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

them dearly."
Surely this little bit of practical cottage economy is worth recording.
C. W. B.
* * * * *
Queries.
BIDDINGS IN WALES.
There is a nursery song beginning--
"Harry Parry, when will you marry? When apples and pears are ripe.
I'll come to your wedding, without any bidding, And," &c. &c. &c.
Does this mean that I will come without an invitation, or without a
marriage-present? It will be observed that Parry is a Welsh name, and
that bidding is a Welsh custom, as is shown by MR. SPURRELL (Vol.
iii., p. 114.). He has anticipated my intention of sending you a
bidding-form, which has been lying upon my table for some weeks, but
which I have not had time to transcribe; I now send it you, because it
somewhat varies from MR. SPURRELL'S, and yet so much resembles
it as to show that the same formula is preserved. Both show that the
presents are considered as debts, 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