Welsh Journals

Mar. 6, 1889. BYE-GONES. 57 MARCH 6, 1889. NOTES. SUPERSTITIOUS CURES AND CHARMS (Feb. 13, 1889.)—I remember seeing a piece of dirty white paper, on which was written some strange hieroglyphics, not much unlike shorthand, brought home by my brothers as a curiosity. It was found in a wall of a cow house near Offa's Dyke, and was said to have been " in the family " of the small farmer on whose property it was found, for centuries, and believed in religiously as a np.vfir'-fniliiio' rfimprlv fnr +.Via " efrib-o " in nolvoo a never-failing remedy for the : strike " in calves. A.C.-H. WELSHPOOL RACES.—The following is an extract from the London Evening Post, bearing date Saturday, March 14th, 1741 :— Notice is hereby given that in the month of June next Two Fifty Pound Plates will be run for at Welsh Pool in the County of Montgomery. The particular days will be advertised in this paper shortly. Articles and terms of entering and running are to be seen in the hands of Mr Parry of Pool, Clerk of the Course. A copy of the paper is in the possession of Mr. Pryce Barrett, Mayor of Welshpool. Can any one say who Mr. Parry was ? S.J. Welshpool. QUERIES. PEOPLES ALTARS.-May I ask the readers of Bye-Gones, if there are any of these interesting relics of antiquity, in other churches in Wales, similar to the one that has so unfortunately perished in the fire at Hanmer Church? Fanny Bulkeley-Owex. AN OLD CHAIR.-In the vol. of the Cambro Briton, part for June, 1822, I see a foot note "that a chair in which Syr W. W. Wynne sat on the occasion of an Eisteddvod in that year was the one belonging to the old Cymmrodorion established in 1751, and was pre¬ sented to that Society by the Syr Watkin of that day, Grandfather, we believe, of the gentle¬ man who at present (1822) so worthily bears the name. This chair is now the property of the ^wyneddigion, from whose room it was moved for this Eisteddvod." It might be very interesting to mafv. of us to know where this old chair is now ; and is there a collection of relics of this kind, or property belonging to this excellent and interest¬ ing Society? Myfanwy. Newcastle-on-Tyne. REPLIES. r?SX^HIRE PLACE NAMES.-PULVER¬ BATCH (Oct. 17, 1888, Feb. 13, 1889).-A word S.l2ft?v 'R-E.D." In explaining the name vol i Anderson mere& quotes Eyt*>n> without acknowledgment. Eyton is more honest, for he tells us that he follows Blakeway; and, evidently not feeling quite sure of his ground, he admits that he joins him in hazarding a someivhat hold opinion as to the etymology of the first part of the name in question. Let me add here that it is Blakeway who says that the district in summer is literally " a bed of dust." And let me ask here, would that fact have made any impression upon the Anglo-Saxon mind ? That the Norman Scribes, knowing as they did the meaning of the Latin noun, Pulvis, should write Pulverbatch as Polrebec is (to me) not in the least surprising, and possesses (for me) no significance. On the other hand, that Pulverbatch is pronounced Powder- batch in the local dialect to this day is, to my mind at least, very suggestive. Everybody knows that trees were a frequent source of place names in ancient times. I will give one or two examples. Powderham, in Devonshire, which corresponds to Powderbatch in sound, is a disguise of "Apulder ham," Appletree-home. So far as I know, there is no "bed of dust" there, even in summer, and Dust-home is not the sort of name that we should expect to find in the days of William the Conqueror. Again, Maple Durham, in Oxfordshire, has apparently been altered from " Mapulderham," Mapletree-home, or perhaps more properly, Mapletree-manor. So far as the derivation of Pulverbatch goes, I must decline to throw " dust " in the eyes of your readers. Ellesmere. A. T. Jebb. WILLIAM OWEN (GWILYM DDU GLAN HAFREN) (Feb. 13, 1889).—This talented school¬ master, poet, preacher, and musician was the son of Mr Owen Williams of Wern Dwn, Llangybi, Carnarvonshire, and was of a very respectable family. His mother is said to have been a des¬ cendant of the Rev. Edward Samuel of Llangar, well-known as a Welsh poet and translator. (Brython, 1S60, p. 67.) He had been keeping a school in that part of Carnarvonshire called Eifionydd for a few years, and was induced to come over to Montgomeryshire, I have reason to believe, by the Rev. Owen Jones of Gelli (father of the pre¬ sent gentleman of that name) or some other leading members of a Society established by the Calvinistic Methodists in 1813, for the evangelisation of the English borders, under the name " Cymdeithas Goror Clawdd Offa." He first settled at Welsh¬ pool, and young men from many parts of the county flocked to his school. My father was one of his pupils. He was an excellent teacher. I think he had removed to Newtown before the Welshpool Eisteddfod of 1824. At that Eistedd¬ fod he competed with his old pupil Eben Fardd for the prize offered for the best " Awdl ar Ddinystr Jerusalem,"andthe adjudicator(Gwallter Mechain) is said to have admitted that in some respects his Awdl was decidedly the best, but that unfortu¬ nately after "destroying " Jerusalem he proceeded