Annual outing

2026 Annual Outing

On 22nd September the Bibliographical Group visited Mostyn Hall in Flintshire, the seat of the Mostyn Baronets since 1660 and of the Barons Mostyn since 1831. Dr Shaun Evans, Director of the Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates at Bangor University, gave us a very informative tour of the hall, including the heraldry and the portraits. Two pedigree rolls richly decorated with coloured coats of arms, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, had been put out for us to see.

After a delicious buffet lunch we gathered in the study, where our guide showed us a selection of books from the Mostyn Hall library. Several members of the Mostyn family have been book collectors. The manuscripts and a number of printed books were purchased by the National Library of Wales a little over a century ago, and more books were acquired at a sale in the 1970s, but there are still many interesting volumes at Mostyn Hall. The books we looked at included a beautifully-bound Book of Common Prayer, an early edition of the sermons of the 16th-century martyr Hugh Latimer, and a cartographic publication signed by Humphrey Llwyd (1527–1568), compiler of the earliest printed map of Wales.