The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-13 00:00:00

FESTIVITIES AT WYNNSTAY.

(From the Shrewsbury Chronicle.)
On Monday the hospitalities were confined to a
sumptuous banquet given to sixty• four of the noble and
distinguished guests now resident at Wynnstay. Wt:en
dinner was announ3ed, Sir Watkin led the Duchess of
Northumberland to her place at the table, and then took
his own place near her, having his two uncles, the
Dukes of Northumberland and the Earl of Powis, as his
supporters, the general company occupying the sur-
rounding tables, consisting of the Duchess of North-
umberland, Duke of Marlborough, Lord and Lady
Delamere, Earl and Countess of Powis, Lord Hill
(who wore some splendid decorations), Lady Churaill
Lady Rendlesham, Miss Thelluson, Hon. H. and Lady
Harriet Clive, Hon. Mr. Curzon, Hon. Mr. Cholmon-
deley, the Ladies Herbert and Miss Clive, and the two
Hon. Mr. Herberts, Miss Percy, Mr. Rowley, Sir
Philip and Lady Egerton, Captain Macdonald, Captain
P,rker, Sir S,cpben Glynne and Mr. Henry Glynne,
Sir Rowland Hill, Sir John Williams, Colonel Hall,
Mr. Baring, Mr. C. W. Wynn, Hon. Captain Fores-
ter, Mr. and Mrs. Gaskell, and a number of the junior
branches of those families.

On Tuesday covers were again laid for 62 in the
dining-room of the hall, the guests consi• ting chiefly of
the company invited the previous day, with the addition
of the Countess of Jersey and Lady C. Villiers, the
Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry, and Lady
F. Vane, Lady Cantalupe, Capt. Hamilton, Hon. Mr.
St. John, and Counts Nostol and Kondroffsky. Tne
band of the Royal Denbigh Militia played at intervals
during dinner, alternately with Mr. Pugh, the cele-
brated Welsh harpist, who wore a splendid medal,
presented to him by her Majesty the Queen, while on
a visit in Wales with her Royal Mother in 1332. His
performances were highly applauded.

On the same evening a ball took place, which was
attended by the Noble and distinguished .
party pre-
viouslybesides 476 invited guests. W
band occupied the orchestra.
Tile party supped in the Pavilion, which, when
lighted up, and adorned by such a splendid party, ex-
hibited a gorgeous and enchanting spectacle. Mr.
Gunter, of London, supplied the supper, which (a stand
up one) was on the most costly and luxurious scale.
On Wednesday another private dinner party took
place, the guests being nearly the same as those attend-
ing on Monday and Tueida.y. In the afternoon the
children of the various schools at Ruabon were boun-
teously entertained on the lawn of Wynnstsy, where
they danced and enjoyed themselves merrily till night-
fall, cheered on by a well-disciplined band, consisting of
the pupils of Mr. Madeley, who performed their de-
lightful task greatly to his and their credit.
In the evening, Sir W. W. Wynn, and the Noble
Party at Wynnstay, together with Mrs. Colonel and Mrs.
Myddleton Biddulph, and the large party at Chirk
Castle, attended a grand ball, given by the Viscount and
Viscountess Dungannon at Brynkynalt Hal!. Weip-
pert's band was is attendance, and the entertaiuments
were on a superb scale.
Yesterday dinner was provided for upwards of 500
persons, which was laid out in the pavilion. Sir
Watkin presided at the centre table, having the Duke
of Northumberland and the Earl of Powis on each side
of him. Behind these distinguished personages the
sideboard was placed, on which was displayed a gor-
geous show of gall and silver plate, including all the
racing cups won by the late S:r Watkin, not only at
Shrewsbury and Oswestry, but at all the racing coun-
ties around. The costly silver vase preseuted to

Lim by the county of Denbigh occupied 'a c)ospicuous
place. on the lid, her,
Mr. D'Ernst, the exhl6.Lor of al, fi:',3..rorlia, brought
his display to Wynnstay on Tuc,day night.

