Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - Random Rants, Notes and Articles No. 1 . . .

1888 - Beware the Inland Revenue Commissioners - [1096] [499] : -

'At the Penarth police-court, on Monday week, before Mr. S. Batchelor, Dr. Lewis, and Mr. Valentine Trayes, John Robinson, a refreshment-house keeper, of Cogan, was summoned by the Inland Revenue Commissioners for carrying armorial bearings (heraldry consisting of a design or image depicted on a shield) without having the necessary license. The case was a somewhat extraordinary one, as will be seen from the following facts : —

Mr. T. C. Phillips, an Inland Revenue officer, happened to meet the defendant, and noticed that he was wearing a trinket, with a seal attached, at the end of his watch chain. This was the offence, and Mr. Robinson, who had been the captain of a ship, pleaded ignorance of the law which required him to obtain a license to wear this small piece of jewellery. he bought the article at New York. — The bench fined him 10s., including costs, [equivalent to c.£50 in 2022] and the defendant remarked that "It was a lot to pay for a dollar's worth." — Dr. Lewis offered him consolation in the fact that he had gained a new experience.' - Pump Court [1100] [499] 11th August 1888.

1878 - The Fearful Distress in South Wales - 'Every week the distress in the coal and iron districts of South Wales increases in magnitude and deepens in intensity, particularly in the neighbourhood of the ironworks. At Cardiff the Workhouse is so overcrowded that the Guardians have ordered the Boardroom and the adjoining rooms used as offices to be converted into dormitories. Of the 500 collieries in Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire, only 20 are working full time. At Penarth the docks are almost deserted. Hundreds of men are said to be in a starving condition. Private gentlemen have opened their kitchens, from which soup is distributed to the poor every morning. The Windsor Trustees, who own the whole of the land in the neighbourhood, have opened a stone-yard to give employment to the men who have hitherto been employed at the docks.' - The Latter-Day Saints - Millennial Star [1101] [499] Vol.40 - 1878.