UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN A SAN DIEGO 3 1822017144205 LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 4205 Central University Library University of California, San Diego Please Note: This item is subject to recall. Date Due MAR 2 7 1994 APS 1 U 1391 JUL 2 2001 Cl 39(7/93) UCSD Lt. \ TALES FROM WELSH WALES. jjg tgt mmt. Paul Ray at the Hospital : a Picture of London Medical Student Life. Cloth, Svo, 6>. (By Subscrip- tion.) Out of print. Pictures of East Anglian Life. Folio. Illus- trated with 32 Photo- Etch ings and 15 small Illustra- tions. Edition de Luxe, limited to 75 numbered copies, 7 7s., all sold. Ordinary Edition, limited to 500 copies, 5 5s. Twenty left. All plates destroyed. Pictures from Life in Field and Fen. Folio. Being 20 Photo-Etchings, with Introductory Essay, in Portfolio. Edition de Luxe, limited to 50 numbered copies, 5 5s. Ordinary Edition, limited to 200 copies, 1 2s. Three left. All plates destroyed. Idyls of the Norfolk Broads. Being 12 Auto- gravures, with Introductory Essay and Notes, in Port- folio. Edition de Luxe, limited to 100 copies, 1 11s. 6d. Ordinary Edition, limited to 100 copies, 1 Is. All plates destroyed. English Idyls. Post Svo, small. Cloth, 2s. Second Edition. Wild Life on a Tidal Water. Illustrated with 30 Photogravures. Edition tie Luxe, limited to 100 num- bered copies, 3 3s. Ordinary Edition, limited to 300 numbered copies, 1 Is. Naturalistic Photography. Third Edition. (In the Press.) Nature Stories, Myths and Phantasies. Cloth, Svo, Is. (" Young Pan.") Out of print. East Coast Yarns. Paper Boards, Is. A Son of the Fens. Cloth, 8vo, 6s. Signor Lippo: Burnt-cork Artiste. Svo, stiff paper covers, Is. On English Lagoons. Crown 8vo, Cloth, Illus- trated, 7*. 6d. Edition de Luxe, with 15 Photogravures, numbered and limited to 100 copies. Price 1 5s. All plates destroyed. Welsh FairyTalesandotherStories. Crown 8vo, Boards, 2s. Birds, Beasts and Fishes of the Norfolk Broad land. Illustrated with 18 full page plates and 50 smaller Illustrations. Crown Svo, Cloth, 12s. M. (In the Press.) JOINT-AUTHOR OF Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads. Folio. Illustrated with 40 Plates. Edition de Luxe, limited to 25 copies, 10 10s. Ordinary Edition, limited to 175 copies, 6 6s. A few left. Perspective Drawing and Vision. Paper cover, fjd. Out of print. TALES WELSH WALES, FOUNDED ON FACT AND CURRENT TRADITION. BY "TRA MOR-TRA BRYTHON. 1 LONDON : D. NUTT, 270271, STRAND. 1894. (All rights reserved.) " The three things that will make a wise man : The genius of a Cymri, the courtesy of a Frenchman, the industry of a Saxon." Triads of the Four Nations. TO MY FRIEND, F. YORK-POWELL AUTHOR'S NOTE. Many of these Stories written in North Wales in the year 1892 are founded on fact ; others are based on tradition. All the folk-lore contained in these Tales was gathered by me from the lips of the Welsh people themselves. The idiom used in the narratives is that now spoken by the Welsh "who have English," except in the cases of sailors' stories, which are written in that strange polyglot medley the lingua franca spoken by English seamen all the world over. P. H. E. CLAEINGBOLD, BBOADSTAIBS, June, 1894. CONTENTS. PAOK I. JOHN JONES OP ANGLESEA 1 II. THE ADMIRAL'S WARDS 17 III. THE ALMSHOUSE GHOST 46 IV. THE WRECK OF THE Royal Cliartcr 58 V. THE SONS OF ANAK 73 VI.-KADDY 82 VII. THE STORY OF THE FOUR SHOEMAKERS 86 VIII. OLD BILLY'S YARN 94 IX. THE WELSH WANDERING JEW 108 X. OLD ANGLESEA DAYS 122 XI. AN OLD SALT'S YARN 131 XII. WATERLOGGED: THE STORY OF THE Courtenay 146 XIII. WILLIAM JENSON: SMUGGLER 157 XIV. OLD MOTHER BROWN'S CHRISTMAS EVE 162 XV. THE LEGEND OF PENMON HOUSE 166 XVI. ROBIN DHU : THE WELSH PROPHET 182 XVII. A WELSH SAILOR'S YARN 195 XVIII. THE CRAIG-Y-DON BLACKSMITH 205 XIX. THE LOVE THAT LOVETH ALW AY 213 /XX. THE WRECK OF THE Rothsay Castle 224 XXI. AT THE SIGN OF THE "RING AND THE RAVEN " 231 XXII. OLD DICKY'S PONY 239 XXIII. HARRY'S YARN 248 XXIV. THE BOSS-FIRE'S YARN 258 XXV. DICK CANOE 269 XXVI. A STORY OF THE OLDEN TIME 283 XXVII. THE ALMANAC MAKER ... ..295 ' O'er the blue waters with his thousand oars ; Through Mona's oaks he sent the wasting flame; The Druid shrines lay prostrate on our shores, He gave their ashes to the wind and sea ; Ring out, thou harp ; he could not silence thee." To the Harp. HEMANS. TALES FROM WELSH WALES, I. fojin fonts of " The three things notable in a Cymro genius, generosity and myrth."- Keltic Cockadoodledooism, by the EAEL OF PEMBROKE. CHAPTER I. AMID the bare, rolling hills of Anglesea lived John Jones, a wealthy man and well connected. From a boy John Jones had been short in stature, with a round, protuberant belly, like that of a mush-fed negro child ; nor did this stoutness decrease with age, on the contrary, at forty John Jones could only just span his belly with both his hands for his limbs, like his torso, were short and stout. John Jones was a dark-haired, explosive Welshman, but not quite sharp ; his neighbours who " had English " called him " rather soft," but that mattered little to him for he had much money, a fine house and a large garden ; indeed, horticulture was his hobby, cock-fighting his serious oc- cupation. He married young and was blessed with two daughters. Soon after marriage John Jones established an annual custom of showing his servants his wealth, the golden sovereigns tightly wedged into a stout, iron-bound, oaken chest, kept in a strong room. All his fortune was there, for in those days in remote rural districts everyone was his own banker. Upon such anniversary John Jones would B Z TALES FROM WELSH WALES. throw open the lid and say cheerily to his assembled house- hold "Now, my children, you can have all that you can take with your finger and thumb, but mind you don't use a knife/' and he chuckled, his fat sides shaking with laughter as the tender-nailed housemaid, Mary, tried without avail to extract a roll of sovereigns, so tightly were they packed. As no one else made an attempt, the lid of the great chest was shut down, bolted and padlocked, and the cheery John Jones returned to the kitchen, where he took a seat, cut a quid of twist and began to spit over the fireirons and fender as was his habit. Mary, who was new to the house, placed a burnished spittoon near her master, who, noticing the at- tention, remarked " What's that for, my girl ? If you don't take that thing away I'll spit into it." " That's what it is for, master," said Mary, demurely. " Oh, indeed now, I thought it was kept too nice looking to dirty," replied John Jones. Soon after marriage, John Jones assumed the title of Captain, a rank as common in Wales as that of Colonel in the Western States, for everybody is a Captain in Wales, even unto the widows of old collier masters. Well, Captain John Jones, as we shall hereafter call the subject of our memoir, was in need of a page to button his boots and go to the shop for his twist, so a smart lad of seven was found just suited to the work. Two weeks after this page entered into the service, his master called him by name, saying " Well, my boy, saddle the pony and go to Blumaris and get me a lot of twist at William Williams'." " Yes, master," replied the page, and went on his errand. Upon his return the Captain took a long roll of twist with which he measured the lad from top to toe, cutting off what was over and handing the boy the piece which measured his height, saying JOHN JONES OP ANGLESEA. 