Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

This is a better fate than kings,
hence jentle peace and love doth flow,
for fancy is the rate of things;
I'am pleased, because I think it so.
for a hart that is nobly true,

all the world's arts can n'er subdue."

This poem immediately follows the one in which Toddington in Bedfordshire (which the Duke spells, probably as then pronounced, Tedington) is referred to.

17. Prayers after the confession of sins, and the sense of pardon obtained. - pp. 108-125.

These prayers breathe a spirit of the most humble and ardent piety; and if composed by the Duke himself, exhibit the weakness of his character in a more favourable light than the remainder of the volume. One paragraph is striking:

[ocr errors]

66 Mercy, mercy, good Lord! I aske not of thee any longer the things of this world; neither power, nor honours, nor riches, nor pleasures. No, my God, dispose of them to whom thou pleasest, so that thou givest me mercy.'

19.

18. "The Batteryes that can be made at Flushing to keep ships from coming in.” — pp. 127, 128. 19. "Traité de la guere ou Politique militaire.” pp. 130-132.

[ocr errors]

20. "The Rode that is to be taken from Bruxels to Diren, the Pri. of Orange's house."- p. 133. 21. "The Road from Bruxells to Sousdyck, the Prince of Orange his hous."-p. 134.

22. "The way that I tooke from Diren, when I went for England, Nov. the 10. 84."— p. 135. 23. "The way that I took when I came from England, December the 10th. 84."- p. 137.

24. "The way that I took the first day of Jan. n. st. [168] from Bruxells to the Hague."— p. 139. 25. Similar memoranda from 11th to 14th March, 1685, between Antwerp and Dort. p. 141. 26. The addresses of various persons in Holland, London, Paris, and elsewhere, to whom letters were to be written, 1685.—pp. 142. 147–155.

27. "The footway from Trogou to Amsterdam." p. 143.

-

28. An obscure memorandum, as follows:-"1683. Munday the 5th of November. H. W. had T. The 9th of November, Poupe. The 16th of November, Poupe."- p. 156.

29. Value of duckatons, pistols, and gilders. — Ib. 30. Note of the route from London to Tedington. p. 157.

Although this volume is not of the same historical value as the Diary mentioned by Welwood, yet it is a curious and interesting relic of the unfortunate man who possessed it, and whose want of education, superstition, and frivolity are so prominently displayed in its pages. As to its recent history, Dr. Anster states that it was purchased at a book-stall in Paris, in 1827, by an Irish divinity student; the same, probably, who

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Stanton Drew and its Tradition. At the little

village of Stanton Drew, in the county of Somerset, east of the road between Bristol and Wells, stands a well-known Druidical monument, which, in the opinion of Dr. Stukeley, was more ancient than that at Abury. It consists (according to a recent writer) of four groups of stones, forming (or, rather, having formed when complete) two circles; and two other figures, one an ellipse. Although the largest stones are much inferior in their dimensions to those at Stonehenge and of them being nine feet in height and twenty-two Abury, they are by no means contemptible; some feet in girth. There is a curious tradition very prevalent amongst the country people, respecting the origin of these remains, which they designate the "Evil Wedding," for the following good and substantial reasons:- Many hundred years ago (on a Saturday evening), a newly married couple, with their relatives and friends, met on the spot now covered by these ruins, to celebrate their nuptials. Here they feasted and danced right merrily, until the clock tolled the hour of midnight, when the piper (a pious man) refused to play any longer this was much against the wish of the guests, and so exasperated the bride (who was fond of dancing), that she swore with an oath, she would not be baulked in her enjoyment by a beggarly piper, but would find a substitute, if she went to h-ll to fetch one. She had scarcely uttered the words, when a venerable old man, with a long beard, made his appearance, and having listened to their request, proffered his services, which were right gladly accepted. The old gentleman (who was no other than the Arch-fiend himself) having taken the seat vacated by the godly piper, commenced playing a slow and solemn air, which on the guests remonstrating he changed into one more lively and rapid. The company now began to dance, but

soon found themselves impelled round the performer so rapidly and mysteriously, that they would all fain have rested. But when they essayed to retire, they found, to their consternation, that they were moving faster and faster round their diabolical musician, who had now resumed his original shape. Their cries for mercy were unheeded, until the first glimmering of day warned the fiend that he must depart. With such rapidity had they moved, that the gay and sportive assembly were now reduced to a ghastly troop of skeletons. "I leave you," said the fiend, "a monument of my power and your wickedness to the end of time:" which saying, he vanished. The villagers, on rising in the morning, found the meadow strewn with large pieces of stone, and the pious piper lying under a hedge, half dead with fright, he having been a witness to the whole transaction.

