Minor Queries with Answers.
Ruin near St. Asaph, North Wales.—About two miles from St. Asaph, in Flintshire, near to a beautiful trout stream, called, I think, the Elway, stands an old ruin of some ecclesiastical edifice. There is not very much of it now standing, but the form of the windows still exists. I have in vain looked in handbooks of the county for an account of it, but I have seen none that allude to it in any way. It is very secluded, being hidden by trees; and can only be approached by a footpath. In the centre of the edifice, there is a well of most beautiful water, supplied from some hidden spring; and from the bottom of which bubbles of gas are constantly ascending to the surface. The well is divided by a large stone into two parts, one evidently intended for a bath. The peasantry in the neighbourhood call it the Virgin Mary's Well, and ascribe the most astonishing cures to bathing in its waters. I could not, however, find out what it was. Some said it was a nunnery, and that the field adjoining had been a burial-ground; but all seemed remarkably ignorant about it, and seemed rather to avoid speaking about it; but, from what I could gather, there was some wild legend respecting it: but, being unacquainted with the language, I could not learn what it was. I should feed obliged if any of your correspondents could give me a description of it, and any information or legend connected with it. Near to it are the celebrated "Kaffen Rocks," which
show undoubted evidence, from the shells and shingle embedded in their strata, of having at some period been submerged; and the caverns which exist in them are very large, and bones of hyenas and other animals are to be found in them. They are, however, very difficult to find without a guide, and there are very few persons in the neighbourhood who seem to know anything about them. They are very well worthy of a visit, and the surrounding scenery is beautiful in the extreme. I shall be happy to put any person in the way of finding them, should a desire be expressed in your pages.
Investigator.
Manchester.
[This is Fynnon Vair, or "the Well of Our Lady," situated in a richly-wooded dell near the river Elwy, in the township of Wigvair. This well, which is inclosed in a polygonal basin of hewn stone, beautifully and elaborately sculptured, discharges about 100 gallons per minute: the water is strongly impregnated with lime, and was formerly much resorted to as a cold bath. Adjoining the well are the ruins of an ancient cruciform chapel, which, prior to the Reformation, was a chapel of ease to St. Asaph, in the later style of English architecture: the windows, which are of handsome design, are now nearly concealed by the ivy which has overspread the building; and the ruin, elegant in itself, derives additional interest from the beauty of its situation. See Lewis's Wales, and Beauties of England and Wales, vol. xvii. p. 550.]
Wafers.—When and where were wafers invented? They were no new discovery when Labat saw some at Genoa in 1706; but from a passage in his Voyages d'Espagne et Italie, published in 1731, it would appear that they were even then unknown in France. A writer in the Quarterly Review says:
"We have in our possession letters with the wafers still adhering, which went from Lisbon to Rome twenty years before that time; and Stolberg observes that there are wafers and wafer-seals in the museum at Portici."
Abhba.
[Respecting the antiquity of wafers, Beckmann, in his History of Inventions, vol. i. p. 146. (Bohn's edition), has the following notice: "M. Spiess has made an observation which may lead to farther researches, that the oldest seal with a red wafer he has ever yet found, is on a letter written by D. Krapf at Spires, in the year 1624, to the government of Bayreuth. M. Spiess has found also that some years after, Forstenhäusser, the Brandenburg factor at Nuremberg, sent such wafers to a bailiff at Osternohe. It appears, however, that wafers were not used during the whole of the seventeenth century in the chancery of Brandenburg, but only by private persons, and by these even seldom, because, as Speiss says, people were fonder of Spanish wax. The first wafers with which the chancery of Bayreuth began to make seals were, according to an expense account of the year 1705, sent from Nuremberg. The use of wax, however, was still continued, and among the Plassenburg archives there is a rescript of 1722, sealed with proper wax. The use of wax must have been continued longer in the Duchy of Weimar; for in the Electa Juris Publici there is an order of the year 1716, by which the introduction of wafers in law matters is forbidden, and the use of wax commanded. This order, however, was abolished by Duke Ernest Augustus in 1742, and wafers again introduced.">[
Asgill on Translation to Heaven.—The Irish House of Commons, in 1703, expelled a Mr. Asgill from his seat for his book asserting the possibility of translation to the other world without death. What is the title of his book? and where may I find a copy?
Abhba.
[This work, published anonymously, is entitled, "An Argument proving that, according to the Covenant of Eternal Life revealed in the Scriptures, Man may be translated from hence into that Eternal Life without passing through Death, although the Humane Nature of Christ Himself could not be thus translated till He had passed through Death," A.D. 1700. No name of bookseller or printer. It may be seen at the British Museum or Bodleian. This work raised a considerable clamour, and Dr. Sacheverell mentioned it among other blasphemous writings which induced him to think the Church was in danger.]
Ancient Custom at Coleshill.—I have somewhere seen it stated, that there is an ancient custom at Coleshill, in Warwickshire, that if the young men of the town can catch a hare, and bring it to the parson of the parish before ten o'clock on Easter Monday, he is bound to give them a calf's head and a hundred eggs for their breakfast, and a groat in money. Can you inform me whether this be the fact? And if so, what is the origin of the custom?
Abhba.
[The custom is noticed in Blount's Ancient Tenures, by Beckwith, edit. 1684, p. 286. The origin of it seems to be unknown.]