There is, however, a dark side to the picture of the economic life of the people as well; but our information, derived from the Church registers, belongs to the last few years of the XVIIIth and the first half of the XIXth century, when the wool trade was on the decline. It may, however, be given here. The information concerns the administration of the poor law.
The poor law system, established in the reign of Elizabeth, broke down under the stress of new conditions, but even in its decay, the records of it are valuable. As everywhere else, the parochial system of poor law administration through the Vestry involved the locality in intolerable burdens of rates. How they pressed on Dolgelley may be judged from the amounts levied. In 1796-8 the poor rate was 8/- in the £, in 1799 7/-, in 1800 11/-, in 1801-2 11/6, in 1803 8/6, in 1804 8/-, in 1805 9/-, in 1806 8/6, in 1807-9 10/-, in 1810 12/-, in 1811 10/-, in 1812 12/6, in 1813 14/6, in 1814 14/-, in 1815 13/-, in 1816 11/-, in 1817 17/3, in 1818 16/-, in 1819 15/-, in 1820 14/6, in 1821 14/-, in 1822.3 13/-, in 1824 13/3, in 1825 13/6, in l82614/6, in l827 16/-,in l828 15/8, in l829 16/9, in 1830 16/-, in 1831 16/9, in 1832 12/9, in 1833 12/10, in 1834 12/2, in 1835 12/4, in 1836 12/4.
In 1837 a new system was introduced, the poor law passing into the administration of a Board of Guardians. The first thing the new board did was to treble the assessment, with the result that in 1842 the locality petitioned Parliament for a return to the older system. The petition was, of course, in vain, and thereafter things improved gradually.
Corruption was rampant, and the worst offenders were some of the Overseers, who embezzled much of the proceeds.
It is interesting to note how the money was spent in relief. House rents were paid for people on the pauper list, on which everyone tried to get, their cottages were repaired for them, weekly cash allowances and lump sums were handed over, children of "paupers" were apprenticed with heavy premia, while gifts in kind were scattered broadcast-rye, barley, potatoes, wheat, loads of coal, loads of turf, pairs of shoes, rolls of flannels, cards for spinning, an anvil worth £2/12/6 to a blacksmith, a boat, costing £6/-, to a fisherman, a harp for a harpist, hand-looms for weavers, passage money to enable people to go to America, and so on.
Men and women on the " pauper list "were settled" as labourers with farmers in the neighbourhood, the parish clothing them, and paying the farmers substantial sums for taking them off its hands.
The burdens became so crushing that the rates were insufficient to meet the charges, and pauper after pauper was given a "collection in church" and, in many cases, a public subscription. Loans, too, were raised, for example £100/- in 1801, £171/- in 1817, £50/- in 1836, but without effect.
The economic demoralization was intense; and it is rather pathetic to notice some of the devices adopted to stop the ever-increasing roll of pauperism.
In 1822 the scale of relief was reduced, in 1824 it was ordered that no one who kept a dog should receive relief, in 1825 that no relief should be paid to any pauper so long as he or she had "a clock or any useless furniture in the house," in 1828 a drastic revision of the pauper list ended in its reduction by nearly a half, and in 1839 apprenticing to trades was abandoned, if employment could be obtained anywhere as a farm labourer. In recalling the bright days of Dolgelley's wool trade, we must not forget the other side of the picture, when the trade was decaying.
This system of poor relief was a communist experiment, when those who wouldn't or couldn't work lived on those who would and could gradually impoverishing the whole town, and hastening the ruin of the town's trade, without benefiting, ultimately, a single person, but demoralizing all.
These old Church records throw light on many other matters as well. They are of great value for statistical and other purposes, death-rates, population and the like.
They tell us, among other things, how the town was, in 1794, visited by an outbreak of smallpox, when 38 people died of the disease in a short space of time. The pest reappeared again, though less virulently, in 1802.
They show us, too, that all, Church people and Nonconformists alike, were baptised, married and buried with the rites of the Church. Little items like "15/ - paid to Mary Jones in 1798 for washing the parish linen," " £8/- paid to J.J. towards finding a substitute to serve in the Militia," and many another of like character have their interest as showing the intimate details of life at the time.