Godalming, May 10, 1851.

Minar Notes.

DAVID STEVENS.

The Hon. Spencer Perceval.-Being on a tour through the West of England some years ago, I found myself one morning rapidly advancing up the river Tamar, in the gig of "the Captain of the Ordinary" at Plymouth. We were bound for the noble ruins of Trematon Castle, in the area of which a good modern house has been erected, and in one of the towers is arranged a very pleasing collection of antiquities.

of the door as any one entered with wild and restless gaze at length Mr. Perceval arrived, whose person (although unknown to him) and dress he described, as also the manner in which the horrid deed was done: he further communicated the words uttered by the victim to the effect "the villain has murdered-;" how the wounded man was treated, and the person of the medical man who was on the instant called in.

These, with other particulars, which have escaped my memory, were thus recorded, and the first newspaper he received confirmed the accuracy of this extraordinary dream. M. W. B.

An Adventurer in 1632.—I transcribe from a manuscript letter now before me, dated “Tuesday, Whitsun-week, 1632," the following passage. Can you or any of your correspondents give me (or tell me where I am likely to find) any further information of the adventurer there named ?

"Heer is much Speach of the Brauery of a Porter yt hath taken a Braue House, and hath his Coach & 4 Horses. Y⚫ Lord Mayor examined him how he gott yt Wealth: he answered nothing. Then y Lords of y Council gott out of him, that he being the Pope's Brother Borne in Essex, Goodman Linges Sonnes, was maintained by him, and tempted much to have come over to him: these 2 Brothers being Ship Boyes to a French pirate, the porter gott meanes to come againe into England, but y⚫ other being a Witty Boy was sould to a Coortier in Paris, who trauelling to Florence, thear bestowed his Boy of a Great Man, who when he dyed tooke such affection to this Boy,

As we proceeded up the river, the gallant cap-y changeing his name to his owne left his estate to tain related the following anecdote in reference to the then proprietor of Trematon:

It is well known that in the afternoon of the 12th May, 1812, the Hon. Spencer Perceval, the then prime minister, fell by the hand of Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons; the cause assigned by the murderer being the neglect of, or refusal to discharge a supposed claim he had upon the government.

On the same night the gentleman above alluded to, and residing at Trematon, had the tragic scene so minutely and painfully depicted in his sleep, that he could not resist the desire of sending the particulars to a friend in town, which he did by the up mail, which departed a few hours after he had risen on the following morning.

He informed his friend that his topographical knowledge of London was very meagre; and that as to the House of Commons (the old one), he had seen only the exterior: he went on to state, that, dreaming he was in town, he had a desire to hear the debates in Parliament, and for this purpose enquired his way to the lobby of the House, the architectural peculiarities of which he minutely described; he gave an exact description of the few officials and others in the room, and especially of a tall, thín man, who seemed to watch the opening

him and so in time grew a Florentine, a Cardinall, & now Pope, & y greatest linguist for the Latine yt

ever was.

[ocr errors]

C. DE D.

[Maffeo Barberini (Urban VIII.) was the Roman pontiff between 1623 and 1644, and is said to have been born at Florence in 1568, of a noble family. He was a good classical scholar, and no mean Latin poet. One charge brought against him was his weak partiality towards his nephews, who abused his old age and credulity. It is probable some of our correspondents can throw some light on this mysterious document.]

Almanacs. - A friend of mine, in taking down his old rectory house last year, found under one of the floors a book almanac, of which the following is the title given :

"A Prognossicacion and an Almanac fastened together, declaring the Dispocission of the People, and also of the Wether, with certaine Electyons and Tymes chosen both for Phisicke and Surgerye, and for the Husbandman. And also for Hawekying, Huntying, Fyshing, and Foulyinge, according to the Science of Astronomy, made for the yeare of our Lord God M.D. L. calculed for the Merydyan of Yorke, and praeticed by Anthony Askam."

