Welsh Journals

May, 1882. BYE-GONES. 59 from early manhood to old age, he had never been known -to go beyond the limits of his own small estate. He lived thus exiled for the length of an ordinary man's life. He was social enough when visited, and he would occasionally accompany any stray caller upon him to the boundary of his property, and then return to his voluntary prison. Upon the occasion of the burial mentioned above, the old gentleman accompanied the mourners as long as the pro¬ cession went through his own property, and then he turned back to the hall. Since I have left the neighbourhood, Mr.------is dead; he died a bachelor, and, to the end of his life, he never left the bounds of his property. He was taken thence to be laid with the dust of his forefathers in the quiet churchyard of Trefeglwys." MAY 3, 1882. NOTES. A VETERAN PARISH CLERK.—In Dec, 1796, died Mr. Thomas Bennett, parish clerk of Worfield, Salop, aged 78. It was stated at the time that there had been but seven rectors of Worfield since the Reformation, and that Mr. Bennett had served under four of them. This looks more, perhaps, than it really is, for the fourth of those rectors [qy. vicar?] only died in 1703. Nemo. A SHROPSHIRE ROMANCE.—The story of Sally Hoggins and the Marquis of Exeter was fully narra¬ ted in Bye-gones two or three years ago. The death of the Marquis is thus recorded in the Salopian Journal of May 9, 1804:—" Died on Tuesday the first instant, after a lingering indisposition, at his house in Privy Gardens, London; in his 54th year, Henry, Marquis of Exeter, Lord Burleigh, Grand Almoner to the King in fee, and Recorder of Stamford. As this worthy nobleman was the gentleman who, when Mr. Cecil, resided in retirement, for a long time, under an assumed name, at a little villa, which he built, and made to smile about him, on Bolas Heath, in this county; and of whom the neighbouring gentry were so divided in opinion, we shall perhaps, on a future occa¬ sion, be induced to speak of him in terms more suitable to his true merit and real character, than we can possibly do at present. . . . The late Marquis came to the title of Earl of Exeter in December 1793, and has quit¬ ted this transcient scene of human existence in 1804, after enjoying it (if the mere possession of wealth and human grandeur can be called real enjoyment) ten years and four months. In that time the throbbing heart of anxious dis¬ tress has been soothed by his protection, relieved by his bounty, and renovated, from day to day, with hope and peace ; and the title of Hereditary Grand Almoner to the King in fee, which might have been no more than a mere title of honour, was, by his benevolence and many chari¬ ties, in regard to himself, a term most logically and philo¬ sophically just." Salopian. A MONTGOMERYSHIRE QUACK DOCTOR. The document, of which the following is a copy, bears no date, and is mixed up with papers, letters, &c, dated from 1770 to 1805, in the Brit: Mus : Lib. D.J. To the Public. William Jones of Llangadfan, Montgomeryshire, having in the course of twenty years' diligent Research into the Nature and Practice of Physic, discovered a safe and efficient method of Cure of the King's EvU% whether here¬ ditary or adventitious, now offers his services to all who shall think proper to apply for his Advice and Assistance. Whereas 'tis generally thought that the Evil is never radically cured ; Any Person entertaining such an Opinion may be convinced to the Contrary by being referred to many in Montgomeryshire, Merionethshire, and London who were perfectly cured of that Distemper ; none having ever relapsed who observed his Rules and Directions. He cures likewise Fistulas, and running Ulcers; the Fistula Lachrymatis and other Disorders of the Eyes; glandulous Tumours, Edematous and dropsical Sicellings, white Swellings of the Joints, Rheumatic fixt and wander¬ ing Pains, and many other Diseases incident to human Bodies. Letters (post-paid) directed to WILLIAM JONES of Llangadfan aforesaid will be duly answered, and Sick Persons at any reasonable Distance will be waited on, upon Terms adapted to their Circumstances and a tender Regard shall be always shewn to real Objects of Charity. Shrewsbury: Printed by Stafford Pryse, Bookseller. MONTGOMERYSHIRE EPITAPHS. — The churchyard of Llandinam, in Montgomeryshire, is par¬ ticularly rich in curious monumental inscriptions, scarce a headstone, marking perchance, the resting-place of some "village Hampden," or "mute, inglorious Milton," but has graven upon it a quaint effusion of the native muse. It may here be remarked that, although the local epitaphistai have, in many cases, availed themselves so fully of the licence, granted to professors of the poetic art, as to wholly disregard even the most simple rules of grammar and versification, there is yet something extremely touching and pathetic in many of these " chronicles of the tombs." Often the living address the departed, as in the following example :— "We miss thee dear Son wherever we go And oh ! it is sad to miss thee so But since thou canst not come to we We almost wish to be with thee, We miss thee when the morning dawns We miss thee when the night returns We miss thee here we miss thee there, Dear Son we miss thee everywhere." More often, perhaps, the dead are supposed to address the living, as in the following :— " Weep not for me my husband dear Keep it in miud that I lies here And have compassion on the nine Motherless children I've left behind." And again:— "Farewell dear Father and Mother ever kind Five brothers and five sisters left behind, Prepare to meet y.rar heavenly King That we may join with Him and sing." There the didactic, the hortative, and the moral, find each an exponent, but those selected from many others and quoted above will show how wide a field the church¬ yard of Llandinam presents for the researches of the collector of sepulchral oddities. It is to be hoped that some local Pettigrew* will copy them _ ere the effacing hand of time renders their preservation impossible. O.J.D. * T. J. Pettigrew, Esq., F.R.S.F.S.A., was the com¬ piler of a volume entitled " Chronicles of the Tombs, A Collection of Remarkable Epitaphs." London : Geo. Bell and Sons. QUERIES. A WELSH WOOD ENGRAVER.—In the current number of the Magazine ofAii there is an article (superbly illustrated) on Wood Engraving, which is in effect a re¬ view of the new edition of Chatto's Treatise on Wood En¬ graving first published in 1838. The most striking exam-