Welsh Journals

Sept., 1881. BYE-GONES. 297 case. The room, it seems, had been disturbed for a long time so that nobody could sleep peaceably in it, and as she passed for a very serious woman, the servants took it in their heads to put the Methodist and spirit together, to see what they would make of it. Startled at this thought, she rose from her chair, and kneeled down by the bedside to say her prayers. While she was praying he came in again, walked round the room, and came close behind her. She had it on her mind to speak, but when she attempted it she was so very much agitated, that she could noc utter a word. He walked out of the room again, pulling the door after him as before. She begged that God would strengthen her, and not suffer her to be tried beyond what she was able to bear; she recovered her spirits, and thought she felt more confidence and resolution, and de¬ termined if he came in again she would speak to him if possible. He presently came in again, walked round, and came behind her as before ; she turned her head and said, "Pray, sir, who are you, and what do you want?" He put up his finger, and said, " Take up the candle and follow me, and I will tell you." She got up, took up the candle, and followed him out of the room. He led her through a long boarded passage, till they came to the door of another room, which he opened and went in ; it was a small room, or what might be called a large closet. "As the room was small, and I believed him to be a spirit," said she, " I stopped at the door; he turned and said, ' Walk in ; I will not hurt you ;' so I walked in. He said 'Observe what I do ;' I said 'I will.' He stooped, and tore up one of the boards of the floor, and there appeared under it a box with an iron handle in the lid. He said, 'Do you see that box?' I said, 'Yes, I do.' He then stepped to one side of the room and showed me a crevice in the wall, where, he said, a key was hid that would open it. He said, ' This box and key must be taken out, and sent to the earl in London ' (naming the earl and his place of residence in the city). He said, ' Will you see it done ?' I said, ' I will do my best to get it done ;' he said, ' Do, and I will trouble the house no more.' He then walked out of the room and left me. (He seems to have been a very civil spirit, and to have been very careful to affright her as little as possible.) I stepped to the room-door, and set up a shout. The steward and his wife, with the other servants, came to me immediately ; all clung together, with a number of lights in their hands. It seems they had all been waiting to see the issue of the interview be¬ twixt me and the apparition. They asked me what was the matter ? I told them the foregoing circumstances, and showed them the box. The steward durst not meddle with it, but his wife had more courage, and, with the help of the other servants, tugged it out, and found the key. She said by their lifting it appeared to be pretty heavy, but that she did not see it opened, and therefore did not know what it contained ;—perhaps money, or writings of con¬ sequence to the family, or both," They took it away with them, and she then went to bed and slept peaceably till the morning. It appeared afterwards that they sent the box to the earl, in London, with an account of the manner of its discovery, and by whom; as the earl sent down orders immediately to his steward to inform the poor woman who had been the occasion of the discovery, that if she would come and reside in his family, she should be comfortably provided for the remainder of her days; or, if she did not choose to reside constantly with them, if she would let them know when she wanted assistance, she should be liberally supplied at his lordship's expense, as long as she lived. And Mr. Hampson said it was a known fact in the neighbourhood, that she had been so supplied from his lordship's family from the time the affair was said to have happened. SEPTEMBER 7, 1881. SUPRA-CENTENARIAN.—Boileau writes:—" In Trawsfynydd Churchyard I noticed the following— which the Rector said was unquestionably tnie—' In memory of Edmund Morgan of D61- y-mynech, who died on the 6th day of February, 1817, aged 113 years. We should be glad of the Rector's " proofs." In our issues for 1879 this old gentleman was discussed, and a descendant told us that at the time of Mr. Morgan's death he was supposed to be " only 111," and that age was eugravedon the coffin plate, and cut on the tombstone; but afterwards it was discovered that he really had attained 113 years ! This was challenged in Bye-gones Feb. 13,1879, but from that day to this we have heard no more of the matter. NOTES. EARLY PRINTERS IN WALES, &C.—Under this heading a series of notes appeared in Bye-gones of 187S. In turning over the file of the paper the other day, I came across the ' notes' in question and observed the name of Rhys Thomas, who was a printer at Cowbridge from 1771 to 1781. From a contemporary record I can throw one ray of light into Mr. Thomas's printing office, and show how matters stood there on two days in May 1777. Your readers would, I fancy, have welcomed the little I have to say had I offered it them three years ago : I hope it is not too late to be of use now. The extract I am about to make is from a school-boy's diary kept in the years 1777-1778. The lad's name was Daniel Walters, and he was the second son of the Rev. John Walters, rector of Landough, but who is better known to the majority of Welshmen from his labours as a lexicographer. Let me mention that Landough is within an easy walk of Cowbridge. And now for the words of the diarist:— " May 13th (1777). The bailiffs came to the printers to seize their goods. Mrs. Thomas, after sending Caleb backwards and forwards many times, came with tears in her eyes to intreat my father to come to Cowbridge." The entry is carried on without a break into the division for May 14th, where it reads : " He went; and the goods being appraised he bought them." The diary is of a very fragmentary character; a few leaves only having been preserved, and are by no means consecutive. I can guarantee their authenticity, for they came into the hands of the elderly lady who now owns them direct from the Walters family upon the death of its last but one surviving representative. There are two other items in the diary which it may be of interest to quote. Early in January, 1778, Mr. Walters had some work which was passing through the press. I imagine it to be a portion of his Dictionary, but I cannot say what it could have been. There is this entry under January 3rd :—" Caleb brings the revise to be cor¬ rected ; my father and I correct it." Again, on April 15 following, there is " Go to Cowbridge ; bring home 90 numbers," and this I take to be some serial work in course of publication. In Williams's Eminent Welshmen it is stated that the Dictionary was completed in 1794, but no date is given as that on which it was begun. Does the reader feel any interest in Caleb, who, I sup¬ pose, was Rhys Thomas's son? Young Walters, on Friday, January 9th, 1778, goes at night with his brother Henry to Cowbridge, and " Call to see Caleb, who on Tuesday last was hoisted up by the rope of the bell and vastly bruised"—a sorry ending to the poor fellow's Christ¬ mas merry making. Daniel Walters, the diarist, was a youth of great pro¬ mise—a promise which was fulfilled as far as his early manhood permitted, for he became Master of the Cow-