Welsh Journals

go out of the Parish have been given to and received by ye Vicars time immemoriall." After seeing the church, the party, by invitation, motored up to Soughton Hall. where they were entertained to tea by Lord Justice and Lady Bankes, and other members of the family. Tea was served in two rooms, which have paintings by Rubens, and a set of rare tapestries, as part of their appointments. Major-General Sandbach. D.S.O., proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the host and hostess. Lord Justice Bankes, after responding and expressing the pleasure it gave Lady Bankes and himself to entertain the company, said he had been asked to say a few words about Soughton Hall. It was originally bought by Bishop John Wynne, who was Bishop, first of St. Asaph. and afterwards of Bath and Wells. He was born in Caerwvs in 1667. and married Anne Pugh. an heiress to a small property in Cheshire. He died at Soughton in 1743. One of their daughters married a Bankes, who was a lawyer at Keswick, though he belonged to Dorset. The only one of the name of Bankes, that made a name for himself, became Attorney-General to Charles 1. and afterwards Chief Justice of Common Pleas. It was through a member of that family marrying Miss Wynne that Soughton Hall came into the Bankes family. There was a William John Bankes. who travelled widely in the East, and was a member for Cambridge University. He was a great collector of beautiful things from all parts, and it appeared that all the things he could not put in his other house he sent to Soughton. He could imagine that he found it difficult to put such large tapestries as he had in an ordinary farm- house: so he appeared to have gutted the interior of Soughton to make two large rooms to fit the tapestries and the large pictures by Rubens, which they saw on the walls. The portrait of Lord Eldon in the room was by Lawrence. There was some controversy as to the meaning of the name Soughton, which was Sychtyn in Welsh. It was generally said to mean the dry township," and he thought there was some reason in it, as there was no surface water to be found in the township. However. Sir John Rhys, when he came round with the Royal Commission, would not accept that explanation of the name, and thought it meant a willow tree but how that could fit in he did not know, as there were no willow trees there, nor places where they could grow. The party now made for Penbedw Park to view the Stone Circle and Tumulus, which were described by the Rev. Ellis Davies, M.A., Vicar of Whitford. We have here, he said, the remains of the only real stone-circle which north-east Wales can boast of all the other structures to which the name is applied are merely cairn circles or tumulus kerbs. The average diameter of the latter is about 10 yards, whereas