Notes and Queries, Number 64, January 18, 1851

    H.B.C.
U.U. Club, Jan.

QUERIES

SONNET (QUERY, BY MILTON) ON THE LIBRARY AT CAMBRIDGE

In a Collection of Recente and Witty Pieces by several eminente hands, London, printed by W.S. for Simon Waterfou, 1628, p. 109., is the following sonnet, far the best thing in the book:—

"ON THE LIBRARIE AT CAMBRIDGE

"In that great maze of books I sighed and said,—
It is a grave-yard, and each tome a tombe;
Shrouded in hempen rags, behold the dead,
Coffined and ranged in crypts of dismal gloom,
Food for the worm and redolent of mold,
Traced with brief epitaph in tarnished gold—
Ah, golden lettered hope!—ah, dolorous doom!
Yet mid the common death, where all is cold,
And mildewed pride in desolation dwells,
A few great immortalities of old
Stand brightly forth—not tombes but living shrines,
Where from high sainte or martyr virtue wells,
Which on the living yet work miracles,
Spreading a relic wealth richer than golden mines.

    "J.M. 1627."
Attached to it, it will be seen, are the initials J.M. and the date 1627. Is it possible that this may be an early and neglected sonnet of Milton? and yet, could Milton have seriously perpetrated the pun in the second line?

    C. HOWARD KENYON.

BURYING IN CHURCH WALLS

(Vol. ii., p. 513.)

MR. W. DURRANT COOPER has mentioned some instances of burials in the walls of churches; it is not however clear whether in these the monument, or coffin lid, is in the inside or the outside of the wall.

Stone coffin lids, with and without effigies, are very frequently found placed under low arches hollowed in the wall in the interior of the church: tombs placed in the exterior of the wall are much less common; and the singularity of their position, leads one to look for some peculiar reason for it. Tradition often accounts for it by such stories as those mentioned by MR. COOPER. Such is the case with a handsome canopied tomb (I think with an effigy) on the south side of the choir of the cathedral of Lichfield, where we are told that the person interred died under censure of the church. Other instances which I have noticed, are, at—

Little Casterton, Rutland.—Tomb, with an effigy, apparently of an ecclesiastic, but much decayed, of the 13th century, in the south wall of the nave.

Warbleton, Sussex.—Circular arch over a sort of altar tomb, no effigy remains. Probably of the earlier half of the 13th century. In the south wall of chancel.

Basildon, Berks.—A very elegant canopy. There was once an effigy, now destroyed, with the tomb, and a door made under the canopy! About 1300. In the south wall of the chancel.

Bridewater, Somerset.—Two arches, with foliations, over effigies between them, a door leading, down to a crypt. The effigies are too much decayed to enable a decided opinion to be formed as to sex or station. In the north wall of north transept. Date probably between 1270 and 1300.

St. Stephen's, Vienna.—A fine tomb, with canopy and effigy, by the side of the south door of the nave. Probably of the 14th century.

I have been disposed to think that the most probable motive which may have led to tombs and effigies, sometimes of an elaborate and costly character, being placed in such exposed positions, was the desire of obtaining the prayers of the passers-by for the soul of the deceased. It is worth notice, that the usage seems in England to have been very much limited to the 13th, or early part of the 14th century. I should, however, be very glad if any one who may possess information bearing on the subject would communicate it.

    N.

MINOR QUERIES

Meaning of Venwell or Venville.—Will you allow me to make the following Query as to the custom of "Venwell" or "Venville"? Risdon, in his Survey of Devon, states it to be a right enjoyed by the tenants of land adjoining to Dartmoor of pasturage and cutting turf within the limits of the forest. He calls it "Fenfield, antiently Fengfield," but makes no allusion to the etymology of the word, or to the origin of the custom. Some of your correspondents can most probably afford information on both these points.

    R.E.G.

4. Lidlington Place, Harrington Square.

Erasmus and Farel.—In D'Aubigné's History of the Reformation, ii. 149. (White's Translation), it is said that Erasmus "instead of Farellus would often write Fallicus, thus designating one of the frankest men of his day with the epithets of cheat and deceiver."

But Mr. Dyer, in his late Life of Calvin, spells the word Phallicus, and supposes it to allude to some amorous propensities of the reformer.

Which of these authorities are we to believe?

    J.C.R.

Early Culture of the Imagination.—I have somewhere read, possibly in an article of the Quarterly Review, the opinion very strikingly expressed, and attributed to Mr. Lockhart, that children's imaginative faculty ought to be more prominently cultivated than their reason; and, on this ground, the reading of Fairy Tales, The Arabian Nights, &c. was recommended for children. Will any one kindly refer me to this passage? And, as it is wanted for an immediate purpose, an early insertion and reply to this query will oblige me.

    ALFRED GATTY.

Sir Thomas Bullen's Drinking Horn.—Does any one know whether the drinking horn which belonged to Sir Thomas Bullen still exists? By the will it was directed to be kept as a heir-loom.

    P.

Peter Sterry.—In the title-page and address to the reader of Peter Sterry's Appearance of God to Man in the Gospel, &c., and other his posthumous discourses, 4to. 1710, mention is made of certain miscellaneous tracts, letters, &c., taken from original MSS. left by him, whose publication was made to depend on the success of the above work. Sterry was spoken of by Baxter in complimentary terms, notwithstanding his peculiar sentiments and manner of writing; and in a MS. note on the title-page of Sterry's Discourse of the Freedom of the Will, folio, 1675, he is said to have been "chaplain first to Lord Brooke, afterwards to Oliver Cromwell." If any of your readers can say whether the "miscellaneous tracts," &c., were ever published, and, if not, where the MSS. are likely to be found, with any further information concerning him, which is desired by many persons deeply interested in his history and writings, it will confer a favour on me.

Lord Clarendon notices a work of Sir Harry Vane (who was an associate of Sterry's), entitled Love to God, &c.[1 - [The title of Vane's work is, Of the Love of God, and Union with God, 4to. 1657. It is not to be found in the Catalogues of the British Museum, Bodleian, Sion College, D. Williams' library, or London Institution.]] I should also be glad to know where that work may be found.

    J.P.

"Words are Men's Daughters," &c.—

"Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things."

Where does this verse occur? Who was the author? Can any parallel passages be adduced?

    T.J.

Robert Henryson—Gawyn Douglas.—Complete uniform editions of the poems of these celebrated authors, accompanied with biographical notices and illustrative notes, being a desideratum in Scottish literature, permit me to ask, through the medium of your entertaining and useful "NOTES AND QUERIES," if such publications be in contemplation by any of the various literary societies, or individual member thereof, in this kingdom; and if so, are they likely to appear soon?

    T.G.S.

Edinburgh, Dec. 31. 1850.

Darby and Joan.—Can any of your readers refer me to a copy of the ballad of Darby and Joan? There is a tradition in the parish of Helaugh, near Tadcaster, that they were inhabitants of that village, and that the ballad is the composition of some poet who was a constant visitor to the Duke of Wharton, when living in the manor house.