3 "There, my boy, I wanted to see how much you had grown there, take that, it's your share away you go." So the lad soon learned to chew tobacco, a habit he never relinquished to the day of his death. Soon after this episode the page ran away one day to attend a cock-fight at Llangefni. As it rained hard during his absence, Nellie, the cook, put the lad's coat in the yard on a hamper, and at eventide, before the boy returned, his master asked " Where's the boy ? " "Oh, master, he's dripping wet, just see his coat," and Nellie produced the sopping garment. " Oh ! bless you, Nellie, the boy will die, the boy will die. Give him something hot and send him to bed im- mediately/' Nellie took the something hot and the young rascal escaped. A few days after this ruse the Captain received a note from a neighbour, telling him there was a pair of valuable pigeons tumblers for him if he would send over a mes- senger for them ; whereupon the page was called and the Captain said " John, saddle the pony and go over to Llanfaes to Mr. Owen's, and take a hamper, for you must fetch a pair of rare pigeons, and be sure, my boy, and put a tally on their necks so you will know them again." When the boy returned the Captain, who met him in the drive, said " Well, boy, have you got them ? " " Yes, master." " Well, let me look at them now." "Oh, master, if you open the hamper they'll fly away." "Not a bit of it, boy; open the hamper at once." The hamper was opened, the pigeons escaped, wheeled, got their bearings and flew off towards Llanfaes. " Good God, what a stupid fool I am to be sure, but they 4 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. are sure to go home. Go back and fetch them/' said the Captain.' " Well, master, if I do I can't get back till to-morrow." "Why, boy?" " Why, dear master, I can't catch them till they go to roost." " Well, to be sure, my boy; well, stay there and bring them to-morrow." So the boy got what he sought leave to have a spree in the servants' hall at Llanfaes, for there was to be a jollifi- cation that night in honour of St. David. Indeed, he wore a leek in his cap on his return the next day with the rare and valuable pigeons, who were safely housed in a large box covered with wire netting. But the Captain never took much interest in them, he preferred his game-cocks indeed, his greatest ambition was to win the first prize at Llangefni Cock Fair, so that his delight knew no bounds when his friend at Llanfaes, a great amateur of pigeons and poultry, wrote and offered him a splendid game-cock. As the page was riding away to fetch the prize, the Captain cried after him " Mind you make them put a tally on his neck and don't you let him out of your hands, boy." When the hamper arrived the Captain took it carefully into the tool-house and letting out the bird he examined it critically from comb to spur, muttering " Ah ! he's a splendid bird, ah ! he's a splendid bird," then turning to the page who stood by, he said, " Now go and ask Jane if she has any red morocco." The lad returned and said Jane .had plenty, whereupon the Captain replaced the cock in the hamper, fastened the lid, and waddled to Nellie in the kitchen and asked, " Who will be the best sewer in the house, Nellie? " " Well, indeed, I don't know, master, but I think it will be Mary." So the bonny Mary was called and ordered to sew a pair JOHN JONES OP ANGLESEA. 5 of red morocco leggings on to the game-cock, leaving his formidable spurs free. When he was duly buskined, he was turned loose among: the other fowls. " Now you see I'll be sure to know the bird/' said the Captain to his coachman ; " he's a splendid bird, a splendid bird, he's sure to win at Llangefni." " Yes indeed, sir, he looks it/' said the coachman, who was a connoisseur in these matters ; indeed, the men-servants of the establishment were as great cock-fighters as their master and they always clubbed in profit or loss. As soon as the Captain had gone in, the coachman called his brother servants and showed them the cock, and this experienced trio soon decided that the handsome bird was good enough for the 20 prize at Llangefni Fair, so Mary, who was courting close with the footman, was bribed and the red leggings quickly transferred to the game-cock. Next morning immediately after breakfast the Captain went out and asked the coachman " How's the bird ? How's the bird ? " " Oh ! he's hopping about nicely, master." " Oh ! there he is, look at his red buskins, that's him ; isn't he a splendid bird ? " " Yes, indeed, master." " I'm sure to win the first prize with that." "Indeed, I hope so, sir," and though the Captain had so poor an eye for the points of a good bird he thought himself a good judge, and yet any Spanish peasant would have a better idea of a prize gallo. At length the great fair day came, three prizes being offered for the cock-fight values 20, 10 and 5 each. The Captain was there with his bird in a hamper and the servants were there with their bird and many another was there with his bird. Several fights were decided before the Captain's red-legged bird was matched against an old farmer's cock. The two birds sparred and soon began in good earnest, the farmer's bird winning, this success so 6 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. exciting his owner that he jumped into the cock-pit and trod accidentally on the Captain's bird's toes. The Captain was out of temper and he knocked the farmer down, after which there was much spitting and loud talking, when the Captain's butler went up behind the farmer and said quietly, " Toot, carrots, you'll get something to-night, dry up ! " and the farmer took the hint. Cock-fight