Page images
PDF
EPUB

1

[graphic]

These reflections have been called forth by the recent death of Mrs. TRIMMER, whose indefatigable labours to instruct the rising generation by her various writings, and by the establishment of numerous Schools to protect our Church Establishment and our holy Religion from the inroads of Scepticism on the one hand, and Fanaticism on the other and whose unwearied exertions to inculcate the principles and promote the practice of sound Morals and true Religion, are universally known and acknowledged. (See pp. 86. 143.)

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Such a woman as Mrs. TRIMMER should not be consigned to the grave without some lasting tribute of respect to her memory. It is due to her it is due to ourselves it is due to posterity. In what form or manner, and to what extent, I will not presume to dictate; but content myself with requesting that some of your readers, who know the exalted character and talents of this valuable woman, will communicate their ideas on this subject; and which, if approved, will doubtless receive the sanction and support of every Friend to Virtue and Religion. L. S.

I

Mr. URBAN, Frome, May 24. SEND you a sketch of the Old Gateway (Plate II. fig. 1.) that belonged to the Abbot's Court-house at Queen Charlton, a village distant five miles South-east from Bristol.

Collinson says, in the second volume of his "History of Somersetshire," that, at the time of the Conquest, this village, with that of Whitchurch, and many other adjoining places, was parcel of the manor of Keynsham, where an extensive Abbey was founded by William Earl of Gloucester, of the order of Black Canons: and Edward II. ratified this grant, with the villages of Whitchurch, Chewton, and Charlton. No vestige of this Abbey now remains at Keynsham ; and this Gateway is the only fragment of the Court-house remaining at

Charlton.

If any of the ingenious Antiquaries of the present day were to cross this part of the country, it might perhaps repay them, if they would deviate a mile or two from the great road leading from Bristol to Welis, and visit GENT. MAG. February, 1811.

[ocr errors]

this little retired village. - The Collector of Fossils, also, would add considerably to his collection, could he but devote a few hours for his researches in this neighbourhood, where the Cornua Ammonis, or Snake-stone, are found in prodigious quantities, from the size of half an inch to two feet diameter.

The Monkish tale of the Virgin Keyna first originated in this district; which tells us, that, when this lady arrived at years of maturity, she attracted many admirers, and many noble personages sought her in marriage : but she was deaf to all their overtures, having consecrated her virginity by a perpetual vow, for which cause she was denominated by the Britons Keyn-Wyryf, or Keyna the Virgin. At length she determined to forsake her native country, and seek some desert place where to indulge in private her religious contemplations. Directing her journey be yond the Severn, she met a certain woody place in these parts, and made her request to the Prince of the country, that she might be permitted to serve God in that spot of solitude and retirement. The Prince informed her, he was ready to grant her petition; but that the place so swarmed with serpents, that neither man nor beast could live therein; to which the Virgin replied, that she firmly trusted she should be able to drive the venomous brood out of all the country. Hereupon the place was granted her, and by her prayers all the snakes and vipers were converted into stones: and to this day all the stones in that country resemble the windings of serpents, through all the fields and villages.

R

Yours, &c.

[ocr errors]

ODDY RODGERS, of whose figure the accompanying drawing (Plate II. fig. 2.) bears a strong resemblance, was born in the village of Carnmoney, in the County of Antrim, in 1798, having no arms. There is the shape of an hand impressed on his right side, a little below where the arm-pit should be. He has been taught to read and write English, and is now supported by the bounty of the inhabitants of Carrickfergus, where he at present resides. He holds the pen between the first and second toe

of

of his left foot, and feeds himself in the like manner with a spoon. The above account has been transmitted from Ireland, and its accuracy may be depended on. EDIT.

THE NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSEHOLD BOOK. Continued from Vol. LXXX. Part II. p. 219. P. 103. My Lord's Boord-end.] In the houses of our antient Nobility they dined at long tables. The Lord and his principal guests sat at the upper end of the first table in the Great Chamber, which was therefore called The Lord's Board End; the Officers of his Household, and inferior guests, at long tables below in the hall. In the middle of each table stood a great salt-cellar; and, as particular care was taken to place the guests according to their rank, it became a mark of distinction whether a person sat above or below the salt. This and the following section, which relate to the order of serving up the victuals, will be much illustrated by the following memoir:

An Account how the Earl of Worcester lived at Ragland Castle before the Civil Wars. (1641.)

"At eleven o'clock the Castle-gates were shut, and the tables laid: two in the Dining-room; three in the Hall; one in Mrs. Watson's apartment, where the Chaplains cat, Sir Toby Matthews being the first. [This was probably the noted Sir Toby Matthews, enumerated among Lord Orford's Painters, who wrote the famous character of Lucy Piercy, Countess of Carlisle, printed by Fenton in his notes on Waiter's Poems. He was son of an Archbishop of York; but, turning Papist, had probably ac cepted the place of Chaplain in this great Earl's family, who was a Roman Catholic.] Two in the House-keeper's room for the Ladies' Women. The Earl came into the Dining-room attended by his Gentlemen. As soon as he was seated, Sir Ralph Blackstone, Steward of the House, retired: The Comptroller, Mr. Holland, attended with his Staff; as did the Sewer, Mr. Blackburn; my Lady's GentlemanUsher, Mr. Harcourt; my Lord's Gentlemen of the Chamber, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Fox, with the Daily Waiters, who were gentlemen worth from two to seven hundred pounds a year,

In the

bred up in the Castle. At the first table sate the Noble family, and such of the Nobility as came there. At the second table in the Dining-room sate Knights, and other honourable Gentlemen, attended by footmen. Hall, at the first table, sat Sir Ralph Blackstone, Steward, the Comptroller, the Secretary, the Master of the Horse, the Master of the Fish-ponds, my Lord Herbert's Preceptor, with such Gentlemen as came there under the degree of a Knight, attended by footmen, and plentifully served with wine. At the second table in the Hall (served from my Lord's table, and with other hot meat) sate the Sewer, with the Gentlemen-waiters and Pages, to the number of twenty-four. At the third table in the Hall sate the Clerk of the Kitchen, with the Yeomen Officers of the House, &c. &c."

