Aug. 16. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



119 



We are not yet quite rii^ht about tlie first 

 panorama, but perliaps the following will close the 

 discussion. 



I have lately been sitting with Mr. Barker 

 (fetat 78), and he tells me that, when quite a boy, 

 he sketched for his father the vieiv of Edinburgh 

 from the observatory on the Calton Hill : in the 

 foreground was Holyrood House ; that that was a 

 half circle, and was exhibited in Edinburgh. 



So much was thought of the discovery of its 

 being possible to take a view beyond the old rule 

 of sixty degrees, that they went to London, and 

 then he took the view from the top of the Albion 

 Mills, as was stated in Vol. iv., p. 54. 



That was three quartei-s of a circle, and was 

 exhibited in Castle Street, Leicester Square. 

 Afterwards the whole circle was attempted. The 

 idea of painting a view more than sixty degrees, 

 ■was suggested by his mother. His father did not 

 ■work at them, he being a portrait painter ; but he 

 did, young as he was. JMr. Robert Barker and 

 his wife were both Irish ; but Henry Aston the 

 son was born in Glasgow. XL T. Ellacombe. 



(;iyst St. George. 



JOHN A KENT. 



(Vol. iv., p. 83.) 



As I have not seen the Athenceum, I send the 

 following notes, in uncertainty whether or not 

 they may prove acceptable to Mr. Collier. 



Sion y Cent, i. e. John a Kent, or John of Kent- 

 church, is very generally believed in Wales to 

 have been Owen Glendowr ; though some kw — 

 unable to account for the mysterious disappear- 

 ance of the hero — are still firmly convinced that 

 he sleeps, like IMontezuraa and various other 

 miizhty men, in some deep cavern, surrounded by 

 his -warriors, until the wrongs of liis country shall 

 call him forth once more to lead them on to battle. 



The following extracts are from notas appended 

 [by the editors] to some poems of John a Kent 

 which are published amongst the "loloMSS." by 

 the " Welsh MSS. Society;' 



" . . Jolin of Kent, as he is called, is said to have 

 been a priest at Kentchurcli, in Herefordshire, on the 

 coiinnes of Wales, about the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century. He still enjoys a liigli degree of popularity, 

 in the legendary stories of the principality, as a power- 

 ful magician. There is in the possession of Mr. Scuda- 

 more, of Kentchurcli, an ancient painting of a monk, 

 supposed to be a portrait of John of Kent ; and as the 

 family of .Scudamore is descended from a dauglitor of 

 Owen Glendowr, at whose bouse that chieftain is be- 

 lieved to have passed in concealment a portion of the 

 latter part of liis life, it has been supposed that John of 

 Kuntcliurch was no other than Owen Glendowr him- 

 self," &c. &c. — Page 670'., note to the poem on The 

 Names of God. 



" . . . . The author was a priest of Kentchurch in 



Herefordshire, on the confines of Monmouthshire and 

 Breconshire, and is said to have lived in the time of 

 Wickliffe, and to have been of his party. As the 

 parish of Kentchurch is adjacent to that of Oldcastle, 

 the residence of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, it 

 is by no means impossible that John of Kentchurch 

 may also have favoured the same opinions ; and may 

 in some measure sanction the idea." 



". . The poet then proceeds to speak of the indig- 

 nation of the well-robed bishops, the monks, friars, and 

 priests ; and in the course of the composition he makes 

 some strong animadversions on the luxurious living of 

 the churchmen, stating that formerly the friars were 

 preachers, who possessed no wealth, and went about 

 on foot with nothing bul a staff; but that they now pos- 

 sessed horses, and frequented banquets," &c. &c. — 

 Page 687., notes to A Poem to another's Book, by John of 

 Kentchurch ; from the collection of Thomas ap Jevan 

 of Tre'r Bryn, made about 1670. 



The following words occur in this poem : — 

 " . . onid cof cwymp 

 Olcastr, ti a gair allcwymp." 



" rememberest thou not the fall 



Of Oldcastle? — Thou shall have a repetition of the 

 fall." 



In addition to the two poems here mentioned, 

 the collection contains one " Composed by John of 

 Kent on his death-bed ;'' in which are some lines of 

 considerable beauty : and also one on The Age 

 and Duration of Things. 



The parish church of Kentchurch is dedicated 

 to St. Mary. I hope to be able to send you some 

 further information on the subject, but I well 

 know that quotations from memory are nearly 

 valueless. Meanwhile, the following note on the 

 mysterious disappearance to which I h.avc already 

 alluded may be not iminteresting : I give it as 

 translated by the editors of the lolo MSS. 



" In 1415, Owen disappeared, so that neither sight 

 nor tidings of him could be obtained in the country. 

 It was rumoured that he escaped in the guise of a 



reaper ; bearing * according to the testimony 



of the last who saw and knew him ; after which little 

 or no information transpired respecting him, nor of the 

 place or manner of his concealment. The prevalent 

 opinion was, that ho died in a wood in Glamorgan ; 

 but occult chroniclers assert that he and bis men still 

 live, and are asleep on their arms, in a cave called 

 Govog y ddinas, in the Vale of Gwent, where they 

 will continue, until England becomes self-debased ; but 

 th.it then they will sally forth, and reconquer their 

 country, privileges, and crown for the Welsh, who 

 shall be dispossessed of them no more until the day of 

 judgment, when the world shall be consumed with fire, 

 and so reconstructed, that neither oppression nor de- 

 vastation shall take place any more : and blessed will 

 be he who shall see the time." — Page 454. Ilistoi-ical 

 Notices extracted from the Pa/iers of the Rev. Evan 



* The manuscript is defective here, 

 was probably the word. 



" A sickle' 



