Welsh Journals

Nov. 4, 1896. BYE-GONES. 459 sketch of Wooden Spoons and Rack in Ptmbroke- shire. The writer says— "Amongst the domestic appliances which have become obsolete in most places in this country are the wooden spoons, bowls, and trenchers used at meals. In Pembrokeshire, however, they still sur¬ vive, and may be purchased any market day in the county town of Haverfordwest. Formerly great quantities of wooden articles of this kind were made, but now there is only a sufficient demand to keep one or two persons employed, who live near Maenclochog among the Preceii Mountains, and send their wares as required to a cooper in Haverfordwest. When not in use the bowls and planters are piled neatly, or otherwise carefully ar¬ ranged on shelves against the walls of the kitchens of the farmhouses, but the spoons are kept in a rack specially designed for the purpose. We give an illustration of one of these primitive appliances procured from an old cottage near St David's (now in the Cardiff Museum). It consists of a rectangular piece of yellow pine 1 ft. 4 ins. long by 6 ins. wide bv 1 in. thick, pierced with two rows of holes (six on one side and seven on the other), each | in. in diameter. The rack is provided with a hazel wand, bent in*o the form of a semi-circular arch 8 ins. high, for suspension to a large wooden peg which projects nine or ten inches from the wall. The hazel handle is cut fiat with a knife on the inner side of the arch, and is fixed to the body of the rack by wedging like the handle of a hammer." NOVEMBER 4, 1396. NOTES. EASTER CUSTOM.—In Loveday's Diary of a Tour in 1732 (p. 25), I find " They have a cus¬ tom at Bangor & at Caernarvon, too, on an Easter and Whit-Monday, on May-day, &c, for y'e young fellows y' can get up soon in y'e morn¬ ing to come & pull y'ir comrades out of bed, put them in y' stocks & holding up one of y'ir legs, pour a pail of water down it." This is, perhaps, connected with heaving ; if not purificatory in its origin it may have been a rain-charm. N.W.T. LORD RODNEY'S PENSION.-In the last week's " Extracts from London Letters " it is stated, apropos of Lord Nelson and the per¬ petual pension attached to the title, that " the only other pension, which is to last as Ion j as a particular title, is that of £2,000 a year held by Lord Rodney " {Daily Chronicle). This, I be- lisve, is an error ; as, according to the Annual Register, 1783, pp. 145-6, the resolution agreed to by the House of Commons was, "That the annual sum of £2,000 be granted to his Majesty out of the aggregate fund, go commence from the 12&h day of April, 1782, and be settled, in the mo3b beneficial manner, upon the present Lord Rodney and the two next succeeding heirs male of his Lordship, to whom the Barony of Rodney shall descend." D.R.T. NONCONFORMIST SINGING. — Many of the early Nonconformists in England and Wales refrained from singing praises publicly in the house of God. In this matter they much resembled the Quakers of to-day. For instance, the Baptists for a very long period had no public singing at all. It was Mr Benjamin Keach, pastor of the Baptists at Horsley Down Chapel, who first introduced singing into the Meeting Houses of that denomination in the Metropolis, and then singing only once, at the celebration of the Lord's Supper. This fact drew forth the vehement protest of Isaac Marlow, being a stern opponent to this innovation in 1693. As a con¬ sequence, a great number of the best people of that congregation departed, and built the Maze Pond Chapel, Southwark, within the walls of which no singing was heard for over half a C3n- tury, until the ministry of Abraham West. An account of a preaching Association at Anglesey by a secretary of that denomination ends thus:— "And we sang once." How totally different were they from the Nonconformists of to-day,who now have their choral festivals, &c. T.F. COMPLAINT AGAINST THE LORD PRE¬ SIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE MAKCHES:— f. 1916. 7. Copy of " A remonstrance of the Justices in Ordinarie in the Marches of Wales to the Right Honble. the Lord Pre¬ sident of the Council." It recites some of the Instructions, and cites a number of facts to show that the Lord President has usurped to himself authority over the household, and made a profit out of it, which properly belongs to all the Justices ; among other things he has " carried the King's plate and linen to Golden Grove [seat of the Earl of Carberry, Lord President 1660 to 1672], a thing never heard of"; and "command has been given to search the lodgings, to see if we have any of the King's goods there, and to bring them away, and our servants slandered and abused, and some of them by the Lady's order commanded out of her house ; its well she cannot carry the Castle with her." It ends—If the Lord President " were somewhat admonished I think he would not be so apt to ill treat us, nor his Lady neither, and to tell us in effect we have nothing to do in the government of the household, as his Lady writes, who no doubt had it from himself." Ad¬ dressed " ffor my honble. friend Sir Job Charlton Kt. Serjeant at Law, Chief Justice of Chester." No date. In the margin of the page on which this is copied is written :—" The following extracts are made from authentic papers (found at Park, near Oswes¬ try, the house of the descendants of the Chief Justice Charlton of Ludford, Chief Justice of Chester) by me in anno 1789. The originals are in this book or in a bundle in the bookcase." —(Dovaston's MSS., Historical Manuscripts Com¬ mission, 13th Report, Appendix, Part IV.) Ed.