ryght wel-beloved S Richard Bulkley, Knight, S Rees • Gruffuth, knight, Ellice Price, equio', doctor in cyvill lawe, • and one of our counfail in our marches of Wales, William

Moftyn, Jevan Lloyd of Yale, John Salisbury of Ruge, Rees • Thomas, Maurice Wynne, Will Lewis, Peres Moftyn, Owen John ap Holl Vaughan, John Willm ap John, John Lewis 'Owen, Moris Gruffyth, Symound Thelwall, Ellice ap Willm Lloyd, • Rob Puleston, Harry Aparry, William Glynne, and Rees Hughes, efquio, and to every of them greating.—WHERAS it is come to the knowledge of the lorde prefident, and other 'o' faid counfail, in o' marches of Wales, that vagraunt and idle pfons, naming themselfs mynftrells, rithmors, and bar'thes, are lately growen into fuch an intollerable multitude wthin the principalitee of Northwales, that not only gentlemen, ' and others, by theire fhameles diforders, are oftentimes difquieted in their habitačons; but also thexpert mynstrells and 'mucifions in toune and contry therby much difcouraged to ' travail in thexercise and practize of their knowledge; and alfo not a litle hyndred in theire lyvings and pferm". The ' reformacon whereof, and the putting of these people in ord', the faid lorde prefident and counfail have thought verey ne⚫ ceffarye; and knowing you to be men both of wyfdome and upright dealing, and alfo of experience and good knowledge in 'the scyence, have apointed and authorised you to be com'miffioners for that purpose. And forafmuch as o' counfail ' of late, travayling in fome ple of the faid principalitee, had pfect understanding, or credible report, that thaccustomed place for thexecucon of the like comffyon, hath bene her

⚫tofore

tofore at Caroyes, in our countie of Flynt, and that William Moftyn, efquio', and his ancest", have had the gyfte and beftowing of the fylver harpe apptayning to the cheff of that 'facultie, and that a yeares warning at the leaft hath bene ac'customed to be geaven of thaffembly, and execučon of the like commiffyon. Our faid counfail have, therfore, apoynted thexecucon of this commyffyon to be at the faid towne of Caroyes, the Monday next aft' the feaft of the bleffed Trynilee, wch fhall be in the yeare of o' Lorde God 1568.

AND therfore we require and command you, by the authoritee of these pfents, not only to caufe open pclamačons to be made in all ffayo", m'ketts, townes, and other places of 'affembly wthin our counties of Anglize, Carn'von, Meyryonneth, Denbigh, and Fflynt, that all on ev'r pfon & pfons that 'entend to maynteigne theire lyvings by name of color of mynftrells, rithmrs, or barthes, within the Talaith of Aberfiowe, comphending the faid fyve fhires, fhal be and appeare before you the faid day and place, to fhewe theire learnings accordingly but also that you xx", xixe, xviiie", xvii, xvien, xven, xiven, xiiie", xii, xi", x°", ix, viii, vii, or vi. of you whereof youe S' Richard Bulkley, S Rees Gruffith, Ellice Price, and Wm Moftyn, efquio", or iiie, or ii. of you, to be of the nomb' to repayre to the faid place the day aforfaid, and calling to you fuch expert men in the faid facultie of the Welbe 'musick, as to you shall be thought convenient to pceade to thexecucon of the pmifs', and to admytt, fuch and fo many as by your wifdomes and knowledges, you fhall fynde worthy ◄ into and und' the degrees heretofore in femblable fort, to use, • exercise,

* exercise and folowe the scyences and facultes of theire pfeffyons in fuch decent ord' as fhall apptaigne to eche of their degrees, ' and as yo' difcrecons and wisdomes fhall pfcribe unto them, geaving ftraight monycons and comaundm', in o' name and 'on o' behalf, to the reft not worthy, that they returne to fome ' honeft labo', and due excercise, fuch as they be most apte unto 'for mayntenaunce of theire lyvings, upon paine to be taken 'as sturdy and idle vacaboundes, and to be used according to the lawes and statutes pvided in that behalf, letting you wyth of 'faid counfaill look for advertisem' by due certificatt at youre 'handes of yo' doings in thexecucon of the said pmifs'. For seeing in any wife that upon the said affembly the peas and good order be observed and kept accordingly, affertayning you that the faid Willm Mostyn hath pmifed to fee furnyture and things neceffary pvided for that affembly, at the place aforfaid. Geven under o' fignet, at o' citie of Chefter, the xxiiith of October, the nynth yeare of o' raigne.