Naturally the Church figures prominently in the records. In 1801 a petition was sent by the parishioners to the Bishop of Bangor, praying that, as the Rector lived two miles away (he dwelt then at Garthmaelan), "the 8 o'clock service on Sunday be abolished," and it was observed "it is but thinly attended, and there are two services in the same language at 11 and 3, and services also on Thursday, Friday and Saturday."
In 1803, a hearse was bought for the parish, and hired out at constantly increasing charges until the eighties at least. A pulpit was erected that year with a sounding board at a cost of £10/-. In 1806 it was decided to make a new burial ground on the Marian, a project which dragged on for eight years, and was only completed eventually by getting the land as a free gift from the "freeholders of Dolgledr," by borrowing, and by imposing somewhat heavy Church rates of 5/6 in the £.
In 1819 the then Sir Robert Vaughan is noted as having presented a "handsome silver salver for the use of the altar"; in 1820 the southern roof was re-slated; in 1824 the roof was re-leaded; in 1825 the present casements were put in, and the timber work of the steeple restored. In 1827 we get the information that J.R. "be allowed £2/2/- per annum for conducting the psalm singing in Church and giving instructions in the same, "a sum which is again mentioned in 1842. In 1828, the building of the vestry room was mooted (it was completed a few years later); in 1832, chandeliers, still in use, were bought.
Interesting, too, is the "estimate" for church expenses in 1842, including sacramental wine £8/-, bread 9/6, repairing the Church windows £2/-, psalm-singers £2/2/-, sweeping and cleaning the church £2/10/-, winding the clock £2/2/-, firing £1/10/-, candles for lighting £10/-, washing of surplices £1/15/-, and new bell ropes £8/-. But perhaps the most remarkable thing in connection with the Church is that, throughout all this period, both churchwardens were appointed by the Rector; and it was not until 1870, when the vestry meeting was flooded by Nonconformists, fully entitled, of course, to vote, that the claim of the parishioners to appoint a people's warden was made. and, after a struggle, conceded.
Even municipal administration is reflected in the registers. In 1805 a rate of 6d in the £, in lieu of the older liability to compulsory labour, was levied to repair the roads in the township of Dolgelley." In the same year the cleaning of the street (there was only one street then) and other parts of the town was given to one John Morris for the sum of 26/- for nine months, he made an undertaking to clean the street once a week.
In 1814, we find the overseers investing £5/- in a cow, presumably to supply milk to some on the pauper list. In 1817, in order to reduce the number of foxes in the neighbourhood, 10/6 was paid for every old fox killed and 5/- for every cub, and even as late as 1842 those rewards continued to be paid. In 1832 we find, for the first time, the Marian leased out for £30/- per annum, and in the same year a subscription list was opened to provide "watchmen to have the town better protected." The scheme was, however, turned down next year, and then began a struggle between the Vestry and the Magistrates over the provision of police, the town strenuously resisting liability to pay for its own protection. In time, however, the Magistrates prevailed.
In 1852 surveyors of highways were appointed, and in 1855 a Committee was elected to arrange for lighting and watching the town at a maximum cost of £80/- per annum. The lighting arrangements continued to be left with this Committee until 1860, when the Dolgelley Gas Company took it over on a tender of £60/- per annum.
Thereafter began the general re-arrangement of local administration, and here, as elsewhere, local government developed along statutory lines.
These and other records throw light also on prevailing prices, wages and rents, things which, if not spectacular, are the things which really matter to the ordinary run of people.
We find, in the beginning of the XVIIIth century, cows selling at £1/5/- to £4/- each (they rose to £5/- in the course of a century), lambs at 1/-, hay at 1/9 the cwt. Pepper cost 1/6 the lb., woollen stockings 1/2 the pair, shoes 2/- the pair, beef and mutton 2½d to 3d a lb. hens from 2d to 9d each.
TWO carpenters were paid 27/- for rather more than three weeks expert work (they would make a coffin for 7/6 to 10/-), a butler got £4/- per annum, a cook £1/15/-, and a maid-servant the same-of course, they were fed and housed as well-a stonemason for providing and dressing stone and building a wall 5 feet high with it got 4/- per running yard, and the daily wage of a farm labourer was 9d to 1/-.
