It may truly be said to stand near the chapel (as his biographer calls it), being distant only the width of the road, thirty-four feet, which in Herbert's time was forty feet, as the building shows. On the south is a grass-plat sloping down to the river, whence is a beautiful view of Sarum Cathedral in the distance. A very aged fig-tree grows against the end of the house, and a medlar in the garden, both, traditionally, planted by Herbert.
The whole length and breadth of the church is forty-five feet by eighteen. The south and west windows are of the date called Decorated, say 1300. They are two-light windows, and worthy of imitation. The east window is modern. The walls have much new brickwork and brick buttresses, after the manner recommended in certain Hints to Churchwardens, Lond. 1825. A little square western turret contains an ancient bell of the fourteenth century (diameter, twenty-four inches), the daily sound of which used to charm the ploughmen from their work, that they "might offer their devotions to God with him."
"Note, it was a saying of his 'That his time spent in prayer and cathedral music elevated his soul, and was his heaven upon earth.'"Walton.
The doorway is Jacobean, as is the chest or parish coffer, and also the pulpit canopy; the old sittings had long been removed. The font is circular, of early English date, lined with lead, seventeen inches diameter, by ten inches deep. The walls were (1841) very dilapidated.
It cannot but be a surprise to every admirer of George Herbert and to all visitors to this highly favoured spot, to find no monument whatever to the memory of that bright example of an English parish priest. This fact need surely only to be made known to insure ample funds for rebuilding the little church, and "beautifying" it in all things as Herbert would desire (he once did it "at his own cost"), retaining, if I may be allowed to suggest, the decorated windows, with the font and bell, which, from my Notes and Recollections, seem to be all that remains of what he must have so often looked upon and cherished.
From the register I was permitted to extract this entry:
"Mr. George Herbert, Esq., Parson, of Ffoughlston and Bemerton, was buried 3 day of March, 1632."
The locus in quo is by this still left doubtful. May I, in conclusion, add a quotation from Isaac Walton:
"He lived and died like a saint, unspotted from the world, full of alms deeds, full of humility, and all the examples of a virtuous life. 'I wish (if God shall be so pleased) that I may be so happy as to die like him.'"
H. T. Ellacombe.Clyst St. George, Nov. 25. 1850.
MINOR NOTES
Lord Mayor's Show in 1701.Among the varieties which at different times have graced the procession of the City on Lord Mayor's day, be pleased to take the following from the Post-boy, Oct. 30. to Nov. 1. 1701:
"The Maiden Queen who rid on the Lord Mayor's day in the pageant, in imitation of the Patroness of the Mercer's Company, had a fine suit of cloaths given her, valued at ninety guineas, a present of fifty guineas, four guineas for a smock, and a guinea for a pair of gloves."
Y. S.Sir Thomas Phillipps's Manuscripts.Many inquiries are made in your useful publication after books and authors, which may easily be answered by the querist referring to the Catalogue of Sir Thomas Phillipps's Manuscripts in the British Museum, the Society of Antiquaries, the Athenæum, or the Bodleian Library.
T.Translation from Owen, &c.I do not remember seeing in a subsequent number of "Notes And Queries" any version of Owen's epigram, quoted by Dr. Maitland in No. 17. I had hoped Rufus would have tried his hand upon it; but as he has not, I send you a translation by an old friend of the Doctor's, which has at least the merit of being a close one, and catching, perhaps, not a little of the spirit of the original.
"Owen de Libro suo"Oxoniæ salsus (juvenis tum) more vetusto
Wintoniæque (puer tum) piperatus eram.
Si quid inest nostro piperisve salisve libello,
Oxoniense sal est, Wintoniense piper."
"When fresh at Oxon I a salting got;
At Winton I'd been pepper'd piping hot;
If aught herein you find that's sharp and nice,
'Tis Oxon's seasoning, and Winton's spice."
I subjoin also an epitaph1 from the chapel of Our Ladye in Gloucester Cathedral, translated by the same hand.
"Elizabetha loquitur"Conjugis effigiem sculpsisti in marmore conjux
Sic me immortalem te statuisse putas;
Sed Christus fuerat viventi spesque fidesque
Sic me mortalem non sinit esse Deus."
"Say, didst thou think within this sculptured stone
Thy faithful partner should immortal be?
Fix'd was her faith and hope on Christ alone,
And thus God gave her immortality."
Deanery of Gloucester.
Epigram on the late Bull.Pray preserve the following admirable epigram, written, it is said, by one of the most accomplished scholars of the university of Oxford:
"Cum Sapiente Pius nostras juravit in aras:
Impius heu Sapiens, desipiensque Pius."
Thus translated:
"The wise man and the Pius have laid us under bann;
Oh Pious man unwise! oh impious Wise-man!"
Bailie Nicol Jarvie (Vol. ii., p. 421.).When we spoke recently of Charles Mackay, the inimitable Bailie Nicol Jarvie of one of the Terryfications (though not by Terry) of Scott's Rob Roy having made a formal affidavit that he was a real "Edinburgh Gutter Bluid," we suspect some of our readers themselves suspected a joke. The affidavit itself has, however, been printed in the Athenæum, accompanied by an amusing commentary, in which the document is justly pronounced "a very curious one." Here it is:
"At Edinburgh, the Fourteenth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and fifty years.
"In presence of John Stoddart, Esq., one of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the City of Edinburgh, appeared Charles Mackay, lately Theatre Royal, residing at number eleven Drummond Street, Edinburgh; who being solemnly sworn and examined depones, that he is a native of Edinburgh, having been born in one of the houses on the north side of the High Street of said city, in the month of October one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven. That the deponent left Edinburgh for Glasgow when only about nine years of age, where he sojourned for five years; thence he became a wanderer in many lands, and finally settled once more in Edinburgh a few months before February eighteen hundred and nineteen years, when the drama of Rob Roy