Christmas Quiz 2023 -- the answers

 1.  Rose Castle Tower, near Picton Point

2.  Mountain Railway, Carningli, near Newport

3.  Gedeon Chapel, Dinas Cross

4.  Dinas Head, seen from the Nevern Estuary

5.  Carn Meini (Carnmenyn) seen from the Waldo Williams monument

6.  Ty Canol Wood, near Brynberian

7.  Shell House, Cilwendeg

8.  Baptistry, St Dogmaels

9.  Pwll Deri seen from Garn Fawr

10.  Trehowel, on Pen Caer

11.  The Bennet and Traeth Mawr, seen from Newport Castle

12.  Interior of Cilgerran Castle

13. Stepaside Iron Works

14.  Cattle Pound, Mountain West, Newport

15.  St Dogmaels, near the Abbey

16.  Cwm yr Eglwys

17.  Llanllawer holy well, Cwm Gwaun

18.  Rosebush slate quarry

19.  Folly at Monk Haven, near Milford

20.  Solva lime kilns

21.  Castell Henllys Iron Age Village

22.  St Govans Chapel

23.  Pembroke Castle keep

24.  Priory Ruins, Haverfordwest

25.  Five Arches, Tenby

26.  Abbey, Caldey Island

27.  Skomer Island

28.  Haverfordwest Castle

29.  Rhosygilwen Mansion

30.  Maiden Castle and Lion Rock, Treffgarne

Brian's Christmas Quiz 2023

Here are 30 Pembrokeshire images culled from my Facebook and blog sites -- thanks to Steve Mallett and Ruth Crofts for some of them.  And thanks too to Rhiannon James for acting the part of Mistress Martha a few years ago.  Can you identify all 30 of the places where the photos were taken? 

No prizes -- you can just bask in the glory of knowing that you are a Pembrokeshire expert.  If you get 1-10 answers right, you need to get out more often.  If you get 11-20 right, you can get moderately chuffed. And if you get 21-29 answers right, you can count yourself as rather well-informed and observant.  If you get all 30 answers right, it means you have probably been following me around for the last 50 years or so, and should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself........

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

 14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

The answers can be found here:

https://brian-angelmountain.blogspot.com/2023/12/christmas-quiz-2023-answers.html

... and a very happy Christmas to you all!

Mari Lwyd

 

 

A nice pic of the Mari Lwyd from the Castell Henllys web site.......

Jemima & Co 1997

 

 

A nice pic from 1997 (the Bicentenary Celebrations relating to the Last Invasion of 1797) -- showing Yvonne Fox (Jemima Nicholas) and her ladies striding across the town square in Fishguard.  A fearsome sight indeed........

Pic -- from the Hanes Abergwaun web site.

The Wizard of Werndew

Having collected up as much information as possible about Joseph Harries (1830-1890), the Wizard of Werndew, I have now published it as a short article on the Peoples Collection Wales web site:

https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/2062701

I have added 13 stories about Joseph that seem to be authentic -- but you never can tell when it comes to folk tales.........

Once upon a time I acted the role of Joseph Harries in a dramatic production in Newport called "The Enchanted Land".  That was fun........

The Joseph Harries as he is revealed in historical snippets is very different indeed from the character I invented for the purposes of the Angel Mountain saga:

Joseph Harries the Wizard

(Spoiler alert: the following gives information which new readers may prefer not to know.....)

Joseph Harries of Werndew is one of the key characters in the story.  He was born in 1761 and died in 1826 at the age of 65.  In Martha’s time, wizards (or “knowing men”) were greatly respected.  Joseph Harries really did exist -- there are a number of folk tales about him. In reality, it seems that he might not have been a very nice fellow! And he did live at Werndew, just above the village of Dinas on the north side of the mountain ridge. The cottage was, and still is, within walking distance of Carningli and Plas Ingli.

But in my mind, and in the stories, Joseph is a herbalist, mystic, apothecary, surgeon, psychiatrist, sleuth, diplomat, counsellor and master of the arts of observation and deduction. He is a scientist, as well as being a man of culture. He knows several foreign languages and is familiar with many of the esoteric books on which the world’s great religions are based. On occasion he retreats into his cottage before emerging, exhausted, with answers to very complicated questions; but there is always the possibility that he is a “charlatan” with a superior intellect and an ability to observe things and make deductions in the manner of a prototype Sherlock Holmes. Whether or not he is familiar with the denizens of the spirit world, he certainly does have a vast range of abilities, acquired during years of careful study under a variety of great teachers, whom he mentions every now and then. We cannot doubt that in some way he is the inheritor of the wisdom of the Druids, who were reputed to be active in this area at the time of the Roman invasion and who might have had a grove in Tycanol Wood.

Joseph is a stout and loyal friend to Martha, and a friend to many others as well. Sometimes he charges for his services, or over-charges in certain cases, on the basis that his services provided to the poor are generally free. So as well as being a Sherlock Holmes, he is also a Robin Hood figure, loved by the poor and hated by at least some of the rich. He is also Martha’s knight in shining armour, who rides to her defence from his place across the mountain whenever he senses that she is in distress or in danger.

