Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

July, 1880. BYE-GONE S. 77 sleep for the flen ; I wuz scroutin' at 'em all night." There is a creepy suggestiveness about the verb to scrout. " A parish clerk of Cound (Salop) gave notice—during the time of Divine Service—of a vestry meeting, in the following terms : ' This is to give you all notice that theer'll be a meetin' in the vestry nex' Toosd'y wik—'ould, I'm wrung— nex' Toosd'y as ever comes I mane—to fettle the pews and so forth'." We admire the honesty of his self-correction. The following sentence, such as maybe heard at Ellesmere, would puzzle a stranger : " M'appen 'er met, an' m'appen 'er metna." The solution is, Perhaps she will (might), and perhaps she won't, expressive of the usual difficulty of predicting what a woman will do under special cir¬ cumstances. The relative depth of Kettlemere and Blackmere has been decided to be as follows : " Kettle-mar, it's no bottom to it, and the t'other's deeper till that." Since the foregoing was in type we learn that another grant from the Civil List has been accorded to Miss Jackson. JULY 7, 1880. NOTES. ENORMOUS GOOSEBERRIES. — Under this heading Jaeco on Oct. 15, 1879, referring to " Oswestry Gooseberry Show" in 1833, said that Mr. Abraham Morgan had berries weighing as much as " 20 dwt3. 4 grs." I have just seen in The Young Gentleman''s Booh, published in 1832 by Baldwin and Cradock, London, the following:— " The four heaviest gooseberries grown in England in 1831 are as follows—Red Roaring Lion, 27 dwts. 6 grs., Mr. Davies, Oswestry meeting: Yellow Leader, 26 dwts. 17 grs., Richard Riley, at Nantwich : Green Peacock, 23 dwts. 15 grs., John Pisher, Rockwood meeting: White Eagle, 25 dwts. 18 grs., James Dean, Chester meeting". N.W.T. TERMING.—The distinguished topographer, Mr. Pennant, was by no means an abstemious man in his younger days, and in his old age when he wrote his book about Whitef ord his stories of the drinking customs of his father's time are not accompanied with any regret or apology. The custom of " Terming," related by him at page 23 of the work I have referred to, is new to me, and it may be so to many of your readers. Mr. Pennant says :—" In those days [a hundred and fifty years ago] the neighbors were much addicted to terming, i.e, brewing a barrel of ale at some favorite ale-house, and staying there till it was all drunk out. They never went to bed, even should the term last a week; they either slept in their chairs or on the floor, as it happened, then awoke and resumed their jollity. At length, when the barrel was exhausted, they reeled away, and the hero of this Bacchanalian rout always carried the spiggot in triumph. Coursing was very frequently the occasion of these terms ; each gentleman brought his gre-hound, and often made matches, more for the glory of producing the best dog, than for the value of the bet." N.W.S. CENTENARY OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS.—Any¬ thing of a local nature bearing on Sunday Schools will be readable just now, so I offer no apology for introducing some extracts from a Personal Diary kept in 1830-1 by the Rev. T. W. Jenkyn, when he was minister of the Old Chapel, Oswestry. Under date Dec. 28,1830, he writes :— Went to the Theatre to Mr. Lloyd's second Astronomical lecture. There were about 60 present. The lecturer when praising Galileo's triumph over superstition, made some remarks on the march of intellect in our days, and said that he had been expecting it for the last 30 years—that "mistaken benevolence had instituted Sunday Schools, and Sunday Schools would unhinge the State"! This coming from an Itinerent lecturer going about to diffuse knowledge came with a very bad grace- but thanks to the Schoolmaster, this sentiment concerning Sunday Schools comes at least fifty years too late. I was very much displeased with him. The very fact that such an utterance should form part of the stock-in-trade of a peripatetic lecturer was ominous. It must have found approvers or it would not have found a place in a hacknied oration. On the 31 Dec. the lec¬ turer called on Mr. Jenkyn, and the interview is thus recorded :— Mr. Lloyd, the Astronomer, called to be paid for his lectures : I reminded him of his observation on Sunday Schools: he declared that what he said then was his deliberate opinion. He said the children were taught by respectable ladies and gentlemen whose manners and dress the children would naturally imitate : and consequently, if taught at all should be taught by old women. The children, he said, learnt to read, and then they read " The Age of Reason " or the Bible (sic) and this would unsettle their submission and loyalty. Sunday Schools, he said, were the cause of all the infidelity in the land, and of the present disturbances in the kingdom. He said that he knew Mr. Raikes of Gloucester personally, and a greater knave and scoundrel never existed ! I asked him if Sunday Schools were the cause of Infidelity in France ? were Sunday Schools the cause of the insurrections in Belgium and Poland ? why should the infidelity of our country be ascribed to Sunday Schools any more than to the National Schools ? I remarked also that if there was any state not founded in knowledge the sooner that state was un¬ hinged the better. Mr. Lloyd is ultra loyal, and a warm de¬ fender of Taxes and Pensions. The foul libel on Mr. Raikes goes far to disarm the power of Mr. Lloyd's other opinions. Jarco. THE CANTLIN STONE NEAR KERRY.—In the current number of Arch : Camb ; the Earl of Powis writes to point out some errors in Mr. Westwood's recently published work on the Sculptured Stones of Wales. The letter refers to the following passage :— The Cantlin Stone.—This stone, at the southern extremity of the county of Montgomery, is marked in the Ordnance Map between Kerry Hill and Clun Forest, and was stated, in a letter addressed to me.by S. W. Williams, Esq. of Penmalley House, Rhayader, as being a large upright cross covered with inter¬ laced work and ornamental designs After several vain attempts to find this stone made by George E. Robinson, Esq., one of the secretaries of the Cambrian Archaeological Association, he suc¬ ceeded, in October 187S, in finding it one-and-a-half miles away from the spot marked on the Ordnance Survey, and he informs me that it is a cross with pseudo-druidic embellishments of twining serpents, eggs, and seeds, erected about two-and-twenty years ago to mark the grave of some eccentric benefactor of the neighbourhood, and at its foot is a slab bearing the following in¬ scription :— "WC BURIED HERE 1691. DIED AT BETUS." It is difficult of approach, and not le3s than 2,500 feet high up the mountain. The errors in the foregoing Lord Powis describes as fol¬ lows, his lordship's letter being dated from Powis Castle, March 22, 1880 :— The description of the Cantlin Stone in Mr. Westwood's Lapidarium Wallice, p. 155, is almost wholly erroneous. The original Cantlin Stone is that of which he speaks as " a slab." " W.C." was a pauper from a distance, who died on the hill there, and the two parishes of Mainstone and Bettws disputed which was to go to the cost of burying him. At last Bettws buried him, and was rewarded some years ago, as this was taken in evidence as to the disputed boundary, that the spot was in Bettws parish. The modern Cross was erected by the late Beriah Botfield, Esq., MP., the owner of the land. It is not difficult of access, as it lies only a few yards off a hill-road from Bishop's Castle to Kerry. It is well the Earl of Powis " minds the biggin o' it," or the error would have been perpetuated. M.C. A.S. QUERIES. GENERAL THOMAS MYTTON.—In his second instalment of Oswestry Corporation Documents (com¬ municated to the Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeolo¬ gical Society), Mr. Stanley Leighton gives a copy of the* 12