Welsh Journals

18 BYE-GONES. Feb. 6, 1895. The shades of evening only put an end to the sport, no accident occurring to mar the pleasure of the day." Wrexham. J. F. Edisbury. CURRENT NOTES. After a long and lingering illness, Lord Randolph Churchill, we regret to say, died on Thursday, at 50, Grosvenor Square, London. Lieut.-Col. Charles Wigram Long, the newly elected member for Evesham, was born at Whit¬ church, Salop, in 1842, and is the son of the Ven. Archdeacon Long. The death is announced at the age of thirty- three of Mr T. B. Grant, a capitalist, who has lately invested considerable sums in the develop¬ ment of Aberystwyth. It was stated in the course of proceedings in the Chancery Division last week that the late Lady Forester had left a sum which would probably amount to about £450,000, to build and endow a Cottage Hospital at or near Wenlock, and a Convalescent Home at the sea-side. At a meeting of the Welsh University Court at Shrewsbury on Saturday Lord Aberdare was unanimously elected Chancellor, with Dr. Isambard Owen as Senior Deputy-Chancellor, and Mr Humphreys-Owen, M.P., as Junior Deputy-Chancellor. It is not often that honours thus go to those who have best deserved them. The Chancellor and Deputy-Chancellors have worked hard for many years in the interest of Welsh Education. %hz $ate Jttr* f nrke oi (Ertoicj. We regret to record the death, which took place on Thursday, at the age of seventy-one, of Mrs Yorke of Erddig, widow of Mr Simon Yorke. The deceased lady, Victoria Mary Louisa Yorke, was a daughter of the late General Sir Edw. Cust of Leasowe Castle, son of the first Lord Brownlow. Sir Ed. Oust was for many years Master of tlie Ceremonies at Court, and Lady Oust was a lady of the bedchamber. Mrs Yorke was a god child of the Duchess of Kent, and a frequent companion of the Queen in her younger days. She married Mr Simon Yorke in August, 1846, and had two sons and two daughters. One of tine eons, Mr Philip Yorke, survives her. The funeral took place on Monday at Marchwiel churchyard, where her husband was buried in February last year. FEBRUARY 6, 1895. NOTES. BRIEFS AT LLANYBLODWEL.-At the beginning of a vellum Register preserved in the church chest are many entries of briefs made in this church. A few extracts will not be uninter¬ esting to the readers of Bye-Gones. April 23, 1699. Collected towards ye releif of ye distressed Protestants ye sum of three poundes, twelve shil¬ lings, two pence halfpenny. This was a very large sum in those days. The word " poundes" is not very legible, for across it a blotch of ink drawn away by the finger still exists, and makes the word somewhat dim, but I think there can be little doubt that "pounds" is the word. Here is another— " Collected upon'ye Brief for ye repairs of Bros- bey Church two shills : 1707." And again as shewing the objects for vvhich briefs were made the following entry may be quoted :— Collected upon ye Brief for ye coimon (? com¬ mon) Gate at Edinburgh in North Britain loss by fire, the sum of two shills : & three pence in the year 1708. E.O. A FOLK SONG.—The following appears in the Athenaeum for Jan. 26, 1895 :— Ed. 63, Compayne Gardens, W. Hampstead, Jan. 19, 1895. The correspondence under the above heading in the Athenaeum of to day takes me back some thirty-five years to my native town of Shrews¬ bury. Such a song was one of the delights of my earliest recollections. It was told me by a nurse¬ maid, whose version began, in prose, thus : A certain king had three children, one son and two daughters, to each of whom he presented a ball made of gold, with the penalty of death by hanging attached to the loss of it. The elder daughter was so unfortunate as to lose her ball in a neglected garden thickly overgrown with weeds and bram¬ bles. Search for it having proved unavailing, she prepared to meet her fate. At this point my nurse broke into song with the words :— O hangman, hangman, wait awhile; I think I see my mother coming over yonder stile. Presumably the hangman was amenable, for the song continues :— 0 mother, mother, have you found my golden ball ? And have you set me free ? Or have you come to see me hanged Upon the gallows tree? 1 have not found thy golden ball, I have not set thee free, But I have come to see thee hanged Upon the gallows tree. And so a whole phalanx of relations—sister, cousins, and aunts—are questioned, and so reply. But at last, the lover, with victory on his fore¬ head, appears at that distant stile. To him it is given to answer :— I have found thy golden ball,' And I have set thee free, I have not come to see thee hanged Upon the gallows tree. It seems not unlikely that my old nurse's version was an imperfect one. It would be interesting if some one of your readers could supply the entire story. Ellen M. Hill.