after cock-fight was decided until, amid loud cheering and noisy betting, the servants' bird was declared the winner of the great prize, at which the irate Captain turned upon the farmer and swore : " 'Twas all that man's treading on his foot." " You struck me horrid and I am going to take the law of you," retorted the farmer as he left the booth, where- upon the butler went up to his master and said, " You did strike him horrid, sir, and he'll be sure to take the law." " Good God, where is he? " cried the Captain, whereupon the farmer was called. " Well, Mr. Roberts, you see I'd have won the first prize only you trod on his foot ; take care I don't catch you in the ring again. I know I've a hasty temper so here's 5 and forget the blow." And thus ended the cock-fight at Llangefni Fair. That night the Captain was missing from home, his wife and children being away at the time. His devoted page immediately took the pony and scoured the country in search of his master, returning at ten o'clock in bright moonlight without having found a trace of him. Truth to tell the Captain had walked towards home through a ravine with some soft places, his heavy body suddenly sinking up to his armpits. After struggling violently for several minutes, to his horror he saw the banshee or will o' the wisp hovering over the bog and laughing at him. Being a superstitious man he bellowed for help, and still the banshee danced and laughed at him. JOHN JONES OF ANGLESEA. 7 Fortunately his cries were heard by two farmers who were driving home along the highway. When they found the poor Captain bogged they tried hard to pull him out, but in vain, so one sat down to keep him company whilst his companion drove to the Captain's house for servants, planks and ropes. The whole establishment turned out, and when they arrived at the ravine and saw their master in doleful dumps they began giggling. The Captain grew angry and turning to the farmer said : " Don't you see they are laughing at me ? Oh the beggars ! If I had them in a room I would horsewhip them one and all, girls and all. They are laughing just like the banshee ; it was a woman banshee. Oh, oh ! " His servants with suppressed laughter pulled his huge bemired carcase on to the ground when he began to swear and they to laugh. " Toot/' said the Captain solemnly, " my own servants laughing at me, the same as that horrid banshee ! " and then growing excited he shouted " Every one of you will leave the house to-morrow, every one ! What, you laughing too, Nellie ! " "Oh, dear master," said the favourite, "you look like a ghost and you are such a sight we can't help laughing/' "Well, I must give in if I look like that," said the poor Captain meekly, and the party returned to the house. CHAPTER II. AT that time the Island of Anglesea was infested by foxes, especially round about Penmon. In winter these animals got very bold, stealing fowls and geese from the neighbouring farmers and even visiting the Captain's hen- house. " Oh, the fox must be shot, the fox must be shot," said the Captain ; " I will give 5 for his pelt." 8 TALES FEOM WELSH WALES. An old shepherd heard the offer and laid in ambush for three nights, discovering at last that reynard always passed through a narrow ravine on his way to the hen-house. The shepherd then said to himself " I'll catch that fox to-night." So making a wicker basket big enough to hide in, he laid it close to the fox's path and covered it over with litter. The moon was bright that night when the shepherd took up his ambush and presently he saw reynard, who trotted up to within a few yards of the basket, stopped, and then turned back and disappeared. Three nights did he repeat this manoeuvre; but on the fourth night reynard ventured past the ambush, and on the fifth the shepherd was all ready for him, laid up in the basket, listening intently for his footsteps. Presently he saw him coming along like a dog, on he came in the moonlight towards the basket. Suddenly an arm was thrust from the straw and seized him by the fore leg, and a figure rose from the straw, caught the startled fox by the throat and dropped him into a sack. The next morning the old shepherd went to call on the Captain, who came out to see him. " Well, master, I've got the fox/' said the shepherd. " Have you, indeed ? " " Yes, here he is in this bag." " What, alive ? " " Yes, master." "Well, how did you catch him ? " The shepherd told his story, and when he had finished the Captain's face grew grave, and he said " Well, by God, if you're 'cute enough to catch a live fox, you're too 'cute for me, so you must go," and giving him his 5 and his wages he dismissed him on the spot. The story travelled far and wide and came to Mrs. John Jones' ears, who expostulated with the Captain. " Well, I must get him back again," said he; for like all Kelts he was amenable to reason could he but be got to listen to it. So the shepherd was duly reinstated in office. JOHN JONES OF ANGLESEA. CHAPTER III. THE Captain, like most Welshmen, was absolutely devoid of humour, but a great practical joker. One day when visiting a menagerie at Blumaris, he was shown a dead monkey which he was told had died in consequence of having 1 chewed tobacco. The Captain smiled, bought the dead monkey, took it to a stuffer, and gave directions that when set up it was to be packed in a case and sent to a friend, marked "With care." The friend suspected who had sent him the present and he bethought him of revenge. The Captain was very fond of otter hunting, and in those days otters were plentiful, and so vicious were they that one could manage an otter hound in the water. So the friend dropped a note to the Captain telling him that a great many otters had been seen about the White enclosures lately, and asking him to bring his pack over on a particular day, and they would have great sport. The Captain then sent word to all his friends that his hounds would meet there at ten o'clock. At the meet every- body appeared except the gentleman to whom the property belonged. They waited and never an otter nor proprietor did they see. After an hour's delay an old rat-catcher and cat-catcher for that matter came up and said " Well, indeed, master, isn't Mr. Owen playing you the fool for the monkey ? " " Gad ! I never thought of that/' said the Captain, amid the laughter of his friends. The party then returned to the Captain's house, where a note was handed to him from Mr. Owen. It was this "Well, indeed, and did you like the otters?" The rat and cat-catcher had followed the party to the house, for in those days cat-baiting with terriers was con- sidered a fine sport. 