12d. for rents of avowry, (that is from three sub-tenants or "commorants" in the manor). At that time, Thomas Hannry, holding fifty-one acres freehold, and one of Bordland, and John Rothell, or Rachel, holding twentynine and a half, were the chief freeholders: John, or Jenkin, Rachel holding fifty-two and a half, with a share in "Pyka Lees:" Thomas Hunt and John Harrye were the largest copyholders. Presentments of nearly a century later, (1630,) state W. Herbert of Cardiff Rd. Lougher David Edmondes, M.A... 1678, Oct. 23 Bussey Mansel, for Philip Earl of Pembroke that the manor extended into the parish of Merthyr Mawr, and that certain lands of Christopher Turberville of Sker, (New Park,) and twelve acres of Watkin Lougher, (Nottage,) are not in any of the manors, though in the parish; freehold paid 14d.; Welsh freehold, 2d.; bordland, 7d.; and copyhold by the rod, 3d. per acre to the lord. The heir of the Welsh freehold is to pay 6d. for income, or for default a spear, and 5s. if he sell all his land; the copyholder is to pay for his income 10s., if all the land be sold, 5s. The relief of the freehold and bordland is half the rents; the Welsh freehold and copyhold are heriotable, or in default pay 5s.; the widow has her bench of all customary land "without lett of the heir." Amercements are to be affeered. Title to Customary hold is tryable in the court. Forfeiture by felony or otherwise is not to bar the next of blood, but "The father to the bough, the son to the plough." Plaints under 40s. are tryable in the court, and all trespasses between tenants of the manor must and ought to be pleaded and tried there, upon penalty of 10s. The Backs, a strip of land to the south of the enclosures, and Newton Down, to the north, are free commons to the tenants and their under tenants inhabiting the parish. The Locks is a peculiar, held only of the lord of this (the Pembroke) manor. It appears to have been leased to the Loughers of Nottage for a term of years. The muster and weapon-shaw is usually in Newcastle hundred, and the tenants have to watch the Beacon upon Newton Down. The customs of the Herbert manor in 1673, with the exception of the last duty, are nearly the same, and it is supposed those of the Lougher, in 1690, when a survey appears to have been made. From Mrs. Jane Thomas, who purchased the "Pembroke Manor" of the trustees of Lord Windsor, in 1715, it descended to her nephew, the Rev. Robert Davies, Rector of Newton, and was sold by him, in 1771, to H. Knight, Esq. It was not included in the entail of 1769, and became therefore part of the devis able estate of the late Colonel Knight; and, having been held by his relict for several years, is now the property of the writer of this account. The descent of the Herbert manor to the Rev. C. R. Jones, of Heathfield, Swansea, may be followed in the Herbert pedigree prefixed to the Historical Notices of Sir M. Cradock, by the Rev. J. M. Traherne, 1841. LOUGHERS OF NOTTAGE. As to other proprietors, "the Valuation" of the parish by Parcells, in 1651, gives some information. Mrs. Barbara Lougher, widow of Watkin Lougher, of Nottage, and her son, are valued highest, perhaps from the royalist principles of her family, the Gamages of Oldcastle. She was the daughter of Thomas, (natural son of John Gamage, Esq., of Coity Castle, ob. 1584,) by Cecil, his second wife. Edward Gamage, of Newcastle, her uncle, married Denis "Rythell,"--perhaps she descended from a Nottage proprietor mentioned above in the rental of 1540. Several of the Gamages were at the battle of St. Fagan's, and suffered much in the civil war. It is probable that the first Robert Lougher of Nottage was the second son of Watkin Lougher, who 6 It should be clearly understood that the tapestry at the old Lougher mansion at Nottage did not originally belong to the family. It was brought from the Abbey House at Tewkesbury, and fragments of a carved oak moulding with the initials . B., Henry Beoley, abbot in 1509, came with one of the pieces. The subjects are as follow: : 1.—On entering the Hall, 2. At the upper end of the Hall.... 3. In the Bedroom on the eastern wall 4. On the opposite wall.. Antony giving kingdoms to Cleopatra's S children.-See Plutarch. Noah's Sacrifice.-Genesis viii. 20. Miriam with a timbrel rejoicing.