Letters to the Editor

IN PURSUIT OF DROVERS

Sir,
I should be most grateful for your help over a book that I am preparing on the drove roads of Wales. I should very much like to know if any of the back numbers of The Carmarthenshire Historian contained any articles on this matter. I should also be most grateful if you could put me in touch with anyone especially interested in the movements of cattle from the thirteenth century to the coming of the railways.

I am particularly concerned with the droves from Carmarthen that would have gone through Llandovery and over the Epynt, but I believe there must also have been some cattle movement from Llandeilo northwards. If that is the case then I imagine that many of the Carmarthen herds would have travelled in that direction, although I know that some were shipped across the channel from Tenby.

(Miss) SHIRLEY TOULSON,
38, Greys Hill,
Henley-on-Thames, Oxon.

Editor's note: Our correspondent has been referred to Mr. E. O. James and his article "Some References to the Cattle Drovers and Carmarthen" in Volume I, now out of print. But others may feel that they could help.

SKEEL MARCHES ON

Sir,
I should be grateful if you could forward me a copy of The Carmarthenshire Historian, Vol. VIII, 1971, which contains an article about Thomas Skeel.

My wife is a native of Laugharne and is a great-granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Morse who lived in Llandawke Mansion in the latter part of the last century. If you have any other information regarding this family I should be grateful to learn of it — some say the Morses came from Scotland, others say they came from this area, and there are two old established Morse families here.

P. J. OLNEY, M.B., B.S., D.Obst.R.O.G.,
216, St. Faiths Road,
Old Canon, Norwich.

RETURN TO GLANBRAN

Sir,
Some time ago we were passing Glanbran near Llandovery and decided to break our journey and see the ruins. When I asked Mr. Davies of Glanbran Farm if there was any objection to my family walking round the ruins of the old house he very kindly invited me in and showed me not only photographs of the house as it was but also an article published in The Carmarthenslzire Historian for 1972.

My interest in the house is that my family comes from Llanelwedd Hall (now the Royal Welsh Agricultural Showground) and traces descent from Marmaduke Gwynne of Garth, the elder brother of Roderick Gwynne who inherited Glanbran from his bachelor cousin Sackville Gwynne when the latter died in 1734. Although I have passed the ruins several times this was the first occasion that I had stopped there since my aunt took me from Llanelwedd to see the house at the time of the sale in 1929. I was a small boy at the time.

Unfortunately time was short and I was unable to read your article .... I would be most grateful if you could let me know where copies are still available.

MARMADUKE GWYNNE HOWELL,
Burgess House,
Heckfield, Nr. Basingstoke, Hants.

Editor's note: Back numbers of The Carmarthenshire Historian are still stocked by some local bookshops. In case of failure enquiries should be addressed to Dyfed Rural Council, Dark Gate, Carmarthen, where dwindling supplies are still available, with the exception of Volumes I to IV, which are now out of print. It is of interest to state that the Marmaduke Gwynne (1694?-1769) referred to above is remembered for his connection with Methodism and his friendship with the Wesleys, whose Journals frequently refer to the family; his daughter Sarah married Charles Wesley in 1749. Marmaduke, who also inherited the Llanelwedd estate, lived in great state at Garth, where he kept a chaplain and twenty servants, and entertained generously (see Dictionary of Welsh Biography, pp. 331-2).
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