“What tales of infinite trouble and everlasting worry our Post Office
officials in Wales could tell! How often have our local postmasters
to implore persons of the same name, or of the same name and like
initials, in the postal districts, to come to some amicable arrangement
as to the delivery of their letters and telegrams!”
In a Carnarvonshire will case, heard in July, 1894, the number of
Joneses and Robertses called as witnesses during the two days that the
action lasted threw judges and counsel engaged into a condition of
absolute bewilderment, and turned the court into a patronymical Bedlam.
Sometimes parents, with national enthusiasm, have their sons christened
with a truly Welsh name, and are not always careful to select such as
will pass smoothly over English tongues, should these sons, on growing
up, go out of the Principality. Such was the case with a Rev. T. Mydir
Evans, who in England became “Passon Murder Evans.” And what stumbling
has been caused over the name of Dr. Gwenogfryn Evans at Oxford!
It was at Bishop Lee’s suggestion, and in the year of his death, that
the shires of Wales were formally constituted, though earlier, in 1535,
the counties of Denbigh, Montgomery, Merioneth, Glamorgan, Brecon, and
Radnor had been constructed out of the old Marches of Wales.
In conclusion, a word must be added relative to the arms of Wales and
the three feathers of its Prince’s crest.
Coats-of-arms were assumed and changed very arbitrarily in early days,
and there does not seem to have been any fixed rule as to those borne
by the several princes. Owen Gwynedd is said to have had on his shield
vert, three eagles in fess or, membered and beaked gules, and these are
quartered by the Wynns of Peniarth.
But Rhodri the Great had four banners carried before him on which were
depicted lions, to represent the principalities of Gwynedd, Powys,
Deheubarth, and the Isle of Man, over which his rule extended. Yet the
red dragon was the symbol and ensign of the Pendragon, or chief king.
A lion rampant appears to have been the favourite bearing of the
princes of Powys. Gruffydd ab Cynan of Gwynedd bore three lions passant
gardant in pale argent incensed azure.
Lewis Dwnn, in his _Heraldic Visitations of Wales_, says that “the
recognised arms of the Principality were four lions passant gardant
quarterly, and that is the coat now accepted for Wales.”
The red dragon was used by Henry VII. as his crest, and as a supporter
on the dexter side, and on the sinister, the greyhound of York.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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