1821.]

each side.

The procession entered the choir by the West door, after which the Bishop seated himself at the upper end, the Chaplains in the middle, and the Dean at the lower*. During the first anthem, he fumigated the altar and image of the Trinity, and repeated the verse Lætamini, &c. to which all present responded. After a short prayer, similar to the collect now usedt, the chaunter-chorister commenced the De Sancta Maria, which was succeeded by the Prelate's benediction, who, receiving the crosier from one of his attendants, figured a cross on his forehead, exclaiming, “ Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini," the congregation answering, "Qui fecit Cælum et Terram." Some other ceremonies having taken place, be dismissed them with these words: "Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus."The procession then returned in the same order as before.

Amongst the various imitations of dignity which distinguished these Festivals, the Boy Bishop claims a high distinction, as well for its solemnity, as its observance of decency and order; and so great was the respect entertained for its observance, that all persons were forbidden, under pain of anathema, to disturb the children during their divine service; nor was any priest, of whatever degree, allowed to ascend the upper step of the altar till the procession of the following day should be finished.

II. From the different authors who mention this Prelate, we have but a

"Ut Decanus cum Canonicis infimum locum; Sacellani, medium; Scholares verò cum suo Episcopo ultimum et dignissimum locum occupant." Statute of Sarum, apud Gregory.

+ Deus, cujus hodierna die præconium Innocentes Martyres non loquendo, sed moriendo, confessi sunt, omnia in nobis vitiorum mala mortifica; ut fidem tuam quam Lingua nostra loquitur, etiam moribus vita fateatur ; Qui cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto, &c.

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faint idea of his office and duties, as far as regards the Church of Sarum. He held a visitation in his little diocese, a circumstance in itself sufficient to show that his appointment was not merely one of commemoration, or its pomp independent of utility. As the Festival was observed in all collegiate churches in England and France *, *, it is not to be wondered at, that different modes of celebration should exist. In some chapels, on the anniversary of St. Nicholas and the Innocents, the children performed Mysteries and Moralities, with sports of a less austere, nature, but without any deviation from reverence or decorum. St. Paul's, the prelate delivered a sermon to his congregation, probably in public, as the service was attended by the scholars of that institution. From these scanty particulars, it is just to suppose that the prelate's of fice was consonant to the directions the elegant historian of Urbino has given:

At

"A Bishoppes roume is not so muche an honour as it is an heuye burden, not so muche a laude as a lode. For his deutie, is not onely to weare a mitre and crosier, but also to watche over the flocke of the Lorde vigilantly, to teache with the worde diligently, with example honestly, and in all thynges too go afore them uprightly, and leade them in the waie of trueth, that thei maie folowe the patron of his godly lyuyng, and there as it were in a myrroure beholde bowe thei oughte too refourme and confourme their lyvyng."+

remains to be discovered. The Boy Whether this office was lucrative Bishop of Cambrai is the only one of whose revenues and patronage any idea can be formed; he was in the receipt of eertain rents (though to what amount is not said), and had the disposal of whatever prebend became void in his time, which he usually bestowed on his preceptor. His power was of short duration, being limited to a month, but seems to have been more extensive than that of the petty prelates in this country. Nor has the Antiquary informed his readers if the honours of the chorister ceased with his episcopal functions, whether he still retained a superiority among his companions, or sunk into

*Godwin's Life of Chaucer, I. 157.Warton, I. vi. Strutt, ubi supra. + Langley's Translation, fol. LXXXX. Molanus, apud Gregory.

the

the condition of a chaunter-boy, undistinguished and unregarded. One thing alone is certain. In case of a Bishop dying within the appointed term, he was buried with a melancholy pomp, in all his ornaments; the figure of a prelate with a dragon at his feet, in allusion to a passage in Scripture*, being placed on his tomb.

III. The decline of this Festival throughout Europe may be attributed to two reasons, not entirely independent of each other. On the Continent, after surviving the numerous parodies of religion, the Boy Bishop appears to have sunk into disuse, from the causes which combined to subvert the Catholic faith, and the corruption occasioned by time. With these ideas, the Council of Basil prohibited the Feast of Innocents, together with that of Fools, as an abuse of Religion. In England the cause was somewhat different, for it fell with the faith to which it was appendant. Yet it is but just to observe, that one whose name is sufficient to recommend his opinions, conceived the idea of rendering it serviceable in instruction; it was COLET, Dean of St. Paul's, and founder of the School, who added to the importance of a ceremony, already on the verge of abolition. In the statutes of his foundation, drawn up in 1512, he directs that the boys "shall every Childermas Day come to Paule's Churche, and hear the Childe Bishop's sermon; and after be at hygh Masse; and each of them offer a penny to the Childe Byshop, and with them the maisters and surveyors of the Schole +." This worthy priest did not live to see the suppression of his favourite custom+, which was abolished by an Order of Council in 1536, during the progress of the dissolution of monasteries. The order, which is extremely curious, contains some notices of this remarkable Festival:

"Whereas heretofore dyvers and many superstitious and chyldysh observances have been used, and yet to this day are observed and kept in many and sundry places of this realm ; children be strangelie decked and apparayled to counterfeit priests, bishops, and women, and so ledde with songs and dances from house to

house, blessing the people, and gathering of money; and boyes do singe masse, and preache in the pulpits, with such other unfitinge and inconvenient usages, which tend rather to derysyon than anie true glorie of God, or honor of his sayntes *."

