Welsh Journals

392 BYE-GONES. June 25, 1890. only to the historic period when Offa in the eighth century drove the Welsh across the Severn and the Dee, and that my main object is to know how the British Christians were treated by the " Angles " and their successors in East Anglia and Mercia, between 527 and Offa's time. I hope that some of your correspondents can help me in my researches. ---------A Cambrian. REPLIES. CANTREF KEDEWEN (May 28, 1890).—Will " A.B." kindly state who the " usual authorities " are who sub divide this cantref into Gwmwd Hafren and several other Cymydau, and give a list of the latter and the parishes included in them ? There is often a good deal of vagueness and con¬ fusion in such mediaeval divisions. In " Parthau Cymru " (Myv. Arch.) Cydewain for instance is called a "Cantref," while in "Plwyfau Cymru" (ibid.) it is called a Gwmwd comprising eleven parishes there named. R. W. PLACE NAMES.—THE DEVIL'S GALLERY (May 21, June 4, 11, 18, 1890).—With respect to the three ravines mentioned on June 4th, the first is near Bangor; not near Wrexham, with which place none of them have anything to do. The " rare word," gwarchglawdd, was, as I know, pulled out of his armoury by D.S.E., in order to meet the necessities of the case in the discovery of " actual entrenchments." With respect to Canon Lee's papers in Arch. Camh., I was under the im¬ pression that he had stated several times that he did not know Welsh. It was, I believe, the late Chevalier Lloyd who suggested to him the idea of writing, and as he possessed considerable local knowledge of the Border, and had access to MSS. through the Henry and Matthews families up to Matthew Goch of Penley, he began to collect the Place Names of English Maelor.andsubmit them to the criticism of various scholars, but especially of the Rev. D. Silvan Evans, and Canon Williams of Rhydycroesau, who were in 1873, on the authority of Mr W. Skene of Edinburgh, the two best Welsh scholars, and with whom he had the great advan¬ tage of corresponding. With the diffidence that accompanies true etymologists, they always desired that their interpretations should be judged by a close inspection of the places where the names were found, in order to see how far the two asrreed together. The success of this plan of pro¬ ceeding has been so great that it may well be said that a lost page of Border History has been re¬ covered ; e.g., the direct Watling Street may be tracked with comparative ease along its 7 mile course through English Maelor. Of course each etymologist likes his own bantling best, but to argue from modern South Welsh to Bangor Is-y- coed, and the year (at latest) a.d. 607, and then to condemn as " impossible and improbable" the suggestions of the two best Welsh scholars, indi¬ cates such a superior mind, that it will be wiser for the rest of mankind to hold their peace. H. CURRENT NOTES. Mr William Peplow of Shifnal, who is ninety- six, has 151 descendants living. The Secretary for War has authorized the estab¬ lishment of Volunteer drill stations at Bishop's Castle and Ruyton-XI-Towns. The Rev. J. Harrison, M.A., of Denstone College, has been appointed head master of S. Oswald's College, Ellesmere. A memorial brass to the late Col. Browne, C.B., commanding the 23rd Regimental District, has been placed in All Saints' Church, Maidstone. Mr E. Tasker, a well-known inhabitant of Chester, where he took great interest in the Liberal cause, died on Friday morning, in his 70th year. The Bishop of Llandaff on Thursday consecrated a church at Penygraig, Llantrissant. The Bishop said that was the first occasion on which a conse¬ cration had taken place entirely in the Welsh language. The marriage of the Hon. V. Sackville West, eldest daughter of Lord Sackville, and Mr L. E. Sackville West, eldest son of the Hon. W. E. Sackville West of Bangor, took place in London, on June 17. The Leicestershire Architectural and Archaeo¬ logical Society paid a two days' visit to Shrews¬ bury last week. The Rev. W. G. D. Fletcher and the Rev. T. Auden placed their services at the dis¬ posal of the visitors. A correspondent of the Sheffield Telegraph gives an interesting account of John Thompson, of Wollerton, Market Drayton, who on March 19 completed his 110th year. He was born at Bilston in 1780, and last summer he walked from Woller¬ ton to Shrewsbury, a distance of eighteen miles, in five hours. Next day he rose at 5-30, and mowed a small field of grass. He has been a hard-working drainer, and for ninety years he has been a steady smoker. The Late General Yorke.—The will of General Yorke, C.B., late of Plas Newydd, Llangollen, and of 89, St. George's road, Pimlico, who died on March 28th last, was proved on May 28th by Miss Ethel- dred Yorke, the sister, and Colonel Charles Birch Reynardson,the nephew, the executors, the value ot the personal estate amounting to over i'3,000. THE ASKEW ROBERTS MEMORIAL AT OSWESTRY. The ceremony of handing over the Askew Roberts Memorial Clock to the town of Oswestry was performed at a quarter to five yesterday after¬ noon, when the Mayor and Corporation attended at the Post Office to receive it. There were several prominent ratepayers present, in addition to the Mayor, Mr W. H. Spaull (secretary to the Memo¬ rial Fund), and the Town Clerk, Mr J. Parry-Jones,