Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/449

 a vin. MAT 7,1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 367 round the Hand, the Officer in charge of Napoleon was Major Popelton of my Begt., the 53rd. Dear Sir, I beg to state I was discharged with 24 years Service and 20 years in the Gloucester Com- [p]any of Pensioners, my character in the British Army was that of a very good and a most deserv- ing soldi >r, I can say I served under four crown Heads. Dear Sir, I am not up to the mark now at age of 81 years to write as my sight is very dim. I return you my best thanks for the two magazins. I remain, Dear Sir, Your Obedient Servant, (Signed) JOHN BKABD, late Serjeant the Boyal Pension Staff. N. T. BEARD. EDMUND HYDE HALL'S ' NOTES UPON CARNARVONSHIRE.' Descriptive writers besides touring jotters have dilated on this county. Deserving of mention is the recently issued ' Manual,' by Prof. J. E. Lloyd, in the Cambridge Series of County Geographies. Nicholas Owen's ' Sketch History ' appeared 1792, and the antiquary, the Rev. Peter Bailey Williams's ' Tourists' Guide through the County,' 1821. As specialistic prize-essay dissertations are nameable A. W. Harker's ' Carnarvon- shire and Associated Rocks,' and J. E. Thomas's ' Geographical and Geological De- scription,' while J. E. Griffith and Dr. Lloyd Williams dealt with the peculiar flora of the county. The existence of an early unknown pioneer and a conscientious laborious com- j piler, Edmund Hyde Hall, whose love of i research, equipment and output were con- siderable, should not escape notice. This i observant annalist tramped the whole county, covering over 2,000 miles, indus- triously and methodically gathered facts, and strove to verify assertions. The com- pleted comprehensive conspectus of ' Notes upon Carnarvonshire^--ewTftnged and intended for publication, has remained unpublished, j and the entire MS. is in private hands intact, but the Clynnog portion missing, ! though doubtless recoverable. Composite materials, succinctly strung together, marked an advance on anything preceding it. A circulated prospectus, which detailed; the general scope of the work, bore the paged imprint Broster, Bangor. Next, I written sheets contain a list of subscribers! and paid and unpaid entries. A synopsis of contents under divisional heads is in- teresting. Prominence is given to a quest- ion from John Speed. A sepia vignette by Isaac Wells is assigned for the title page, exhibiting a coast headland and a finger- post at a bifurcation of country roads. Subscribers were promised a coloured fac- simile of a Welsh landscape reduced from the original painting of an artist of European renown. In the order of sequence a dialized diagram schedules various parishes for treatment in their respective cantrefs or hundreds, uniquely spaced out in separate allocative foolscap sheets. Interspersed also is a, hand-coloured grouping showing the heights of the mountainous range stretching from Penmaenmawr to the sisterly rivals out- side Carnarvon bar. Outlined hand-drawn county and road maps and other subsections are thrown in. Mr. Hall's script was small and neat on both sides of foolscap. Statistical informa- tion was well set out together with tabulated particulars of taxation on the returnable 1809 basis, &c., &c. Without adverting to other features the concluding wind-up is pathetic. Writing in a lowly Dublin room- dwelling, a cripple and overtaken by vicissi- tudes too delicate to reveal, he appeals to friends and former Harrow schoolmates loyally to see to the publication of this monumental undertaking. One surmises the foregoing dates back to 1810 or 1811. Of. personalia and bio- graphical information there are no clues. Supposition lends belief to the West Indies being Mr. Hall's birthland, possibly Trinidad or Barbados. He merits a claim to in- debtedness and regard. Perchance a reader can supply family or other addenda con- cerning this scriptorial worthy. ANEURIN WILLIAMS. Menai View, Carnarvon. MARRIAGES (12 S. v. 262; 12 S. viii. 188). In continuation of my Notes at these references, the following informa- tion may be found useful : At Edinburgh, Feb., 1789, John Morth- land, Esq., Advocate, to Miss Mary Menzies, dau. of the late Rev. Dr. Menzies, of Feston, in the Count v of Kent. At Bath, Feb., 1789, Thomas Ivie Cook, Esq., to Ladv Amelia Murray, second dau. of 3rd Duke of Atholl. At Auchinbowie, Feb., 1789, Captain Ninian Lowis, of the " Woodcot," East Indiaman, to Miss Isabella Monro, youngest dau. of John Monro, Esq., of Auchinbowie. At London, March, 1789, John Kirk- patrick, Esq., Banker, Isle of Wight, to Miss Godman, of Chichester. At Edinburgh, March 2nd, 1789, William