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

of the George, next to Saynt Dunstone's Churche, by Wyllyam Powell, cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum."

Then follows the "Prognossicacion,” the titlepage to which is as follows:

"A Prognossicacion for the yere of our Lord M.CCCCCL., calculed upon the Meridiane of the Towne of Anwarpe and the Country thereabout, by Master Peter of Moorbecke, Doctoure in Physicke of ye same Towne, whereunto is added the Judgment of M. Cornelius Schute, Doctor in Physicke of the Towne of Bruges in Flanders, upon and concerning the Disposicion, Estate, and Condicion of certaine Prynces, Contreys, and Regions for thys present yere, gathered oute of hys Prognostication for the same yere. Translated out of Duch into Englyshe by William Harrys." At the end

[blocks in formation]

From some recent experiments of the Baron von Reichenbach, it seems probable that wherever chemical action is going on light is evolved, though it is only by persons possessing peculiar (though not very rare) powers of sight, and by them only under peculiar circumstances, that it can be seen. It occurred to him that such persons might perhaps see light over graves in which dead bodies were undergoing decomposition. He says:

"The desire to inflict a mortal wound on the monster, superstition, which, from a similar origin, a few centuries ago, inflicted on European society so vast an amount of misery; and by whose influence, not hundreds, but thousands of innocent persons died in tortures on the rack and at the stake; this desire made me wish to make the experiment, if possible, of bringing highly sensitive person, by night, to a churchyard."§ 158. Gregory's Translation, p. 126.

•a

The experiment succeeded. Light "was chiefly seen over all new graves; while there was no appearance of it over very old ones." The fact was confirmed in subsequent experiments by five other sensitive persons, and I have no design of questioning it. My doubt is only how far we can consider the knowledge of it as giving a "mortal wound " to superstition. "Thousands of ghost

stories," the Baron tells us, "will now receive a natural explanation, and will thus cease to be mar

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

A BOOK WANTED OF ENZINAS.- - FRANCISCO DE ENZINAS, OR DRYANDER, TRANSLATOR OF THE SPANISH NEW TESTAMENT, 1543.

QUERIES" inform me of the existence, in any of Can any obliging reader of the "NOTES AND our public libraries, or for sale, of the following book: Dryandri (Franciscus) Flandriæ propriæ in1545. Sm. 8vo.? Fox, the martyrologist, writing carcerationis et liberationis Historia: Antwerpiæ (?) of Dryander, says:

"I read the book in the shop of John Oporine, printer, of Basil."

I have a French translation of it, and a Spanish version is mentioned by Pellicea (after Gerdes), under this title: Breve Descripcion del Pais Baxo, y razon de la Religion en España, en 8vo.; but in such a manner as leaves it questionable. If a Spanish verson is known, I should esteem it a favour to be informed where it can now be found.

Enzinas passed part of the years 1542-3 with Melancthon at Wittemberg. Having completed his New Testament, he returned early in the latter year to Antwerp to get it printed. After much reflection and advice with his friends, he made an in the following manner: agreement with Stephen Mierdmann of Antwerp,

"I determined," says he, "to do my duty in the affair, at all events; which was, to undertake the publication, and to leave the consequences, and the course of the inspired Word, to the providence of God, to whom it of right belonged. I therefore spoke with a and asked him whether he was willing to print my book. He answered, Yes, very gladly; partly because I desire to do some good for the commonweal more than for my own particular interest, caring little for gain or for the slander of opponents; and partly, also, said he, because it is a book that has long been desired. Then I asked him whether it was needful to have a license or permission, and whether he could not

print it without these: for, said I, it would ill beseem the Word of God, from which kings and rulers derive should be subject to the permission or prohibition of the authority for the exercise of their power, that it any human feeling or fancy. To this he answered, that no law of the Emperor had ever forbidden the printing of the Holy Scriptures; and this was well known, for in Antwerp the New Testament had already been printed in almost every language of Europe but

soon found themselves impelled round the performer so rapidly and mysteriously, that they would all fain have rested. But when they essayed to retire, they found, to their consternation, that they were moving faster and faster round their diabolical musician, who had now resumed his original shape. Their cries for mercy were unheeded, until the first glimmering of day warned the fiend that he must depart. With such rapidity had they moved, that the gay and sportive assembly were now reduced to a ghastly troop of skeletons. "I leave you," said the fiend, "a monument of my power and your wickedness to the end of time:" which saying, he vanished. The villagers, on rising in the morning, found the meadow strewn with large pieces of stone, and the pious piper lying under a hedge, half dead with fright, he having been a witness to the whole transaction.

