Cylchgronau Cymru

274 BYE-GONES. Aug., 1883. CURRENT NOTES. A writer in the North Wales Chronicle says:—"The following has been found on Rhiwia Farm, Aber, near the other mile stone. It was erected to commemorate the two Emperors, Lucius Septimus Severus and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Date 211. a.d. IM.P.P. Cael L. SEP. SEVERS P.P. ET. M. AVRELIVS ANTON- INVS AVCCIII." A stained glass window, the gift of Mr. John Corbett, M.P., has just been placed in the west window of the parish church of Halesowen. The incident illustrated is "Christ blessing little children." In the lower compart¬ ments of the lights are the arms, crest, and motto of the donor, and at the base is the following inscription :— "Presented by John Corbett of Impney, Droitwich." At a meeting held at Bishop's Castle, on Saturday, for the purpose of discussing how the Municipal Corporations Act would affect the Borough, the following resolution was carried :—"That inasmuch as the town of Bishop's Castle has, since the year 1572, enjoyed certain privileges granted by charter, and has always had the control of its own affiairs, and magistrates and justices of the peace have had sole jurisdiction therein, it is the opinion of this meeting that its local self-government might usefully be retained by the application of the Municipal Corpora¬ tions Act of 1882 to this borough and parish, provided for by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1883, if, in the opinion of her Majesty's Privy Council, such a scheme is approved of." Another great subsidence has taken place in the large sheet of water at Dunkirk, near Northwich, in the centre of the Cheshire salt district. The portion of the brook between Ashton works and a lake known as Top-of-the- Brook began to flow backwards with great rapidity, and this continued for nearly two hours. Immense quantities of water from Plover Brook and Dunkirk Flash poured down into what must have been gigantic cavities formed in the upper bed of rock-salt. The water was violently agitated by the release of the air from cavities below. This immense volume of water will melt the rock-salt, and further subsidences will undoubtedly follow. At pre¬ sent, beyond one or two extensive subsidences in the neighbourhood of some old shafts, no serious mischief has been caused. The Late Mr. John Hughes.—Mr John Hughes died recently at Kensington, after a long illness, aged 77. The deceased, who was the youngest son of the late Mr William Hughes of Penyclawdd, Denbighshire, was born in 1805 and completed his studies at Edinburgh University. He became a barrister of the Inner Temple, and was appointed by the Foreign Office English secretary to the Mixed Com¬ mission, under Sir Rutherford Alcock, for the settlement of the claims of the Portuguese Government of the British legion commanded by Sir De Lacy Evans. Mr Hughes was sent twice to Sweden in the interests of the firm of Overend and Gurney, as also to the Danish Government, to obtain the restitution of a considerable sum which had been advanced previous to the Danish- German war, in which mission he was successful. Mr Hughes was a ripe scholar and a true Celt, devoted to everything Welsh, and loving the land and its history. In him Cambrian genealogy has lost one of its most learned exponents. Mr. Hughes married, first, his relative, Dorothea, eldest surviving daughter of Mr Rich. Hughes Lloyd of Plymog, Denbighshire, and, secondly, Philippa Swinnerton, younger daughter of the late Mr Robert Lucas de Pearsall, the eminent composer. The Church bells were rung at Bangor on Thursday in honour of the incorporation of the town. The Pall Mail Gazette says :—" The sons of the Earl of Essex, who are represented as travelling through Wales in gipsy caravans and camping in the open air, have distin¬ guished precedent for their conduct. De Quincey once wandered away from his friends into Wales, and camped out by himself on ' the leeside' of its hills. After a time he found, ' in improved health,' the benefit of sleeping sub dio, and continued his wanderings in this fashion until summer air and dry ground disappeared, and he was forced to adopt other means of lodging. In one, and no incon¬ siderable respect, the wayward essayist had the advan¬ tage over the young imitators of to-day ; he travelled with no other impedimenta for covering than a portable tent, while they are accompanied by lumbering caravans such as the gipsies use. Vehicles of that class may suit the flats of the eastern counties, but they are ill adapted for the valleys and mountains of the Principality." If Wombwell's Show has found ' the mountains and valleys of Wales" passable, a couple of gipsy caravans are not likely to be much incommoded by these barriers to loco¬ motion. Our excellent contemporary seems to think the high roads run over the summit of Snowdon and Cader Idris. Sir,—In your issue of July 11, under heading " Pen and Pencil," you mention a ballad called the "Diving Friar." I do not know whether the Red Dragon claims to be the first to bring it into notice, but a3 a matter of fact it is to be found in a novel entitled " Crotchet Castle," by an author now alas very little read, viz., Thomas Love Peacock, whose works "Headlong Hall," " Gryll Grange," " Nightmare Abbey," and the above-mentioned novel, are recommended by Thackeray himself. As for the sign of the cross on new made bread (also mentioned in Red Dragon) it is a practice well known in nearly every part of the kingdom, and is, no doubt, a remnant of old Catholic piety.—I am, &c, Novocastriensis. AUGUST 1, 1883. NOTES. LEGEND OF CWM PWCCA.—The quiet and secluded little gorge Cwm Pwcca, the scene of Shakspear's Midsummer Night's Dream, has had all the fairies driven out of it by trade and commerce, but once upon a time it was not so, and it was always accounted an unwise thing to walk without circumspection along its borders. As an instance, we are told in Brayley's Historical Illustrator, published 1834, that :—" A few years ago, a solitary in¬ dividual was returning one very dark night along the side of the mountain to his dwelling on the border of Cwm Pwcca. Familiar as the path had long been to him, from the extreme darkness, or some other cause, he wandered onward in doubt and perplexity. Suddenly a light arose at a short distance before him on the waste, apparently like that of a lantern carried by some person going home¬ wards like himself. Taking it for granted that anyone thus provided would be enabled to keep on the right track much better than he could, he continued to follow its course, quickening his steps with the expectation of over¬ taking it. At last he rapidly neared the moving figure, who, he could not help thinking, carried his lantern pre¬ posterously close to the ground. He was on the point of hailing him, when the roar of waters boomed on his ear through the silence of the night; he suddenly stopped, and had just time to save himself being precipitated over the lofty rocks which confine the awful gulf of Cwm Pwcca,