Wages did not rise very rapidly during the succeeding century. In 1855 a farm labourer got £1/13/- per mensem, shepherds about £25/- per annum, men servants £25/- to £30/- per annum board wages, maid servants £19/10/- to £22/-, dairymaids £30/-, making their own arrangements for food and the like. They were, however, better paid than school-masters. The ordinary pay of the Grammar School headmaster was £35/- to £40/- per annum, while an elementary schoolmaster had to be content with £10/- to £20/- only.
As to farm rents, 150 years ago, the local farms of Prysclwyd Ucha, Tyddyn Derwen, Cefn-y-maes, Tir Mab Cynan and Coed were leased at £10/-, £7/10/-, £10/-, £12/- and £17/- per annum respectively. Farms carried with them, as a rule, the right to a particular seat in Church.
The Ship Hotel was rented, along with 2 acres of land, at £20/13/-, the Golden Lion at £19/10/-, while cottages were obtainable at 14/- to 18/- per annum. Fair-sized houses were obtainable at £3/- to £5/-, and most houses had a defined right attached of free cutting of turf for firing purposes in the Garthmaelan or Morfa Wialen turbaries.
The communications between Dolgelley and the outside world during this period are not without interest.
The later end of the XVIIIth century saw considerable developments in road-making. Up to the middle of the century, Dolgelley's means of access to other places was partly by river and sea, via Barmouth, partly by the very ancient road, at least as old as the XIIIth century, which, passing over Bwlch Oerddrws, linked up Harlech and Welshpool.
There was no road apparently other than a track to Bala. The road to Bala was made sometime after 1750, and by 1805 the roads leading from Dolgelley were very much as at present. The Barmouth road took a slightly different alignment, as it left the present road near the house called Gwyneddfa, and crossed the brow of the hill above Dolrhyd, descending to the Llanelltyd bridge again by the Golf Links path. It was crossed by a private road, distinct traces of which are still apparent, which led from Nannau down to the " Storehouse " on the banksof the Wnion.
At the beginning of the XIXth century, carriages for transport of goods came in from Chester and Ruabon twice a week, and from Shrewsbury once, and later three times, a week. Mail coaches ran, in the summer, daily to Barmouth and Chester, every alternate day, except Sundays, to Liverpool, Shrewsbury, Carnarvon and Aberystwyth, but in the winter the only coach was to Chester.
Provisions like flour, coal, and shopkeeper's goods came from Liverpool by sea to Barmouth, whence they were conveyed by road or water, up the estuary, as far as Llanelltyd, and then by packhorses or carts to Dolgelley, which was the retail distributing centre for the whole of inland Merioneth.
Pennant, in his wanderings, notices that every approach to Dolgelley was barred by a turnpike some of the gate cottages of which still exist-the proceeds of which were applied to mend the roads for a short distance; and of the people he records that their chief amusements were the singing of penillion to the harp and dancing.
He discloses to us an industrious, hard-working people, simple in character, and content with inoffensive amusements. It is as well to note what accurate observers like Pennant saw with their own eyes; for, unfortunately, not only did a few offensive writers of so-called Tours draw a lurid imaginative account of the squalor of Dolgelley, but many writers of a stern Puritan creed have equally drawn on their imaginations to describe an inaccurate state of society, in order to explain the Methodist movement, which was excellent enough in itself to need no justification through the vilification of the past.
Pennant did not stand alone. Prof.
Fisher made a three weeks' tour in 1817, and visited Dolgelley, where
he was much tickled to find an inn there, known as the Caravanserai,
at the top of the market square, and later known as Plas newydd.
He
stopped at the Golden Lion, and has much to say of its harpist. He
refers to the active publishing trade in Dolgelley, where the first
press was opened in 1799, and to the production at the time of a
Welsh translation of Josephus' works.
Yet another traveller was Sir R. Colt Hoare, who has kindly enough things to say of the people, and who remarks I know of no place in the principality from whence so many pleasing excursions can be made, and where nature bears so rich, so varied, and so grand an aspect."
A Welsh Puritan writer of the seventies or eighties transforms these conditions into an almost unrecognizable figure and writes:-" Towards the middle of the XVIIIth century, the manners and customs of the inhabitants were very low. There used to be, and are now, nine fairs held annually, and it is said that the Gwyl Mabsant* used, to be held a day after these fairs, in which there were men fights, cock-fights, racing-women along with men and all the degraded practices of the Gwyliau Mabsant were carried on. The most butcher-like fights which took place were those between the inhabitants of Dolgelley and Llanfachreth.Not simply did two men fight, but everyone with sticks and stones . . . and I heard that even the parson and the J.P.'s headed the factions, and that on one occasion, in Cae Marian the rector and a J.P. had a stand-up fight. It was one of the most quarrelsome places in Wales."
