Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/64

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NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. m. JAN. 21, 1911.

The churchyard of St. Mary Redcliff, Bristol, is enclosed, and I understood there would be objections to the inscriptions being transcribed. But I made an exact copy of all the inscriptions within this splendid church, and gave the volume to Mr. Cross, the well-informed head verger. For the very lengthy Penn inscription I had to use a long ladder, and the verger had the inscrip- tion printed so that it could be sold to visitors ; and it was printed in ' N. & Q.' also (9 S. iv. 285), but has not, I believe, appeared in any book.

In all these cases I was surprised to find how perseverance, and the application some- times of a sponge with water, enabled words, apparently obliterated, to be recovered. The remark about keeping the church and churchyard inscriptions separate is, I think, practical ; and I have long been of the same opinion. Church inscriptions generally have not been neglected, and numbers of them have been entered in county histories, and those that have not been recorded are well protected. It is the very opposite with churchyard inscriptions. They, with few exceptions, have not been copied ; they are exposed to every form of bad weather, and every year defaces some inscriptions. Yet they are a curious and interesting class of istone records, and numbers of them contain information not elsewhere found. Perhaps the easiest and most practical method would be for some society of good standing to agree to be the official custodian of all out-of-door mortuary inscriptions in Eng- land. Private persons could .then send their transcripts to this centre, where they would be filed and indexed, and printed if opportunity offered. At least they would be preserved for reference, &c. L. M. B.

COWPER'S " GOD MOVES IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY" (11 S. iii. 10). This hymn first appeared anonymously in the Bev. J. Newton's ' Twenty-Six Letters on Beligious Subjects, to which are added Hymns, &c., by Omicron.' This work was published in 1774. The hymns are fourteen in number ; the one in question is entitled ' Light shining out of Darkness.' It contains six stanzas : the fifth, referred to by MR. SURR, runs thus :

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding every hour ; The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flower.

It is commonly thought that the hymn was composed soon after an attack of suicidal mania at Olney in October, 1773, but

Canon Julian thinks it probable that it was- really written about six months afterwards, in April, 1774, shortly before publication, when the poet's mind had somewhat re- covered. The authorship was not disclosed until 1779 in the ' Olney Hymns.'

W. T. LYNN.

Blaokheath.

In my copy of the first edition of the ' Olney Hymns,' published in 1779, this appears as Hymn XV. in the third book. It is preceded by the letter " C.," indicating Cowper's authorship. I understand it wa& the last hymn he wrote for his friend Newton's collection. There are six verses, of which the one referred to by MR. SURR is the fifth. It is printed thus : His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding ev'ry hour ; The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the llow'r.

JOHN T. PAGE. Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

Julian's ' Dictionary of Hymnology, r p. 1642, says that the verse in MS. runs, The bud may have a bitter taste,

But wait to smell the flower. In print the last line appeared as But sweet will be the flower. A reference is given to ' N. & Q.,' 24 Sept. r 1905. LAWRENCE PHILLIPS.

[The reference is wrong. It should have been to 24 Sept., 1904 (10 S. ii. 244). C. C. B. and MR, R. A. POTTS also thanked for replies.]

'PILGRIM'S PROGRESS' IMITATED (11 S, iii. 9). ' The Progress of the Pilgrim Good- Intent ' was written by Mary Anne Burges- (1763-1813), whose biography is included in the ' D.N.B.' The book appeared first in 1800, and ran through several editions, the tenth appearing in 1822.

M. A. M. MACALISTER,

ISOLA FAMILY (US. ii. 525). The testi- mony to Agostino Isola's character by Henry Gunning has not escaped Mr. E. V. Lucas, and is duly recorded by him in the
 * Life of Charles Lamb.' SUSSEX,

" CAEQEHOUIAS " (US. iii. 9). In place of this portentous ghost-word I would suggest cacophonias. When the two are written side by side, it is easy to see how the misprint occurred. EDWARD BENSLY.

Not having seen the original letter, I should "humbly suggest " cacophonies."

C. J.