Although this denunciation attacks nothing but what was agreeable to the humour of the people, and consistent with a custom which produced no great evil, in consequence of the rage for abolishing every thing established as Catholic or profane, the Boy Bishop shared the fate of his religion. During the short reign of Mary, this Festival experienced a temporary revival t; but her decease, and the subsequent regulations, gave the death-blow to an institution, which, as Gregory justly observes, 'deserveth to be remembered, tho' it were not fit to have been done." The triennial procession of the Eton scholars ad montem is by many conjectured to have originated in this custom; and some traces of this imitation of dignity may be discerned in the Captain of the Collegiate School of Westminster: both of these foundations were originally of a monastic character, and the effect of scenes to which their members were once familiar, is yet to be found within their walls. (To be continued.)

Mr. URBAN, Sept. 4. N reply to a question (p. 124), I wish to state, that Sir John Pakington, the second bart. of the family, married a daughter of Thomas Lord Coventry, Lord Keeper, the supposed authoress of the "Whole Duty of Man," by whom he had an only sou and two daughters, of whom the eldest was the wife of Antony Eyre, of Rampton, Nottinghamshire, esq.

I wish you had asked Father Gandolfi (p. 185), what was his reason for wishing to disguise his name. I remember, about 1760, two merchants in London of that name, which they had no wish to disguise, Italian Catholicks of high credit, who might, perhaps, be his father and uncle: he was a bigoted, unrelenting priest; but it cannot be denied that he said some things to the present Bp. of Peterborough, which that Right Rev. Prelate could not easily parry. J. B.

* Cotton MS. apud Strutt. + Strutt. Warton, II. 16. Mr. Godwin calls the procession biennial,

Some

THE

Berks.

(Continued from p. 35.)

HE Cell, Place, or as it was subsequently termed, the Hall, occupied a gentle eminence pleasantly situated upon the Southern side of the road, towards the Eastern extremity of the village, commanding an agreeable prospect over the vale beneath, and sheltered from the chilling blasts of the North and Eastern winds by the hills of Botley and Cumnerhurst. The buildings, though they presented no appearance of grandeur, were constructed in a style far superior to the other lazarettos in the vicinity of Oxford; so that they were, in some degree, characteristic of the opulent society to which they appertained. The principal apartments were situated at a short distance from the road (the intervening space being occupied by a court-yard), and disposed in a quadrangular form, enclosing an area, which extended seventytwo feet in length from North to South, and fifty-two in breadth from East to West. The Offices, as may be seen by the foundations, were erected behind the Western side of the quadrangle, and along the East and Western sides of the Court-yard. The grounds, attached to these buildings, lay towards the South and West: they were not very extensive, and a considerable portion being allotted to a pleasure garden, the Park was so very much contracted, that it is reported to contain no more than twenty-five acres. The author of "an Historical Account of Cumner" has expressed a conjecture, that “the Park, at the period when the Place was more highly favoured, extended to the boundary of the next parish, a distance of three quarters of a mile from the house," with which I should be inclined to coincide, had I not seen an antient record, now in the possession of the vicar, in which the Park is expressly termed an adjoining close. The Court-yard was spacious, and separated from the road by a lofty and substantial wall, which, from a portion still remaining, appears to have been constructed of squared stones of a magnitude equally unusual and unnecessary, in works of this description. Towards the Western end of this wall was situated GENT. MAG. September, 1821.

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the principal entrance, which, from an inscription carved over it, and copied by Dr. Buckler previous to its removal, was erected by Forster in the year 1575. When the Place was pulled down, it is reported that the Earl of Abingdon ordered this entrance to be carefully taken down, intending to have it rebuilt at a principal entrance gateway to his park at Wytham; but afterwards, considering the inscription it bore was more applicable to a sacred edifice, he changed his purpose, and caused it to be re-erected at the entrance to Wytham Churchyard from the village. It is very evident, however, that there is some incorrectness accompanying this popular tradition: the gateway removed to Wytham never could have formed the principal entrance to Cumnerplace, for it has suffered no alteration, or diminution in any of its parts, and yet its width is not a third the width of a pair of old gates yet remaining at Cumner, which are reported formerly to have hung beneath the carriage gateway. But if we advert to the modes of constructing entrance gateways practised during the Tudor period, we shall discover that the duplex form, which consisted of a postern attached to the carriagegate, to have been most prevalent. Of such a construction is the entrance to the outer court-yard of the Manorhouse in the neighbouring village of Yarnton (co. Oxon.) erected during this period; the postern of which corresponds, in some respects, with the gateway at Wytham, although neither so elegant in its form, or correct in its details. I suspect, therefore, that the gateway removed to Wytham, was merely the postern, and that the carriage entrance, to which it was appended, has been totally demolished.

This postern (for so I shall presume to term it) is of the pointed style of architecture, and although erected at that period when this mode of building was extremely vitiated, and about to be entirely disused, is particularly correct in its design, and the mouldings are remarkably bold and wellwrought. The door-way measures eight feet in height, and three feet, four inches in width, and is formed by an elegant pointed arch, enclosed by an architrave of a square form, the

spandrils