Welsh Journals

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146 BYE-GONES. Dec, 1884. CURRENT NOTES. The Kev. Professor Silvan Evans's Welsh-English Dictionary is now in the press, the first two sheets having already been printed. The work will be published by Mr. Spurrell, Carmarthen. Mr. Evans's English-Welsh Dictionary, published at Denbigh, was issued from the press nearly thirty years ago. At a meeting held lately in Dr. Roberts's rooms, Clare College, Cambridge, it was unanimously decided that a Welsh Society should be formed in connection with the University. All members of the University who are Welsh, or interested in Wales, are to be eligible. The Society will start with two meetings next term, one on St. David's Day, the other earlier. These meetings are to be social. It was deemed inadvisable to form a regular Welsh Club, with rooms constantly open, &c, lest the Welshmen should form a clique among themselves, and so destroy the advantage they would get by mixing more with their Eng¬ lish neighbours. The meeting was enthusiastic, and pro¬ duced lively discussion. There were between thirty and forty present. Among " Leaves from our Early Issues," in the North Wales Chronicle (August 16 to October 14, 1813), are the following :—On Wednesday, the 14th inst., at St. Mary's Church, Chester, Mr Humphreys, of Denbigh, (the cele¬ brated blind harper), to Mrs Williams, widow of the late Mr Williams of the same place, whose lamented remains she fourteen days before had consigned to the silent grave; for seven days she remained quite inconsolable, but on the eighth, being accidentally in company with the harper, the tones which he drew from that melodious instru¬ ment, had the effect of soothing her grief ; and after six days' loving courtship this modern Orpheus had the feli¬ city of conducting her to the altar of Hymen.—The sea¬ bathing resorts in Wales have this season been full of com¬ pany. Several persons and families of the first distinction are Btill at Aberystwyth. The illustrious family of Hawkston have honoured Barmouth with their presence, and the hospitable board of the " Harper of the North," at Towyn, has been numerously surrounded by the^ health- restored farmers and others of Montgomeryshire and Shropshire.—His Royal Highness the Prince Regent has been pleased in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty to grant the dignity of a Baronet of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to Richard Puleston of Emral, in Flintshire. DECEMBER 17, 1884. CURRENT NOTES. %hz late Jftr. JUfoeto Itobert*. It is with deep regret that we record to-day the death of Mr Askew Roberts of Croeswylan, Oswestry, at the com¬ paratively early age of fifty-eight. Mr Roberts had never enjoyed robust health, and an attack of inflammation which began while he was visiting friends in South Wales in the early part of June resulted in the long illness which closed his life on Wednesday. He returned home from Cardiff on the 13th of June, and from that time was almost continuously confined to his room, though occa¬ sionally, in the bright days of summer, he was able to bear a short journey in a Bath chair; and hopes were enter¬ tained, to the very end, that he might still he restored to his friends. For awhile the publication of the column of Bye-Gones edited by him in this paper was suspended, but as soon as the severity of the first attack passed away, Mr Roberts resumed the work in which he took so much delight, and he continued it to the close of his days, the last instalment, oontaining a contribution of his own, having appeared only last week. Indeed, his indomitable spirit so far triumphed over physical weakness that he was actively engaged in other literary work during his long illness, and the proofs of his final, and most interesting, contribution to the Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeo¬ logical Society, a paper on the " Gateways of Oswestry," passed through the press, under his careful revision, in the month of November. On the Sunday before his death he was as well as he had been for some time, and was able to enjoy the society of his friends, and although on Monday a change came, it did not seem to those about him to betoken any immediate danger. He still kept up his interest in passing events, and even on Wednesday morning there was no sign that life was so near its close; but at noon he passed quietly and very peacefully away, in the presence of his wife. Mr Askew Roberts, who was born at Oswestry on the 27th of March, 1826, was the son of Mr Samuel Roberts, a bookseller in the town, and on th6 side of his mother, a niece of the Rev. John Whitridge of Oswestry, was de¬ scended from the family of Anne Askew, the martyr, a name which has been perpetuated in succeeding genera¬ tions. For a short time in early manhood Mr Roberts resided at Taunton, but he returned to Oswestry about 1848, to take part in his father's business, and continued to live there for the rest of his days ; and in January, 1858, he married Katharine, fourth daughter of the Rev. Thomas Toller of Ketteriog. Mr Roberts's first literary productions, we believe, ap¬ peared in Oswald's Well, a magazine conducted by his brother, the late Mr William Whitridge (Roberts!, and including the late Mr Shirley Brooks, afterwards editor of Punch, amongst its contributors. In 1849 Oswald's Well was succeeded by the Oswestry Advertizer, which was established as a monthly publication, but under Mr. Roberts's enterprising management soon developed into a weekly, and from time to time was enlarged in size and extended in circulation until it became an influential newspaper for a wide-spread district in Shropshire and North Wales. It was in connection with the railway projects fought in the parliamentary committee rooms, a few years after the establishment of the Advertizer, that Mr Roberts, by his livelyandtrenchantstyle, first made the influence of the paper felt in the district now served by the Cambrian line, and some of our readers can remem¬ ber the excitement that was caused week after week by the contributions which came from his pen. In 1860 he founded a second newspaper, the Merionethshire Standard, which afterwards became the Cambrian News ; and of this publication, as w*ell as the Advertizer, he continued to be proprietor until, in 1868, he retired from business and sold the copyright to two of his old associates at the Caxton Press, by one of whom the paper in which these lines are written is still conducted. Mr Roberts was always an unflinching Liberal and Nonconformist, and no con¬ siderations of personal profit or loss were ever allowed to stand in the way of his constant advocacy of the principles in which he believed. He helped, not only by his writing, but by active work in some of the Welsh constituencies, to fight the battles which were carried on for years in North Wales, and which only ended in complete victory in the spring of 1880, though in Merionethshire he had the satisfaction of seeing his friend, Mr David Williams, elected as early as 1868. In the course of his journeyslin the Principality, in connection, first with the railway pro¬ jects, afterwards with these political contests, and finally with the "GossipingGuide," Mr Askew Roberts made many friends and acquaintances, and some years ago there were