Welsh Journals

June, 1885. BYE-GONES. 237 clasps. In 1875 he became major, and in 1882 lieutenant- colonel. Colonel Brancker was present at Tel-el- Kebir, and was made a O.B. receiving also a medal, third- class of the Mejidie, and the Khedive's Star. The Paris correspondent of the Times gives an interest¬ ing account of the fetes of Felibres, held last week at Hyeres, with which he compares the Welsh Eisteddfod. Roses were strewn in the path of the 250 guests received by the town of Hyeres; little children dressed as the heroes and heroines of Mistral's poems presented nosegays, and recited verses to the visitors, banquets were given, and *l thousands of people closely packed together, came to listen to the verdicts of the Court of Love, which from a high platform dominated the multitude." Prizes for poetry and song were awarded. "What with banquets and balls, songs, speeches, and recitations, fireworks, illuminations, and the hundreds of peasants who in the cool of the evening danced the farandole in and out among the palm trees, the town of Hyeres was converted for two days into a fairy land," .... There is a strong family likeness between the floral fetes of the Felibrige and the Welsh Eisteddfod ; both are adorned by the same halo of romance, poetry, and song, and make the same appeal to old traditions and memories. The Felibres are devoted to fatherland and love, the Welsh to father¬ land, love, and war. The one has its Court of Love, the other the meeting of the Bards. We fear the comparison will be thought by unsympathetic Englishmen rather too flattering to the Eisteddfod. Mr C. W. Dod, of Edge Hill, Malpas, writes to the Field :—When we find empty eggshells lying about away from nests we generally attribute it to the depredations of jays or such like marauders; but probably naturalists know, though I do not recollect to have seen it men¬ tioned, that it is the habit of birds to carry the shells of their eggs when hatched to a distance from the nest, that their presence under the nest may not lead to a dis¬ covery. This morning (May 16) I saw a thrush fly out of a bush in which I knew was a nest hatching, carrying what seemed to be one of its own eggs in its mouth. It deposited this on the grass about twenty yards from the nest. On looking into the nest I found one young one just hatched, and the other three eggs unhatched. The Rev. Mr Richardson, vicar of Rhyl, Flintshire, writ¬ ing to The Farmer and the Chamber of Agriculture Journal, gives the following information regarding an extremely aged goose which recently died in the Winter Gardens of Rhyl:—" It seems that the bird in question came to Rhyl about ten years ago with Mrs Williams, the daughter of Major Penn, of Gorphwysfa, of this place. It belonged originally to her father-in-law, the Rev. Mr Williams, of Pentremawr, in the parish of Llandyrnog, Denbighshire. It was of what is called the Madagascar breed ; and Major Penn, whom I have just seen on the subject, assures me that it must have been eighty years old at the least at the time of its death last year. It was singularly amiable and sagacious, recognizing its old friends to the last, and coming up to be patted on the head, which it would ex¬ tend for that purpose, and never pecking at any. Latterly it became stiff and feeble, and could only rise with diffi¬ culty, but its amiability and sagacity continued to the end. As bearing upon the anserine species, I may add that I remember hearing of another, which, though not perhaps amiable all round, as this appeared to be, became sin¬ gularly attached to its owner, an old Pembrokeshire farmer, living in the parish of Nevern or Moylgrove. It followed him like a dog, wherever he went, and when he died the bird drooped and languished, apparently of a broken heart." JUNE 10, 1885. NOTES. WELSHPOOL.—An Ancient Charter i elating thereto.—-In the Land Revenue Office, Spring Gardens, London, there is a copy of the Charter granted by Edward Charlton to Welshpool. It is dated the 30th of June, in the seventh year of the reign of Henry the Fourth, A.D. 1406.—Vol. ii., p. 353. Bookworm. CAPTAIN MOSTYN HUMFFREYS. — This gentleman is named in the Sketch of Oswestry School History (Sh : Arch : Trans :) as having once been a pupil. His death is recorded in the Montgomeryshire Herald (a paper published by John Williams of Newtown in 1835) as follows :—Died on the 29th March, 1835, at Terry- berry, in the Mysore country, Captain Mostyn Humffreys, of the 2nd reg. M.N.I., and of Llwyn, Mont¬ gomeryshire, universally regretted by the officers and sepoys of his corps, and sincerely lamented by his attached friends. This intrepid sportsman was tiger-shooting on foot with a few sepoys of his detachment, and in at¬ tempting to rescue one of them that had been seized by the tiger, maddening with rage from the wounds he had received, met with almost instantaneous death. The poor sepoy survived his gallant officer but a few minutes. " Thus perished as fine a fellow as ever came to India." This appeared in the local paper on Oct. 5, 1835, and in the previous week the following short account of the acci¬ dent was given :—By the last accounts the weather was still cold at Madras, accompanied by refreshing dews. The accounts contain particulars of the death of Captain R. M. Humffreys, who had been killed while hunting the tiger. He had ascended a tree, and on the tiger attacking one of the men he jumped down, when the infuriated beast sprang upon him, and killed him on the spot. G.G. A SHROPSHIRE CLERGYMAN'S TRIALS.— The following letter, which is published in this month's Ellesmere Magazine, deserves a place in Bye-Gones:— " Honoured Sib,—You were pleased on Februry 16, 1723, to write to Bishop Hoadly that you would engage on your own account that I should never give his lordship any disturbance if he would please to ordain me, which was such a favour as no mortal besides your honour would have showed me.and I hope your honour will not be a loser hereafter for your encouraging me, as your honour then did. It is very well known that the clergy here do not affect me, because the good God has enabled me to do greater things since I came to Baschurch than any of them ten miles around have done. My predecessor was Vicar of Baschurch upwards of sixty years, and never had an offer¬ tory. I believing this to be wrong proposed to have one, but my chief parishioners opposed it; now by the blessing of God I have gained the point, though I waited till the 28th of May, 1727, before I fully resolved to try this at the Holy Table, and now all give. Mr Baxter, in his epistle dedicatory to his sermon on judgment, says a min¬ ister cannot be a faithful one, but twenty to one will draw a world of hatred on himself, if not many fists about his ears. Blessed be God I am hitherto unhurt.—Your humble servant, Stephen Pabker. Baschurch, September 30th, 1734." E. SHROPSHIRE AND THE BORDER.— CHARITY DECREES.—The following references to decrees in connection with charities and schools relating to places in Shropshire and the Borders may be useful and interesting to readers of Bye-Gones. The documents may