-Exodus xv. 20. A nobleman (possibly George Duke of Clarence) riding forth with his hawk: a lady with lute meets him (Isabel Nevil the heiress). His page follows. The "Pennachio" or nest of feathers in the nobleman's cap, (whence a common idiom, "feathering one's nest,") brings to mind the magnificent plume of Indian feathers worn by Henry VIII. when he lived throughout great portion of the reign of Queen Elizabeth at Tithegston. Whether he obtained Nottage Court by marriage with Alice Watkin, his father's ward, is uncertain. Robert's son, Watkin, husband of Barbara Lougher, died in 1628. A grandson of Watkin Lougher mortgaged the property to William Jones, an Apothecary of Cardiff. His grandson, Cradock Nowell, sold it, in 1777, to Mrs Basset, Colonel Knight's guardian, and thus it returned into the collateral descendants of the family from which it had been alienated. The amount of the Valuation of 21st September, 1651, for the two hamlets, is £494 11s. 2d. Newton is divided into seventeen, and Nottage into sixteen Parcels. The name of Edward Saffyn (rated at £18) suggests that of "Yr Hen Saphin," a writer of Welsh aphorisms, said to have been of St. Donat's. Edward Arnold, also rated, was the son of Jane, daughter of Llewellyn Williams, of the ancient house of Dyffryn. (Part of the reserved rent of his lease from Judge Jenkins was a horse-load of fish annually.) In the Manor Roll she is called "Jane Llewellyn," according to the perplexing custom of making the parent's Christian name the surname of the children. Watkin Leyson, rated at £18, and £9 more for the Weare, (Porthcawl,) was the ancestor of Humphrey Leison, whose three female representatives carried his property into the families of Thomas and Williams; T. Williams hence appears in the list of under-sheriffs as "of Nottage," in 1754. He sold his property to Mrs. Basset for her ward. REMARKABLE RESIDENTS. Towards the beginning of this century, the Red, or Bathing, House, on Mr. C. R. Jones' property, attracted many visitors in the summer; among these Donovan, entered Boulogne. A description of it copied from Dr. Harvey, was seen by Pegge, at Dr. Lynch's, in Canterbury, 1751.—Anonymiana. The costume is described by the old poet, Lindsay, "With cloke and hude I dressit me, With dowbill (i. e. duck bill), schone, and mittens on my handes." the conchologist, Wedgwood of Etruria, (who noticed the jasper pebbles on the beach,) and that truly Noble man, Lord Bute, are still remembered. Mr. W. Weston Young, A.L.S., a man of considerable attainments as a naturalist, (see Mr. Dillwyn's Brit. Confervæ, Synopsis, pp. 60-73,) a geologist and an artist, long resided at Newton. On occasion of the wreck of a valuable cargo in deep water, off Sker, he invented a forceps, with which he succeeded in raising the copper, venturing out in the channel in almost all weathers. His attempt to construct a pier below Lantwit Major was less successful. The scarce and highly valued Nant Garw China is a memorial of his skill in preparing the material, and painting on the finer kinds of pottery. He was engaged on a work on Birds, in observing the structure of Aquatic Insects and Plants, and in cultivating the Hyoscyamus and Lichen Islandicus. His solid Glaze for culinary utensils seems to have been a valuable invention; his fire-bricks on a new plan, and hardened oil cake in lieu of slate pencils, were failures. These, however, with his subsequent suggestions in salt-works, and his design for a bridge at Clifton, after he had left Newton, evince a remarkably ingenious and fertile mind. More recently James E. Bicheno, Esq., Secretary of the Linnæan Society, resided for several years at Newton, taking an 7 I regret not being able to print some lines by this gentleman, shown to me in MS., "On the Loss of the Frolic Steamer on the Nash Sands." Part of a letter from Mr. Bicheno, extracted from Mr. Yarrell's work on British Fishes, (vol. i. p. 155,) may here be borrowed; it will interest "those who were there, and those who were not.". "On Tuesday, 29th July, 1834, we were visited by immense shoals of Scad, or, as they are also called, Horse Mackarel. They were first observed in the evening, and the whole sea, as far as we could command it with the eye, seemed in a state of fermentation with their numbers. Those who stood on some projecting rock had only to dip their hands into the water, and with a sudden jerk, they might throw up three or four. The bathers felt them come against their bodies, and the sea, looked on from above, appeared one dark mass of fish. Every net was immediately put in requisition, and those which did not give way from the weight, were drawn on shore laden with the spoil. One of the party who had a herring seine with a two-inch |