Welsh Journals

Notes and Queries. QUERIES. Query 17.-Has any attempt been made to identify the Welsh preacher, Peter Williams,' whose idiosyncrasies are so vividly portrayed in Lavengro ? Peter Williams, the commentator with whom some writers have identified Borrow's hero, was dead seven years before Borrow was born, but it is not improbable that Borrow drew the character from life. Is anything known of a Welsh Methodist preacher who would answer to Borrow's de- scription ? Query 18. — Who was Oijvia More ? There has lately come into my possession an interesting copy of a story entitled The Welsh Cottage, by Olivia More, 2nd Edition. Wellington, Salop Printed by and for F. Houlston & Son, 1822. On referring to the Cardiff Welsh Cat. (1898) I find an entry under Welsh Cottage the author is given as (Mrs. M. M. Sherwood), the copy there being of an earlier edition printed at the same place in 1820. In the Brit. Mus. Cat., under the name Olivia More,' the only work ascribed to her is entitled Hours of Reflection, published in London, 1820, 12° (the same year as The Welsh Cottage was pub- lished at Wellington, Salop), but without the author's name. The same catalogue, under Butt, Mrs. Sherwood's maiden name, has the entry, See Welsh Cottagg-The Welsh Cottage [By M. M. B.], 1820, 12°,' and under Welsh Cottage-The Welsh Cottage [Mrs. M. M. Sherwood]. Wellington, Salop, 1820, 12°.' The Diet. of Nat. Biography says that Mary Martha Butt was the daughter of George Butt, D.D., of Stanford, Worcestershire. She was born there in 1775, was married to her cousin, Captain Henry Sherwood, on June 30th, 1803, and not long after accom- panied her husband to India, where they resided for some years, afterwards returning to England, where she died in 1857. Of eight children, three survived her, one son and two daughters-Mrs. Dawes and Sophia (Mrs. Streeton, afterwards Mrs. Kelly). Mrs. Streeton assisted her mother much in her literary work between 1835 and 1851.' Allibone in his notice of Mrs. Sherwood falls into a curious error in reference to her daughters. He confuses the two over the second marriage of Sophia, and in his reference says, 1st (daughter) Mrs. Streeton, co-author with her of Nos. 18, 31, 42, 52 infra., and 2nd Sophia, now Mrs. Kelly, whose life of Mrs. Sherwood has been noticed on a preceding page (1014).' He evidently was unaware that Mrs. Streeton and Mrs. Kelly were one and the same person. The life of Mrs. Sherwood by her daughter was published in London, 1854. The Gentleman's Magazine, 1851,vol. II. p. 548, in an obituary notice of Mrs. Sherwood, says- The younger (daughter) has always re- sided with her parent, and has, of late years, assisted in her mother's writing, and bids fair to continue her parent's reputation,' &c.