Welsh Journals

repaire of Pont y Goe, xxii for the repaire of Pont Llanrhudd, & xiiijli for the repaire of Pen y bont, & payd over to the hands of the said John Price, Edward Price, John Jones, & John Piers, who are appointed over- seers & ordered to dispose of the said money for the repaire of the said bridges & to yield a true account thereof. By the Court. These orders differ considerably from Mathew Owen's version of the responsi- bility for the upkeep of the bridge of Pont y Go. The next 'cywydd'6 is later by two years. It is an elegy on the death of Simon Thelwall of Plas-y-Ward. This is in the usual style, with which we are now fam- iliar, the chill and pain occasioned by the bereavement, a recital of the deceased's offices, and the pedigree of Simon Thelwall, eleventh in succession at Plas-y-Ward, introducing families and houses which figured in his genealogy-Langford, Jenkin Don, Kichley, Ithel Vychan, Penrhyn, Herle, Rhug, Gwydir, Glan Tanad, Kyffin, Hanmer, and lorwerth Goch-a list of the principal mourners: his widow Margaret, daughter of Edmund, Lord Sheffield, K.G., his heir, Edward, and his daughters, Mariana, Margaret, Dorti (Dorothy), and Jane, his brothers, Andrew, Lumley, and Robert, and his sisters, Dorti of Lloran, Jane of Voelas, Sydney of Rhiwaedog, Margaret of Ddol and Meillionen, Als of Cilcain, and Frances, pre- sumably unmarried. The date of his burial at Ruthin is given as 10 September I655. The third 'cywydd'7 is an eulogy of Richard Hughes, rector of Gwytherin from 1660 to 1675. According to Mathew Owen, Richard Hughes was a Master of Arts and was descended from the best families in North Wales, sprung from Evan ab Einion, and of the same stock as Brogyntyn. The poet could not number the knights and princes in his ancestry: I am not good at language to recite long heraldic lore.8 We are told that Richard Hughes had an excellent start in life, being inclined to- wards book learning, and, having reached the top of his schools, he was placed highest at Oxford, where he studied Hebrew and Latin. He was the best Grecian in England. It was strange that he was not granted a doctorate. As rector of Gwytherin he was second only to St. Paul as a preacher and in his exposition of Scripture. He had held preferments at Llanfair Dolhaiarn, Llanrwst, and Corwen. He was confessor to three gentlemen, Colonel Wyn, Owen Salusbury, and John Wyn of Llanfair, who were as one in hoping that he would attain to the dignity of an archbishopric.9 The 'cywyddau' are followed by 'englynion', a series of six by Mathew Owen to beg a paddle from William Sion Cadwaladr of Kefn Coch, 22 February 1655; an 'englyn' to the same William Sion by N[athaniel] J[ones]; a series of six on the subject of the ague, the sixth being practically lost, together with the author's name, by the decay of the foot of the sheet; a series of four by Mathew Owen to beg a spectacle case from Cadwaladr ap Rhydderch; three curiosities in 'englyn' form,