But while Joseph is always good humoured, eccentric, witty and supportive of others, he is also a tragic figure. As the stories unfold he reveals very little about himself and his family background, for as he explains to Martha, it is in his own interests to maintain an air of mystery about who he is, where he has come from, and where he will go to when his task on earth is done. But in one sensitive moment he admits to Martha that he was once married and that he lost his wife and child in childbirth. He dies after a horrible accident, gored by a bull during the course of a routine visit requested by one of the estates. There is irony as well as tragedy in that, since Joseph says many times that he enjoys working with animals.

He loves Martha from the the very beginning of the stories. This might be suspected by the reader, but Martha never realizes it until Joseph confesses it to her when he is on his death-bed. Even then he can try to make light of it, and when he has gone to his grave Martha finds the situation very difficult to bear, blaming him for his foolishness in allowing his emotions to get the better of him, and blaming herself for her blindness as to the reality of the situation.

Joseph knows, from the beginning of their relationship, that his love for Martha will never be requited, because she is a member of the gentry and he is a disreputable wizard with nothing but a small cottage and a pretty garden to his name. In any case, he is almost old enough to be her father. So he loves and worships her from a distance, gaining comfort from their close and easy relationship, and some physical pleasure from their frequent embraces.

He is quite a mysterious figure, and by all accounts he has a little fan club all of his own!

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Did the real Joseph Harries have a "Big Book" or grimoire?  If so, were there incantations like those found in the papers of Dr John Harries of Cwrt y Cadno?

One of the incantations recorded by Dr John Harries, Cwrt y Cadno

The only first hand documentary material we know about is that which was recovered from a waste skip (yes, really!) by Dr Hywel Bowen-Perkins.  It consists of many pages from Dr Harries's case books, dealing with patients, symptoms, remedies and results.  Some patients died, but most seem to have recovered!   The local doctors clearly did not approve of Dr Harries and his dealings with patients across a wide area -- but Hywel says that the remedies prescribed and issued by Dr Harries were sensible and quite advanced, with no indications of "quackery".  In fact, Hywel thinks that his remedies were potentially far more effective than those prescribed by Dr Owen and other medical men in North Pembs.  There is evidence of good knowledge of herbal remedies and pharmaceutical practices, and not a trace of the occult.......

This is a typical page -- difficult to read but full of meticulously recorded detail:

Hywel is editing and annotating this treasure trove of material, and he hopes to publish it in some form in due course.  It also needs to be archived somewhere safe, as it is full of fascinating information relating to medical practices in the late 1800's.

On one page, in 1887, Joseph describes the ailments and treatment of "my dear brother David Harries" -- so maybe in later life they did get on well together, having gone through a rough patch earlier on......  That's family life for you!

The grave of Joseph Harries

 

Joseph Harries of Werndew (1830-1890) is buried in bottom corner of the graveyard behind Gedeon Chapel, Dinas.  The headstone is a simple granite slab with a rounded top, identical to that marking the grave of Thomas, his half brother, who died in 1887.  Between the two is a squared-off slate headstone erected at the grave of their sister Jane who died in 1858 at the age of 26, and Mary Harries, Joseph's mother, who died in 1885.  Nearby is the grave of father William, who died in 1857, marked by another slate headstone.

According to the headstones both Joseph and Thomas were deacons of the chapel.

Gedeon Independent Welsh Chapel, built in 1830 (the year of Joseph's birth) and extended several times afterwards.

I find it intriguing that Joseph, known in his lifetime as a "dyn hysbys", conjuror and wizard, was nonetheless buried here in hallowed ground, on the patch dedicated to the Harries family of Werndew.

Joseph Harries and the building of Glan-y-Mor

The wizard Joseph Harries was born in 1830 and lived during his youthful years at Werndew -- the family farm on the mountainside above Dinas. In 1859 he was forced to move out when his half brother inherited the property, and he built a house on the main Newport-Fishguard road at the bottom end of the Werndew driveway.   This was planned to be the residence for himself and his widowed mother, and she probably paid for most of the work.  The building of the house took almost ten years - maybe because cash was tight. 

Two men were employed on building the house.  One of them recorded that one day the supply of building stones ran out.  Joseph Harries was unconcerned, and told the builders that there was nothing to worry about.  Sure enough, next morning when the men turned up for work "there were stones aplenty".   How did they get there?  Nobody else could have delivered them overnight, and the builders were quite convinced that some mysterious power had been invoked by the wizard in order to bring them in and stack them ready for use.........

Willian Beddow, one of the builders, made a deposition to the Rector of Dinas on 28 March 1892 about Joseph Harries, who had died in 1890.   He claimed that around 1874 he had been engaged to build a wall at Glan-y-Mor.  One day he and a local miller were called in by Joseph Harries to look at a mirror placed on the kitchen table.  He then said he would go upstairs and stamp his foot on the floorboards -- at which point the men were required to look into the mirror. They did as they were bidden, and saw David Harries of Werndew (Joseph's half brother) and Ebenezer Davies of Ffynnonofi (a well-known local rascal).  

They gave the names to Joseph when he came downstairs, upon which he nodded and said no more.  It was known that the wizard used the mirror in order to find the names of those who had committed various crimes -- it was used to find the name of the man who shot a horse belonging to a local farmer, and also the name of the person who had stolen jewels belonging to a lady belonging to the Pembrokeshire gentry.