This is sufficient indication of the writer's inaccuracy. There could only be one Gwyl Mabsant (patron saint's day) in the year.
It is a gross exaggeration, embittered by that attitude which sees evil in all things.
There was no doubt a cockpit in the grounds of the Golden Lion-there were cockpits everywhere in those days-good beer was made and drunk, fairs were attended for pleasure as well as business, and probably enough there were races and faction-fights, for there was no love lost between Dolgelley and Llanfachreth.
But that is no reason for imagining a joyous people - for the Welsh were a joyous, happy people - as sunk in iniquity and vice.
They were no worse and no better than their neighbours; the need of gloom as a part of life was not recognised, and the rise of Nonconformity was not a revolt against an ill-led life, but was due to other causes.
It was primarily due to the growth of what may be termed, for want of a better phrase, the democratic spirit. It was part and parcel of that tremendous upheaval which culminated in the French Revolution, and found expression in literature in the Romantic movement. It was intensified by the social conditions which ensued upon the too rapid growth of the Industrial revolution, the substitution of factories for cottage industry, the discovery of steam-power and coal, with the extraordinary expansion of population, which existing institutions were not prepared to cope with.
It was in no sense a Welsh movement; it had its origin mainly in Teutonic countries.
Absolutism in government had broken down, and aristocratic rule, which had had its day of utility, had become self-satisfied, easy-going, and, worst of all, self-centred and exclusive.
The latter was making a feeble stand against the new claimants to power, the middle-classes of the great new cities, who spoke in their own name and in the name of the new industrial population.
In these islands Nonconformity became a force with the rise of John Wesley-a visitor to Dolgelley in 1750-who represented in the spiritual sphere a revolt against the exclusive self-satisfaction and self-seeking of the dignitaries of the Church. The Church in Wales was not an evil institution; but some of its ruling powers were, like ruling powers elsewhere, entirely self-centred and incapable of understanding the new forces which were arising. The situation was complicated by the fact that in Wales the ruling powers were largely English or Anglicised absentees, and the spirit of belittling Wales and all things Welsh, which swayed the literature of the XVIIIth church, swayed also many of those in authority in the Church.
In a healthy religious life Wales demands two things, instruction in Welsh, and oratory. The rulers of the Church in Wales at the time were not prepared to furnish either; but, within it, a number of clergymen began to do so.
The Methodist movement was started by Welsh clergymen within the Church, with the express purpose of reviving the Church, and making it an instrument for the benefit of the people.
Hywel Harris, Daniel Rowlands, Griffith Jones, William Williams, Pant-y-celyn, Peter Williams, Hywel Davies, Thomas Charles of Bala-the pioneers and founders of Methodism were all Churchmen, and, with the exception of Hywel Harris, Welsh-speaking clergymen of the Church. Of these Hywel Harris, Daniel Rowlands and Thomas Charles appeared from time to time in Dolgelley. The Anglicising force, supported by the foreign bishops, was, at the time, too strongly entrenched; and in the year 1811 the Methodists finally separated themselves from the Church.
Other Nonconformists were strengthened by the movement, and in the year 1798 the Baptists, in 1806 the Wesleyans, and in 1808 the Congregationalists and the Calvinistic Methodists themselves established places of worship in the town, and each, in their own way, has contributed much to the spiritual and temporal welfare of the locality.
The reaction of Nonconformity upon the Church in Wales, the revivifying of the latter, this is not the place to speak about, for the Church in Dolgelley appears to have remained, on the whole, vigorous and superior, in many ways, to what it was in some other parts of Wales.
Dolgelley was not without men of considerable attainments in the latter part of the XVIIIth and beginning of the XIXth century. Chief among them two names are prominent, Chief Baron Richards and Sir Robert Vaughan, the second baronet of Hengwrt.
Baron Richards was born in 1752 at Coed, a house still existing in the present parish of Brithdir, then part of Dolgelley.
