110 NOTES ON THE PRINCIPALITY OF WALES, 1343-1376. souz terre ovesq; lui et veient la defaute; et soit le trespassour attache destre a la proschein court et illeoqes soit convict; par la tesmoignance de ceux quatre, et soit amercie et lamerciement affeere par ses peres a ce jure3, selont la quantitee du trespas. Issint toutes voies qe la mioiene lei es amerciement; taillee a deux deniers en certein se tiegne en tout point; entre marchant; et mynours forsq3 en cas qe le seignur est parcener del damage. Et qe le marchant le seignur et les autres, issint eslieuz, descendent checune semeigne deux foiz en certein a surveer les oeuereignes. Et sil y eit defaute troue qe ne soit mie a eux presentee par le bermastre, adonqes eslisent sis marchantz et mynours de mielt; vauez de la mynere, qi descendent ovesq; eux et surveent la defaute, les queux soient jure; en plein court a tesmoigner ovesq; eux la defaute qils averont ensi trouez, et par la tesmoignance de eux issint jurez soit le bermastre convict del concelement et le trespasseour del trespas. Et soient amerciez en plein. court et affeeres par lour peres a ce jures selonc la quantitee du trespas, eant regard a ce qe les damages, qe purront avenir del concelement, purront estre grendres ou meindres. ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. Page 44, note 1. Before No. 37 add 54. Page 49, note 1. For 22 read 21. Notes 2 and 3 refer to Pages 58 and 59. "Crecy and Calais " is printed in Historical Page 69, line 17. For constable read constable's. The Rev. Richard Humphreys [1790-1863] of Faeldref, To face p. 111. Anne [1800-1852], wife of the Rev. Richard Humphreys. SOME NINETEENTH CENTURY LETTERS.1 BY E. MORGAN HUMPHREYS, M.A., Editor of Y Genedl", Caernarvon. QUITE recently a number of family letters came into my hands, ranging in date from 1818 to 1870, the majority of them written in the 'forties, the 'fifties, and the 'sixties of the last century. There are some scores of them, written, in the main, by members of one family, but amongst them there are also some letters written to different members of that family by others, persons of some importance in their day in Wales. There are also letters by persons of no importance whatever, and perhaps some of these are as amusing, in a mild way, as anything in the collection. Most of the letters are the work of four people. They were the Rev. Richard Humphreys, of Faeldre, Dyffryn Ardudwy, a Merionethshire farmer and a Calvinistic Methodist Minister (1790-1863); Anne Humphreys (18001852), his wife; Jennette Morgan (1830-1888), their daughter; and the Rev. Edward Morgan (1817-1871), also of Faeldre, Dyffryn, her husband. He, like his father-in-law, was a minister of some note and a man active in ecclesiastical and lay politics. There are one or two letters from William Griffith, Y Cei, Barmouth (1771-1847), the father of Anne Humphreys, and some from other, and for our purposes, subsidiary members of the family. Of a later date are some early letters from 1 Read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, at King's College, in the Strand, on Friday, the 26th of March, 1926, Chairman, Mr. John Hinds, Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire. the Rev. R. Humphreys Morgan, afterwards of Menai Bridge and Bangor, the son of Edward and Jennette Morgan. These were written from school and college to his father. Amongst the letters from people outside the family are a very interesting group by Lewis Jones, of Llwyn Einion, a minister who is now all but completely forgotten, several from Dr. Lewis Edwards, of Bala, four or five from the late David Williams, of Castell Deudraeth, sometime M.P. for Merionethshire, one or two from John Owen, Ty'n Llwyn, who played his part in the politics and religion of nineteenth century Wales, and others that may be referred to as we go along. Taken altogether these letters seem to me to give a very clear impression of a certain phase of Welsh life in a period that already begins to appear remote. After a first glance at them I imagined that some of them might interest a wider public than the descendants of the writers, but, after a closer scrutiny, I admit to some misgiving. The great majority of them are strictly personal letters, few of them mention any important events of the day, with one or two exceptions there are only incidental references to politics, and the religious standpoint is mainly that of one denomination. There is not very much about literature, though some of these correspondents were busy editors and writers. I asked myself whether it was worth while saying anything about them, whether anything more than a natural piety made them interesting to me. That is not entirely a matter for me to judge, but perhaps one may glean something from these annals that will throw light upon a kind of life that has not been very articulate in Wales-the life of people belonging to a family long established in one district, tracing its origins back as far, at any rate, as the sixteenth |