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DEGREE DAY AT LAMPETER COLLEGE.…

DEATH OF MR. W. R. H. POWELL…

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DEATH OF MR. W. R. H. POWELL M.P. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. We here publish an interesting sketch of his life from the Western Mail. 0 We regret toannotince the death, after a long and painful illness, of Mr Walter Rice Howell Powell, the member for West Carmarthenshire, which took place at his rosidence, Maesgwynne, near Llanboidy, at three o'clock on Wednesday morning. Mr Powell was the eldest son of Mr Walter Rice Howell Powell, to whose father the Maesgwynne Estate was bequeathed by his cousin, Mr Walter Rice Howell, in 1879. The subject of the present sketch was born in 1819. His first wife was Emily Anne, daughter of Mr Henry Skrine, of Warleigh Manor, Somerset, and their daughter, Miss Powell, has always lived at Maesgwynne, where she has long made herself a very useful helper to her father, both in the management of the estate, and in acting as secretary for the local agricultural show, and in many other respects. Mr Powell's second wife, who survives him; is a daughter of the late Mr Grismond Philipps, of Cwmgwilly, and sister of the present Mr Grismond Philipps. Their daughter Emily Catherine, is married to Mr Mr. W. F. Roch, of Butter Hill, in Pembrokeshire. While studying under a private tutor he had a pack of harriers, and thus he found means at an early age to indulge in his inherent passion for the chase. Again, at Christchurch he amused himself, as most gentlemen commoners do, with hunting, and soon after leaving the university he got married and commenced keeping foxhounds. He began by purchasing several drafts, and among others from the Pembrokeshire kennels was Osbaldeston's Vanguard which, with Mayfly, a smooth pie Welsh hound, was the founder of the present famous pack. It should be said, however, that the race was afterwards crossed with the Duffryn hounds. From 1848 to 1860 Mr John Rees acted as his first whip, and then gave up the post for a year, having taken the Lamb Inn I nd a farm. In 1861 he resumed office, and has been huntsman ever since, with the exception of the season. After hunting the hounds for twenty-eight years himself, Mr. Powell, owing to a severe illness, relinquished his horn to "Jack "Rees, as the huntsmen familiarly call him. In the season of 1875-6 Jack had the misfortune to break his leg whilst going to covert on the lirst hunting day, and during his temporary retirement Mr Powell once more carried the horn for a few months, showing excellent sport. Few men have kept hounds at their own expense for fifty years without a check and the fact that Mr Powell has done that would of itself have been sufficient to make Carmar- thenshire men proud of him. Liking a good cry, he always hunted a large body of hounds-24 or 25 couples-and the men were generally too well mounted, one would say—that is, on too valuable cattle for the country, which has been considerably increased in extent since Mr Powell commenced his duties as a master of hounds. On the death of Captain Evans, of Pantykendy, Mr. Powell hunted all that country which was sub- sequently augmented by the collapse of the Carmar- then hounds, which he purchased, as well as Sfivfiral drafts of the Pantvkendv nack. Farmers -rI -rI r- were sometimes put out of temper by the dogs, but the master was so deeply respected that no one wished to be considered his enemy, even if he insisted on the old rule of Love me, love my dogs. Mr Powell was popular with all classes in the country over which he hunted, and especially among the farmers. To farmers, indeed, he was well and favourably known over the three united counties. He was always ready Lolend a helping hand to every good object, from a ploughing match or a show to a race meeting. For many years, before Miss Powell took the labour off his hands, he was hon. secretary of the Llanboidy Agricultural Society, and for a much longer period he acted as hon. secretary of the Carmar- then Races. He was always planning some im- provement for the benefit of his village of Llanboidy and the farmers living around him. At his own expense he built the fine new Market- hall at Llanboidy, with the coffee tavern, reading-room, &c. He also had a church and churchyard at Llanboidy very neatly restored some eight or nine years ago. Though liberal in politics and very friendly to Nonconformists, he was strongly attached to the Established Church. For some years, say, during 1874, and 1876 he devoted immense time and trouble to the promotion of the United Counties Benefit Society, of which he was himself the originator. This was a plan of his for elevating the condition of the cottagers and agricultural labourers, in whom he took hardly less interest than he did in farmers. As a politican, Mr Powell has not left any remarkable record behind. Years before he was himself a candidate for Parliamentary honours Mr Powell gave active support to men who could not be called genuine Conservatives, and he appears to have long cherished certain opinions of a democrative kind. It is quite possible that if the Tory Democratic party had existed when he began to take up a permanent position in the field of politics he would have fallen in with their views. The genial and kindly spirit and singu- larly happy bonhomie which distinguished him in every department of life prevented him from making enemies even in the political world. He was, in one sense, a very useful man to his constituents. Everybody who got a chance of visiting London wrote before-hand to Mr Powell, as a matter of course, to get them a pass for the House of Commons, and, in fact, to do a variety of things for their convenience and comfort. Had he been less attentive to his duties in the House his health might have held out longer, but as far back as the autumn of 1887 the late hours and bad atmosphere began to produce its effect in the shape of palpitation of the heart. A return to his native place and the air of the mountains which he had breathed for so many years during his hunting life helped to revive him, but Mr Powell never afterwards rallied suffic- iently to take his seat on horseback. Mr Powell graduated at Oxford (Christchurch). He was a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant for Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, of which latter county he was high-sheriff in 1840.

AMMANFORD JOTTINGS.

[No title]

LLANDOVERY.

CARDIGAN.

LLANGADOCK.