Welsh Journals

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Sep., 1885. BYE-GONES. 277 the Interludes ? " Twm " being likened to Garrick, must have acted some characters himself; but his fellow actors, who were they, and what training did they receive ? What a pity it was that "Twm" did not found a School of Welsh Histrionic Art! I now give you Mr Williams's letter. D.J. "Sib,—Itake this opportunity of performing mypromise, though I fear all I can say will be bHt a repetition of the events mentioned by Messrs. Jones and Hughes. On Tuesday, the 29fch, in the morning, the weather was so tempestuous that not a person arrived in town till one or two o'clock (excepting Dafydd Ddu o Eryri, who had ac¬ companied me from Ffeistiniog the preceding day.) By that time the poets and a few gentlemen were arrived, and immediately after dinner repaired to the Town Hall, where galleries had been previously prepared, and com¬ menced reading some of the poems, and after ingratiating the successful bard, W. D. with the honour the Society conferred upon him, drank his health with 3 times 3. Then the death of Sir Watkin was given them for extem¬ porary composition ; afterwards Llyn-tegid, Mr. Price of Rhiwlas's Convalescence, Faith and Repentance, and an Encomiastic upon Mr Fitz-Maurice, for introducing a Manufactory into the country, and I am happy to inform you the compositions upon each were very meritorious ; and the most excellent was Dafydd Ddu, to whom the chair was given. I presume you will have received their works by now from Mr. Jones. I feel myself much obliged to Mr. Jones for his zeal for the cause. All in his power he does with the greatest alacrity ; yet I am sorry that Mr Williams or some gentleman who is better acquainted with the method of conducting this sort or business was not present, as it was conducted rather void of the form and regularity it requires, which must render the best in¬ stitutions contemptible ; but if it were conducted by a man of judgment and address, would ever continue respectable. Mr. Williams, I am informed, intended to come, but I suppose the weather prevented him. " About 2 o'clock on Wednesday the Bardds ceased, and the Songsters commenced—the names you have had from Hughes ; and at 6 o'clock Thursday morning judgment was passed in favour of the Llanystundwy man—though they all sang incessantly till the evening following, when the scene was closed, till our Welsh Garrick Twm o'r Nant drew it up in the evening, and entertained the Town with an Interlude, and continued for two or three days longer. The next Gwyneddigion Medal is to be delivered at Llanelwy on the first Wednesday after Old Midsummer day, and the productions to be sent up by the last day in February. "Beware of Dafydd Ddu. I think him a very likely can¬ didate for your next honours. I am humbly of opinion that he is the first bard in Wales, a young man not 28 years old. " Am Borry that I am obliged to hurry this over without noticing some occurrences that's worth.....and as that's the case you must excuse all errors of grammar, &c, the. , . . Bag having to be sealed up at the Post Office I must remain, till a future time,—Your most obedt. humble servant, John Williams." QUERIES. LLOYDS OF MOELFRE AND LLEDROD.— Can any of your readers give me information concerning the origin and pedigree of the family of the Lloyds of Meolfre and Lledrod, Llansilin? Evan Jones. Warwick. --------- REPLIES. WALKMILL (April8,1885).— Hartshorne has some remarks on this subject in his Salopia Antiqua, 1841 (pages 607, 608.), and as the book is now very scaroe, I copy them, in the hope that they will be acceptable to many of your readers. Shrewsbury, R.E.D. " Walkmill, s. A fulling mill in the neighbourhood of Longnor receives this title, and not without sufficient authority. Germ, walkmuhle ; Teut. walchmoelen ; Dan. valkemolle, officina fullonis. A. Sax. ivealcan; S. Goth. Swed. walka; Belg. Teut. Sicamb, walcken; Ital. gualcare, pannos premere, volvere. It is worth while remarking here, that the two names of Walker and Fuller, which are hence derived, are identical. T. Bobbin, Bailey. Nor no winde bloweth the mil to walke. Schole House of Women, v. 547." CURRENT NOTES. In the current number of the Geological Magazine the Rev Canon Winnington Ingram, F.G.S., has the follow¬ ing : "A cave in the south escarpment of the Great Orme's Head has been in gradual process of exploration by a person named Kendrick. In its silt and breccia he has discovered fragments of human skeletons, indicating by their dimensions that the individuals to whom they belonged were about five feet six inches in height. Some of their tibiae are still to be seen embedded in situ. There has also been found a considerable quantity of swine's teeth, each marked on the fang with from four to six transverse lines, and perforated at the extremity with a hole through which ran probably a tendon of a reindeer or some other ligament stringing them together as a necklace. There is a similar one, composed of human teeth, in the Christie Collection in the British Museum, worn by the inhabitants of the Solomon Islands. From the same cave deposit there have been extracted several bears' teeth, with a hole in each of them for their suspension as ear¬ rings, and two lower equine jaws with the enamel of the four incisors highly polished, and with zigzag marks on the surface of the maxillary bone. These were probably hung also from the necks of the cave-men as ornaments. The whole cavern, or a portion of it, has been considered to have formed a burial-place for some Iberian tribe; but the careless and irreverent manner in which the dead in it appear to have been disposed of seems to indicate that it might have been the habitation of a race of cave-men akin to the Eskimos, whom Professor Boyd Dawkins, in his 1 Early Man in Britain,' describes as so indifferent to the sepulture of their deceased relatives that they sometimes cover up their bodies with snow and leave them to be eaten by dogs or foxes. The cave, which contains a natural reservoir of water, has only been partially excava¬ ted, and further researches seem most desirable, as they might lead to the finding of very important relics of its original inhabitants, as well as settle any doubts which may have arisen as to the accuracy of the present explorer's statement, on which the truth of the dis3overy of the above-mentioned remains in that particular cave rests." SEPTEMBER 2, 1885. NOTES. EXTRACT FROM JAMES HOWEL'S "FA¬ MILIAR LETTERS."—In this unique author's famous Epistolae Ho Elianae (dated 1641) appears the following interesting extract regarding the Welsh language :— " Touching the Isle of Albion or Gt. Brittany the Cam¬ brian, or Cymraecan Tongue commonly called Welsh is without controversy the prime maternal tongue of this Island. Some of the old Gauls (now the French) and the Britons understood one another; for they came very fre»