Cylchgronau Cymru

and his wife stayed at Pencerrig where his brother Thomas was fighting a serious illness. Before leaving Brecon, they did manage a ride over the Cameddau hill, which the artist Thomas spent much of his later years drawing and painting. The peace preliminaries F mentioned as leading to Brecon 'being illuminated' on 12th October were those of the short-lived Peace of Amiens signed in March 1802. The annual Bailiffs Feast was held at the Lion Inn, and must have landed the Revd Richard Davies, vicar and later archdeacon of Brecon, with a large bill for entertaining a hundred people, including the M.P. for the County. The next two items noted in his diary show the wide range of F's friends and acquaintances, from Mr Jones the baker to Sir William Ouseley, 1769-1842, British Orientalist, who was later to publish his Travels in various Countries in the East. Sir William's brother, Sir Gore Ouseley, had been British Ambassador to the Court of Persia in succession to Sir Harford Jones (Brydges), who was the first British Ambassador there from 1807 to 1811. Soon after his return to England, Sir Harford bought Boultibrooke in Norton parish, Co. Radnor where the family was seated for many years. Sir William Ouseley,2 a native of Monmouthshire, had taken a residence in Crickhowell c.1798, and so it came about that his three volumes of Travels were printed by Henry Hughes of Brecon. From November to March constituted a Winter 'Season' in Brecon, when gentry from outlying parts of the County met in the county town for Assemblies and Theatre going. Thus Eliza Jones, the younger of the two Pencerrig girls, now aged twenty-one, and a friend, a Miss Lambourn of London, stayed for a part of November with F and his wife in order to attend the local Assemblies. The quota of young gentlemen able to escort the ladies at these Assemblies was agreeably increased when on 6th December the Brecon Militia, who had been on southern coastal defence service with their Monmouthshire colleagues, marched into Brecon with the Marquis of Worcester (the Duke of Beaufort), Lord Lieutenant of Brecknock, at their head. As a former military officer F would have been invited to dine at the Lion Inn with the Marquis and the militia officers, the Lion being probably the largest inn then available. On 11th December both the Misses Jones of Pencerrig arrived at their uncle F's home accompanied by their father's Builth attomey-at- law, Mr Thomas Price, for a rather unusual purpose, i.e. to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown. In view of Thomas Jones's serious illness of September, his Attorney had advised him to make sure that the British nationality of his two, illegitimate, daughters, who had been born in Naples of a non-British mother, was made explicit by them taking an oath of Allegiance before a proper Authority. Perhaps because it was Christmas Eve or perhaps because so many Festivities were in the air, the streets of Brecon were lighted, with torches or oil-lamps, since the age of gas lamps was still twenty years away. 1802 January 6.'Milit: Music Band went to Monmouth 10. Letter from Jn MacNamara, Esq of Langoed canvassing ll.Fantorini and Atkins ye Ventriloquist at Brecon Theatre. 22.Letter from Capt. David Price, Bombay wh a very good account of my nephew, Lieut Humphreys, who is