| Description | Very quaint and interesting; in many cases the recipes are associated with members of prominent families in Anglesey and without. E.G., it is well to know that Henry Rowlands often tried to cure tooth-ache by rubbing his teeth 'moderately' with tobacco ashes (p. 110) and that an infallible cure for sore eyes had been found in London (and handed over to Amy Rowlands by Morris Owen of Holyhead) (p.112a). Who was 'pembrockshir Bess' who "has a reciet for curing megrims in the head?" (p. 176).
Inserted amongst the recipes (p.p. 164, 165a) is an agreement between John Rowlands of Coetmor and a labourer named Hugh ab William John (1732), the latter to keep watch and ward over the cattle of a certain farm, to keep it well-fenced, & to work at the hay and the corn harvests (rate tenpence per day for mowing - own victuals). In return Rowlands allowed Hugh to have part of the house he lived in rent free, and also all the gardens "excepting the Orchard". At the foot is the mark of the labourer and a rather illiterate signature by a witness named 'Griffith Elis'.
Many pages are blank, and several torn off. |