Notes and Queries, Number 72, March 15, 1851 | Page 8

transferable or assignable to other parties. Is this the case in all districts of Wales where the custom of bidding prevails? I think I have heard that in some places the gift is to be returned only when the actual donor "enters into the matrimonial state." It will be observed, too, in these forms, relations only transfer to relations. Is it considered that they may assign to persons not relations? Some of your Welsh correspondents may reply to these questions, which may elucidate all the varieties of practice in a custom which contributes much to the comfort of a young couple, and, in many instances, is an incentive to prudence, because they are aware that the debt is a debt of honour, not to be evaded without some loss of character.

"December 26. 1806.
"As we intend to enter the Matrimonial State on Tuesday the 20th of January, 1807, we purpose to make a Bidding on the occasion the same day for the young man at his father's house, in the village of Llansaint, in the parish of St. Ishmael; and for the young {208} woman, at her own house, in the said village of Llansaint; at either of which places the favour of your good company on that day will be deemed a peculiar obligation; and whatever donation you may be pleased to confer on either of us then, will be gratefully received, and cheerfully repaid whenever required on a similar occasion, by
Your humble servants, SETH REES, ANN JENKINS.
"The young man's father and mother, and also the young woman's father and mother, and sister Amy, desire that all gifts of the above nature due to them, may be returned on the same day; and will be thankful for all favour shown the young couple."
E. H.
* * * * *
Minor Queries.
Lord of Relton (Vol. iii., p. 56.)--Will your correspondent MONKBARNS favour me with the date of the paper from which he copied the paragraph quoted, and whether it was given as being then in use, or as of ancient date?
Can any of your readers inform me from what place the Lord of Relton derived his name? What was his proper name, and who is the present representative of the family?
Is there any family of the name of Relton now existing in the neighbourhood of Langholme, or in Cumberland or Westmoreland?
F. B. RELTON.
Beatrix de Bradney.--In your "NOTES AND QUERIES" for January 25th, 1851, p. 61., you have given Sir Henry Chauncy's Observations on Wilfred Entwysel.
Sir Bertin left a daughter named Lucy, of whom Master Bradene of Northamptonshire is descended. Can F. R. R., or any genealogist, inform me whether this Master Bradene is descended from Simon de Bradney, one of the Knights of the Shire for Somersetshire in the year 1346? In Collins's Somersetshire, vol. iii. p. 92., he mentions:
"In St. Michael's Church, Bawdrip, under a large Gothic arch lies the effigy in armour of Sir Simon de Bradney or Bredenie.
"The Manor of Bradney, in Somersetshire, supposed to have ended in Beatrix de Bradney, an heiress, and passed with her into other families; this Beatrix was living in the forty-sixth year of Edward III."
Can you inform me whom she married? About sixty-five years ago it was purchased by the late Joseph Bradney, Esq., of Ham, near Richmond; and his second son, the Reverend Joseph Bradney, of Greet, near Tenbury, Shropshire, is the present possessor.
JULIA R. BOCKETT.
Southcote Lodge, near Reading.
"Letters on the British Museum."--In the year 1767 was published by Dodsley a work in 12mo. pp. 92., with the above title; and at p. 85. is printed "A Pastoral Dialogue," between Celia and Ebron, beginning, "As Celia rested in the shade," which the author states he "found among the manuscripts." I wish to know, first, who was the anonymous author of these letters; and, secondly, in what collection of manuscripts this "Dialogue" is to be found.
[mu].
Ballad Editing.--The "Outlandish Knight" (Vol. iii.,p. 49.).--I was exceedingly glad to see Mr. F. Sheldon's "valuable contribution to our stock of ballad literature" in the hands of Mr. Rimbault, and thought the treatment it received no better than it deserved. Blackwood, May, 1847, reviewed Mr. Sheldon's book, and pointed out several instances of his "godfathership;" among others, his ballad of the "Outlandish Knight," which he obtained from "a copy in the possession of a gentleman at Newcastle," was condemned by the reviewer as "a vamped version of the Scotch ballad of 'May Collean.'" It may be as the reviewer states, but the question I would wish answered is one affecting the reviewer himself; for, if I mistake not, the Southron "Outlandish Knight" is the original of "May Collean" itself. I have by me a copy, in black letter, of the "Outlandish Knight," English in every respect, and as such differing considerably from Mr. Sheldon's border edition, and from "May