Cylchgronau Cymru

Nov., 1885. BYE-GONES. 311 The Montgomeryshire Collections more than keep up their high reputation, and we doubt whether there is a more interesting or useful archaeological publication in the kingdom, The papers in the current part are of a varied and attractive character. They include the continua tion of the "Royalist Composition Papers," edited with so much patience and skill by Mr Rowley Morris, and forming a very substantial contribution to the history of Montgomeryshire; the "House of Gregynog"by the Rev. &. Sandford, in which the pleasant story of the lives and civic virtues of the Blayneys and the Tracys is set forth ; the " Heraldic Jurisdiction of Wales," by M.C. J.; Montgomeryshire Meteorology, by Mr Philip Wright; an Elegy of Gutto'r Glyn's, by H.W.LI.; and the continuation of the "Parochial History of Llanfair Caereinion," with additions by Mr Hancock; while of lighter papers, which will afford excellent entertainment, we may mention "Extracts from the Diary of Richard Griffithes-Parry," "French Prisoners of War in Mont¬ gomeryshire," by Mr Richard Williams, and "A Relic of the (Jacobite) (Jycle at Maesmawr." There is an anti¬ quarian menu ! And we have not given the whole. Memorial Portrait of the Late Sir Watkin Wil¬ liams Wtnn, Bart., M.P.—At the close of the county business at Merionethshire Quarter Sessions at Bala, iesterday week, it was, on the motion of Colonel Evans- Joyd, unanimously resolved that, as a mark of respect to the memory of the late lamented Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, a memorial portrait of him in oil should be placed in the Couuty Hall at Bala. NOVEMBBB 4, 1885. NOTES. RE-ANIMATION AFTER HANGING.-Prior to the adoption of the long-drop, re-animation after hang¬ ing was far from being an uncommon event, the reason being that, being allowed to slide or slip gently from a ladder, so as to have very little fall, a criminal suffered asphyxia only, and not a breaking of the vertebral column. On the 3rd October, 1696, a man named Richard Johnson was hanged at Shrewsbury, He had previously, on a hypocritical pretence, obtained a promise from the under- sheriff that his body should be laid in his coffin without bein^ stripped. tie hung half-an-hour, and still showed signs of life, when a man went up to the scaffold to see what was wrong with him. On a hasty examination it was found that the culpi it had wreathed cords around and under bis body, connected with a pair of hooks at his neck, by which the usual effect of the rope was prevented, the whole apparatus being adroitly concealed under a double shirt and a flowing periwig. On the trick being discovered he was taken down, and immediately hanged in an effectual manner. This is rather a case of an endeavour to frustrate the designs of hanging than of re-animation after hanging. Oswestry. Verax. QUERIES. VIGGIN.—lu an issue of the Advertizer, some time ago, appeared a report of a charge of housebreaking near Castle Caereinion at a place called the " Viggin." This very peculiar place-name has excited my curiosity, and I should be obliged to any reader of Bye-Gones if the language and meaning of the word could be explained. Philologist. MANORS IN WALES (Oct. 7, 28, 1885).—Did Mancrs exist in Wales when the law of gavelkind pre¬ vailed ? I have seen it stated somewhere "that the feudal system did not apply to Wales before it was subdued by England. If so, how did the Manors, or quasi-Manors, in Wales, come into existence 1 Z. REPLIES. REV. JOHN HUGHES (June 17, July 8, 1885).— I have recently formed the acquaintance of a descendant of Elizabeth Hughes, of " Sarphle," Llanarmon D.C., long resident in Newtown. She is fairly versed in family tra¬ ditions, but never heard of any of her ancestors having re¬ sided at " Pautglas-Uchaf," Llangadwaladr. She gives the nau.es of the children of Richard and Catherine Hughes of " Sarphle " (whence the family was evicted for Methodist sympathies) as follows—John, Richard, Ed¬ ward, Hugh, Morris, Mary, Elizabeth, Jane, and Mary. Some further information could doubtless be furnished. ^ T. H. J. MOEL FAMMAU TOWER (Oct. 21,1885).—The following is from the Gentleman's Magazine. 1811, part I, pp. 125-6-7. The date of the event described is October 25, 1810 :—" On the happy event of our Gracious Sovereign having completed the fiftieth year of his reign, the counties of Flint and Denbigh assembled from 3,000 to 4,000 persons on the summit of Moel Famina (i.e., the Mother of Mountains), which presents itself to the delightful Vale of Clwyd, and over its highest point runs the boundary line of those two counties. The view is most magnificent, and includes the following distinguished mountains t Black Comb in Cumberland, Snowdon, Cader Idri?, the Wrekin hill in Salop; and it extends into Staffordshire and even Derbyshire. On this grand station the two above named counties de¬ termined to show their loyalty by erecting a Jubilee Column to commemorate the happiness they felt, in common with the.whole nation, at the completion of fifty years of the reign of their benign and revered Patriot Monarch George III. The sun shone upon the under¬ taking ; and the thousands who attended seemed all ani¬ mated with sympathetic joy on the occasion. The Committees and Gentlemen of the two Countits met about noon at the Bwlch Penbarras between Ruthin and Mold, where also a detachment of the Flintshire and Denbighshire Loyal Militias, under their respected Colonels Garnons and Peirse, headed a procession of the principal gentlemen of the Counties to the top of the mountain, a distance of nearly two miles, must of them on horseback. Lord Kenyon (having previously, with the approbation of the Flintshire gentlemen, applkd for and obtained the Prince of Wales's gracious patronage and munificent sup¬ port to their undertaking, and atterw&rds by the like concurrence of both Counties having requt sted his Royal Highness to be so gracious as to allow the foundation stone to be laid in the Prince's name, which his Royal Highness very graciously directed, and his Lordship being honoured with the Prince's Commands to personate him: on the glorious occasion) his Lordship with Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, Sir Thomas Mostyn, Sir Thomas Han- mtr, and four sons, Sir Stephen Glynne, Sir Edward Lloyd, Sir Robert Williams Vaughan, Mr Price, Sheriff of Flintshire, Col. Shipley, Eyton, Kenyon, Lloyd, Mor¬ gan, Jones, Davies, Esqrs, &c, &c, and sundry others of the most respectable families of ihd Counties, ascended the mountain, accompanied by a constellation of beautiful Welsh ladies. The martial musick and appearance of the military and procession on horse-back to its summit, already thickly peopled with an assembled multitude, was truly interett^ ing and grand.