Welsh Journals

May, 1883. BYE-GONES. 229 The church will now accommodate over four hundred people. New buttresses have been built round the church, traceried windows have been added throughout, and there has been a'new entrance porch built on the south side near the west end. Gifts of appropriate embroidered work have been made by Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Forbes, Mrs. Rippingall, Mrs. George Pardoe, Mrs. W. Whittaker, and Miss Griffiths, while a beautifully decorated altar cloth has been worked, by Miss Laura Russell, Broadway House. The restoration committee was composed of the following gentlemen :—The Rev. R. M. White, vicar, the Rev. G. Pardoe, Messrs. Philip Wright, John Shuker, William Davies,G. Montford, and W. P. Hole. The churchwardens are Messrs. A. Butler and R. Pryce. The opening festival began with a celebration of holy communion at half- past eight. A full choral service was held at half-past eleven o'clock, when there was a large congregation. The service was intoned by the Rev. 0. H. Treherne, who also read the first lesson, the second being read by the Rev. John Burd, of Ciiirbury. The Ven. Archdeacon Maddison and the Rev. W. Row¬ lands, Bishop's Castle, took part in the service. In the absence of the Bishop of Hereford the sermon was preached by Prebendary Warner, vicar of Clun, who, in the course of his address, observed that it had been thought right that on an occasion like that someone who repre¬ sented or was connected with the Hospital of Holy Trinity of Clun, should take part in the service cf the day, con¬ nected as that hospital was with the parish. He regretted for his sake, as well as theirs, that the late warden of the hospital had not been spared that they might listen to his gentle and yet stirring words. Witchcraft at Whittington.—Miss Burne, in her Shropshire Folk Lore, the first part of which was published since our last issue, gives the following story as com¬ municated in 1872, by the Right Rev. W. Walsham How, Bishop of Bedford, then Rector of Whittington, near Oswestry :—" Soon after I came to this parish (Whitting¬ ton) in 1851, an old woman named Kitty Williams, who lived close to the Rectory, fell ill. At the same time Mrs- Walsham How was ill for some time. In calling one day at a small farm house in Babin's Wood, a Mrs. M—, who lived there, in speaking of my wife's illness, said ' she hoped we were very kind to Kitty Williams.' I asked why she said so, and she told me, because Kitty had the evil eye, and she thought she had probably made my wife ill. She then related the following strange story. When Kitty Williams was young, she lived with a family in this neighbourhood, but was sent away for some misconduct. She soon afterwards married, and came to live where I knew her. From the time she left service, everything went wrong where she had lived : cows dying, horses going lame, &c, &c. So the people consulted a wise-woman, who told them to get a pair of black horses with long tails and drive them about the country till they stopped of them¬ selves, and when they did so, to give the first woman they saw whatever she asked for. They did get the horses, and drove about till the horses stopped opposite Kitty Williams's cottage close to Whittington Rectory. Kitty came out, and they greeted their old servant, and asked her what present she would like. She said, a shawl; so they drove to Oswestry and bought her one, aud from that day all things prospered with them. This was told me with the most serious conviction of its truth." MAY 2, 1883. NOTES. OSWESTRY CORPORATION RECORDS. (Apr. 11, 1883.) REMOVAL OF NUISANCES. At the Borough Quarter Sessions, held before John Hughes, Esq. (deputy-mayor for John Edwards, Esq.), and Richard Price, Esq., surgeon, coroner, on the 4th of May, 1764, the following comprised the jury :—Richard Maurice, David Maurice, Edward Maurice, Richard Jones, Edward Jones, William Peever, James Turner, Thomas Turner, John Prynallt, Thomas Felton, Francis Daniel, John Jones, George Ouldfield and Solomon Jones. They made the following, amongst other, "Presentments" :— " We present the Murringer for not Repairing the side Walls or battlements of the Bridge in the Willow Gate being Dangerous to Passengers & if not repaired by the next Quarter Sessions fined in twenty shillings "We present Thomas Jones & Thomas Williams the surveyors of the Highways for not Cleaning the water course from the Willow Gate to Cae-Glase if not done in Twenty Days fined in Ten Shillings " We present the said Surveyor's for not Repairing the Pavement leading from the Willow Gate to the Church¬ yard if not done in One Month's Time fined in ten shillings "We present Richard Jones, tanner, for leaving a Dead Horse unburied in the Road leading from his Tan Pits to Cae Tomley being a Publick nuisance if not removed in Two days fined in Three shillings & fourpence "We present the Surveyors of the Highways for not fenceing against the Gravel pit in the Road leading from this Town to Llanwiiling (sic) the same being Dangerous to passengers if not done in three weeks fine 'em in thirty shillings "We present the Bog House belonging to Thomas Prynallt schoolmaster the same being a very Great Nuisance on ac't of a very bad Stench coming therefrom if not removed in a Week fined in five shillings "We present Abraham Phillips for leaving a Mixen of Muck upon the Road leading towards Llanwiiling if not Removed in two days fine him in Five shillings " We present Mr. Shaw for placing a Large Stone by the Corner of his House the same be Dangerous to Passen¬ gers if not removed the Second Day of June fine him in Five shillings " We present the Murringers for not Repairing the Pillory "We present the Surveyor for not carrying away a Parcell of Rubbish from Under the Walls near the Willow Gate if not removed or loaded (qu.) in Five days fine them in six shillings & eight pence " We present Rich'd Owen butcher for Slaughtering upon the Open Street & fine him sixpence." These are a sample of the nuisances the town endured in the year 1764. Jarco. JOHN HOWEL'S DIARY (Apr. 25, 1SS3).—Our present is chiefly about servants and their doings :— Mary Richards who is engaged for the year 1775 at £1 10s. Od. wages, has 12s. advanced to her "to by cloth for smok." She seems to have been a promising girl for in 1776 she gets £1 15s. Od., in 1777 £1 17s. 6d., and in 1778 £2 wages. The ruling price Richard Wynn charged men-servants for 'shewes' seems to have been 5s., and 'Britchis' range from 15s. to 16s. 6d. Oswestry, Ellesmere, and Wrex¬ ham fairs seem to have been sad places for keeping the 30