Welsh Journals

212 J3YE-G0NES. Mar., 1883. tQlhz hit ^rcbfuDarj) gabies. In our paper of Mar. 14 we briefly announced the death of this gentleman. In the Hereford Times of Mar. 17 there was the following somewhat extended notice :— We regret to announce the death of the Rev. James Davies, M.A.> Prebendaiy of Hereford, at his residence, Moorcourt, near King¬ ton, on Sunday last, in his 63rd year. Mr Davies was the second son of Mr Richard Banks of Kington, and was educated at Rep- ton School and Lincoln College, Oxford, being a scholar on this foundation. He obtained a 3rd class " in Literis Humanioribus " in 1844, and subsequently proceeded to his B A. and M.A. de¬ grees. He was ordained deacon in 1845 and priest in 1816 by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, and held the perpetual curacy of Christ Church, Forest of Dean, from 1847 to 1852. He was headmaster of King Edward's school, Ludiow, from 1852 to 1857; in the following ye ir he succeeded his uncle at Moor¬ court, when he assumed the surname of Davies by royal licence. He was a magistrate for the counties of Hereford and Radnor, and in 1875 he was appointed to the Prebendal Stall of Moreton et Whaddon in Hereford Cathedral. He took an active interest in county and diocesan business; amongst other things, the Church Building Society, diocesan inspection of schools, the Joint Counties Lunatic Asylum, the VVoolhope Club, and all local questions in and around Kington. For 21 years he regu¬ larly served a chapel of ease to the parish of Pembridge, erected by him at Moor Court. In a still wider circle he will be remem¬ bered in the literary world as the author of several classical works, and as a constant contributor to periodical literature, notably in the "Quarterly," " Contemporary," and "Saturday Reviews," " Blackwood's Magazine," &c. In the neighbourhood of his home, where he was held in high esteem by all, the de¬ ceased gentleman's death has occasioned deep sorrow ; and it is certain that a keen sense of grief will be felt throughout the large area in which he was so well known and so much re¬ spected. The papers contributed by the deceased gentleman to the periodicals named were largely topographical. Thus in the Saturday ±ieview he published one on the Upper Wye, in 1872 ; on Montgomeryshire, in 1874 ; and on The Brei.iden Hills, in 1881. The last has an interesting his¬ tory for some of our readers. Mr. Davies was on a visit to Mr. Morris Jones at Gungrog, and during the visit his host invited a small party to accompany his guest for a walk over the Breidden range; an invitation we have never ceased to regret being unable to accept. The trip, as Mr. Davies put it in his subsequent paper, was " an endeavour at determining the locality of the last battle of the Siluiian hero Caractacus, with his Roman Conqueror Ostorius ;" and the paper was afterwards re¬ written for the Montgomeryshire Collections of the Powys- land Club. Mr. Davies was an active member of the Cambrian Archaeological Society, and a contributor to its journal. He wrote a very pleasant account, in the Saturday Review, of its excursion in 1874, under the title of " With the Cambrians at Wr-xham ;" and in 1881, he contributed a record of the Church Strettou meeting to The Academy, a record he afterwards amplified for the Oswestry Adver¬ tiser, from which paper it was transferred to the pages of the Shropshire Archaeological Society. A very interesting article from his pen was published in Blackwood's Magazine for Nov. 1875, on " Legends and Folk Lore of Wales," which was the subject—or rather a passage in it was—of a hot controversy in The Academy. In the course of his paper the writer (he preserved his in¬ cognito throughout) had mentioned the superstition of "The Sin-Eater," which attracted the attention of Pro¬ fessor Silvan Evans, who challenged the writer to produce proofs. Several letters were pub ished, and other scribes joined in the discussion ; some account of which will, pro- ably, shortly appear in the Red Dragon, issued by Daniel Owen and Co. of Cardiff. Amongst other literary labours, Mr. Davies undertook the editorship of the last edition of Murray's North Wales^ One circumstance connected with the deceased— although of a personal nature—we may perhaps be par¬ doned mentioning, as it exhibits in a strong light his kindly nature. In 1878 the writer of this edited an edition of the History of the Gwydir Family—in¬ corporating in it a mass of valuable notes the late Mr. Wynne of Peniarth had for forty years been accumulating —and in the book were given some " Gwydir Memorials." Soon after it appeared, Mr. Davies wrote to say he had been requested to write a notice of the book for the Satur¬ day Review, but first wished to know if the editor of the History, as he supposed, compiled the "Gwydir Memorials." He was assured that such was the case; and so, for the time, the matter ended. Winter and spring passed by, and no review appeared in the Saturday ; and in July came a letter from Mr. Davies to say that when he received a proof of his article—for it had been set in type—the editor had suggested that it should stand over till summer, as it would then be more "seasonable;" and when summer came Mr. Davies reminded him of his pro¬ mise, and was informed that the editor feared the subject had then " lost its interest!" At the Cambrian Archaeo¬ logical meeting at Welshpool in 1879, Mr. Davies went out of his way to say a kindly word for the book ; and it was his intention, " if his life was spared and health per¬ mitted," to read a paper, amplified from his unpublished " Review," at the Llanrwst meeting of 1882. But, as our readers know, soon after the Church Stretton meeting of the previous year he was stricken with paralysis, from which attack he never recovered. At the Llanrwst meet¬ ing, the Rev. Canon D. R. Thomas feelingly alluded to the cause of Prebendary Davies's absence; and only echoed the thoughts of many present when he said he was " truly sorry not to have him with them on that occasion." It is to be hoped that some old and familiar friend of the deceased will contribute to the Archceologia Cambrensis a more exhaustive memoir thar has so far been published —enumerating his principal literary works. A.R. CYMRU FU. Professor Rhys, in an after dinner speech at Oxford, said that Andrew Borde, a writer who flourished in the eleventh century, narrates that the Kymry in his time were very fond of cheese, especially toasted cheese, and that when St. Peter was appointed to sit at the celestial gate, a crowd of boisterous Welshmen rushed in amongst others in the throng, and created A wondrous noise he had not heard of late— In short, a roar of things extremely great. The saint was soon ordered to turn them out, and the way he adopted was by shouting " Out! out! toasted cheese 1 when all the Kymry rushed from the place at once to get the toasted cheese, and the venerable saint afterwards bolted the door, and left them all to their dismal fate. The Rev. W. Williams, Pantycelyn, in his works pub¬ lished by Mackenzie, page 707, described a fearful storm at Carno, Montgomeryshire, on the evening of June 20th, 1781. A prayer meeting was held in a wooden house in the neighbourhood on the above-mentioned day, when a cloud suddenly broke, followed by heavy peals of thunder and lightning, which caused the river Cwmllwyd to swell itnd overflow its boundaries. The torrent rushed against the house where the meeting was held, and swept away four men, whilst one Barac Davies saved his life by rush¬ ing up the chimney which was made of stones. Pennant, in his Tour in Wales, relates that the same storm caused the loss of many lives in the neighbourhoods of Ruthin, Penmachno, and Llanuwchllyn. Llywarch Hen.