Notes and Queries, Number 58, December 7, 1850

Berlin, Nov. 19. 1850.

TEN CHILDREN AT A BIRTH

The following circumstance, although perhaps hardly coming within the ordinary scope of the "Notes and Queries," appears to me too curious to allow a slight doubt to prevent the attempt to place it on permanent and accessible record. Chancing, the other day, to overhear an ancient gossip say that there was living in her neighbourhood a woman who was one of ten children born at the same time, I laughed at her for her credulity,—as well I might! As, however, she mentioned a name and place where I might satisfy myself, I called the next day at a small greengrocer's shop in this town, the mistress of which, a good-looking, respectable woman, aged seventy, at once assured me that her mother, whose name was Birch, and came from Derby, had been delivered of ten children; my informant having been the only one that lived, "the other nine," she added, "being in bottle in the Museum in London!" On mentioning the matter to a respectable professional gentleman of this place, he said "he had a recollection of the existence of a glass jar, which was alleged to contain some such preparation, in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, as mentioned when he was a pupil in London." Of the question, or the fact, of so marvellous a gestation and survivorship in the history of human nature should strike the editor of "Notes and Queries" as forcibly as his correspondent, the former, should he publish this article, may perhaps be kind enough to accompany it with the result of at least an inquiry, as to whether or not the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons does contain anything like corroborative evidence of so strange, and, if true, surely so unprecedented a phenomenon.

    N. D.

[We are enabled by the courtesy of Professor Owen to state that there exists no corroboration of this remarkable statement in the Museum of the College of Surgeons. The largest number at a birth, of which any authentic record appears, is five, and the Museum contains, in case No. 3681, five children, of about five months, all females, which were born at the same time. Three were still-born, two were born alive, and survived their birth but a short time. The mother, Margaret Waddington, aged twenty-one, was a poor woman of the township of Lower Darling, near Blackburn in Lancashire. This remarkable birth took place on the 24th April, 1786, and was the subject of a communication to the Royal Society, which contained also the result of an investigation into similar cases which could be well authenticated, and which may be seen in a note in the admirable Catalogue of the College Museum, vol. v. pp. 177-185. As the remarkable birth described by our correspondent N. D. took place five years previously to these inquiries, and is not mentioned, it is scarcely possible to doubt that his informant must be labouring under some great mistake. If such a birth took place, it is probable that the parish register will contain some record of the fact. Our correspondent will, perhaps, take the trouble to make some further investigations, so as to trace the source of the error, for error there must be, in the statement of his informant.]

GEORGE HERBERT AND BEMERTON CHURCH

It is gratifying to see that some of your correspondents are taking, an interest in the "worthy, lowly, and lovely" (as Isaac Walton called him) Mr. George Herbert (Vol. ii., pp. 103. 414.). It may tend to increase that interest, if I send you a note I made a few years ago, when I visited Bemerton, and had the pleasure of officiating within the walls of that celebrated little church. The rector kindly showed me the whole Parsonage House; the parts rebuilt by Herbert were traceable; but the inscription set up by him on that occasion is not there, nor had it been found, viz.:

"TO MY SUCCESSOR.

"If thou chance for to find,
A new house to thy mind,
And built without thy cost;
Be good to the poor,
As God gives the store,
And then my labour's not lost."

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."

"Owen on his Book

"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 epitaph[1 - On Elizabeth Williams, youngest daughter of Miles (Smith), and wife of John Williams, Esq., died in child-bed at the age of seventeen. The above Miles Smith, was Bishop of Gloster during the latter part of Henry VIII. and part of Elizabeth's reign.] 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."

    F. T. J. B.
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!"

    S. M. H.