1773: A cockfighting event held in Cardiff brought in spectators from a wide area, even including inmates from the town jail. Howell Morgan of Pentyrch, also a rat-catcher, Methodist preacher and classical scholar, was so highly-regarded in the sport that he corresponded with the King of Denmark on the subject. (William Rees, Cardiff: A History of the City, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)
1784: ‘…was buried in St Athan the Revd. Mr Basset, 32 years of age, of a lingering consumption. He had been at Bath for his health and at the hot wells in Bristol where he died. A severe Methodist, he had been Curate at St Fagans and afterwards at Penmark.’ Basset had been appointed in 1778 and was the founder of Methodism in the parish. He lived at Aberthaw but it was said that ‘neither wind nor rain prevented his going to St Fagans to perform his functions’. (Charles F. Sheppard, ‘The Parish of St Fagans’, Glamorgan Historian, 1972)