His life story is a fine example of grit, determination, and love of learning in the face of many difficulties. He was educated at Ruthin Grammar School and Queen's College, Oxford, and became, in course of time, Chief Justice of Chester, Baron of the Exchequer, and ultimately Lord Chief Baron, in all of which capacities he left a permanent mark. He married the heiress of Caerynwch, the old house of which name was apparently built in the XVI. century. and he built the present mansion of Caerynwch, in which his descendants still reside, one of the most delightfully situated houses in Wales, the surroundings of which are an eloquent testimony to the fact that Baron Richards was not only a great lawyer, but a natural artist.
The family, since, has given more than one illustrious servant to the State; none, perhaps more deserving of remembrance than the late Sir Erle Richards, K.C., the quickness of whose intellect was almost a proverb.
The figure of Sir Robert Vaughan is perhaps the most striking of all. He ruled the countryside from Nannau for 52 years, dying in 1843, for 44 years of which he was M.P. for the county. He was a local magnate of the old type, autocratic in some ways, universally beneficent and kindly, with a high sense of duty and public service. He was passionately and devotedly Welsh, loving his land and its people, who returned his affection without stint. Even to this day, his name is never mentioned without the prefix "yr hen." His portrait, painted by Sir M. A. Shee, P.R.A., hangs in the court-house at Dolgelley.
Many stories are told of the old gentleman, but here there is room for but a few. One, which illustrates the estimation in which he was held, tells of his meeting an old woman on the roadside. She was leading a pack-horse, from whose back a load had fallen, and seeing Sir Robert, whom she did not recognize, asked him to help her get the load back again. After he had done so, the old woman thanked him and asked who he, might be. "Sir Robert Vaughan," said he. " Dewch anwyl," said the old lady, " but I thought you were a man."
Another tells of his meeting an old woman, who was pretending to read a paper, holding it upside down. To her he said, " What's the good of holding your paper upside down? You can't read it like that." " Can't read it, can't read it ;Any old fool can read it when it's straight."
Perhaps, however, the best of all is one whose point is entirely missed in English. He was a great sheep-breeder, and branded all his sheep with the letter " V." One day one was lost, and old Sir Robert went hunting for it. Meeting an old woman on the road, he said " Gwelswch chwi yr un ddafad grwydedig a ' V ' ar ei chefn." Gazing at him, for he was by no means slight of frame, the old woman replied, " Na welais i yr un ddafad erioed yn ddigon cref i'ch cario."
Sir Robert was, however, something more than a centre round whom good-humoured stories have gathered. He did much for Dolgelley and its neighbourhood in the way of building and the like. Many of the houses in the town were built by him. He cleared and laid out its market square, and in 1839 rebuilt the famous hostelry, the Golden Lion, which, in its time, has sheltered many illustrious visitors, like the King of Sardinia, the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, and many others as well.
He was instrumental, too, in building the Courthouse in 1825, founding the National School in 1827 -the Board School was started in 1845,-and erecting the county jail, now disused for lack of prisoners, in 1811. Wherever you turn in Dolgelley, the spirit of old Sir Robert still broods over it.
During the Napoleonic Wars he was Colonel-in Chief of the Merioneth volunteers, which started in 1803 with 464 members, growing in six years to 1,028, of whom the Cader company, drawn from the immediate neighbourhood, accounted for 431, by no means a bad response in a widespread pastoral county, whose total population, man, woman and child, was considerably under 30,000. In the Nannau records there are still preserved three manuscript volumes dealing with the garrison work of their militia forerunners at Dover, Deal and other places on the south coast.
This period saw the great policy of enclosures carried to completion, a necessary enough step in an agricultural land; but for which there was less need or justification in a pastoral land, and which has had a great deal to do with the subsequent divorcement of interests between many Welsh landholders and the people as a whole.
In Llanelltyd, about the year 1811, no less than 4164 acres, mainly of sheep-walk, were enclosed and appropriated, and in Dolgelley rather more than 6000. Of the old common lands of the latter all that is now left is the Marian, which is held in trust and the proceeds of which are applied to the reduction of local rates. (See note at end of chapter.)
The result of the enclosures was to cause a great change in the landscape of the land, and from this period date the great stone fences, so marked a feature of Merioneth.
