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344 BYE-GONES. Apr. 2, 1890. in 1848, and became a Queen's Counsellor in 1880. He was a Justice of the Peace for Denbighshire. Mr Swetenham -was twice married : in 1851, to Elizabeth, daughter of the late Mr Wilson Jones, M.P., of Hartsheath Park, Flintshire, and, in 1868, to Gertrude, daughter of Mr Ellis Cunliffe, and grand-daughter of Sir Foster Cunliffe, of Acton Park. He leaves five children. His eldest son is Edmund Wilson, who was married in 1883, to Mary, eldest daughter of the late Mr William Barnston, of Crewe Hill, Cheshire. Mr Swetenham entered the House of Commons, for the first time, as a fol¬ lower of Lord Salisbury, at the election in July, 1886, when he defeated Sir Love Jones-Parry, by a majority of 136 votes, the voting being as follows :— Swetenham, 1,820; Jones-Parry, 1,684. On receipt of the news of his death signs of mourning became general in the Carnarvon Boroughs. The funeral took place on Saturday, in Hope Cemetery, near Wrexham. APRIL 2, 1890. NOTES. GREAT QUANTITY OF FISH IN NEWTON MERE.—In Vol. I., August 1731, of the " Gentleman's Magazine" is the sub¬ joined :— In Newton-meer, a pond near Ellesmere in Shrop¬ shire, about a mile in compass, a surprising quantity of fish rose on the surface of the water, which was thought to be poisoned. At first the people eat of the fish without damage ; but beginning to smell un¬ pleasantly, labourers and carts were employed several days to carry them away and bury them. 'Tis hardly conceivable such multitudes could be contained in so narrow a compass of water. Elyned. THE LEEK UPON SAINT TAVY'S DAY.— A correspondent of Notes and Queries (quoting Henry V., Act 4, sc. 7, line 107), asks which of our sovereigns followed Henry of Monmouth's example of wearing the leek on March 1, and whether there is any record or present survival of a Court custom commemorating the good service done by Welshmen ' in a garden where leeks did grow.' " It was from James I.'s Court that a usage (for so, I suppose, ib was) which is noted in the ' Memoirs of Sophia, Electress of Hanover,' came to that of his grandson, the elector of Heidel¬ berg :— On March 1 [1661], which the English in general, and the Royal Family in particular, observe by eating in the evening an onion which they have worn in their hats throughout the day in memory of a battle won by a Prince of Wales wearing this device, the Elector arranged to send leeks to all the English residents, to Baroness Degenfelt, her children, and to me; and invited me to come and eat mine in his rooms, where I met the Baroness with the prettiest little son and daughter in the world." (p. 95). Another correspondent says, " In one of Hogarth's pictures—' Rake's Progress,' No. 4, where the rake is arrested for debt as he is going to attend a lev<5e or drawing-room at St. James's Palace, there is introduced the figure of a Welsh¬ man with an enormous leek in his hat, thus show¬ ing that it is St. David's Day, March 1. It was also Queen Caroline's birthday, which accounts for the progress of the rake in full dress going to St. James's Palace on that day." P. MARGAM ABBEY.—This historic place, we are told, came to the Talbots through the heiress of the Mansels, who had been its owners for some generations. A hundred years ago it was esteemed as one of the most interesting places in South Wales ; but the dome of its ancient chapter house fell in in January, 1799, and thenceforth, probably, the chief feature of interest connected with it—apart from its monastic history—was the grand armoury, wherein was displayed the armour of a Cromwellian troop, which the Mansel owner of the period had raised in support of the Parlia¬ ment. When and how did the Mansels acquire Margam ? We read of Sir Francis Mansel, as the owner of Middlescomb, in Carmarthenshire, and he evidently resided at that place, for his third son, Francis Mansel, D.D., principal of Jesus College, Oxford, was born there in 1588. It is curious that this eminent man should have been expelled from Jesus College in 1648, because he had supported the royal cause, at the very time when the Margam Mansel was fighting on the other side. We take an interest in this ancient South Walian family for their own sakes ; but just now the interest is revived by the fact that the late Mr Talbot, M.P., was the only son of his parents, and therefore the sole male representative of the Mansels and Talbots of Margam, at the time of his death. His father was accounted rich upon a fortune of £15,000 a year, but the son at his death was worth ten times that amount; and, as his only son had pre-deceased him, his eldest daughter has succeeded to all his great landed estates, and to a considerable share also of his personalty. When we reflect upon Mr Talbot's great wealth, and consider that it had been acquired during his repre¬ sentation of Glamorganshire in Parliament, we see how the mineral resources of that great county have been developed in the last sixty years. Margam Abbey will always retain its antiquarian value as a local spot of historic interest, but henceforth it will be mentioned in our records as the home of a man who in his own life-time witnessed one of the most remarkable commercial revolutions in South Wales that can be imagined. His own private virtues and public services will entitle his name to respectful attention at all times, but we should try to realize through him the more intimate history of the Mansel family and its connections with Margam Abbey, for after all, thatis the one point that will always come home to the hearts of the antiquarian students of South Walian records, and it is in that relation chiefly I have penned this note. A Cambrian.