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vation or clearance in the primitive forest) carries us back to the early days when all around there grew

"Great tracts of wilderness,

Wherein the beast was ever more and more,

But man was less and less."

Traces of this wild expanse of wood and marsh are preserved in the place-names which still survive, as Argoed, Tir-y-coed, Edgerley Wood, Llwyn y go, Llwyn y Groes. St. Peter's Church, Melverley, whose liability to floods from the Vyrnwy and Severn has given rise to the proverb, "God help Melverley," is a rare and interesting survival, in material and form, of the early British churches of timber and wattle, and though not the actual, is most likely the direct representative of the wooden chapel (lignea capella priscis temporibus condita) mentioned by Orderic, 1141, as built in ancient times by Siward, cousin of King Edward the Confessor. There is only one other now of the same external type in St. Asaph diocese, Halston Chapel, in Whittington. The members who attended the Chester Meeting in 1909 will remember Marston Chapel, equally quaint. The framework of Melverley Church is of timber, strongly bound together longitudinally and compacted internally by two rude and massive frames of beam-work-the interior filled in with lath and plaster.

The account of the district around Oswestry contains several historical references, from the seventh century when it was the scene of the fierce struggle between Penda of Mercia and Oswald of Northumbria, to the visit in the twelfth century of Archbishop Baldwin on his tour of preaching the Crusade, and of Archbishop Peckham in 1284. Guto'r Glyn's eulogy (c. 1460) of the Church is quoted-" "A beautiful temple, with bells and rich-toned organ, No better choir is there from it to Canterbury, None in which there is correcter singing, Or the vestments more suitable."

In the Llandderfel Registers is recorded a curious entry, 1629, of the burial of a local squire, Mr. John Price, of Faenol, in the Cathedral of St. Asaph, at midnight, June 1st, by the light of twenty-four wax torches. The parish takes its name from Derfel Gadarn, a mighty warrior of the sixth century, who in later life "exchanged the sword for the pastoral staff," and to whose shrine pilgrimages were made, and "Kyne, oxen, and horses brought to be cured and blessed." His horse, "Ceffyl Derfel," was the subject of a formal denunciation by Dr. Elis Price, and publicly burnt at Smithfield, 1538.

The derivation of Selattyn from "Cil," pronounced Anglicè "Sil," is not so probable as that suggested from "Cesail y twyn" (Shelter of the Bush), in accordance with the Celtic legend given by Pennant. In the list of "Corrigenda" there may be added ad Episcopum Ass. (for ab), p. 7; Coram Judiciarum, p. 33; advocacione libere capelle, p. 47.

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WEST WALES HISTORICAL RECORDS.

Edited by FRANCIS GREEN.

Vol. I.

WE welcome heartily the appearance of the first volume issued by the newly-formed Historical Society of West Wales, the object of which is the publication of Manuscripts and Records not generally available to the public and of historical information, pedigrees, and genealogical details relating to the three counties of Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Pembroke."

Captain Jenkin Jones's diary describing a tour in Cardiganshire in 1819, will interest others besides Cardiganshire folk, for the route he took was from Swansea vid Aberystwyth to Chester. He does not omit to notice frequently the meals so greatly enjoyed, the beer and Welsh rabbit, the hot water which he found so refreshing to his weary feet, the heavy jacket, and, curious in a Welshman of Cardiganshire, "the constant jabber in Welsh kept up by the people in the kitchen." He does not neglect, after the fashion of modern tourists, after having rambled over Lord Dynevor's grounds, to cut his name out "on the lintel of the Castle gate, Jenk. I. that should any of my friends be rambling as solitarily as I am, they may experience the pleasure, which I now should, could I trace the marks of any I loved having been here before me." He tells us that "there seemed a very strong party at Caernarvon against the proposed bridge over the Menai [it was opened in 1826], which I think may be easily accounted for, as the farmers from Anglesea would then give the preference to Bangor Market, to which they will cross without the trouble and expence of the ferry." What would Jenkin's ghost say of the other bridge, Stephenson's Tubular Bridge, put up in 1846?

He had to experience, like Dr. Johnson, the terror of the extremely narrow, bad and stony road over Penmaenmawr of which Pennant writes:The frightful pass of Penman Mawr, where the road is carried along the side of the hill, with a little wall on each side, one to prevent the large loose stones, which the mountain seems composed of, falling into the road, and the other wall to prevent passengers falling down the abrupt precipice of about 250 ft. into the sea which washes the bottom.' "I was talking to my companion of Mr. Evans's narrow escape from the falling rock. The words were scarcely out of my mouth when, about 10 yards before us, about five hundredweight of loose stones came rattling down. Some of the stones killed a sheep that was grazing on a little grassy part beneath." He describes Machynlleth as "a dirty, paltry town; the Church an ugly, shapeless, tumble-down concern, some of the pews repaired with old tea-chests. They have the stupid custom of nailingup the coffin-plates in the Church, and here the pretty custom of planting flowers over the graves is dropt, and ugly slabs of slate and lime-stone are substituted."

The section which deals with the documents illustrating the

history of Dynevor is of great value. The reeve accounts of 1360 contain useful information upon the ways and means of Welsh agriculture during the latter part of the fourteenth century, the cost of roofing and other repairs of buildings. We learn how the Charter of 1392, placing the inhabitants on the same legal footing as the English burgesses of Carmarthen, put them beyond the not inconsiderable peril of Welsh oaths.

Particulars, fully annotated, are given of Pembrokeshire Parsons, which must have involved considerable research.

It is pointed out, amongst other curious incidents, that all the Canons of St. David's had similar rights and authority in their prebendal lordships to those enjoyed by the lord of a manor-the right of wreck, and power to hold free courts and jurisdiction as regards person and property.