10 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. " Gad, Stonewall, get some cats and we'll have some sport," said the Captain. " All right, sir, I have a fine big black torn. I left him in the hay-lott, I'll go and fetch him." The groom, who was a practical joker, had, however, let the black torn loose and substituted a dead tabby. Stonewall ran to the loft, seized the sack without ex- amining it and returned to the party, where two lively terriers stood full of expectation. " This is a fine cat, sir," said Stonewall, placing the sack on the ground. "Turn him out, then," said the Captain. Stonewall untied the mouth of the sack, while the terriers snuffed at the poke. After opening the sack he picked it up and shook the dead tabby on to the grass. " What is this ? " asked the Captain, angrily. " Are you making a fool of me ? " " No, indeed, master, some fool has taken my cat and put this old thing in instead." " Well, find him and thrash him," said the Captain, half vexed and half laughing. The guests murmured, but their disappointment was suddenly cut short by the appearance of the groom, who said "I took his cat, master, and I'll fight him before you all if he has any lip to give me." Now old Stonewall fancied himself greatly at boxing, for he was a vain Kelt; moreover, Stonewall had never been beaten, for the very simple reason that he had never met a boxer. His style was to strike his chest and then whirl his arms round one another like mill sails, nor was he averse from kicking and biting, both common practices amongst the Welsh at country fairs. The groom on the other hand had some science. A ring was formed among the delighted guests, the Captain backing Stonewall. JOHN JONES OF ANGLESEA. 11 " Well, I can lick that boy/' said Stonewall, as the groom squared up to him. " Well, do your best," said the Captain, for the groom was a " foreigner," from Bangor. The fight began, Stonewall hitting wildly in the air and striking nothing, whilst the scientific groom kept getting in his right and left, punishing Stonewall badly. After a good round Stonewall stepped back aghast saying " Good God, I can do nothing with him." "Try him once more," said the Captain, and poor Stone- wall bravely hit the air and as bravely received his punish- ment. At the finish Stonewall said " Well, who would have dreamt that a lad like that could beat me ! Toot ! Toot ! " And the company went laughing to the house, Stone- wall saying he was so dry he could empty the Beth Gelert* pewter and so sore he was going to rub his aching limbs with paraffin, for he had had his rheumatics " knocked into his joints." CHAPTER IV. A FEW weeks after these events the Captain was stopped on his way to a coursing meeting by a red-haired cripple with a club foot, who begged for alms. " Well, John, what will it be for ? Have you got another bastard to pay for ? " " Well, indeed, sir, that's just it ! " " By God, all you cripples are the same, you can't keep away from the women and you're the smuttiest men alive ! " " Well, indeed, sir, that's true, for what you lose in one leg goes to the other ; but indeed, I'm not so bad as Tibly, * Holds nearly two gallons, and whoever can drink it off at a draught has his drink free ; only two are said to have accomplished this feat. 2 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. he's got no legs at all, yet he has got more bastards than Sir John himself ! " " Well, here's a sovereign for you, it's all I can do now, John." " God bless you, master ! God bless you ! " said the cripple. "And how's Eva Pritchard? I've not been up there lately." " Well, indeed, sir, it's marvellous, but she has got her sight again ! " " Good God ! Got her sight again ! How 1 " " Well, sir, it was this way one day her mother was out, and a foreign sailor, a Bretoou, came along selling onions, and she was alone, and he heard her pattering along and feeling her way along the wainscoting; and when she came to the door he axed her if she'd hev any onions. "' No/ she said. "Then he axed if he might have some potatoes and buttermilk. " { Yes and welcome,' she said. " So just then her mother came in and got him a feed. Well, after he'd done he said, * So your daughter is blind, poor girl/ " ' Yes, it's very sad indeed/ said her mother. " ' Let me look in her eye/ says the Bretoon, and he looked and looked and up and said ' I cure thee, I give back eye/ "Well, he told her to get three lice off a child's head and put them into the eyes and bind the eyes over with a handkerchief and leave them for a few days. He said they'd make her eyes tickle, but the bandages weren't to be taken off until they got very sore, for he said the lice would eat the skin off her eyes and she'd regain her sight. Well, the mother tried it, and indeed the girl sees now as well as you or I, sir." " By God ! Wonderful ! Wonderful ! I must go up and see her soon, but I must be off or I'll be late for the fun." JOHN JONES OF ANGLESEA. 13 So he spurred .his horse and caught up the coursing 1 party, when they had good sport. As they returned in the evening an old gentleman pointed out the place where the hare- witch was burnt. " By God, how was that? " asked the Captain. "Well, many years ago, there was a white hare always seen here and the hounds could never catch her. ' It must be a witch/ said the people, so one day a big meeting was fixed on purpose to catch the hare. But the very same thing happened, the hare was started from her form, but no hound was fleet enough to catch her, and she always seemed to disappear in a white cottage where an old woman with a split lip lived. So they surrounded the house and found nothing. "Well, the hare was seen several times afterwards and another big meeting was held ; everyone being determined to catch the hare. She was started in the usual place and ran for the house, but one of the fleetest hounds managed to grip her by the buttock, but she escaped him leaving spots of blood on the grass, so the hunters surrounded the house and hunted high and low, finding nothing but the witch sitting on a chair. One man suspected her to be a witch- hare, so he made her get up and lo ! the chair was all covered with blood, so they pulled off her clothes and found she had the hound's teeth in her backside, so they cried, ' The witch ! The witch ! ' and straightway drove a stake into the ground, and fastening her thereto, they built a fire all round her and burnt her, and that was the end of the hare-witch " finished the old gentleman. " Most extraordinary ! And now I'll be sure to tell you of a miracle performed by a Bretoon," and he told of the girl's sight being restored, as they rode home to dinner. 