Welsh Journals

214 BYE-GONES. Nov. 6, 1895. This interesting book, which is full of anecdote and hairbreadth escapes,brings to light facts which have hitherto lain buried amidst the archives of the Public Record Office and the Trinity House. Probably most of us are un¬ aware that it was to the Church we owed the Beacon lights along our dangerous Coasts; or that these were swept away at the dissolution of the Monasteries. Neither did we know of the immense difficulties with which post-reformation philanthropists had to contend, in the renewal of these lights. Two of the illustrations are of local interest, those of the first Lighthouses at Dungeness and the Scillies, being reproductions of receipts for Lighthouse Dues, dated 1670, in the possession of Lord Kenyon. It is a matter of regret that so little information has been found concerning the Lights on the Coasts of North Wales. It will be interesting to know what our Celtic forefathers and Early Religious Houses did in the matter. F.B.O. The death took place last week from apoplexy of Mr Henry Davis Pochin of Bodnant Hall, in the Vale of Conway. Mr Pochin, who was seventy-one years of age, was born at Leicester, and entered business as a manufacturing chemist in Manchester. He discovered the means of completely decomposing china clay, and the material is now used by almost all paper makers for sizing paper. Mr Pochin also had a share in the discovery of a means of purifying resin by distillation. Mr Pochin for many years took an active interest in popular education in Man¬ chester and Salford ; in 1866 and 1867 he served the office of Mayor of Salford, and in 1868 he was returned to Parliament as a Liberal for Stafford, but he was unseated on petition. Mr Pochin, who was a director of several public companies, possessed extensive estates in the Vale Df Con¬ way and near Rhyl, which he recently transferred to his daughter, the wife of Mr McLaren, M.P. He had become a " Unionist " in politics. The remains were interred on Saturday in a mausoleum about two hundred yards from Bodnant Hall. The mausoleum, according to an inscription inside, was erected in 1883 " as a suitable place of repose"; it is of polished marble and has niches containing marble busts of the deceased, his widow, and other members of his family, and is stated to represent an outlay approximating £16,000. IN THE FIELDS AND LANES. THE WEATHER IN OCTOBER. Rain/fall 5.71 inches; registered sunshine, 49 hours and 35 minutes; maximum temperature in tlie shade (on the 1st), 67.5 degrees, minimum (on the 26th), 21 degrees, being equal to 11 degrees of frost. Rain more or less fell on twenty-five days, 0.95 inches, or almost an inch of rain, fell on the 1st day of the month, and snow Ml to a depth of twelve inches on the low-lying lands; the depth being much more on the mountains. The snow fell on seven days, and as it was accompanied by frost, it lay on the1 ground most of the time. The morn¬ ing of the 22nd was very wintry booking; three inches of snow covered the ground, and the trees were bending under the wxight of the snow, be¬ cause they were in full leaf. The frost was sharp and sudden, and the first night's frost destroyed dahlias and other t|C!nd!er plants. The month throughout was weft and cold. There was bub little sunshine, and there were ten days without any bright sunshine. We have no record h'Fo of such a wintry October, the nearest approach to it was in 1887; much snow fell then, and there were twelve degrees of frost on the 26 h, but the snow, although isix inches deep in the lower lands, soon nulited in the sun. The fanners were sorry to see the frost and snow, because thfre was an abund¬ ance of pasturage for cattle, and many of the farmers had most of thiir potatoes still in the ground. I observed one farmer lifting his potatoes when there were two inches of snow on the ground, rather a strange sight in the month of Oo'obfx. Rain set in on the 30th, and the snow had dis¬ appeared from the valley and uplands on the fol¬ lowing day.—Thos. Ruddy, The Gardens, Pale, Corwen. THE SIN-EATER IN WTALES. The following letter appeared in the Times of October 28. Sir,—Mr Hartland's letter raises _ several very interesting points which would require to be dis¬ cussed at some length. I must, however, confine myself to the question mainly raised by my first letter—the evidence for the recent.existence of the sin-eater. As I should explain, did space permit, I do not regard analogical evidence as very satisfactory,for two reasons—(1) Aubrey may have misinterpreted a ceremony which he saw (he does not tell us that the name sin-eater was used, I think); (2) the sin- eater, if he existed, may not unreasonably be re¬ garded as the result of a misunderstanding of other customs. The evidence for the recent existence in Wales of this personage ic the evidence of Mr Moggridge —a story related by him at Ludlow, and derived no one knows where, at least second hand, perhaps third, fourth, or fifth hand. Against this we have the evidence of the vicar, the schoolmaster, and the Nonconformist minister —no doubt such a conjunction is enough to damn any cause; but we must remember that the school¬ master was no tyro at folklore, he had collected legends and customs for Sir Thomas Philipps." Even a clergyman and a diocesan inspector can elicit ghost stories in a strange parish. Much more can a local schoolmaster find a sin-eater. Secondly, no Welsh writer has ever mentioned the sin-eater, and no Welsh word for the same is known. Thirdly, no one has ever been produced who saw a sin-eater or heard of him in the localities where he was said to have lived. Even if I accepted Mr Hartland's canon of evi¬ dence I should not think that probability lay on his side. Holding that folklore requires stricter