Welsh Journals

2G6 BYE-GONES. Feb. 24, 1892. see the second edition of Zeuss' Grammatica Celtica (1871), p. 535. Egerton Phillimore. CURRENT NOTES. Colonel Sir Herbert Bruce Sandford, K.C.M.G., whose death was recently announced at the age of 65, was a brother to Lord Sandford. A Badger Killed.—A fine badger, weighing 301bs., was killed at Rhyd-leos Wood on Monday by Jonah Evans and others. The Late Mr Johst Humphreys.—The late Mr John Humphreys of Bromsgrove, who died on the 1st of February, at the age of 67, was the son of Mr and Mrs Humphreys, of the Cross Foxes Inn, Llan- fyllin, and when a very little boy was sent to a school kept by a well known character of those days, "Mrs Thomas Davies, gardener." After attending other schools, he studied with Mr Richard Owen of Llansantffraid, and then became a clerk in the office of Mr H. Lloyd Williams, Town Clerk of Llanfyllin. After a good training in this office he was afterwards for some time acting registrar under the new County Court Act, in which capacity, with diligence and courtesy, he won the confidence of the judge and the public. On the appointment of the late Mr John Pugh, solicitor, to the office of registrar, Mr Hum¬ phreys removed to Oswestry, where he was chief clerk for ten or twelve years to Messrs T. and C. Minshall, solicitors. About 1857, he and his family removed to Bromsgrove, where he was appointed to the responsible office of clerk to the Board of Guard¬ ians, which trust he held with much credit until about two years ago, when his health broke down, and he was a great sufferer, but endured his sufferings with Christian resignation. Mr Hum- Shreys married the youngest daughter of the late Ir Griffith Jones of Glan r Afon, who survives him with four sons and one daughter, to mourn their great loss. THE NEW HEAD MASTER OF OSWESTRY GRAMMAR SCHOOL. Mr J. J. Lloyd Williams, M.A., Head Master of Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Carmarthen, and late Head Master of St. David's College School, Lampeter, has been elected Head Master of Oswestry Grammar School. Mr Lloyd Williams, who was educated at Friars School, Bangor, is a nephew of the Bishop of Bangor, is thirty-three years of age, and has had a most creditable career at the University, although the head of his c ollege at Oxford is of opinion that the scholar¬ ship which Mr Lloyd Williams gained is not adequately represented by the highest distinctions he won. He was " proxime accessit" for the " Powis Exhibition" in 1876, and was in 1877 elected classical scholar of Jesus College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1881, having obtained a second class in Classical Moderations. He took his M.A. in 1884. In 1883 he was appointed lecturer in Classics and English at St. David's College, Lampeter, and when Principal (now Bishop) Jayne started the Lampeter Intermediate School in connection with the College, Mr Williams was appointed Head Master. Between 1884 and 1887 the number of boys in the Lampeter School increased under his management from seventeen to eighty-seven. In July, 1887, Mr Lloyd Williams was appointed Head Master of Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Car¬ marthen, and evidences of new life and pros¬ perity were at once associated with it, and he now leaves it as one of the foremost schools in the Principality. During the four years ended last September, Mr Lloyd Williams educated 156 pupils at this school. The distinctions gained by his scholars are numerous and valuable. In formu¬ lating their scheme under the g Welsh Intermediate Education Act the Joint Committee for Carmarthen¬ shire recommended that Queen Elizabeth Grammar School be accepted as an intermediate school, and they unanimously agreed that Mr Williams should be the first Head Master under the new Act were he willing to accept the post. During his tenure of office Mr Lloyd'Williams has been instrumental in raising a sum of about £700 towards building a new house for the Head Master, and has provided the schools with a laboratory >nd a first-class gym¬ nasium. The new Head Master of the Oswestry Grammar School is much devoted to athletics. THE CYMMRODORION SOCIETY. MR E. SIDNEY HARTLAND ON THE "SIN-EATER/' The second lecture of the Cymmrodorion Session was given at a joint meeting of the Cymmrodorion and Folk-Lore Societies, which was held on Wed- nesday.the 10th February, at the rooms of the Royal Asiatic Society in Albemarle-street, under the presidency of ProfessorKRhys, when Mr E. Sidney Hartland. of Gloucester, who is an active member of both Societies, and the"author of " The Science of Fairy Tales," read a paper on " The Sin-Eater." Amongst others present there were :—Mr Henry Owen, F.S.A., Mr G. Lawrence Gomme, Mr Alfred Nutt, Mr T. Marchaat Williams, Mr Edward Clodd, Dr Karl Blind, Dr Gaster, Mr Sydenham Jones, Mr D. McRitchie, Mr F. A. Milne (secre¬ tary to the Folk-Lore Society), Mr E. Vincent Evans (secretary to the Cymmrodorion Society),&c, &c— The Chairman, after a brief reference to Mr Hartland's contributions to the study of folk-lore, called upon him to read his paper on " The Sin- Eater."—The earliest mention of the curious custom of the Sin-Eater, formerly observed in Wales and the Welsh Marches at funerals, is to be found, according to Mr Hartland, in " The Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme," a work of John Aubrey, (1686-7) which remained in MS. for 200 years, until it was for the first time issued by the Folk-Lore Society in 1881. The passage in question (p. 23-4) runs as follows :—" Offertories at Funeralls.—These are mentioned in the Rubrick of ye ch. of Engl. Common-Prayer-booke : but I never sawe it used, but once, at Beaumaris, in Anglesey; but it is used over all the Counties of North-Wales. But before when the Corps is brought out of Doores, there is Cake and Cheese, and a new Bowie of Beere, and another of Milke with ye Anno Dni ingravred on it, and ye parties name deceased, w'ch one accepts of on the other side of ye Corps; and this Custome is used to this day, 1686, in North Wales." On this there is the follow¬ ing note by Bishop Kennett:—" where a small tablet or board is fixt near the Altar, upon w'ch the friends of ye defunct lay their offerings in mony according to their own ability and the quality of the person