THE GUERNSEY TENURE WY
LAND.
(From Mr. Duncan's " Guernsey.")
" Viewing the agricultural system of Guernsey as a
whole, the feltility of the soil and the weight of the
crops cannot be disputed ; the superior quality of the
cows, the excellence of the meet, milk, butter, and ve-
getables, must also be admitted. Let the production
of the island be cog pared to that of any ten thousand
acres kept in one, two, or three hands in Great Bri-
tain, and the advantage of small farms will be obvious.
Independently of the two thousand families living in
the cJuntry, compare the surplus produce sent to
market with the surplus produce of any ten thousand
acres in one, two, or three hands elsewhere, and see
on which side the balance will be found. The Guern-
sey ten thousand acres keep t:o thousand five hun-
dred milch cows, which produce one with the
other, all the year round, five pounds of butter
per week ; thie, at one shilling per pouLd, or its
va'uc in rni,k, amounts to 32,3001., three-quarters of
which are realised in the town. Five hundred and
fifty cows arc exported, arid about that number of fat
cows or oxen are slaughtered; moreover, :ibout fire
thousand porkers arc either exported or sold le the
town. Tee quantity of vegetables, fruit, poultry, and
eggs brought to market is prodigious, and as ny,ny as
267,733 bushels of potatoes were exported in the year
1839. The cider of the island is of tLe hest quality,
and several hundred hogsheads arc annually shipped to
Eagland. From all this, it must be evid-nt that the
agricultural produce is very considerable.
" The value of land in this island will be scarcely
credible to an Eugl sh reader. It must be very infe-
rior indeed if the rent is not 21. per vergee, being at the
rate of five pounds per statute acre. The best land, of
which the Couture is perhaps the faire t specimen, is
much higher, being valued at three pounds to three
pounds five shilings per vergee."

" Having explained the Guernsey system of landed
tenure and its agricultural results, we shall now
allude to the moral influence produced on the in-
habitants by this system. One of its first consequences
is to raise the standard of virtue —to inspire the whole
population with a manly and independent spirit—and to
destroy that cringing adulation and fawning servility,
which leases for sears have engendered among the
tenantry of Engl Ind. All men, no matter to what po-
litical party they belong, have admitted that the insti-
tution of property is the basis of civilizaeion. This
principle being admitted sound by universal consent, it
follows that whatever contracts its expansion must be
vicious, aid that whatever promotes its extension must
be nationally beneficial. The bare possession of pro-
perty on a doubtful tenure is scarcely a good ; it is es-
sential that the possession should be secure ; and if
security for a term of years be desirable, much more
so must it be for permanent enjoyment. Now, the
plan of leases for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one
years, together with tenancies from year to year,
and at will, is bad in principle, as these- tenures merely
convey a temporary interest determinable at a date spe-
cified ; the working farmer thus becomes a bird of 'as-
sage, without any fixed home. He may be prudent, in-
dustrious, anti sober—a good father, a good husband, a
good neighbour, and a good cit;aen ; but these virtues
avid him nothing ; he lives in a state of agricultural
servitude, and, et the expiration of hi; lease, the caprice
or spite of his landlord may expel him from tho
Widely different is the condition of the Guernseyman.
Occe possessed of land, he can never lose it, except by
his own fault ; he has only to pay the stipulated quar-
ters of rent, and be continues absolute Lord of the
property—he feels proud of his position, and the spirit
of independence is within him—he is not classed among
the locomotive machines of humanity, who, in Great
Britain and Ireland, are shifted from county to county,
seeking a precarious subsistence from an inso;ent and
grasping squirearchy. No ; he has a solid stake in the
country, though it may be small—he can say, with
honest pride, This house h mine ; that field is mine ;
and, when I die, the law will give them to my children.'
" This system of tenure prompts to industry, en-
courages economy, and represses intemperance. A
man having paid down in cash one-fourth of the
value of the land he holds, is stimulated by the
most powerful impulse to redeem the annual quarters,
and disengage his estate from the payment of rent.
In the eyes of a person so circumstanced, labour loses
its repulsive character, for he feels that he is working
for himself. He has an object constantly before his
mind, which he steadily pursues. The propensity to
drunkenness, so fatal to the working classes of Great
Britain, is counteracted with the Guruseyman by the
desire and the opportunity of acquiring a disencum-
bered landed property. But the English or Irish le-
bourer has no such incentive to moral restraint. Fir
from contemplating even the most remote possibility
of becoming the absolute owner of an acre of land, he
considers himself eminently fortunate if he can secure
regular wages as a labourer. He passes through exist-
ence only one remove higher than the oxen which he
drives at the plough. His .feelings are deadened—his
mind is brutalizNl—his energies are depressed. His
life resembles that of a horse in a mill, confined within
a circle out of which he can seldom escape.
" As a teacher of prudence, the Guernsey tenure be-
comes a powerful auxiliary to the usefulness of
savings' banks. Out of this small population, in round
numbers 26,000 inhabitants, there are 1,920 depositors,
possessing a vested sum of 36,4651, and upwards. The
facility of obtaining a proprietary right of land, without
paying down the purchase money, is a strong incentive
to early habits of economy. A farm, of course, re-
quires to be stocked ; and, with the prospect of future
independence before him, a young man will deposit his
earnings in the savings bank till he has accumulated suf-
ficient capital to purchase seeds, cattle, and implements
of husbandry. It is this hope, or 'rather, under Pro-
vidence, it is this certainty, that makes a Guernsey-
man that eminently careful, cautious, and far-seeing
person that he is ; while, on the other hand, it is fair
to conclude that the despair of all prospective ame-
lioration in his condition, renders an Irishman impru-
dent, inconsiderate, and reckless. We may with truth
affirm that habits of prudence, economy, moral re-
straint, and the wisdom of appreciating in what consists
a competency, and the disposition to live within one's
income, are virtues indigenous to the soil of Guernsey,
and rooted in the national character. Agrarian out-
rage, is unknown ; there is not on record an instance of
machine-breaking, tick-burning, or ham-stringing
cattle ; the mass are interested in the preservation of
order, for the mass have property, or may acquire it.
Institutions, based on justice, need not a soldiery or a
police. The citizen and the consteb!e are identified.
But in Ireland there are no bonds of sympathy between
the landlord and the agricultural labourer ; in most
cases they never see each other ; the absent propri-
etor regards the tenant as a serf, and the tenant con-
siders the landlord as a tyrannic .1 usurper ; thus the
standard of morals is reduced to zero."

