Welsh Journals

Oct. 3, 1906. BYE-GONES. 299 intimately known and loved, with eveiry evi¬ dence of sorrow by all classes. Lady Londonderry was the only_ daughter of Sir Joihn Edwards, Bart., by Harriett, daughter of the Rev. .Francis Johnson, M.A., prebendary of Welle, and granddaughter of the Rev. Dr. Wil'les, Archdeacon of Weils. Lady Edwards was twice married, her first husband being Mr John Owen Herbert of Dolforgan, Montgomery¬ shire, by whom there was issue a daughter, Avarina Brunetta, who became the wife of the late Mr Walter Long of Rood Ashton, Wiltshire, an elder brother of the father of the present mem¬ ber for South Dublin. Sir John Edwards was sixth in descent from Lewis ap Richard of Talgarth, gent. (temp. James I.), who married Joan, daugh¬ ter of Humphrey Pugh, Squire of Aberffrydlan, a cadet member of the illustrious house of Mathafarn. and grandson of David Llwyd. who entertained Harry Tudor, of Penmynydd, Angle¬ sey, afterwards Henry VII. of England, at Math- afran (according to one version of the story), during his historic march to Bosworth Field in August, 1545. John Edwards, the elder, of Machynlleth, gen¬ tleman (the father of Sir John Edwards), was a younger son of Mr Lewis Edwards of Talgarth, and practised at Machynlleth as a solicitor. He appears in the We^hpool burgess roll, about 1760, as " John Edwards, gent., Machynlleth." His wife was Cornelia, daughter and heiress of Mr Richard Owen of Garth, Llanidloes, and Llyn- lloedd, Machynlleth. The arms borne by the Edwards family were—Quarterly gules and or, a fesso inter four lions passant guardant all counter-charged—-very similar to those of Neuadd Wen and other illustrious families claiming de¬ scent from the Princes of Gwynedd. ' One branch of the family of Edwards of lal- garth settled in America at the time of the Civil War, the most noted member of this American branch being Jonathan Edwards (1703- 58). President of New Jersey 'College, and a direct ancestor of Mrs Roosevelt, wife of Presi¬ dent Roosevelt. Born on January 15, 1770, Mr (after¬ wards Sir John) Edwards succeeded to the family estates on the death of his father nineteen years later, and married, a few days after reaching his twenty^second birthday, Catherine, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Col. T. Browne, of Mellington Hall, by whom he had no issue. On December 7th, 1825, he mar¬ ried secondly, as before stated, the widow of Mr. Herbert. Lady Londonderry was born on November IS, 1828, and in 1846 married George Henry Robert Charles William Vane-Tempest, Viscount Seaham (eldest son, by his second wife, of Charles William, third Marquis of London¬ derry), who, on his father's death in 1854, suc¬ ceeded to the peerage (by special limitation), as second Earl Vane, and in 1872 succeeded his half-brother, as fifth Marquis of Londonderry. His death occurred in 1885, as the result of an apoplectic seizure. In January of last year the marchioness lost her second son, Lord Henry Vane«Tempest. Lord Henry had been enjoying a day's hunt in Leicestershire, and on returning to his hotel had a seizure, and died before help could be obtained. Lady Londonderry never overcame the shock which this loss gave her. Our 'portrait of the late marchioness is taken from the painting, by Mr. Ellis Roberts, which was presented to Visoount Castlereagh in 1901 by the people of Machynlleth and district on the occasion of his 'marriage. "OCTOBER, 3, 190a NOTES. SALOPIAN FOLK LORE (Sept. 19,1906).— "As thin as halfpenny ale." This is a Worthen simile, which Miss Burne does not include in her Shropshire Folk Lore. In The Vision of Piers the Plowman, written in the 14th Century, it is said of Waster that he would not "Halfpenny ale in any wise drink." Professor Skeat remarks that the best ale was then sold at fourpence a gallon. R.E.D. A WELSH WIZARD.—Last month [died] in the parish of Ruabon, North Wales, at an ad¬ vanced age, John Roberts, better known by the appellation of Mochyn y Nant, or Pig of the Brook. Mochyn was conjuror and fortune¬ teller to a great part of the Principality, and his fame extended far into Shropshire and Cheshire. He professed to have attained his science in Egypt, though he was scarcely ever beyond his parish bounds. He was continually resorted to for the recovery of strayed linen, poultry, hatchets and asses—even his name served to make rogues observe the rules of