Signed her Highnes counfaill in the 'm'ches of Wales.

FINALLY, in the library, is a moft exquifite drawing upon vellum, of the crucifixion, done with a lead pencil, twenty-two inches by fifteen. It formerly hung in the approach to the chapel, and was brought there by the lady of Sir Thomas Moftyn, the fecond baronet. That lady, as I have before mentioned, was a Roman catholic, and placed it where it was originally found, to exalt her devotion. The drawing was made after a picture by Rubens, as the infcription fhews, P. P. Rubens pinx. The copyift

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copyit was David Loggan, a celebrated engraver of his time, about the year 1677, and remarkable for the neatness of his drawings of heads in black-lead*. On his drawing at Moftyn is *D. L. delin.' The expreffion of agony in the countenance of our dying SAVIOUR, is remarkably ftriking; and the head, and every part of the drawing, is finished with all the accuracy of the finest miniature painting.

Or the feven churches in the hundred of Coleshill, part of the Saxon Atiferos, Widford, as it is called in the Doomsday Book, is one. The name was changed to Whiteford, of derivation unknown. In the Doomsday Book notice is alfo taken of fome of the present townships, fuch as Tre-Moftyn, Tre-Bychton, and Merton, under the names of Moftone, Widford, Putecaine, and Meretone. Moftone was then a plough-land, terra unius caruca. It had on it four villeyns and eight boors; (Bordarii) a wood a league long, and forty perches (perticate) broad, and was valued at twenty fhillings.

Widford is joined with Putecaine, the first seems to have comprehended our present Tre lan, or the place where the churchvillage now ftands. These had one plough land, two villeyns, and twelve others between men and maid fervants, fisheries, and a wood half a mile long, and forty perches broad; the value was the fame with that of Moftone.

WITH Mereton is joined the third part of Widford, and the Berewicha, or hamlet of Caldecote, the laft at prefent a township of the parish of Holywell. In this divifion was a presbyter, a church, and fix villeyns. Here was a wood half a mile long, and twenty perches broad. One Odin held thefe of the earl.

Catalogue of Engravers. Strawberry-hill.

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THE

THE church ftands in the township of Tre lan. It is dedicated to St. Mary; fo popular was that Saint, that thirteen churches in our country were placed under her patronage, and thirteen wakes kept on that day. The living is a rectory, a finecure, which, with the vicarage, is in the gift of the bishop of St. Afaph. The church confifts of a nave, with a good plain tower-fteeple. It has befides a fide aile, built by a Blithyn Drow, of the houfe of Moftyn, to whom that part belongs.

DIVINE fervice is performed every Sunday, alternately in Welsh and in English. At the first the congregation is very numerous, and at all times truly ferious and devout. The drefs of even the poorest, neat and whole, and very unlike the squalid ragged figures, too frequently seen in the congregations of many a fouthern county.

OFFERINGS at funerals are kept up here, and I believe in all the Welsh churches. A disgusting, and in cafes in which the deceased may have died of an infectious diftemper, a dan gerous custom, often prevales, of the corpfe being brought into church during divine fervice, and left there till the congregation is difmiffed.

THAT excellent memento to the living, the paffing-bell, is punctually founded. I mention this, because idle niceties have in great towns often caufed the difufe. It originated before the Reformation, to give notice to the priest to be ready to do the last duty of extreme unction to the departing perfon, in case he had no other admonition. The canon (67) allows one short peal after death, one other before the funeral, and one other after the funeral. The fecond is ftill in ufe, and is a single bellfolemnly

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THE CHURCH.