14 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. CHAPTER V. ONE Christmas the three cock-fighting menservants decided to play a joke on their master and his page. In the stables were some open cracks, about four inches wide, between the plankings of the different stalls one of these cracks was to be the scene of the hoax. The footman was a good violinist and he could produce long-drawn groans on one string of his instrument. The conspirators first got four large turnips, which they hollowed out, making lanterns of them ; these were attached by strings so they could be worked along a grooved channel in the floor. On the night of the hoax the page, now a lad of fourteen, was expected home upon the pony. Before his arrival the machinery for the seance was arranged. Directly he entered the dark stable to stall his pony he was greeted by the lugubrious groan of the fiddler lying in a bin, and the lanterns began to glide to and fro along the planks. The lad did not stop, but bolted off to his master, the more sensible pony quietly going up to his manger, where he began munching his oats. The page ran in to his master, crying " Oh ! master ! master ! there's something queer in the stable ; you'd better come with me." The old butler (who was in the joke) was trying to sup- press his laughter. " By God, my boy, what will it be ? " " Oh, a banshee f " " Good God ! The butler must come too ; come OD, Owen," said the Captain. So the page and Owen took their master's fat hands and they marched bravely to the stable the Captain puffing and blowing. As they approached the stable door the butler cried " Good God ! I hear something mournful ; it's horrid/' JOHN JONES OF ANGLESEA. 15 " My God ! it's mournful, mournful, mournful," cried the Captain. " What on earth can it be ? " As they got to the door they could see the candles moving about. " Good God ! it's the corpse candles ; don't you see them moving ? Someone is sure to die," groaned the butler. " O-o-o-o-h ! " groaned the fiddle. " Sure to get a death, sure to get a death," groaned the Captain, as they walked quickly away from the terrible scene, when the coachman and footman began to laugh. That night by chance a farmer's daughter, Mary, died of consumption, and when they told the Captain the next morning, he said " Ah ! didn't I tell you. God is good ; it is not in my family." CHAPTER VI. TWELVE months after the event recorded in the last chapter the Captain's wife was taken very ill, and the page was sent for the doctor one evening at dusk, the poor Captain being so anxious there should be no delay that he went himself in the trap. As they drove along home, the doctor and Captain sitting behind, the page suddenly saw the house and cried " My God ! dear master, look ! " " What, boy ? " " Why, there is a coffin coming out of the house with three candles standing on it." The page told them that all the windows were lighted up with candles, for they would not look, that the candles kept skipping over each other, and the coffin was borne to a hearse standing in the drive and put inside, the candles jumping on to the top of the hearse. Then the funeral procession started off, a parson walking ahead of fifty or sixty mourners dressed in black, and they all moved off towards the churchyard. 16 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. "Good God ! what's the matter?" asked the Captain; but when they got to the house all the lights in the windows were gone. " What's this ? Who has been here ? " asked the Captain of the footman. " Nobody, sir." " Good God ! Nobody ! Don't lie, man. The boy saw lights in all the windows and a hearse." " My God, master, you must be mad ; there's been nobody here/' The page relates that after he had put the horse up in the stable, he went round and told the cook of what had happened. " Yes, there'll be death in the house this night," said Nellie, solemnly. "I'm sure of it, for I heard three loud raps and saw the coffin-bird come rapping at the window." The Captain's wife died before daybreak. CHAPTER VII. AFTKR his loss the old man used to chew more tobacco and his servants tried no more for the game-cock prize so that he won the first prize at Llangef ui Fair, which consoled him not a little. But he began to be full of whims and one day he ordered his daughters to dress in their best to go for a drive. When they came down dressed he sent the carriage away and ordered them to undress, for, said the broken- hearted man, " You must learn to bear disappointment in this life." But, alas ! his cup of woe was not full, for he lost both his daughters within a short time of each other and was left an old widower, who no longer took interest in his game-cocks or garden. So the household was broken up and he went to live with his sisters until his death, when he was buried at Beaumaris with his head to the South- West, according to the Welsh fashion. There let him rest in peace. 17 II. Cbe |J&miraJ's " In those days which now seein olden, Life was all a vision golden ; 'Twas beside the moonlit river Where you vowed to love me ever." Long Ago (Old Welsh Song~). CHAPTER I. G-WILYM HARVEY was an intelligent little fellow, sturdy as a Welsh pony, with a rosy face from which two bold velvety black eyes looked out, eyes blacker than his hair, which seemed to have a tinge of blue. He was as in- telligent as he was strong, and at five could give his answer to most of his companions, and more than held his own with his chubby little fists. Tradition says that he was not pure Welsh, but descended from some Spaniards who were wrecked on the Anglesea coast. You may see some of their descendants there to-day : the girls dark-eyed and grace- ful as any senorita of Seville. And truth to tell he was possessed of far more perseverance and resolution than the average Welshman, who is naturally lazy. Little Gwilym's parents were poor, his father toiling in the slate works, squaring, splitting, and polishing the slates countesses and ladies over which the children of Beau- maris were destined to worry and scratch their little black oval-shaped heads as they ciphered. But there was no compulsory education in those good days, so that many of the Anglesea boys never " got 18 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. English/' but spoke ever in that soft gutteral tongue of their own that makes the stranger to Beaumaris feel, as he lies