Godalming, May 10, 1851.

Minor Notes.

DAVID STEVENS.

The Hon. Spencer Perceval.-Being on a tour through the West of England some years ago, I found myself one morning rapidly advancing up the river Tamar, in the gig of "the Captain of the Ordinary" at Plymouth. We were bound for the noble ruins of Trematon Castle, in the area of which a good modern house has been erected, and in one of the towers is arranged a very pleasing collection of antiquities.

of the door as any one entered with wild and restless gaze at length Mr. Perceval arrived, whose person (although unknown to him) and dress he described, as also the manner in which the horrid deed was done: he further communicated the words uttered by the victim to the effect" the villain has murdered-;" how the wounded man was treated, and the person of the medical man who was on the instant called in.

These, with other particulars, which have escaped my memory, were thus recorded, and the first newspaper he received confirmed the accuracy of this extraordinary dream. M. W. B.

An Adventurer in 1632.—I transcribe from a manuscript letter now before me, dated "Tuesday, Whitsun-week, 1632," the following passage. Can you or any of your correspondents give me (or tell me where I am likely to find) any further information of the adventurer there named ?

"Heer is much Speach of the Brauery of a Porter yt hath taken a Braue House, and hath his Coach & 4 Horses. Y⚫ Lord Mayor examined him how he gott yt Wealth: he answered nothing. Then y Lords of Council gott out of him, that he being the Pope's Brother Borne in Essex, Goodman Linges Sonnes, was maintained by him, and tempted much to have come over to him: these 2 Brothers being Ship Boyes to a French pirate, the porter gott meanes to come againe into England, but y other being a Witty Boy was sould to a Coortier in Paris, who trauelling to Florence, thear bestowed his Boy of a Great Man, who when he dyed tooke such affection to this Boy,

As we proceeded up the river, the gallant cap-y changeing his name to his owne left his estate to tain related the following anecdote in reference to the then proprietor of Trematon:

It is well known that in the afternoon of the 12th May, 1812, the Hon. Spencer Perceval, the then prime minister, fell by the hand of Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons; the cause assigned by the murderer being the neglect of, or refusal to discharge a supposed claim he had upon the government.

On the same night the gentleman above alluded to, and residing at Trematon, had the tragic scene so minutely and painfully depicted in his sleep, that he could not resist the desire of sending the particulars to a friend in town, which he did by the up mail, which departed a few hours after he had risen on the following morning.

He informed his friend that his topographical knowledge of London was very meagre; and that as to the House of Commons (the old one), he had seen only the exterior: he went on to state, that, dreaming he was in town, he had a desire to hear the debates in Parliament, and for this purpose enquired his way to the lobby of the House, the architectural peculiarities of which he minutely described; he gave an exact description of the few officials and others in the room, and especially of a tall, thin man, who seemed to watch the opening

him and so in time grew a Florentine, a Cardinall, & now Pope, & y greatest linguist for the Latine yt

ever was."

C. DE D.

[Maffeo Barberini (Urban VIII.) was the Roman pontiff between 1623 and 1644, and is said to have been born at Florence in 1568, of a noble family. He was a good classical scholar, and no mean Latin poet. One charge brought against him was his weak partiality towards his nephews, who abused his old age and credulity.

It is probable some of our correspondents can throw some light on this mysterious document.]

Almanacs. A friend of mine, in taking down his old rectory house last year, found under one of the floors a book almanac, of which the following is the title given :

"A Prognossicacion and an Almanac fastened together, declaring the Dispocission of the People, and also of the Wether, with certaine Electyons and Tymes chosen both for Phisicke and Surgerye, and for the Husbandman. And also for Hawekying, Huntying, Fyshing, and Foulyinge, according to the Science of Astronomy, made for the yeare of our Lord God M.D. L. calculed for the Merydyan of Yorke, and practiced by Anthony Askam."

