Welsh Journals

Mar. 25, 1891. BYE-GONES. 53 the Island and deservedly respected, and his loss will be acutely felt by all to whom he was known, both in England and Italy. The deceased gentle¬ man was in his fiftieth year, and was never married. He leaves two brothers and two sisters to mourn his death. His remains were followed to the cemetery by the heads of the Government departments, the English Consul, his nephew, Mr R. C. Piercy, and numbers of the principal residents of the city of Cagliari. %\tt late ^Bxcnx at ^ImxxUots. We regret to announce the death of the Rev John Hughes, M.A., Vicar of Llanidloes, which occurred at the Vicarage on Monday, March 9, after a very painful illness. The deceased gentleman officiated in church on Christmas Day last, when it was apparent that he was not in his usually good health. He then complained of having caught a cold, and has not been well since. For some weeks past his friends have been seriously anxious as to his con¬ dition. Owing, however, to his having always been a vigorous and healthy man, hopes were still enter¬ tained that his malady would in time yield to treat¬ ment. His condition, however, gradually grew worse, despite the efforts of his friends to arrest the pro¬ gress of the fatal disease. Dr. Howe was his medical attendant, and after a time Dr. Palmer of Newtown was called in. As he had been subject to a throat affection, acting on the advice of his friends and medical attendant, he consulted a throat specialist (Dr. Charnley of Shrewsbury), who considered that the real mischief had to do with the lungs, and that the throat affection was not the most important difficulty in the case. On Saturday morning Dr. Howe had a consultation with Dr. Palmer and a chest specialist; and soon after it became generally known that the doctors had given up all hopes of his recovery; and after much suffering, which he bore with exemplary patience, he finally succumbed and died on Monday at about 9 p.m. The deceased, who was 48 years of age last August, was the second son of the late Rev VV. Hughes of Llanddewi Aberarth, Cardiganshire. He was educated at Llandovery School, and proceeded thence to Clare College, Cambridge. He was or¬ dained deacon at Christmas, 1870, and proceeded to take priest's orders in 1871; he was appointed to the curacy of Dolgelley, where he laboured for six¬ teen years under the present Dean of Bangor, and was much beloved by all. In 1885 he was appointed to the vicarage of Llanidloes, and took up his resi¬ dence there in February of the following year. The present Bishop of the diocese, upon his appointment to the See of Bangor, appointed the deceased one of his chaplains. During the five years of his residence here he has endeared himself to Churchmen and Nonconformists alike, and the sad news of his death has cast a gloom over the town. On Thursday morning at 10 o'clock his remains were conveyed from the Vicarage to the Parish Church, where a public service was held ; they were afterwards con¬ veyed by train to Llanarth, and deposited in the parish church for the night, and interred in the family vault in the Llanarth parish churchyard on Friday. Deep sympathy is felt for his relatives in their sad bereavement. MARCH 25, 1891. NOTES. HEL SOLOD.—I am informed by a native of Corwen (Mr Win. Owen, now of Dinas Mawddwy) that it was the custom at Corwen about thirty- five years ago for women and children to go from house to house on All Saints' Day (November 1) to collect cakes called " Solod." The custom was called " Hel Solod." The cake was generally made of barley-flour, without any addition of more appetising ingredients than salt and water ; and it was about one inch thick, and four inches in diameter. Souling, I am told, still prevails in Shropshire, where contributions are solicited by singing the following doggerel:— Soul! Soul! for a soul-cake ; Pray, good mistress, for a soul-cake. One for Peter, and two for Paul, Three for them who made us all. Soul ! Soul ! for an apple or two ; If you've got no apples, pears will do. Up with your kettle, and down with your pan, Give me a good big one, and I'll be gone. Soul! Soul! for a soul cake, etc. An apple or pear, a plum or a cherry, Is a very good thing to make us merry. —( The Leisure Hour, 1876, p. 730). The lines, I think, will throw some light on the Corwen custom; and I would suggest that " Solod " is a corruption of soul with the Welsh tevmina,tion-od=Soul-od. Mr Owen does not know whether the custom still survives at Corwen. But he mentioned that apples, bread and cheese, or any other articles, of diet, were given at those houses where cake had not been prepared, or had been distributed. The supplicatory doggerel at Corwen was much shorter than the English one : — Dydd da i chwi heddyw, Welwch chwi 'n dda ga' i dipyn bach o fwyd cenedl y meirw ?—Amen. " Cenedl y meirw " they said ; whatever that may mean. May it not be a corruption of " Dy' gwyl y Meirw ?" I may also mention that it was cus¬ tomary at Dinas Mawddwy forty years ago, if not later, for children to go about on All Saints' Day to collect bread and cheese, which custom they called " Bara 'chawsa." They used to ask for it in the following form :— Bara 'chawsa, bara 'chawsa, Os ca' i beth, mi neidia ; Os na cha' i ddim, mi beidia. But it does not appear that the Dinas Mawddwy boys were so vulgar as to make use of rude re¬ marks, or to mark the doors with chalk, in case of refusal, as I am told their contemporaries at Cor¬ wen used to do. Glyn Trefnant. SELATTYN CHURCH REGISTERS. — DE¬ STRUCTIVE LIGHTNING AT OSWESTRY. The following extract from the Selattyn Church