abed in the summer with open windows, and hears the passers-by talking, that he is in some foreign town Spanish for preference. In those days at the beginning of the century, the chief magistrate of Beaumaris was a deaf old Admiral. The drums of both his ears had been broken in battle, yet he was a brave, jovial, white-haired old bachelor. He was a tall, thin, small-boned man, well over six feet. The Admiral lived in a large square house, the Ash Grove, on the island, within sight of the spot where the Royal Charter was wrecked. Round him towards Moelfre Bay stretched moors, good shooting grounds for snipe. But in summer the old warrior spent most of his time at a fort the White Enclosures he had built near Penmon, where he had mounted twenty-one brass six pounders. There the sea rolled in upon limestone rocks hard as steel and yet water-eaten and honeycombed, rocks full of little canons and fantastic hollows. It was a terrible place in those days, between Black Point and Puffin Island, upon the ledges and in the holes of whose cliffs the auks, puffins, guillemots and greedy cormorants laid their eggs in the summer months, for in those days there was no red light to warn the tempest-tost mariner of the sharp iron rocks. The Admiral's fort was near the Parsonage, the Birch Slope, where a jolly, stout, light-haired, blue-eyed, good- hearted, old-fashioned parson lived with his two daughters, for his wife had died at the birth of the younger daughter Eva, who was about the same age as young Gwilym. Old Daddy Parson, as he was familiarly and affectionately called, never forgot that he was a minister and not a priest, nor that religion is fundamentally merely an expression of love and not a question of rubric. Daddy Parson was a great favourite, for his sermons were few and short, but his personal interest in his parishioners was large-hearted and THE ADMIRAL'S WARDS. 19 constant ; he looked upon all as brothers and treated them as such, not contenting himself by pouring old biblical sayings into their ears, but doing real good with a cheery smiling face. Of course the Admiral and Daddy Parson were great friends. On every 1st of May without fail the old Admiral used to hoist his flag above his fort, fire a salvo from his six pounder brass cannon and settle himself in his little quarters until the 1st of October. Then too would Daddy Parson's face brighten, for they spent the bright summer days to- gether in fishing and swimming and sailing over the blue waters of the straits. Their fishing boat and yacht rode on the tide and their bathing house was on the pebbly beach just below the White Enclosures. It so chanced that one summer the Admiral wanted a boy to help his factotum, an old seaman of war who had served under the Admiral himself in bygone days. Daddy Parson had seen young Gwilym once or twice, and though he was still very young, he remembered that the boy's independent ways and bright manly face had attracted him, as indeed, they did everyone, so he recommended him to his friend. The Admiral said he would try him, so Gwilym was installed at the fort, under old Bob. Young Gwilym soon attracted the Admiral's attention by his cheery answers, quick perception and almost effeminate quickness of sympathy and delicacy of feeling, and the old fellow took to the boy as if he were his own son. Daddy Parson liked the lad, too, and between the two of them they determined to make a man of him. Daddy Parson taught four daily pupils, sons of the neighbouring gentry, and young Gwilym was educated with them, soon proving himself to be the brightest of all. " He took to learning right off hand," old Bob would say; and it was the same with his athletic practices. The old Admiral taught him to swim like a fish, to handle the yacht, to shoot snipe on the moor round the house where 20 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. Gwilym now lived with the Admiral in winter, for he seldom went home to his parents in Beaumaris ; indeed, he called the Admiral " Father," and the white-haired old salt loved to hear him say it. But the old man took most pains to teach the boy to shoot the brass cannon; target practice with those guns was an everyday affair during the summer months at Penmon. The boy grew up strong and powerful and proficient in all the arts and exercises taught him by his two friends, even becoming a dead shot at the target. He could " take the target " every time with any of those six pounders. Then was the Admiral delighted beyond measure, and he ran off to Daddy Parson, saying " Look at the child licking me at firing the gun ! Look at the boy ! " for the Admiral had been a crack shot in his day and realized how good a shot the boy was. At sixteen the Admiral bought him a " man-of-war " suit of clothes, with crown and anchor buttons. " He shall go into the navy, he shall go into the navy," he said, drawing himself up to his full height. " No, I forbid that, it's so dangerous," said Daddy Parson; " the boy cares nothing about it." So the parson persuaded young Gwilym against going into the navy, for he was much averse from war. That summer the old Admiral noticed his adopted child was always after Daddy Parson's youngest daughter, Eva ; for already his romantic love of girls began to show itself. So one day he said " When do you think that boy and girl will get married ? " " Well," said old Daddy, " they're taken up together he is after her and she is after him, so we must leave that to the future." The months slipped along and one day, after returning to winter quarters at the house, the Admiral and Gwilym were walking across a field, when an angry bull began pawing the ground and snorting. Young Gwilym had a stick with a THE ADMIRAL'S WARDS. 