DEATH OF AN ECCENTRIC CHA-

RACTER.

On Sunday last, at Walton, near High Ercall, at the
advanced age of 94, Thomas Light, better known by
the sobriquet of " Tommy Light the Conjurer." This
eccentric individual had front an early period of his life
been a professor of the " mysterious art of Conjuring,"
which he continued to practice with considerable pecu-
niary advantage to the close of his days. His personal
appearance was of no common order, as he always
adhered to the peculiar character of dress in fashion
about the middle of the last centary. A stranger on
meeting " Oid Tommy" was instantly struck tt ith the
excessive originality of his manner and costume ; clad
in a light sky blue " coat of other days" with au extra-
vagantly 12ngthened linsey vest with large flaps descend-
ing over scanty " continualions." This antiquated
oracle usually attended the neighbouring markets to
render his prophetic advice and assistance to all whom
he could &l possesse6 of the two great requisites for
the successful uevelopement of his mystic craft, viz.,
faith and money.
Among the many eccentric incidents of his life was
that of purchasing a wife, who afterwards resided with
him until death dissolved the unhallowed bargain.
From this time her daughter, by a 1,1446:ate husband,
superintended his domestic affairs, until at an advanced
age site was accidentally burned to death. Sonic, time
before his death he gave several considerable sums of
money, and has since willed further sums to different
patties ; a few days ago, several sovereigns and guineas
were found among some old iron in a chest in his dwel-
ling, and many are the conjectures that a home t re-
maras to be discovzred on the premises he occupied,
which consisted of a cottage, orchard, and garden, the
property of the Duke of Cleveland. " Oid Tommy"
was the oldest tenant on his Grace's Ercall Estates.—
Skrewsbztry Chronicle.