[ocr errors][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

Then follows the "Prognossicacion," the titlepage to which is as follows:

"A Prognossicacion for the yere of our Lord M.CCCCCL., calculed upon the Meridiane of the Towne of Anwarpe and the Country thereabout, by Master Peter of Moorbecke, Doctoure in Physicke of ye same Towne, whereunto is added the Judgment of M. Cornelius Schute, Doctor in Physicke of the Towne of Bruges in Flanders, upon and concerning the Disposicion, Estate, and Condicion of certaine Prynces, Contreys, and Regions for thys present yere, gathered oute of hys Prognostication for the same yere. Translated out of Duch into Englyshe by William Harrys." At the end

[blocks in formation]

From some recent experiments of the Baron von Reichenbach, it seems probable that wherever chemical action is going on light is evolved, though it is only by persons possessing peculiar (though not very rare) powers of sight, and by them only under peculiar circumstances, that it can be seen. It occurred to him that such persons might perhaps see light over graves in which dead bodies were undergoing decomposition. He says:

"The desire to inflict a mortal wound on the monster, superstition, which, from a similar origin, a few centuries ago, inflicted on European society so vast an amount of misery; and by whose influence, not hundreds, but thousands of innocent persons died in tortures on the rack and at the stake; - this desire made me wish to make the experiment, if possible, of bringing a highly sensitive person, by night, to a churchyard.". § 158. Gregory's Translation, p. 126.

The experiment succeeded. Light "was chiefly seen over all new graves; while there was no appearance of it over very old ones." The fact was confirmed in subsequent experiments by five other sensitive persons, and I have no design of questioning it. My doubt is only how far we can consider the knowledge of it as giving a "mortal wound to superstition. "Thousands of ghost stories," the Baron tells us, "will now receive a natural explanation, and will thus cease to be mar

vellous;" and he afterwards says, "Thus I have, I trust, succeeded in tearing down one of the densest veils of darkened ignorance and human error. I repeat that I do not question the fact; my Query is, where to find the "thousands of ghost stories" which are explained by it; and as I suspect that you have some correspondents capable of giving information on such subjects, I shall feel much obliged if they will tell me. S. R. MAITLAND. Gloucester.

A BOOK WANTED OF ENZINAS. FRANCISCO DE ENZINAS, OR DRYANDER, TRANSLATOR OF THE SPANISH NEW TESTAMENT, 1543.

QUERIES "inform me of the existence, in any of Can any obliging reader of the "NOTES AND our public libraries, or for sale, of the following book: Dryandri (Franciscus) Flandriæ propriæ incarcerationis et liberationis Historia: Antwerpiæ (?) 1545. Sm. 8vo.? Fox, the martyrologist, writing of Dryander, says:

"I read the book in the shop of John Oporine, printer, of Basil."

I have a French translation of it, and a Spanish version is mentioned by Pellicea (after Gerdes), under this title: Breve Descripcion del Pais Baxo, y razon de la Religion en España, en 8vo.; but in such a manner as leaves it questionable. If a Spanish verson is known, I should esteem it a favour to be informed where it can now be found.

Enzinas passed part of the years 1542-3 with Melancthon at Wittemberg. Having completed his New Testament, he returned early in the latter year to Antwerp to get it printed. After much reflection and advice with his friends, he made an in the following manner: agreement with Stephen Mierdmann of Antwerp,

"I determined," says he, "to do my duty in the affair, at all events; which was, to undertake the publication, and to leave the consequences, and the course of the inspired Word, to the providence of God, to whom it of right belonged. I therefore spoke with a and asked him whether he was willing to print my book. He answered, Yes, very gladly; partly because I desire to do some good for the commonweal more than for my own particular interest, caring little for gain or for the slander of opponents; and partly, also, said he, because it is a book that has long been desired. Then I asked him whether it was needful to

have a license or permission, and whether he could not print it without these: for, said I, it would ill beseem the Word of God, from which kings and rulers derive should be subject to the permission or prohibition of the authority for the exercise of their power, that it any human feeling or fancy. To this he answered, that no law of the Emperor had ever forbidden the printing of the Holy Scriptures; and this was well known, for in Antwerp the New Testament had already been printed in almost every language of Europe but

« AnteriorContinuar »