Welsh Journals

Nov. 8, 1893. BYE-GONES. 215 examination of our case, and also for your frequent visits to assist us in our prison cell. I pray God to reward you for your great kindness to us in our hours of grief and darkness, and we beg of you to accept our most grateful thanks. I have done this in my own hand to be a remem¬ brance and a lasting sign of the great esteem and friendship I have for you. Signed Ahmed Arabi, The Egyptian. Cairo. Meharran, 29,1300, or Deer. 10,1882. Major Evans was a native of Rhuddlan, Flintshire, a Welshman, who ceuld speak his mother tongue thoroughly, was very proficient in languages, spent many years in Egypt, was first engaged for the seat of war by the British Government, afterwards by the Egyptian Government, and died with the ill-fated expedition above mentioned. A monu¬ ment is erected to his memory in Rhuddlan grave¬ yard. Tudttb Clwyd. LLANYBLODWEL WAKES.—The wakes in the parish of Llanyblodwel are, or rather were, held the first Sunday after the 10th of October This would be this year on the 15th of October. As the church is dedicated to St. Michael, whose day was the 29fch of September, we have in the observance of the wakes in this parish an instance of the people's clinging to the Old Style, and refusing the New, or Gregorian Style, which caused eleven days to be thrown out of the year in 1752, September 3rd being reckoned as September 14th, and therefore, according to the Old Style, St. Michael's Day would be on October 10th, and the Sunday in the octave would be October 15th, so the people in this parish, by ignoring the new arrangement of time, and by clinging to the old time of observing the wakes, only perpetuate an ancient custom. It would be curious information to ascertain if any other parish adheres to the Old Style. In this parish it is also the custom to hold a vestry during the octave of the Saint's Day, beginning the 10th of October, and this year, as usual, this vestry was held October 18th, one part of the business being the reading and passing of the churchwardens' accounts. In this way the church year ends with St. Michael's Day. In most parishes Easter is the time to audit the churchwardens' accounts. It would be well to ascertain if there are other parishes where the year corresponds with the saint's year. The observance of the wakes in Llanyblodwel parish had one peculiarity. The cottagers were in the habit of going with a good- sized tin can from farmhouseto farm house tobegfor milk, to make a pudding with against the Sunday next after October 10th. They started before break of day, as early as 5 30 a.m., on Satur¬ day morning, and as' long as : the [skim milk lasted in the farms each comer re¬ ceived a certain quantity of milk—no one was turned away empty. Preparation was made for this distribution, and ofttimes all the skim |milk of the night before was given away to the cottagers. The pudding making proceeded far into the night, and there was, a kind of clubbing together to heat the big oven, and all the neighbours took their rice puddings to this oven to be baked, and spent the time jollilyi.together until the^pudding was ready to be taken away. The" custom still lingers, but the glory has,departed, and but few in our days trouble J;he farmer's wife for milk at break of day. ia^j E.O. QUERIES. ST. MYLLIN'S WELL.—This is sometimes called Ffynon Coed Llan. Can any reader inform me where can be found (if there is any) a history of the Well ? Onyx. COATS OF ARMS.—Wanted the blazoning of the following coats of arms :— Bruyn of Stapleford, Sutton of Lef twich, co. Denbigh, Hughes of Tilly, Lacon of West Coppice, Offley Wright, Wright of Stretton, Tudor ap Vychan, Evans of North hope, Lewis of Burcote, Burwardsley, Yardley of Farndon, Saunders, Plas Isa and Abymbury, Tatley of Tatley, Powell of Kestvine. Sulhamstead, Reading. E. E. Thoyts. REPLIES. FUNERAL CUSTOM IN SHROPSHIRE (Oct. 11, 1893).—The custom looks very much like " Cwrw poeth a theisenau," which was practised at Welsh funerals as late as nearly the middle of this century. I do not know the beginning of the custom. I once witnessed it at Cef n Mawr, in the parish of Ruabon. A small glass of hot beer was handed round from a quart jug with a small cake to all present, about twenty. The funeral was that of a native of Llandegla, if I remember rightly, and she was very old. The attendants handed the beer. Llangwm. Ellis Roberts. YR ORSEDD WEN, SELATTYN, (Oct. 11, 1893).—A full account of the excavation of the Tumulus at Yr Orsedd Wen will be found in the 1851 vol. of Archceologia Cambrensis, pp. 9-19. Mr Wynne Ffoulkes tried to make out that it was the burial place of Gwen, one of the sons of Llywarch