CAMBRIAN NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17836, 3 May 1926, Page 13

CAMBRIAN NOTES.

SIR DAVID GAM. A correspondent writes:—“Many years ago, when I was really young. I was told to look up the name of every place mentioned, I did not know in the map, a word I could not spell or know the meaning of in the dictionary, and facts in the Encyclopedia, and in this way, a store of knowledge would be acquired, not easily forgotten. A chance name, mentioned lately aroused a hazy recollection, and obedient to the old habit, I looked it up. and as it concerns a Welshman, I will relate what I remember of the man’s history, though I ought to say, the name which conjured up the memory of half-forgotten facts was Gann, not Gam, and there is no connection between the two.

Sir David Gam belonged to an important family in Brecon -who lived in the parish of Garthbrengy, in the reign of Henry IV’. He claimed descent from Caradog Freichfras, one of the knights of King Arthur’s round table, and Lord of Gloucester, Cornwall and Brecon. His father’s name was Llewelyn, and Gam was a nickname given to David because he squinted. In the English camp -where he served under Henry V., he would have been known as Llewelyn, and ‘possibly Shakespeare had him in mind when he named one of his characters “Fluellin.” He was a feudal tenant, and military retainer of the English king, and being very zealous for the House of Lancaster, and not too scrupulous as to the method of furthering its interests; he attended the Welsh Parliament of 1402, at Machynlleth, under the pretext of supporting Owen Glyndwr, but with the secret intention of assassinating that prince—-the plot was disclosed, and Glyndwr consigned him to prison, but released him eleven years later, in 1412, for a ransom, and on condition that he swore not to bear arms or oppose him again. But he was no sooner free than he violated his oath, and showed such fierce animosity to the partisans of Owen, betraying his designs to Henry IV. whenever he learnt them, that Glyndwr marched into Brecon, devastated his lands, and burnt his house to the ground; and meeting one of Gam’s tenants on the road, he tauntingly shouted an extempore stanza at him: “If a squinting, red-haired knave meet thee, and perchance would crave to know what fate his house befell, say that a cinderheap will tell.” Sometime later, Gam quarrelled a relation in Brecon, and killed him, and to escape prosecution, he fled to the English Court and attached himself to the Lancastrian Party. In 1415, he raised a body of recruits in Brecon, from the de Bohm estates, which belonged to the first wife of Henry IV., Mary de Bohm, and at their head accompanied the King to France, where he seems to have redeemed his character upon the field of Agincourt. The eloquent pen of Sir Walter Raleigh has celebrated Gam’s valiant exploits there, when having been sent to, ascertain the numbers of the foe, he replied, “ There are enough to kill, enough to capture, and enough to run away.” And in the course of the battle with his son-in-law Roger Bychan, and his cousin, Walter Llwyd, he rescued the King from danger at the price of his own life, and as he lay dying, on the battlefield, he received with them the honour of knighthood from the grateful and sorrowing Henry V. The Gam family continued wealthy and powerful for many years, but, Theophitus Jones says, “ The descendants of this hero of Agincourt, who lived like a wolf and died like a lion, possessed every acre of ground in Brecon between 1550 and 1700—but in the eighteenth century one of them was the bell-man of Brecknock and two lived on the charity of the inhabitants. And now the name of Gamin the legitimate line is extinct. Sic exit Perfidus.”

VIOLENT STORM IN S. WALES. By a strange coincidence the writer read in the “ Daily Mail ” of the terrible gale during December in S. Wales, when shoals of fish were blown ashore and lay in piles six feet high. On the same day, delving into “ The Itinerary Through Wales,” by Giraldus Cambrensis , this passage, written probably about the year 1188: “ From Haverfird we proceeded on our journey to Menevia (St David’s), over Niwgal sands, where a very remarkable circumstance occurred during the winter that King Henry 11. spent in Ireland. The sandy shores of South Wales were laid bare by the extraordinary violence of a storm, and the surface of the earth, which had been covered for many ages, reappeared, and revealed the trunks of trees cut off standing in the very sea itself, the strokes of the hatchet appearing as if only made yesterday. The soil was black and the wood like ebony. By a wonderful revolution, the road for ships became unpassable, and looked, not like a shore, but like a grove cut down, in very remote ages, and consumed by degrees and swallowed up by the violence and encroachments of the sea. During the same tempest many sea fish were driven thfc violence of the wind and waves upon drv land.” SOCIAL NOTES. On Saturday afternoon, in the presence of a few Welsh friends and wellwishers, the infant daughter of Mr and Mrs Bertie Evans, Cox Road, Mcrivale, was baptised and received into the Methodist Church by the Rev J. B. Neale, C.F., according to the simple and impressive rites of that Church. On behalf of those present Mrs If. S. E. Tanner presented the baby, Winifred Pearl, with a cane-seated high chair, and in a few appropriate words expressed the good will and kind wishes of the donors. She emphasised the fact that if the parents did all in their power to give the little girl the best education her future would be in her own hands, whatever happened. Mrs Turner mentioned her departure for England by the Corinthic next week, and said it was possible she might see Mrs Evans’s mother, and that she could tell her of the pleasing little ceremoony in which she had taken part. After a delicious tea had been handed round, Mr Evans thanked all the kind friends who had come to the christening and given the baby such a beautiful and useful present. Mr James, in a few well-chosen

words, expressed the wish of all present that Mrs Turner would have a pleasant trip and a safe return to grace the social and political life of the city. By request a Welsh hymn was sung and the singing of the Welsh national anthem closed a pleasant little gathering.

A few friends assembled at the sta tion last Monday to bid farewell to Mr and Mrs Hudson, who were leaving for Wellington en route for Brisbane and other cities in Australia. In Brisbane there are 300 members of the Welsh Society firmly established there, and members now had given Mrs Hudson letters of introduction to several prominent Welsh people there.