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Peeps Into the Past.I

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Peeps Into the Past. I A COLUMN OF NOTES AND QUERIES. THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1915. The following further -extracts from copies of the Archaeologia Cambrensis are here given. E.D., Brecon. NOTES. THE GAER AT BRECON.—In 1851, a Rom- an tile was found at this important station, bear- ing the inscription, LEG. II AVG. It was pre- served by Mrs Price, the landlady of the Gaer farm at that period, as well as another tile dis- covered previously, and a drawing of them was made for exhibition at the annual meeting of the Cambrian Archaeological Association at Tenby. YSTRADGYNLAIS.—Prof. Westwood says "We now come to an early monumental inscript- ion built into the outside of the East wall of Ys- tradgynlais Church, Breconshire, in the Vale of Towy, near to the south-east angle. Possibly some other portion of the stone may be imbedded in the walls of the church, or, if broken, it might be found by a, careful examination of other parts of the edifice. The inscription is simply HIC IACIT; but several pecularities merit .notice. First, it is entirely in good Roman capitals, unless the terminal T has its down stroke a little angula- ted to the right" at the bottom, giving it more of an unical character. Second,—The A has the bar angulated downwards in the middle instead of be- ing straighf; and third, the mis-spelling of the second word IACIT for IACET. These several peculiarities indicate a somewhat more recent date than that of the Roman occupation of the Principal- ity. The letters in this inscription measure about -two-and-a-quarter inches in height. At the same place is another inscribed stone, forming one of the steps of a staircase on the south side of the exterior of Ystradgynlais Church. The stone measures four feet long and eight inches wide. The letters are large and coarsely cut, measuring about three-and-a-half inches in height. There appears to be a crack across the stone be- tween the first and second letters. The inscription, in its entire state, has, as it seems to me, been in- tended to be read ADUINE from its standing thus alone I take it to be a sepulchral slab, inscrib- ed with a name terminating not in the genitive I, as usual, but in E, probably intended for the ipthong Æ, and thus indicating a female as in- -tended to be commemorated. The first stroke of the A. and of the V are nearly upright; the curved .stroke of the D is slightly detached at each end from the upright first stroke; as are also most of the strokes of the other letters. I suppose this inscription to be not much more recent than the 5th or 6th century. LORDSHIP OF CRICKHOWELL.—Mr Hugh Powell Price in 1854 read, at Brecon, a Paper be- fore the members of the Cam. Arch. Soc. in refer- ence to certain customs which prevailed within the Uordship attached to Crickhowell Castle anterior to the reign of Elizabeth. The customs were ex- tracted by him from a document which was in the archives of Badminton, and are here given to throw some light over the character and quality of the feudal power exercised by the Norman Lords over their Welsh dependents. In the 5th year of Elizabeth a commission was granted by the Earl -of Worcester to Sir Roger Vaughan, Knight, and others, at the special suit of the tenants of the manor and lordships of Crickhowell to confirm upon oath those customs which were proved to be due upon them. Accordingly a body of ancient cus- toms were framed, from which Mr Powell extracted such as most peculiarly express the power exer- cised by the lord within his lordship more espec- ially as indicated by the various services and con- ditions imposed upon the Welsh tenants. The three customs which were distinctly personal were as follows The Oath of the Homagers. "All the Tenants -that houlde their lands by the said Prince ought to acknowledge the lord by the .ds followeigne, that is to saie, ffirst, he ought to come before the Lord kneelinge and acknowledge to bould of the Lord of Crughowell such rents and lands by service of homage and ought to close his handes within the Lordes deposeinge truly in his faith by God and the Holy Evangelists that he with his whole heart and soul above all thinges, he shall love his Lord, and in all places of any dread shall stand by his Lord him to defend and his bodie well and truely and without fraude and guile against his enemyes keepe. And this done, the Lorde shall command -to stand upp from his kneelinge and shall kisse liim and after that all the Tenants soe sworn, they ebadi give the Lords or his officer by him appoynted the SfID of £ 5 of lawful money of England im- mediately after the oathes and homages made." Ayde.