Welsh Journals

Mr. Adams's bedroom was furnished with a mahogany bureau, a table, mirror, and six chairs of the same wood. There were two beds and the windows were curtained. The other bedrooms all had two bedsteads and were less handsomely furnished, one being known as the blue and white room and another as the red and white room. Two rooms were known after their owners, Mr. Jenkins and Thomas Davies the latter contained a deskbed as well as two bedsteads. The servants appear to have slept on the ground floor, while the steward slept in his own room which was part office and part bedroom. The garrets contained, amongst the usual assortment of old outmoded furniture, a marble mortar, two old globes, an alarm clock, and one item, Old Trumperey,' which sold for 6d., ready money. The plate, books, pewter, and china were sold by Mr. Cow at Carmarthen on the nth, 12th, and 13th of October, 178 1. I have dealt with the books in another place, but the long list of silver requires some notice. Many items were unsold and 39 oz. of silver were purchased later by Mr. G. Lewes who gave 5/6 per oz. to prevent their going under value.' This sum appears to be very high by the contemporary standard of money. The total amount realised by the silver was £ 246/9/2. It is possible that some of these items are still to be found in West Wales. Besides being able to reconstruct, to some extent, the interior of Peterwell in its days of glory, the comparison of auction prices then with those of to-day is always interesting, and it is hoped that this article may lead to the identification of some of the items dis- posed of at Peterwell in 1781. Monmouth. HERBERT J. LLOYD-JOHNES. A BORTH SHIPWRECK. DURING boyhood the present writer many times heard related, in the Penrhyncoch district, a tale of how once the cellars and larder of nearby Plas Gogerddan were replenished when a Spanish vessel became a total loss on the rocks at Borth. Many members of the crew, having managed to gain the shore, were so scared of the tempestuous sea that they settled in the surrounding districts where they found ready work in the local lead mines. This episode was generally quoted to explain the marked Spanish traits of a few local families. It is therefore, not without interest, that among the Gogerddan estate papers recently acquired by the National Library of Wales is a small bundle of depositions by a few witnesses relating to the stranding of a Portuguese ship at Borth on ye 22 day of nobr 1 746,' and the resulting claims for salvaged goods. The evidence, sworn before Thomas Johnes on 16 November, 1749 (sic.), states that David James, David Lewis, and Edward Williams, all of Borth, helped to secure severall Puncheon of oyle Lemons orange Chest Pomgranets Ropes Corkwood and one saile stranded on ye shore within ye Lordship of John Pugh Pryce [of Gogerddan], and that these were later carried to Gogerddan. The witnesses asserted that they had delivered ye goods for ye use of ye Lord [of the Manor], John Pughe Pryce, Esqr., to Mr. David Morgan Deputy Agent [of the Gogerddan estate] who upon Salvage recd abt ten pounds and Mr. Richard Hughes five Guineas neither of them took any trouble in secureing ye same from ye Surface of ye Sea But took them to Gogerddan after they had been secured by Edward Williams and his assistants.'