Cadwgan Vawr= Grufydd ab Cadwgan Cadwgan ab Grufydd = Grufydd Gethin alias Donne, married Anne daughter to Cadwgan ab levan ab Philip of Rhydodin, argent, a lion rampant, sable, head, paws, and the bush of his tail of the field. Henry Donne, esq. married Janett, daughter of Ievan Llwyd Ychan, of Pwlldyvach, esq. Gules, on a bend, argent, inter three trefoyls, slipt, or, a lion passant, sable. Meredydd Donne, esq. married Mallt, daughter to Griffith ab Cadwgan Ychan. Azure, a wolfe salt. argent; but as George Owen, az. a chevron, int. three cocks argent. Griffith Donne, esq. married Jonet, daughter to Sir John Skidmore, of Kenchurch, Herefordshire. Gules, three stirrups, or, with leathers of the same. Sir Edward Donne, knt. married daughter to Verney. Elizabeth, daughter and heir, married Sir Thomas Johnes, of Abemarles, knight. Argent, a chevron, sable, int. three ravens, proper; border engrailed, gules, besante. Since the date of the letter to Edward Evans, esq. Mr. Morris has written me word that " he has been obliged with the loan of Mr. Madocks's third volume, and in this has found a memorandum in the writing of George Owen, esq. of Kemes, which clearly shows this third volume to have been wholly written by him, and the pedigrees it contains chiefly relating to the districts. of South Wales, known by the names of Gwent and Morganwg, are evidently compiled (being here severally arranged under the names of certain common ancestors) from the collections made previous to the year 1600, by Lewis Dwnn, and my former con jecture that George Owen, esq. then York herald, had a personal control over Lewis Dwnn; perhaps was a chief party in employing him to collect descents throughout the Principality-is thus greatly strengthened. And a question here arises; what has become of the original visitations of the counties of Montgomery, Flint, Denbigh, Brecon, Glamorgan, Radnor, and Monmouth, as taken by Lewis Dwnn, and where are they now deposited, if still in existence? for that these counties were officially visited by him, there is abundant proof in various memorandummade by him personally as references on pedigrees, in the мss. of Mr. Madocks, and as also appears by Mr. Evans's attested copy of the Gloddaith Ms. Indeed, I have a copy of nearly the whole of his visitation of Montgomeryshire, and of portions of his visitations of all the counties I have enumerated, but the мss. from which I have extracted these portions give no clue to the place or places where the original and complete visitations are at present to be found. Mr. Williams, of Beaumaris, was (on the recommendation of Mr. Evans) so kind as to favour me with the loan of the Taicroesion Ms. which contains much that is of great value, and I am now engaged in examining and transcribing the Llanged win copy of the extensive and valuable Salusbury collection of pedigrees, with the loan of which Sir Watkin Williams Wynn most handsomely favored me, through the kind interference of his brother, the Right. Hon. C. W. Williams Wynn, M. P. for Montgomeryshire. I find in this мs. the name of Lewis Dwnn occasionally referred to on pedigrees copied by Mr. J. Salusbury, from a мs. of Mr. H. Rogers, a Montgomeryshire gentleman; but it is quite clear that neither of the Messrs. Salusbury, nor Mr. Rogers, ever saw more than a few detached pedigrees taken by Lewis Dwnn, copies of which the deputy herald doubtless made for the families in whose keeping Mr. Rogers (who has in one place a reference to Llyfr côch Powys, by Lewis Dwnn) in all probability found them. The same may be said with regard to Mr. John Ellis, the original compiler of the Taicroesion мs. for, though he, like the Messrs. Salusbury, appears to have been most careful and laborious in collecting his materials, yet the invaluable collections of Lewis Dwnn have evidently not fallen within his reach, excepting only an occasional pedigree, transcribed as I have before conjectured, by Lewis Dwnn, for the head of the family, in the custody of whose descendants such detached copies have been found. The connexion of Lewis Dwnn with the family of Francis Thynne, the herald, arose from the intermarriages of their relatives on each side, with the family of Heynes, or Haynes, (in Welsh Einws) who at that period had estates at Bansley, &c. on the confines of Shropshire and Montgomeryshire.' It did not show a very extensive acquaintance with the works of the Welsh genealogists, in Theophilus Jones to assert, that none of them had recorded the descent of the family of Stedman, of Strata-florida. I printed it two and twenty years ago in my History of Cardiganshire, from the before-mentioned Ms. of Edward Llwyd. I will add to these observations, that the Harleian мs. marked 5058, in the British Museum, contains pedigrees copied in the year 1615, from the collections of Lewis Dwnn. Any of your readers would much oblige me, if they could point out where the patent under seal, which Lewis Dwnn declares he received from Clarencieux and Norroy kings at arms, might be found, as the College of Arms refuse to consider his visitations as authority, without its production. Robert Cooke was the Clarencieux, and William Flower the Norroy, who granted it. I have the honor to remain, THE highly respectful manner in which your correspondent Mr. E. Williams, of Radnorshire, is pleased to speak of me, demands my humble obeisance; while I trust to his due sense of good breeding not to attribute the language I may use in reviewing his arguments to any disrespect towards him." It appears to me, that he so far coincides in my position in tacitly acknowledging that we have no earlier authority for the motto Ich diene than the will of the Black Prince; the peculiar policy, therefore, of conciliating the Welsh (which certainly