Welsh Journals

436 &5TE-G0NICS. Nov. 2, 1892. made at Old Dolfor Hall House. There was a legend, of 200 years old, that the old house was timber-builti and lay in a field called " Adiew(l) Cae Sgubor." In 1830 or 1831 (the late W. Pugh took down the house on its [sic] present site and rebuilt it), when the work¬ men were pulling down the old house for Squire Pugh, father of Mr W. B. Pugh, in one corner of the big kitchen, under the kitchen flags, they found a vault made of flag-stones, and covered with a flag¬ stone, containing the skull of a horse's head, and they found one similar in each corner, with the noses pointing in the same direction, namely, towards the north. The only explanation that anyone could make of this was, that they were put there (at some time before anyone then living could recollect) to prevent or counteract some witchcraft, and that they were the heads of horses that had mysteriously died from the supposed effect of witchcraft. There was no local tradition. Several pages of the paper are occupied with Kerry School, of which we have heard a good deal of late in connection with the new scheme of Intermediate Education, and the report of the Commissioners of Inquiry concerning Charities, dated 1837, is given in full. At the time of the report two boys and two girls were clothed. The unfortunate boys had "a blue coat with a yellow " collar, a waistcoat, also yellow trowsers, shoes "and stockings, a shirt, and a hat with a yellow " band, at the cost of about £2 5s each." The girls had " a buff stuff frock, a white straw bon- " net, shift, ehoe3, stocking3, and neckhandker- " chief, at the cost of about £1 3s each." Mr Rowley Morris also contributes the " Pedigree of Pugh of Dolfor;" and additional information is given as to the ownership of Trewern Hall. The paper by "M.C.J." on " Corbett- Winder of Vaynor Park" is full of facts about the large family of the Corbetts, and many well-known persons on both sides of the Border who have been connected with them by marriage. The fifth baronet, Sir Charle3 Corbett, had been a bookseller in Fleet- street, London, and only succeeded to an annuity of £100 under the fourth baronet's will. The Gentleman's Magazine relates a melancholy occur¬ rence at Sir Charles's funeral:— Sir Charles's funeral was about to take place, and his family and friends were assembled to take him to the place appointed for all living. The proces¬ sion was about to proceed to St. Anne's Church, Westminster, when suddenly the son broke a blood¬ vessel, and fell down a lifeless corpse. So awful and affecting an occurrence occasioned a postponement of the funeral, and after the delay of a few days the father and son were interred in one common grave. This occurred on May 26,1808. Sir Charles's son,Sir Richard.endeavoured to secure the 63tate3, but failed. He was in the employ of the Hon. E. I. Service, and died in 1814, the last male descendant of the line. "Extracts from Deeds relating to Property in Leighton " give fur¬ ther particulars of the Corbetts. Three short (1) Is this Adiew for Adv) or Adu)y, 'a gap' ?—E\P. papers remain to be mentioned—a Statement of Accounts, for 1891, with regard to the Sheriffs' Association of Denbighshire, Flintshire, and Mont¬ gomeryshire ; a brief description of the frag¬ ments of a stone coffin found in excavating the soil for the restoration of Liansantffraid- yn-Mechain Church; and a paper on "A Montgomeryshire Playing Card," which has been acquired for the Powys-laud Museum through the kindness of Mr T. B. Barrett of Welshpool. The card (which is reproduced in an illustration) is the four of Spades, of the time of Charles II., and bears a small map and a description of Montgomery¬ shire. The county is said to <( Yeald store of cattel, especially horses." These geographical cards continued to be produced as late almost as the beginning of the present century. NOVEMBER 2, 1892. ~ ....... NO TBS. A MONTGOMERYSHIRE SUPERSTITION. A farm servant informed me the other day that he had been seriously told by an old man that a " stean " of money was deposited at the end of a rainbow ; but that he had never heard of any one who had succeeded in finding it. T.H.J. [The saying is a common one; but it is interesting to hear of the survival of the superstition in Montgomeryshire.—Ed.] LLANSANTFFRAID-YN-MECHAIN.— COL¬ LECTION OF TITHES.—It was the custom here in former years, before the commutation, for the Clerk to collect his dues in kind—the Bell Sheaf, as it was called—from each township in the garish. I see in an old paper, dated 1846, that the lerk and his predecessors before him, from time immemorial, had collected a certain quantity of corn, in all 25 strikes and a half, and 2 kernels. It used also to be the custom for the Clerk in those days to go to each farm-house in the parish to claim the Rector and Vicar's portion of tithe ; and there used to be tithe-barns belonging to each township for the reception of the clergyman's share of grain. Some of these have been converted to ©fcher use3, whilst others have been demolished. H. QUERIES. OSWESTRY CASTLE.—J. JAMES OF DUDLESTON. — Who was " J. James of Dudleston," who is the engraver of the view of Oswestry Castle which appears in Edwards's " History of Oswestry," 1819 ? It is thus signed— " J. James, Dudleston, sculpt., 1818." Dukes, in his "Antiquities of Shropshire," refers to a view of Oswestry Castle by William Williams, 1777. Is this '' view" in existence ? J. P. -J. THE TREE HATED BY THE DEVIL.— I recollect many years ago cutting a switch out of a hedge near which was at'work a labourer, born in the neighbourhood of Trefonen, whotoldme to smell