Welsh Journals

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Nov., 1883. BYE-GONES. 317 tion. A small two-light window of this period has been replaced at the east end of the north side. It is of red stone, and is peculiar in having the top part of one stone with a horizontal joint and not following the radius lines of the curves. The rest of the windows in the old church are not worthy of mention as they were modern and of the worst possible description. On the sill of the western window on the north side was a wooden frame to which the old Welsh Bible was chained. The roofs of the north aisles and the old roof of the chancel date from this time (14th century). The latter was much decayed, and has been replaced with a new fir roof of a form corresponding nearly with the old one. The north aisle roofs are of oak, and of very good plain design. The principals have collar beams very high up with large curved braces and purlines running through them stiffened with windbraces. These roofs have been taken down and thoroughly repaired. They were origin¬ ally hidden by plaster ceilings fixed to the curved braces, but are now left open. The piscina in the church is of fourteenth century work. It is in a very good state of preservation and has been restored to its former position. There is also a piscina in the eastern respond of the chancel arcade, it is of a very rough description and there is no evidence as to its date, it is probably, however, of the latter part of the 12th century. Further restoration and addition were effected in the perpendicular style, about the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century. These were the east window of the chancel, the roof of the nave, and the font. The east window is of ordinary perpendicular form and design. The stone is very hard and full of small white pebbles. It was in a very good state of preservation, and has been re-inserted with the addition of a new freestone arch inside. The nave roof is of oak, and was thickly coated with whitewash. This has all been removed. It is a good specimen of an open timber roof with moulded curved braces from the collar beams running down on the wall, and moulded intermediate principals and purlines dividing the spaces into squares which are filled in with cusped windbraces. There were originally heavy tiebeams on alternate principals. Of these only one remains, as one at the west end was removed probably to give head room in the old gallery, and the eastern one was unsafe through decay, and has been replaced by an iron tie rod. On re¬ moving some plastering between the lowest purline and the wall plate several fine tracery panels were found of Perpendicular character. The laths for the plasteriog were nailed on the panels but they were in a very good state of preservation, and have been utilised in the new pulpit. They were in one bay only of the roof but were nevertheless very varied in design. The font is octagonal in form with cusped panels on the sides containing emblems of the Crucifixion and heraldic designs. It appears to be of the same stone as the east window, and is well preserved. It was thickly coated with white paint, but this has been cleared off. Tne roof of the porch is probably of this period. It has very heavy timbers with shallow mouldings. All the lower part was much decayed, and has been replaced with new framing and tracery panels. The bells, three in number, date from the end of the 17th century. It is said that there were originally six, and that three were lent to Montgomery and never returned. It is, however, plain that there never were more than three, as the framing, which is evidently of the same age as the bells, is constructed to support that number only. On the tenor bell is the inscription " God save his Church," with the date 1769; on the next " Ora pro nobis sancte--------" (this word is nearly illegible); on the small bell, " Prosperity to the Church of England." In the tower is an old clock, possibly of the same age as the bells. This clock had only one hand. Both that and the dial are lost. It required winding every day. It is evidently the work of a village blacksmith, and though of rough construction kept very good time till quite lately, when it was neglected. It is well worthy of care as an antiquity. In the late restoration the contract was commenced on the first November, 1882. All the external walls were taken down with the exception of the west wall of the north aisle; and new walls of rubble masonry, constructed of stone from the Llanymynech quarries with quoins and windows of Grinshill stone, are built upon the old foundations. NOVEMBER 7, 1883. NOTES. BEAUMARIS.—Bishop Thirlwall (Letters to a Friend, page 227), writing from Beaumaris, July 1, 1870, says:—"As I drove hither yesterday from the Menai Bridge I could not help thinking of the descriptions one reads of the Turkish Bosphorus between Constantinople and the Black Sea, with its kiosks and gardens coming down to the water's edge. This deserves to be called the Cimmerian [Cambrian] Bosphorus." Roath OSWESTRY CORPORATION RECORDS. (Oct. 31, 1883). A RAID ON THE TRADESMEN. At a Quarter Sessions held 20 April, 1797, several Tradesmen were "presented" for "leaving and con¬ tinuing" obstructions on the streets, opposite their shops. These included William Penson, James Green, William Jones, grocer, and Edward Jones, grocer, for leaving "hogsheads and boxes," and Lewis Gwynne, in addition, for leaving "furnaces"! In those days the open street was a convenient warehouse, and seems to have been freely used by the tradesmen, for goods that their wicked neighbours were not likely to convey to other quarters in the dusky hours. A few months later a good lady commits a much cooler act of obstruction, as will be gathered from the following record:—"The Jurors present Mrs. Sarah Williams of the Cross street for raising the pavement opposite to her house whereby the same is become dangerous and dis¬ agreeable to passengers, particularly in dark night?, and unless the nuisance is removed in 14 days she is amerced in fifteen shillings." In Aug. 1799, Richard Higginson is fined for placing Timber on the highway in Church street, and other trans¬ gressors are also " amerced." Jarco. "THE CAMBRIAN SHAKESPEARE."-2V»i y Nant whilst cutting on a grave stone in Llaneiian Church- yard uttered the following impromptu :— " Mae ein mynwent mewn manau—yn Uwybr troed, Lie bu'r trwyn a'r genau ; Sathru beilchioD, brychion brau, Wna byw-ddyn yn eu beddau." John Parry, the author of "Myfyrdod mewn Mynwent," a poem that will clai^a admiration as long a3 the vernacu¬ lar will be spoken amongst the bogs of Meirion, happened to be there listening, and 'said— " Ti sathrwr baeddwr beddau,—hyd esgyrn, 0 ! d'od ysgafn gamrau ; A chofia ddyn, briddyn brau, Y dwthwn sathrir dithau." 41