Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/511

 n s. vii. JUNE 28, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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The ' True and Perfect Relation of the Grand Traytors' Execution ' (669. f. 26 [31]) states :

" Many of his acquaintance did triumph to see him die so confidently, while numbers of true Christians did grieve in earnest to see him die so impenitently. We have been told that when he took his leave of his wife, he comforted her and told her that he would come again in three dayes. But we hear nothing yet of his resurrec- tion."

Lastly, Pepys, who was present, says :

"It is said that he said that he was sure to come shortly at the right hand of Christ to judge them that had judged him and that his wife do now expect him."

The newsbooks (Mercurius Publicus, &c.) evidently considered Harrison's conduct too bad for description, for they state (barely) that he was hanged, drawn, and quartered.

On 26 Nov., J660, the following tract was published :

" Observations upon the last Actions and words of Maj. Gen. Harrison, written by a minister to a country gentlewoman who seemed to take some offence at the same." E. 1050 (5).

The minister says that the lady's " scrupu- lous fancy " was " occasioned by your newsbooks." If this is correct, newsbooks other than Mercurius Publicus and the Parliamentary Intelligencer must have been published, and, if so, by the fanatics. I have been unable to trace any later than August, 1660.

This tract is interesting only because it quotes Harrison's last speech from these newsbooks, phrase by phrase, as follows (I omit the comments) :

" That he came all the way with a cheerful countenance."

" That he came boldly to the ladder, saying, ' This is the finger of God.' "

" I am a joyfull man. He turned his face towards Whitehall and seemed to smile."

" Lifting up his hands three times."

" I am not guilty of anything that hath been laid to my charge."

" Neither did I think it against my conscience anything that ever I did."

" That whatsoever he had done, were he in power as he was then he would do it again."

" That though he was adjudged here wrong- fully."

" He did hope to sit very soon at the right hand of God and to judge his judges."

" That he was never guilty of the meanest man's blood in the whole nation."

" He would not be guilty of it for ten thousand worlds."

" For what he had done, the Hand of God was in it."

" That his death was not matter of Fact proved, but a crime layed against him."

" If the ways of men did not agree with the ways of God why should men observe them."

" For his part he had followed and observed the law of God all his lifetime and had fought a . good battle for Jesus Christ."

" He hoped that all his bretheren woxild persist in the law of God."

" And stand to his principles."

"Very well and opportunely was he here interrupted and bidden confess all his horrid villainy."

" For he turned his head and seemed to frown."

" Held his peace for a short space."

" Some of the spectators did look down upon, his legs, beholding him very much to tremble,, as one that feared death."

" And therefore he very cheerfully told them that it was an infirmity which he had by the loss of too much blood in the wars and that it had been upon him for the space of seven years."

" That he had been a soldier in martial dis- cipline much about seventeen years."

"That he never acted anything whereby he might be ashamed."

The last sentences seem to refer to Ariso Evans's * Epistle ' to the King. Whoever takes the trouble to compare the speech I have here put together with that in the 4 Speeches and Prayers ' cannot fail at once to form an unfavourable opinion of the latter's veracity. J. B. WILLIAMS.

(To be continued.)

EPITAPHIANA.

THE following monumental inscriptions are worth preservation in the pages of ' N. & Q.' They are in Compton Beauchamp Church, Berkshire, the first on the south wall of the nave, and the second immediately opposite on the north wall.

1. To the Memory of

RACHEL RICHARDS

Whose natural endowments and acquired accom- plishments would | have adorn'd the highest rank in female Life, Her understanding was | clear, Her wit ready, Her imagination lively, Her judg- ment solid, Her | Temper mild and affable, Her address easy and unaffected, and Her | conversa- tion extremely pleasant and engaging, But with all these proper | Qualifications for shining in publick, Retirement and Privacy was Her | Taste and Choice, not from an illnatur'd distaste of the world (for She | sometimes appear'd in it with a peculiar freedom and politeness ) but from | a desire to be more at leisure to improve Her mind, as well as to discharge | the offices necessary to Her Station. Here therefore the concerns of Her knew the Art of a just | (Economy, none better practis'd it, yet an Enemy to everything that had | the appearance of a sordid Frugality, especially that sort of Frugality | which shuts up our hands against the Poor : She was carefull : of Her | expences, and yet knew how to be generous and to abound.
 * Family were Her first care, and as none better

But amidst all Her diligence and application to the management | of the affairs of this world,