Two instances are given of the tripartite arrangement of tithes in Ambleston, p. 239, and Fishguard, p. 295:-"Johannes Veims vicarius habens tertiam partem fructus et emolimentorum dicte ecclesie" "David Mendus vicarius annuatim percipit tertiam partem omnium frugum oblacionum et aliorum emolimentorum," the rest being taken by the Abbey of Dogmaels.

The volume is neatly and correctly printed. Amongst the corrigenda should be noted drunkeness, pp. 232 and 265. Is "literas" to be understood with "inter alias," p. 153? The abridged titles, Cards., Carms., are somewhat unpleasing.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND. THE volume recently issued contains an interesting report by Mr. F. R. Coles on "Stone Circles in Perthshire," in which mention is made of several cup-marked boulders, two with 13 cup-marks each, another with no less than 52, but without grooves or rings.

In another article, "Archæological Gleanings from Aberfeldy," Mr. C. G. Nash records eight cup-marked stones, chiefly in Stone circles. One of these bears on its newly-exposed surface four cupmarks arranged in a cross, 14 in. deep and well made; another, 4 ft. long, showed 41 cup-marks. A third, on Creag Formal, bears three cup-marks not enclosed, and also two groups enclosed by grooves. The larger groove is 19 in. in diameter, and shallow. It encloses five cups, the largest is 2 in. in diameter and 1 in. deep, and has around it a ring 6 in. in diameter and connected with the enclosing groove by a straight channel. The smaller enclosing groove, somewhat irregular in shape, is 15 in. in diameter. It contains two cups, the larger of which is 1 in. in diameter and in. deep, and has around it a ring 6 in. in diameter and connected with the enclosing groove by a straight channel.

An illustration is given of a Fresco, said to be unique in Great Britain, of "Les trois Vifs et les trois Morts" (the three living and the three dead Kings), in Wickhampton Church, Norfolk. The

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subject consists of two parts, bordered and separated by growing tree-trunks. To the right are three Kings at different stages of life, young, middle-aged, and old. To the left are three standing skeletons-what the former shall come to be. In the foreground a young huntsman is seen holding in leash a straining greyhound, and a hare is speeding along in wild terror. It is considered to be the work of the fourteenth century, having been probably executed for the famous Robert de Lincoln, first Rector of Wickhampton.

Several pages are devoted to papers on Churchyard Memorials, Tranent and St. Andrews, some of which are marked by the originality of the symbolical forms employed. A large number of craft insignia and tools are represented. In Tranent the Butchers' Guild figures largely. In St. Andrews a gruesome relic of resurrectionist days is exhibited, a collar of iron used to encircle the neck of a coffined corpse, so as to make the removal of the body difficult, if not impossible. The ends were passed through the strong bottom of the coffin, where the locking nuts were made doubly secure by the spreading of the divided tangs.

Among other valuable articles is one on Rock-hewn Caves in the Valley of the Esk and in various parts of Scotland, some of which recall the legend of Wayland Smith. Popular tradition has been largely concerned with these caves.

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THE chief feature of this volume, published by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is the "Report of the Excavations at Corstopitum," which have had the advantage of supervision by Professor Haverfield. The special interest of these investigations is that the Committee in charge of the excavations are able to show that Corstopitum, about which little was known at the outset, dated from an early period in the Roman conquest of the Tyne Valley, shared in the vicissitudes of succeeding centuries, and that its occupation continued until the very eve of the departure of the Roman troops from Britain. Amongst the most recent finds is a well-preserved altar with inscription—

IOVI AETERNO DOLICHENO ET CAELESTI BRIGANTIAE.

Dolichenus, Professor Haverfield remarks, is a well-known God, and Brigantia is familiar to us on several altars in the land inhabited by the Brigantes. The epithet Cælestis provokes conjecture. Cælestis was the Latin name of the old Carthaginian deity Tanit. In Corstopitum, where the Tyrian Heracles and Astarte had a worshipper, it is conceivable that Tanit had also some dim remembrance.

An article on "Durham Seals," excellently illustrated, notices an early seal of the great Earl of Chester, Randulph Blondeville, 11811232. This bears a wolf passant. His later arms, depicted by Matthew Paris and also blazoned in the roll of Henry III, are— azure, three sheaves gold.

Archaeological Notes and Queries.

THE CAERGWRLE CUP.-This beautiful work of early art, which excited such interest when exhibited at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, in 1823, soon after its discovery, will shortly, through the generosity of Sir Foster Cunliffe of Acton Park, be transferred to the National Museum at Cardiff. It was found in a field at the foot of the steep hill on which the ruined castle of Caergwrle stands. The workman who found it, while carrying on some draining opera

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Ancient Bowl or Cup from Caergwrle, Flintshire. Arch. Camb. 1875

tions in this marshy field, seeing the gold and supposing it to be some ornament of a coffin, struck it with his spade and broke it.1

The Rev. George Cunliffe, Vicar of Wrexham, who was then living near, on hearing of the discovery purchased it, and it remained until his death, in 1884, in his possession, passing then into the hands of the late Sir Robert Cunliffe of Acton Park, the father of the present baronet.

In shape it resembles a cup or bowl, and in the account given of it to the Society of Antiquaries, by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, it is described as "richly inlaid on the exterior with thin gold in various devices, the gold leaf beautifully tooled and extremely pure, the border being formed of concentric circles, and the rest of parallel lines, where it was made to double over the edge. The ornament of the under part consists of a central band very sharply indented both

1 Arch. Camb., 1875.

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