Casgliadau Arlein

Letter dated 16 August 1960, from Rev. C. Sidney Hall (Portsmouth) concerning the funeral custom of 'shot' in Machynlleth - '...I remember the "shot" at funerals in the Machynlleth Nonconformist Cemetery. You may recall that the cemetery lies up a lane on the left of the Maengwyn Street...There used to be two white cottages just inside the lane. It was a custom when I was a boy [b. 1910] for people coming away from funerals to turn into one of the cottages, place a gift in a dish and have their name taken down. I remember my father often attended funerals and told us at home that there had been a "shot". It is my impression that after the 1914-18 war they began to be less frequent - that the occurence of a "shot" was coming to be regarded as a social stigma indicating poverty...'