21 shot grummetted to the end, a present from old Bob, in whose leg the shot had once found its billet. The two stopped as the bull charged straight at them. " Run, father, run, get behind the trees ; I'll look after the bull," cried the lad. " Boy ! what are you talking of ? " said the old man, at the same time edging off towards the trees. " Run quick, father, or he'll kill you." The old Admiral started off for a clump of elms and the boy stubbornly kept his ground, for his vanity was inflamed and he wished to do a brave deed before the old sailor, and the expansiveness of the Kelt was already showing itself. The bull rushed on with his head down, and the boy, who was nearly six feet high, stood perfectly still, as the Admiral said, looking like a lion, his eye gleaming like an eagle's, until the bull came within range, when the boy stepped aside and hit him a terrible blow on the snout with the weighted stick, stunning him. As he dropped Gwilym ran round and caught him by the tail and began to hammer him. The bull got up furious and began to run like a wild thing round the field, the youth beating him all the time and hanging on to his tail, and the Admiral calling out anxiously " Boy,' he's sure to kill you, he's sure to kill you." When the bull had pretty well spent himself, Gwilym made a spring and struck him again on the snout, once more dropping him ; then the boy jumped on the animal's head and belaboured him unmercifully. " Well, boy, you must be very venturesome to do the like," said the old man, coming up and regarding the youth with evident admiration. " Phut ! that's nothing, father," retorted the lad. The bull never troubled them again, though they often crossed the field. The Admiral was for long full of this incident, for, like all the Welsh, he was a lover of beauty and bravery. 22 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. The following summer he and Daddy Parson decided it was time for the boy to be doing something for himself, so one day in the fort the Admiral asked him " Well, my boy, what do you think of doing ? " " I haven't made my mind up, but I don't care for the navy, father, there's too much discipline there," said the boy; for, like all Kelts, he was averse from regular and hard work, nor would his vanity have been pleased by being lost in the crowd. " Well, you're right, boy, you're right, boy," said old Daddy Parson approvingly, and added, " Now I should like to make a proposal. Tommy Leeson an old pupil of mine is ship's-husband of a West African fleet at Liver- pool. I'd like to give him a chance there." The Admiral said never a word, but smoked silently ; he was disappointed, for he wished the lad to fight the French. The lad after a time agreed to Daddy Parson's proposals, for his Keltic cupidity was strong. Thus it happened that a letter was written on the spot to Mr. Leeson, stating Gwilym's qualifications and asking if a supercargo's berth could be obtained for him. In due time Leeson wrote back that it could be managed. So it came about that one September morning young Gwilym, now nearly nineteen years old, left Eva weeping and the old Admiral and Daddy Parson with moist eyes as he sailed for Liverpool in a slate-schooner from Beaumaris to join the African fleet. The three watched the vessel until she rounded the Orme's Head, when they went sadly back to the fort and fired a salvo for good luck. The captains and supercargoes of this fleet were allowed so many cubic feet in which to carry goods to trade upon their own account. They carried condemned flint guns, different coloured calicoes, beads and looking glasses, which they bartered for ivory and gold dust. Young Gwilym's ship, the Phoenix was absent for over three years trading along the West African coast, from THE ADMIRAL'S WARDS. 23 port to port. One October three years afterwards he arrived home with a nice little sum of money and consider- able experience, for he was quick to learn and observant. As soon as he saw the undulating hills of Anglesea with their white houses and clumps of trees, he heard his parents had both died of smallpox and that the Admiral's nephew had come on a visit the first he had made to the island. As they sailed up the blue straits old Bob, who had come off in a fishing boat, told him that the nephew was Commodore of the East India fleet of the tea-ships, for no others were allowed to carry tea in those days. These ships carried guns and a large crew of over two hundred men. They were disciplined just like a man-of-war and had eight middies and two lieutenants and regular grog hours. Their decks were all flush ; there were no poops or houses. Everything was clear for the guns, except the bulwarks, and they unshipped or shipped as circumstances required. As can be imagined, when Gwilym reached the Admiral's house there were great rejoicings. Eva with her bright blue eyes and yellow hair danced along by his side up the drive. The autumn was so fine that the white-haired old Admiral, his nephew and Daddy Parson spent the bright days fishing and sailing all the way from the frowning Orme's Head down to Bangor and back, the sea and the Carnarvon mountains at times looking as blue and beautiful as the waters and headlands of Italy. The Admiral's nephew took to Gwilym and finally he persuaded Gwilym to join his tea-ships as midshipman. When the short holiday came to a close before Christmas, as they were standing by the waiting coach, the Admiral's last words, as he shook hands, were " Whatever you do, mind if you get into trouble, put the boy in charge of a gun of the first gun for'ard or aft, according to circumstances ; he's a dead shot he takes the target every time." " I'll remember," replied the nephew as they drove off amid cheers and farewell. 24 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. When they got to London they found the ship Euphrates ready to sail ; so they started in a convoy (for the French War was raging at the time) : they were eighteen merchant men in charge of men-of-war. This fleet were three weeks in the downs, where they kept together by the help of signals, though the weather was calm and hazy. But one night it came on very thick, the sea and sky were one formless waste and they lost the lights and got separated from the convoy, for the lights were but poor in those days. Some of the officers aboard of the Indiaman were for putting back. "Toot, toot," said the Commander (the old Admiral's nephew), "we'll go on without them." So they were blown through the blue water safely till they got abreast of Vigo, when the masthead look-out sighted a sail. All was now excitement, men standing in the rigging with glasses hazarding guesses as to the newcomers' nation- ality, for in war-time flags are not always shown. The day was clear and bright and there was a nice sailing breeze, but the Euphrates was heavy below with cargo, so the strange vessel gained on her, racing out of the deep like a great sea-swan. The carpenters and crew were busy taking the bulwarks off and getting the guns ready in case of an emergency. As she got within two miles the stranger fired a shot from her chaser across the Indiaman's bows and ran up the French colours. " By God, it's a French corvette with thirty-six guns," said the Commander, and he had scarce finished when a second shot struck the Indiaman, doing but little damage, however, for the shot struck above water. The men now beat to quarters and the kettledrum and boatswain's whistle made pretty music and the fight began the two vessels manoeuvring, fighting about a mile apart with the thirty-six pounders, the Frenchmen yelling excitedly every time a shot told ; but after nearly an hour's THE ADMIRAL'S WARDS. 