Welsh Journals

228 BYE-GOtfES. Oct. 2, 1889. County of Cardigan approach your Majesty with loyalty and sincere good wishes on your Majesty's entry into the Principality of Wales. " Amidst the mountainous scenery of our beloved country your memorialists humbly pray that your Majesty may enjoy health and happiness, and that at some future period the inhabitants of the southern 1)art of the Principality may also be afforded the lonour and privilege of giving your Majesty a per¬ sonal welcome. " During the reign of no other Sovereign has our country enjoyed the same blessings of peace and prosperity, and that your Majesty may long be spared to witness the still further development of its moral and material greatness and increase of happi¬ ness to all classes of your subjects is the earnest prayer of your memorialists." REPLY. " Llwynegrin, " Sept. 7th, 1889. " Dear Colonel Davies Evans, " The Queen has been graciously pleased to accept the loyal and dutiful address presented by you as Her Majesty's Lieutenant of the County of Cardigan on behalf of the Deputy Lieutenants, Magistrates, Aldermen, and County Councillors, whose names are attached to it, on the occasion of her visit to the Principality. "And I am commanded to convey to you her Majesty's thanks for the expressions of attachment to her throne and person contained therein, as well as for the additional proof supplied by it of the cordial goodwill displayed by her Welsh subjects on every occasion during her stay in Wales. " And I have the honour to remain, dear Colonel Davies Evans, " Very faithfully yours, H. C. Raikes." OCTOBER 2, 1889. NOTES. HOW ELLISTON THE COMEDIAN GOT POST HORSES FROM SHREWSBURY TO OSWESTRY.—I am indebted to Elliston's Memoirs, London, 1846, Vol. I., p. 335, for this extract— At the close of the Drury Lane season, Elliston proceeded on an engagement to Dublin, where he found his attraction by no means equal to his ex¬ pectations. In a letter to his wife, he says :— I was tossed about for twenty-six hours. On leaving the coach at Shrewsbury, being anxious immediately to proceed, I ordered a chaise, but was told they had no horses at the first post-house. At the second and third, I received similar answers. I was greatly distressed, for it was a point with me to reach Oswestry without delay. You will be amused at my expedient. Summoning a diplomatic look into my countenance, I demanded instantly to be conducted to the Mayor, declaring that I had despatches for the Duke of Richmond, and that if horses were not immediately supplied, the affair would come at once under the consideration of the Secretary of State. "Shew me to the Mayor," said I. "He is in bed, sir," was the reply—"seriously ill." " Then I shall be sure to find him at home—my business is as much of life and death as his own. Shew me to the Mayor, or supply the horses." My manner and words had the desired effect— horses were provided, and within twenty minutes I was off again. H.B.N. Y. MARLE, NEAR CONWAY.—It is stated in the Advertizer (Sep. 18)that "the old mansion of Marie, dating back to the fifteenth century," was sold the other day to Mr Woodall (brother of Mr Woodall, M.P.), for £2,500. That short announcement carries us back to the time when John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, Lord Keeper, and Archbishop of York, was born there; and he died, in the year 1650, at Gloddaeth, then occupied by Lady Mostyn, who devoted herself to make the latter days of this truly eminent man happy, at a time when he was suffering, not only from illness, but from the pangs of a great mental sorrow arising out of the Civil War troubles, in which he himself had taken a very prominent part. The history of the old mansion is full of incidents con¬ nected with that of North Wales and some of its ancient magnates; but John Williams's relation to it is of course its chiefest glory, and a few lines upon his early life cannot be unacceptable to your readers at this moment, when this old home of his is passing into the hands of others. William ab Gruffydd, ab Robin, of Cochwillan, near Bangor, a representative of a very old Welsh family, married Lowry Salisbury, youngest daughter of Henry Salisbury, of Llanrnaiadr, near Denbigh, the second son of old Thomas Salisbury, of Lleweni ; and their eldest son, William Williams, of Cochwillan, married Dorothy, daughter of Sir William Griffith, of Penrhyn, and by her he had a son, Edmund Williams, called as of Aberconway, who married Mary Wynne, of Eglwys Fach, and their second son, John Williams, was born at Marie on the 2oth of March, 1582. Here then is the beginning of a life which was first to make and then to leave its mark upon the history of England and Wales. A member of his family, in the year 1589, thus wrote about him :—" Jack Williams is a very sharp lad, he was seven years old on the 25th of March last, and if his life is spared, he will, I believe, become a famous man." He was soon afterwards sent to Ruthin for his education, whence he proceeded to St. John's College, Cam¬ bridge, in his sixteenth year, and so " famous " a scholar did he become in that great College that he was chosen a Fellow of it in 1603, just when he had attained his majority. Bishop Hachett, and others, have gone sufficiently into the details of his active life between that time and 1609, when he was chosen champion of his College in the conduct of a matter which caused a considerable stir at the time, and he so distinguished himself in it, as a