Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/421

Rh The Book of Christ Church answers the question. A. has merely omitted the infant Samuel.

A. and O. both give for July 17, 18 19, the burial of Thomasin Clarke. So, too, the Book. "Again great confusion." Both A. and O. allege, in different phrases, that on each occasion the coffins were carefully replaced in order, and the vault regularly closed by masons.

A. and O. both give the inspection by Lord Combermere and others on April 18, 1820. A. gives a coloured sketch of the coffins as left all orderly on July 7, 1819, and another of the disorder in which they were found on April 18, 1820. A. adds, "The vault is about 12 feet long, and about 6 to 7 wide. Five times were the coffins found in confusion. All the coffins were of lead, except Thomasine Clarke's, which was of wood." Now A., we saw, gives but four cases of disturbance, while O., by aid of the infant Samuel, gives five. It thus seems that the writer of A. omitted the infant Samuel, and dated the adult Samuel's burial on the wrong day. The sketches given by O. vary much from those in A.

Since writing so far, I received from my kinsman, Mr. Forster Alleyne of Barbadoes, a third synoptic version. He copied it "from a very old copy on thin blue paper once in the possession of" a sister of Sir R. Boucher Clarke, who was at the last opening of the vault.

This version, signed by Thomas H. Orderson, Rector, I give in full. Within are sketches of the coffins in order and in disorder.

Copy.

Feb. 22, 1808. Vault opened for Mary Ann Maria Chase, infant daughter of the Honbl. Thomas Chase.

July 6, 181 2. Vault opened for Dorcas Chase. Mary Ann Maria Chase's coffin was found in its proper place.

Aug. 9, 181 2. Vault opened for the Honbl. Thos. Chase. The two coffins above-mentioned were found out of their