25 fighting only one shot had struck the Indiaman below the water line. The carpenter had his plugs all ready, and as the hull was English oak the shot hole was not so clean and dangerous as it would have been if she had been built of other wood. The English owed much of their success in those days to this peculiar quality of oak. As the corvette drew nearer the Commodore saw that in the end things must go against him, for the corvette had at least three hundred blue-jackets and thirt}'-six guns, whereas he had only four four-pound canonades and two long chasers, thirty- two pounds, forward ; when suddenly he bethought him of the Admiral's ward. " Remember the boy, he's a dead shot," flashed through his mind, and instantly he sent for midshipman Harvey. The two vessels were now within a hundred yards of one another. " Midshipman Harvey," cried the Commodore, " take charge of this first gun and mind whatever you do try and strike the foretop mast spars off, for if we don't do that we are gone." Young Harvey aimed the gun carefully at the French boat rocking on the calm sea, and fired a chain shot carrying her foretop mast off, amid ringing cheers from the Euphrates. The wrecked rigging fell among the French- man's chains and the excitement of the French who were thus disabled, for they could not bring her to the wind, or handle her, was absurd they lost their heads and began shrieking all discipline was gone. " That's good," said the Commodore, as he gave order for backing the fore-yards, and let his ship drift astern, crossing the corvette athwart the hawse. " Now boys for a broadside," sung out the Commodore. The cannons roared as they made one rake fore and aft killing crowds and unshipping guns for they were now within eighty yards of the corvette. The Indiaman kept backing and filling, and the corvette was helpless, as in 26 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. addition her tiller ropes had been shot away in the rake. Seeing- her disabled condition the Commodore shouted through his trumpet "If you don't give in we'll sink you." The tricolour ran down the blue sky. " I haul my flag down, I give in," yelled the French Captain in broken English, and the men on the Euphrates could see the men laying their arms on deck. " Alright, I'll send a boat to you and you must give up your arms, and if you touch the boat, by Q-od, I'll rake you till I sink you." The launch was lowered and twenty-five men armed to the teeth, boarded the corvette, where they saw an awful mess brains and blood and mangled corpses. The French- men had laid their arms on the deck and the English crew bound the survivors and took some back to the Indiaman prisoners of war, where they were carefully searched and confined. This work was continued until all the men and invalids were transshipped, then the dead on the Indiaman four killed and four wounded, one of whom succumbed to his injuries were buried, and the dead on board the corvette were thrown overboard. Then the carpenters were sent aboard the corvette to plug all holes and cut away the broken rigging and spars, when a hawser was put out and the corvette taken in tow, for the officers of the Euphrates had consulted and decided to tow the corvette into Gibraltar. When they had mended the tiller ropes they put eight of their crew on board to keep her straight and started off for Gibraltar, the crew of the Indiaman being all the while busily engaged in repairing the damage done to their vessel, which was considerable. As there was no chain work in those days the rope work, though much damaged, was soon repaired. It was just coming on dark when they started, with a nice eight-knot breeze, and were blown over the dull waters under a violet star-sown sky. They saw nothing all night, but early next morning the man at the mast-head sang out THE ADMIRAL'S WARDS. 27 " Vessel right ahead." " What can you make her out to be ? " "Nothing-. I ken only jest see her royals ; no hull/' They held on their course, towing 1 the corvette. On Bearing the stranger they recognized her to be an English frigate-of-war, her ensign at the mizzen. Both vessels had their ensigns flying, the merchantman's at the gaff. When they got within hailing distance, at eight o'clock, they both backed their yards and a boat came off the man-of-war with the Admiral himself aboard. When he got aboard the Euphrates the Admiral said he had heard nothing of the convoy, and was surprised beyond measure when he heard of the fight. The Commodore generously explained " Midshipman Harvey's shooting did it all." " That boy deserves praise," said the Admiral ; " let me see him." So Gwilym was called. " Ah ! " said the Admiral admiringly, " he's a strong built man a man of valour I can see by his face ; let him go along with me." " No, I wouldn't lose him for the world," answered the Commodore. " Well," said the Admiral, "you must promote him." Two of the killed in the Indiaman were the two Lieutenants, so there were two vacancies. " Well, I must see into it/' said the Commodore. " Well now, I'll take charge of the prisoners and corvette and tow them into Gibraltar and you'll get compensation and prize-money ; and mind that boy must get a share of prize money equal to yours, because it was through him your vessel was saved/' The prisoners were transshipped and the Admiral left with the corvette and the prisoners. Immediately they were under way again the Commodore called the men together. " Now boys, we've got to appoint two new Lieutenants, 28 TALES FROM WELSH WALES. and the Admiral wishes Midshipman Harvey to be first Lieutenant and I wish Midshipman Jones to be second. What do you say ? " The men cheered and shouted " Lootenant Harvey ! Lootenant Harvey ! " So Midshipman Harvey became first Lieutenant on the spot, and the good ship went along without accident or adventure until they got three days off the Cape of Good Hope. It was a fine day and the sea smooth a rare occurrence in that part of the world. All round the sun sparkled on the blue sea to the rim of the horizon, while overhead a blue palpitating dome spread over the beautiful ship's white sails. Lieutenant Harvey was coming out of his cabin in his shirt sleeves, about three o'clock in the afternoon, when he heard the cry of