Sir Robert Vaughan himself is credited with being responsible for the building of no less than 55 miles of them and he maintained nine carters and 18 horses, or mules to carry the stone needed. There is no doubt that their erection furnished much employment in the days of economic stress which followed upon the Napoleonic Wars. To relieve this strain, Sir Robert also went in very extensively for afforestation, and some of the beautiful woods of the neighbourhood are due to his foresight and care.
The social life of the well-to-do at the time would be an interesting study. A recent note sent me by Genl. Vaughan sums the situation up with: "There are at Nannau some interesting music scores and menus, which show that the country gentlemen of those days used to assemble in one another's houses about 3 p.m. and play the harp, lute and cornet till 5 p.m., when they had heavy dinners, and were probably carried to bed. They appear to have been cultured in the matters of music and literature, but ignorant as to hygiene."
That is a very just estimate; and the existing libraries in some of the old houses, like Nannau, Hengwrt, Bryn-Y-Gwin, Caerynwch and others, show how very wide their literary interests were. One might add, too, that they were very far from being uninterested in the welfare of their less fortunate 'neighbours; and were this the place to do so, it would be possible to quote numerous instances of charitable help, assistance in education, and the like, illustrative of the kindly feelings prevalent between all ranks.
Mention has already been made of the effect of the Romantic school on the English outlook towards Wales in literature. Wales, and particularly the neighbourhood of Dolgelley, in consequence became a famous resort for travellers and holiday-makers, and upon its tourists and its local market Dolgelley has since depended largely for its prosperity.
It is the natural centre for the ascent of Cader Idris, and for so much of the beautiful scenery of the neighbourhood.
The ascent of Cader used to be made on ponies and as many as 40 to 60 Welsh mountain ponies used to be kept at the Golden Lion to carry people up.
There was a famous guide here at the end of the XVIIIth century named Robert Edwards, who died at the advanced age of 88 in 1803, and was succeeded by his son. He was a delightful old character, and he is pictured for us as wearing an old blue coat with yellow buttons on it, a cocked hat adorned with a huge feather, and boots reaching up to the knees. But it is the circular notice, which he had printed for distribution, on which his fame and memory will last for many a long day.
" Robert Edwards," it runs, " second son of the celebrated tanner, William Edwards ap Griffith ap Morgan ap David ap Owen ap Llywelyn ap Cadwaladr, great-great-great-grandson of an illegitimate daughter of that illustrious hero, no less famed for his irresistible prowess, when mildly approaching under the velvet standards of the lovely Venus, than when he sternly advanced with the terrific banner of the bloody Mars -Sir Rice ap Thomas, who was the son of Anne, alias Catherine, daughter of Hywel ap Jenkyn of Ynys Maengwyn, thirteenth in descent from Cadwgan, a lineal descendant of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, Prince of Powys.
"Since his nativity four and eighty times hath the sun rolled to his summer solstice. Fifty years was he the host of the Hen and Chickens, Pen-y-front, twenty of which he was apparitor to the late Right Reverend Father in God. John, Lord Bishop of Bangor and his predecessors; by chance made a glover, by genius a fly-dresser and angler; is now, by the all-divine assistance, conductor to and over the most tremendous mountain Cader Idris, to the stupendous cataracts of the Cayne and the Mawddach, and to the enchanting cascades of Dol y Melynllyn, with all its beautifully romantic scenery. Guide general and magnificent expounder of all the natural and artificial curiosities of North Wales, professor of grand and bombastical lexicographical words; knight of the most anomalous, whimsical, yet perhaps, happy order of hair-brained inexplicables."
I doubt if poor old Robert Edwards himself composed this strange advertisement of his. Probably some humorous visitor from over the border pulled the old man's leg a bit.
However that may be, he stands as a landmark in the story of the tourists to the neighbourhood; and from that day to this there has been no lack of them. We may close our discursive review of the XVIIIth and early XIXth century with him, and turn to more modern days.
NOTE - Least what has been written about enclosures should be misunderstood, it should be added that, before enclosure, the common lands were regarded as the jointly owned property of the freeholders of a village. This was, legally, a correct view. The common lands at enclosure were divided, pro rata to the freeholders' shares, among all freeholders. What was overlooked were the customary usages, the cutting of wood, bracken, turf, and a limited right of grazing, which even non-freeholders had been wont to exercise, especially in Wales.
|
|
|
|
|
|