo. QUERIES. COMMANDER INGRAM, R.N.—Can any of your readers furnish me with particulars of time and place of death and burial of this officer. He was living in 1859, but was then close upon 80 years of age. He was a member of an old Montgomeryshire family—the Ingrams of Glynhafren, Llanidloes. R.W.