did exist on the birth of Edward II., from the fact of his mother being expressly sent to Caernarvon castle,) has nothing to support it. I do not, then, see the "strong probability to warrant the presumption that the armorial device of a prince of Wales should be Welsh," any more than that the motto of the king of Holland, Je maintiendrai, should be Dutch, or that of the king of England, Dieu et mon droit, should be English. But if," as a Welshman," Mr. Williams "can never be persuaded that these monosyllables were of German origin," or any other than Welsh, it would be fruitless to make the attempt, did I not write for the rest of your readers as well as him. Now the words as they stand are plain German, and if they are to be supposed Welsh they should also be taken as they stand, and not tortured into Eich dyn, I' wch dien, Ych dien, or Di-hên. Mr. Williams seems to be aware of this, and therefore boldly asserts that "as the motto now literally stands, Ich dien," it is Welsh, which he translates "the shriek of destruction." Now I have no wish to defend the German origin, although I am a Teutonic knight, being as anxious for the honour of Cambria as this gentleman himself, and only desire to "render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's.' "The shriek of destruction," however, seems so very far-fetched, and so unlike any motto on record, that I cannot prefer it to the simple and more evident one "I serve." For the paraphrastic "Woe betide you, Death and howling Destruction await you," will not do, as instead of its being "to hurl defiance and destruction on the proud battalions of braggart* France," the Black Prince himself tells, it was to accompany his arms of peace; that is, it was not used in battle but at the tournament. On such authority, then, which cannot be called in question, we know it was used at the tournament only, whether in Hainault or elsewhere. So far from the "motto being emblazoned on the crest of the great captain of the age," I would observe again that the crest, in his days, was seldom used in battle, nor the helmet, but the basinet, on which was placed a moveable vizor. Now according to the directions of the will, the effigy on the monument represents the Black Prince's appearance in war, with the exception of this vizor, he himself choosing to have le visage nue. His head rests on the tournament helmet, on which is the crest, viz. a lion standing on a knight's cap; and the same would be on a war helmet. The feather was the badge of the Black Prince, placed in a small pipe, on which was a scroll inscribed Ich diene, and so it is painted on the tomb. Without that scroll it was equally the badge of his father and brothers. Mr. Williams must pardon me for being surprised that he "as a Welshman," should conceive that the Picts were so called from the Latin word picti, as he imagines they painted their faces. The Maceata and Caledonians had done so three hundred years before, but the Picts or Gwyddel Fichti were far more civilized. I remain, Yours, &c. SAMUEL R. MEYRICK, Goodrich Court; Why "braggart?" How different the conduct of the English monarch to Sir Eustace de Ribemont, which did fair justice to the valour of France. On Peat Iron. Acutum Reddere quæ ferrum valet.-HOR. THE astonishing improvement of the Principality during the last half century, appears, to those who look back upon it, to be almost the effect of enchantment; yet the natural product of her mountains, coal and iron, have been the only magicians who have operated this wonderful transformation. We find that iron was made in Wales, in small quantities, from the very earliest periods of antiquity. At this day we frequently meet with the imperishable remains of charcoal on the summits of her highest hills, a convincing proof that they were formerly covered with forests, since the wood which we now find there thus carbonized, could never have been carried up these steep acclivities by any possible power of human machinery, and consequently must have grown on the spot. Of late, such excessive quantities of iron made with pit-coal coked, have been continually manufactured, as to exceed the demand; and the price hasbeen so depreciated, as not to leave a remunerating return to the iron-master; the consequence has been, the discharge of several thousands of workmen from the iron-works. But that superior quality of iron, called Blooms, and manufactured with wood-coal, does not appear to have suffered a similar depression, but still maintains its price, as the demand is fully equal to the supply. In order to lessen the cost of charcoal for making Blooms, attempts have lately been made by a celebrated chemist, and with the most complete success, to extract the pyroligneous acid from the wood during its combustion, into chark. It is not perhaps generally known that peat, or mawn as it is called in Welsh, has been tried for this purpose, and has been found fully to answer the end proposed, as it gives a more intense heat, produces a quicker bloom, and manufactures better iron than charcoal, and at considerably less expense. It is now more than a hundred years since a little tract appeared on this subject, written by a Staffordshire iron-master, consequently a practical man, Mr. Fallowfield, who maintains that a very superior iron, equal to the best Swedish, may be manufactured with a peat fire, at an expense of twenty-five per cent. less than charcoal blooms. The writer enumerates several other advantages, and he secured the invention to himself by a patent which of course must have expired nearly a century ago. It is particularly mentioned that peat iron produced the best tempered steel. [We have been obliged to curtail this article, contrary to our inclination, from want of space.-ED.] NO. XV. Ee |