Then follows a list of the Officers of the Household, ending with footmen, grooms, and other menial servants, to the number of 150. — Some of these footmen were brewers and bakers.

of birds and fowls which are enumerP. 104.] In looking over the list

ated in the XIXth section we find that

Cranes, which are now judged to have forsaken the island (Pennant's British Zoology), were then almost as com

mon as the Heron and Heron-sew.

Wypes are now called Lapwings; Wipa is still the Swedish name. The Tern

is the Sea-Swallow. In the list of birds

here served up to the table are many better than rank carrion; as, for infowls which are now discarded, as little

stance, "Item, It is thought good that Seegulles be hade for my Lorde's owne mees, and non other, so they be good, and in season, and at jd. a pece, or jd. ob. at moste.”

P. 114.] By way of supplement to the warrants for Deer, may not improperly be added from an antient Inquisition,

[ocr errors]

"An Account of all

Deer in the Parks and Forests in the North, belonging to the Earl of Northumberland, taken in the IVth year of Henry VIII." (1512.) The names of the parks, and the number in each, are specified. They amount to, In Northumberland, 4 parks, 1 forest, 1912. Yorshire, 8 parks, 1 wood, 1896. Cumberland, 4 parks, 3 places for Fallow and Red Deer, 1763, Total

5571; exclusive of those in Sussex, and other counties in the South.

P. 136. Habberdyn Fish.] This is the Northern term for barrelled Cod (vide Willoughby, 166.), so called from Aberdeen, antiently famous for curing this kind of fish.

P. 162. Or it be entered], i. e. before it be entered. Or in old English signifies before, as it does still in Shropshire, where it is pronounced ore. So in Shakspeare (King John, Act IV. S. 5.)

""T will be

Two long days journey, Lords, Or e'er we

meet-"

the phrase Or e'er is not rightly understood by such as imagine e'er signifies before, or is the same as ere: e'er is merely a contraction of ever, and is barely augmentation; it is the word or or ore which signifies before, and is synonymous to ere. "Veteres Angli er et or sine discrimine scribebant," says Lye in Junii Etymol. ad verb. Ere.

P. 188. Bere must be made bigger in Somer thann in Winter for turninge.] (So it is here; not tunnynge, which is an erratum ;) i. e. The beer should be made stronger in Summer than in Winter, to prevent its turning sour. Big is also the name of a species of barley, of which the malt might possibly be made; and then bigger may mean more impregnated with big.

P. 220. William Worme, my Cofferer and General Receyvour.] This William Worme, who is herein vested with such great trusts, and whose name occurs before so familiarly as to be used instead of his office (p. 56), continued to be employed under the sixth Earl of Northumberland, when he had the still more important post of Earl's Treasurer. At length he fell under a suspicion of treachery, and of betraying his master to Cardinal Wolsey, who appears to have treated that young Lord in a very arbitrary and imperious manner. In a letter written by this sixth Earl of Northumberland (son of the Author of our Household-Book) he mentions a very particular instance of the Cardinal's tyranny, in seizing upon the furniture of his Father's Chapel, particularly the fine Service-books, and applying them to his own use. As this letter

gives a curious picture of the manners as well as literature of our Nobi

lity at that time, 1 shall transcribe a great part of it; and that the rather as it is a full vindication of this Earl

of Northumberland from the charge of ingratitude, in being the person employed to arrest the Cardinal at placed under the Cardinal's roof by his father, among other young Noblemen who accepted of menial offices under that proud Prelate; but it plainly appears from his letters, that he had been treated with so much harshness and contempt, as to be under no great obligation to him on that account. In one letter he tells his friend, that the Cardinal bad wrote to forbid him attending the funeral of his own father to Beverley, and had treated him with many other indignities. These letters are written soon after that Earl's death, and are directed to his beloved cousyn Thomas Arundel, one of the Gentlemen of my Lord Legate's Prevey Chambre;" whom he addresses with the familiar appellation of "Bedfellow," as a term of endearment; which, however strange it may appear now, was consistent with the state of manners in the middle ages: Holinshed tells us of that Lord Scrope who was one of the conspirators against Henry V. "The said Lord Scroope was in such favour with the King, that he admitted him sometime to be his bedfellow ; in whose fidelity the King reposed much trust." Vide Chron. sub an.

his Castle of Cawood. He had been

1415.

66

Bedfellow, After my moste harti recomendacion: Thys Monday the iii off August I resevyd by my servaunt letters from yow beryng datt the xxth day off July, delyveryd unto hym the sayme day at the Kynges town of Newcastell: wher in I do perseayft my Lord Cardenalls pleasour ys to have such Boks as was in the Chapell of my lat Lord and Ffayther (wos soll Jhu pardon). To the accomplyshement of which, at your desyer; I am confformable, notwithstanding I trust to be able ons to set up a Chapel off myne owne. But I pray God he may look better upon mee than he dothe. But methynke I have lost verry moche, ponderynge yt ys no better regardyd: the occasion wher off he shal persayff. Fyrst, the long

Jyeug

« PreviousContinue »