Welsh Journals

192 BYE-GONES. Nov. 4, 1891. At a meeting of the Chester Archaeological Society, on Monday week, Mr F. F. Benson gave the result of his excavations during the past six weeks in the North Wall of Chester. Representa¬ tions were given of half-a-dozen tombstones which had been found, and Mr Benson said he had no doubt the Second Legion had been stationed at Chester. Seventeen of Vespasian's coins were found, but only one or two of earlier date, and from that he concluded that Chester became a Roman station in the time of Agricola. The collectors of scarce books on Celtic subjects will be glad to know that a few copies of Professor Rhys's Rhind Lectures in Archaeology, in connec¬ tion with the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, on the Early Ethnology of the British Isles, which ran through the Scottish Review in the course of 1890-91, have been printed off in a separate form. They deal with the Traces of a Non-Aryan Element in the Celtic Family ; the MythographicalTreatment of Celtic Ethnology, the Peoples of Ancient Scotland, the origin and history of Goidelic speech in the north of Britain, and the National Names of the Aborigines of the British Isles. It is announced that applications for copies of the book (accom¬ panied by a remittance of 2s 6d) should be made to the Secretary of the Society of Cymmrodorion, 27, Chancery Lane, London. Captain H. W. Lovett, of Belmont, Chirk.— Captain H. W. Lovett, of the Somersetshire Light Infantry, has been awarded the medal of the Royal Humane Society for the gallant rescue of a child from drowning in the Thames opposite the main entrance to the Royal Naval Exhibition. The Weather and the Crops.— The wretched weather of the summer and autumn prevented large numbers of farmers on the Welsh border in the neighbourhood of Oswestry from gathering their crops, and a good deal of corn was still out in the neighbourhood of Llanrhaiadr last week. It is to be hoped that the fine weather at the end of the week enabled many of them to complete their harvest. NOTICES OF BOOKS. An " Historical Guide to Rhuddlan," compiled by S. C. and M. C. A. Wynne Edwards, has just been published by Mr D. Trehearn and Messrs Trehearn and Ainsworth of Rhyl. The little work contains five illustrations, of the church,&c., and the account which is here given of the castle, the church, the ancient priory, and the Spital, will be welcome to many of the visitors to Rhyl. We have received a paper by Mr J. W. Willis- Bund, F.S.A., on "The Political Reasons for the Worcestershire Monasteries," which was read before the Worcester Archaeological Society. Mr WTillis-Bund thus sums up his argmnent:—" The reasons I have ventured to put forward for the existence of the Severn group of Benedictine abbeys are, therefore, two : first, a religious or rather a missionary object, an attack by the Latin on the Celtic Church—an attempt to destroy that Church and that monastic system that had con¬ tended so stoutly, and with such success, against the spread of their rule and the advance of their Church. This movement, if not checked, was at least diverted by the Conquest, and the religious object was united with a political one—the con¬ quest and subjugation of Wales to the Norman rule as well as to the Latin Church. The second reason was to establish a line of defensive posts—forts we should say—along the Severn to resist any Welsh attack, and for this reason the abbeys were Normanized and converted into Norman garrisons. The Herefordshire houses were outposts that might be useful, but the real line of defence was the Severn. On them the Normans relied, and did not do so in vain." We have also received the Calendar of the University College of North Wales. This calendar contains a description of the labora¬ tories, with a plan showing the excellent accom¬ modation now provided in the Physical, Chem¬ ical, and other departments. The preface con¬ cludes with the following tribute to the late Earl of Powis :—" On the 7th May, 1891, the College sustained a serious loss by the death of its first president, the Earl of Powis. Lord Powis took a keen interest in that movement for higher education in North Wales which took definite shape after the publication of the report of Lord Aberdare's Committee in 1881, and he presided at the important meetings held at Chester in connection with the organisation of the College. His great abilities, no less than his faithful and conscientious discharge of his duties, were recognized by all classes and parties, and it was by the unanimous voice of the Court of Governors, at its first meeting, that it was resolved to submit to the Privy Council the name of Lord Powis for insertion in the Charter as the first President of the University College of North Wales. His lordship devoted himself to the duties of his office with conscientious zeal, and interested himself in the minutest details of the affairs of the College. His sound judgment, ripe scholarship, and long experience of public life, no less than his unfailing courtesy, contributed largely to the successful organisation and working of the College, and by his death the movement for higher education in Wales has lost a true and powerful friend." NOVEMBER 4, 1891. NOTES. A DISPENSATION.—In the Kentish Gazette, dated for " Tuesday, March 20, to Friday, March 23, 1787," the following appears under the heading "Preferments." "Newton" is Newtown, I sup¬ pose :—" A dispensation to the Rev W. Brown, of the Rectory of Guilsfield, in the county of Montgomery, together with the Vicarage of Newton, in the same county, passed the Great Seal on Tuesday." Ruphus Grey.