i 5 8 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



the past. He was a man of a practical business 

 mind, thoroughly interested in the present, and keen 

 to make the best use of his opportunities. He sat 

 in Parliament, was of the Council of the Marches of 

 Wales and appears in that second batch of baronets 

 which, in June, 1611, followed the first creation of 

 the previous month. All this was part of his scheme 

 of improving his worldly position and multiplying 

 his worldly goods. So " shrewd and successful " 

 was he in his dealings, that his less prosperous and 

 energetic neighbours were apt to give him an ill 

 name, and the superstition long survived at Llanrwst 

 that " the spirit of the old gentleman lies under the 

 great waterfall Rhaiadr y Wennol, there to be 

 punished, purged, spouted upon and purified from 

 the foul deeds done in his days of nature." We hear 

 that " his ancestors had been tor generations notorious 



Llantrisant, and he early determined to pursue his 

 way to fortune by the twin roads of law and 

 matrimony. " What have you ? " said the owner of 

 the Glascoed estate to the briefless barrister who 

 asked his only child's hand in marriage. " I have, 

 sir, a tongue and a gown." These were deemed 

 sufficient, and proved so, for his legal career was 

 eminently successful, though he missed the Wool- 

 sack. This was not from lack of trimming his sails 

 to suit prevailing political winds, for, as Speaker of 

 the House of Commons in 1680, we find him on the 

 Whig side and licensing the publication of Danger- 

 field's "Narrative." But when, after James II. 's 

 accession, Dangerfield was pilloried as a libeller and 

 Williams was fined /,8,ooo for his part in the matter, 

 he found it opportune to change his views, and he 

 suddenly blossoms out as Solicitor-General and a 



FROM THE FIFTH TERRACE. 



for the number of their progeny"; and this quality 

 descended to, but ended with, him ; for half a century 

 had not gone by, after his demise in 1 627, before three 

 deaths had brought the title to his fourth son's son, 

 with whom the title expired, and who had to find an 

 heir to the estates by adopting the son of the sixth 

 son's grand-daughter. Sir John Wynn, fifth and last 

 baronet, had vastly added to his inherited acres by his 

 marriage with the heiress of a large estate near 

 Ruabon, then called Watstay, but which he altered 

 to Wynnstay, and which has remained the chief seat 

 of his kinsmen. Though he had no children by his 

 wife, he had both possession and disposition of her 

 property, and he made more than one will before he 

 decided that it should descend to the issue of his 

 cousin Jane Thelwail, who had married Sir William 

 Williams, second baronet of that name. William 

 Williams the elder was the son of a vicar of 



baronet, and conducts the prosecution of the seven 

 bishops in 1688, under promise that, if successful, 

 the Great Seal would be taken from Jeffreys and 

 handed to him. As, six months later, the Revolution 

 had occurred and Jeffreys was in the Tower, 

 Williams's failure to get a conviction against the 

 bishops was, perhaps, lucky for himself, for he was 

 able to pose as a friend of the Revolution and hope 

 for office, which, however, he never got. He died in 

 1 700, and of his successor nothing need be said, except 

 that in 1692 a son, Watkin, was born unto him, 

 who was in due course adopted by Sir John Wynn. 

 Very likely this turning-point in the lad's fortunes 

 took place before 1710, when we find him a fellow- 

 commoner of Jesus College, Oxford, but it certainly 

 occurred before 1714, as then he was living with old 

 Sir John at Wynnstay. Next year he married ; the 

 year after that he entered Parliament ; and in 1719, 