—"The Welsh Tenants shall give to the Bjord at his makeinge Knight reasonable ayde, that is to witte, 8d for to buy him horse." "The said tenants shall give unto the Lord at his first comeing to his lordshipp 100s., and to the tnarryinge of his first begotten daughter 100s., and to the sonne of the said Lord when he is made Knight ffive pounds." The two last, it will be seen, seem clearly bur- dens imposed upon the Welsh: but the following customs will show in a more emphatic manner the distinctions which were originally made between the English and Welsh tenants :— Custome for payement of Rents.—"The Lorde of Crughowell and his heires have of oulde custome -that all the tenants of the Borrowe and village and all manner of tenants both Welshe and Fforren ehall come and paie the rents of the Lords Bay- liffes certeyne days in which the said rents be ieinable upon reasonable summoninge, that is to fwitt ,the 3rd day before the said days, and if ane of them come not with their rents to paie them to the said Bayliffes, they ought before, the Steward Sat the Lord's Barr every eaclie of them to be amerced, if he be a Welshe Tenant in 10/ a fforreigne Tenant in 7/ a burgesse in 12d. HENNES PAID.Every Tenant by the said IForest for to have libertie for their Beaste in the isaid fforestes goeing and feedinge shall paie a hen iat the Feast of St. Andrews." "If ane be summoned at the said Feast for bringing of the said hens and come not, such ought to be amercid if he be a Welshe tenant at 10/ a fforeigne tenant at 7/ a burgess at 12d. Ploughing the Lord's Domaynes. All the Welshe Tenants within the Lordship of Crick- fcowel ought by the custome off their landes to eome with their oxen to eare the Demeane Lands by certeyne days at the winter season. The saide Tenants ought to do the like by certeyne days of thei Lent season. "If any man enters the said Parke and there be founde that he ought to be attacked by the Keeper of the Parke, and to be kepte in the stocks without the gate of the said parke till he pay upp or else to loose his right foote if the Parke be closed round- about." A large portion of the remaining customs have talmost exclusive reference to the main tenants of iNflares and Mills, and will be seen how heavily that maintenance fell upon Welsh tenants. From the number and particularity of their customs, it would appear as though the old Welsh maxim that the riches of a family consisted of three things, a mill. a weare, and an orchard, continued, in the two first instances at least, to exercise a practical influence-a maxim which, in these days, would certainly fail to embody a truth, inasmuch as so little is a mill regarded as an element of wealth, that it has almost become a popular aphorism, that you cannot inflict upon your enemy a greater injury than to leave him a mill in your will. How- ever, let the customs speak for themselves. "Mills.—All the Welshe Tenants of Llanelly etc., shall sustaine and repaire the mills of Clydach with their own proper costs and expenses. This is to witt, with all carpentry, mill ponds and (all manner of other works necessary to the same Mill appertayning. And they shall find sufficient water at all times of winter and summer or any other time to the course of the said Mill. And if there be any default in the turning of the water to the said Mill turned by the tenant of the Welshe Tenure, they ought to be amerced in 10/- every each of them. To subject a Welsh tenant to a penalty on account of a scarcity of water in a dry season is certainly a strange obliquity of justice. But to proceed- "If it reigne in the Mill for default of coveringe, all the Tenants above said ought to be amerced in 10/- apiece." "If any Welsh tenant deny to come with his graynes to the said Mill to have grindinge and to go to another Mill out of the Lordship, they ought to be amerced in 10/- and to satisfie the Lord of this tolle so borne away." "All the Welshe tenants of the Lpp. of Crug- howell shall carry tvmber of all manner reparative to the Mille of Uske with their bodies, and to make the weare called the Welsh weare upon their own proper costs save the hedges and filling with stones between the hedges of the saide weare; and paie due tolle as it was used in the time of Hugh Tur- berville and his predecessors." Such was the peculiar stringency of the customs to which the Welsh tenants were exposed. They were eminently suggestive of a spirit of conquest, and their continuance must have perpetuated that strong sentiment of separate nationality which so long checked the growth of a warm intercourse be- tween two countries recognising the same sover- I eign..

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