steal out in the night-time to visit her, much to his master's displeasure, who forbade the continuance of this sly sort of wooing; but such prohibitions are not always attended to, and the lover continued to scale the wall, and woo by moonlight. One night, coming home, he had passed the turn of the road leading from Holloway to Penally, when, to his astonishment, he saw a funeral coming along the road towards the church, and recognized several of his neighbours among those who carried the coffin and 'followed.' They came on noiselessly, and he stood close against the hedge to let the funeral pass; but the 'bearers' jostled so rudely against him, that they hurt and bruised him severely, not heeding his entreaties or cries. After they had passed on, to his still greater perplexity, he saw the whole procession go over a hedge into the next field, make a detour, and return over the same hedge farther on. Considerably shaken,' in every way, he sought his chamber, and in the morning was so ill, from the beating he had received, that he entreated his master to come to him, which he did, but placed no faith whatever in the man's story, saying he must have been drinking and fighting, and received a sound 'drubbing.' The servant stoutly denied this, and begged that, when he was able to walk, his master would accompany him to the spot, and he would show him where the funeral passed and repassed the hedge, which might be easily seen, as they must have trodden down the fence foliage. His master still refused to believe him, though he named the neighbours who were present, and the exact places they occupied in the procession. When the man was able to leave his bed, the master yielded to his entreaties: yet no trace of the funeral could be found! But when the story got abroad, the old people looked grave, declaring it was a foreshadowing of death, and that within a month there would be a funeral in Penally church-yard. It was now December, and the heaviest fall of snow within the memory of that remarkable person, 'the oldest inhabitant,' lay upon the ground. It froze also bitterly, and the snow drifted in such a manner that all traces of hedge inclosure was in many places obliterated: it was a cold, sad time. Only a week or two had passed since the parson's man' had seen the spirit-funeral, and the worthy farmer of Holloway Farm lay dead in his long-loved home! There would be, certainly, every one said, a large funeral, for he was greatly respected. The clergyman heard, with much astonishment, the names of the bearers;' they were the same who had been named by his servant as having borne the coffin the night he had been so severely buffeted. But the most extraordinary circumstance remains to be told: the night before the funeral was one of intense frost, so that the snow was frozen over field and hedge-row, as hard as if they had been the Queen's highway-the bearers missed the road-passed unwittingly over the hedge, in the exact spot the servant had pointed out to his master as that where he had seen the midnight funeral pass-made the same detour in the field, and returned also to the high road precisely at the place which he had shown to his master. This singular story was corroborated by the clergyman, who always said it was one of those facts for which he could not account, but of its being a fact he was certain: to that he was ever ready to pledge his veracity." Y CYFANSODDIADAU BUDDUGOL YN EISTEDDfod CastellnewyddEMLYN. Newcastle-Emlyn: J. R. Davies. 1860. This little volume contains, as its Welsh title implies, the compositions, poetic and prosaic, that were pronounced successful at the Eisteddfod held at Newcastle-Emlyn on the 27th of July, 1859. Whilst all have tolerable merits, we consider that the treatise on Newcastle-Emlyn is peculiarly good, showing skill and research of no ordinary kind. This of itself is well worth the price at which the book is sold. SILURIANA; or, Contributions towards the History of Gwent and Glamorgan. Compiled by DAVID LLOYD ISAAC. Newport : W. Christopher. 1859. This book is exactly what it professes to be; that is, a compilation of "Chapters and Notices, written detachedly, and printed promiscuously, no consecutive history, or chronological order, having been intended." In this respect it may be considered as a good foundation for a complete History of Gwent and Morganwg, which we trust the Aberdare Eisteddfod will be the means of producing. Mr. Lloyd Isaac might, however, have dispensed with his gratuitous and unintelligible remarks about "ysgol y Bendro," and the "ipse dixit and clairvoyance of the Bard of Glamorgan;" for, as far as we understand him, he himself partakes largely of the "somnambulisim" which he attributes to Iolo Morganwg. A great portion of "Siluriana" is made up of the papers of Old Iolo; and if he "dreamed," so also must Mr. Lloyd Isaac have done. We are pretty well acquainted with the Bard of Glamorgan's writings, and we can truly say that the fragments made use of by our author are a fair specimen of his usual style. It is much to be regretted that respectable authors should demean themselves, and mar the appearance of their compositions by ill-natured remarks of the kind we find here. CAMB. JOUR., 1860. 3 B The Cambrian Institute. PATRON. HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES PRESIDENT. HIS HIGHNESS PRINCE LOUIS-LUCIEN BONAPARTE VICE-PRESIDENTS. The Right Hon. the Earl of ILCHESTER The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of ST. DAVID'S The Comte TH. HERSART DE LA VILLEMARQUE COUNCIL. The Right Hon. Lord Llanover, Llanover, Abergavenny GENERAL SECRETARY AND EDITOR. Rev. John Williams ab Ithel, M.A., Rector of Llanymowddwy, Dinas Mowddwy, Merionethshire TREASURER. Mr. Richard Mason, High Street, Tenby LONDON COMMITTEE. Rev. John Evans, Incumbent of the Welsh Church, Ely Place, Holborn William Jones, Esq. (Gwrgant), 20, King's Arms Yard, London Osborne Morgan, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, 22, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn Fields Hugh Owen, Esq., Poor Law Board, Gwydir House John Evan Thomas, Esq., 7, Lower Belgrave Place Rev. Robert Jones, All Saints' Parsonage, Rotherhithe,-Secretary SECTIONAL COMMITTEES. I.-History. Rev. Jos. Hughes (Carn Ingli), Meltham Parsonage, Huddersfield Rev. T. James (Llallawg), Netherthong, Huddersfield Thomas Jones, Esq., B.A., Chetham Library, Manchester T. O. Morgan, Esq., Aberystwyth Rev. D. James, M.A., Ph. D., F.S.A., Panteg, Monmouthshire Captain T. Love D. Jones Parry, F.S.A., Madryn Park, Pwllheli Thomas Stephens, Esq., Merthyr-Tydfil II.-Geology, Botany, Zoology, &c. Rev. A. Hume, LL.D, 9, Clarence Street, Everton, Liverpool Rev. F. O. Morris, Nunburnholme Rectory, Hayton, York Edward L. Richards, Esq., F.G.S., Judge of the County Court, Mordon House, Rhyl Thomas Williams, Esq., M.D., London Univ., F.L.S., Physician to the Swansea Infirmary,-Secretary III.-Topography, Statistics, &c. G. Griffith, Esq., Taltreuddyn, Barmouth Rev. James Griffiths, Llangunnor, Caermarthen Rev. A. Hume, LL.D., 9, Clarence Street, Everton, Liverpool Walter Lloyd, Esq., Caermarthen Rev. D. Noel, Gellygare Rectory, Caerphilly, Cardiff Edward L. Richards, Esq., F.G.S., Judge of the County Court, Mordon House, Rhyl W. F. Skene, Esq., 20, Inverleith Row, Edinburgh IV.-Philology. Rev. Thomas Briscoe, B.D., Holyhead Rev. J. Davies, M.A., Smallwood Parsonage, Lawton, Cheshire V.-Welsh Literature. Rev. O. W. Jones (Glasynys), Llangristiolus, Anglesey Mr. Robert John Prys, Denbigh Rev. Robert Williams, M.A., Llangadwaladr, Oswestry Rev. John Williams ab Ithel, M.A., Rector of Llanymowddwy, Dinas Mowddwy, Merionethshire VI.-Music. The Right Hon. Lady Llanover, of Llanover Miss Waddington, Llanover Miss Jane Williams, Ynys las, Glyn Neath |