Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 6.djvu/160

 152 NOTES AND QUERIES. [** s. vi. m, AUG. 21. '58. success. He apparently approves of conglomerate offices ; at least, he does not condemn them ; and . asserts that the most usual mode of conducting service i. e. modern irregular practice prompted by private judgment is what JACOB condemns. It seems, then, that modern use and recent authorities are against us. Perhaps some one will enlighten us as to ancient and Catholic custom. O. S. On the subject of holy-days falling on Sundays, and the rules for the reading of the lessons, &c. in such case, your correspondent e JACOB will find the following in Wheatly on the Common Prayer, p. 190. : " In relation to the concurrence of two holy-days to- gether, we have no directions either in the rubric or else- where which must give place, or which of the two services must be used. . . . For this reason some ministers, when a holy-day happens upon a Sunday, take no notice of the holy-day (except that sometimes they are forced to use the second lesson for such holy-day, there being a gap in the column of second lessons in the calender), but use the service appointed for the Sunday ; alleging that the holy- day, which is of human institution, should give way to the Sunday, which is allowed to be of divine. But this is an argument which I think not satisfactory ; for though the observation of Sunday be of divine institu- tion, yet the service we use on it is of human appoint- ment." Nor is there anything in the services appointed to be used on the ordinary Sundays, that is more peculiar to, or tends to the greater solemnity of the Sunday, than any of the services appointed for the holy-days. What slight, therefore, do we show to our Lord's institution, if, when we meet on the day that He has set apart for the wor- ship of Himself, we particularly praise Him for the eminent virtues that shined forth in some saint, whose memory that day happens to bring to our mind ? Such praises are so agreeable to the duty of the day, that I cannot but esteem the general practice to be preferable, which is, to make the lesser holy-day give way to the greater; as an ordinary Sunday, for instance, to a saint's day; a saint's day to one of our Lord's festivals ; and a lesser festival of our Lord to a greater : except that some, if the first lesson for the holy-day be out of the Apocrypha , will join the first lesson of the Sunday to the holy-day service: as observing that the church, by always ap- pointing canonical Scripture upon Sundays, seems to countenance their use of a canonical lesson even upon a holy-day, that has a proper one appointed out of the Apocrypha, if that holy-day shall happen upon a Sunday." M. C. H. In the Clerical Papers, edited by the Rev. W. II. Pinnock (Cambridge, 1853) pp. 368372., your correspondent will find the opinions of vari- ous bishops and eminent writers, with regard to the concurrence of holy days, given at full length. The following directions of Dr. Mant, Bishop of Down and Connor, seem to have been followed at the Abbey : " In the case of the Lord's Day concurring with a Saint's day, I prefer the First Lesson for the latter, unless it be from the Apocrypha, when the Sunday Lesson from a Canonical Book may on the whole be preferable .... When a Saint's day coincides with the Lord's Day, I prefer the Collect for the former. The reading of both Collects is not agreeable to the provision of the Church." Ilor. Lit. pp. 45. 48. The late Bishop of London, however, in his Charge for 1842 (p. 65.) recommends the use of the Lessons for the Sunday, the Collects for both days, and the Epistle and Gospel for the Saint's day, RESUPINUS. FOTHERINGAY CASTLE AND CHURCH. (2 nd S. vi. 91.) In reply to the inquiries of MR. STAUNTON, I beg to mention that I visited the site of Fother- ingay Castle in May, 1857, and May, 1858. The quotation which he has referred to, relative to the fetterlock, appears substantially, although in other words, in Camden's Mag. Brit. ; but there is a slight want of accuracy in Camden's stating that, when Edward of Langley rebuilt the castle, he made the keep in the form of a fetterlock : " the highest fortification, commonly called in castles the keepe, in the form of a fetterlock." The lofty cir- cular mount, where the keep once stood, yet re- mains ; and it does not differ from those which may be sfcen in many other places where keeps of castles were formerly standing. It was not the keep, but the Castle of Fotheringay, which was built in the form of a fetterlock. All the walls of the castle have been completely demo- lished, the stonework has been removed, and it is believed that the Talbot Inn at Oundle, which is evidently of the age of James I., who demolished the castle, was built with the stones from it. Sufficient remains of the earthworks and ram- parts of the castle, however, are yet there (except on the side (western) nearest to the village of Fotheringay, (where they have been levelled within the memory of persons now living,) to show that the castle was built in the form of a fetterlock, with a flat face or portion on the side (westward) nearest to the village, and circular on the east- ward portion. A very small mass of masonry, a few feet long, lies near the river, and seems to have slipped or been thrown down from the outer wall. I cannot reply to the part -of the inquiry as to where a view of the castle (as I presume in its original state) can be seen, for I never saw one. The church of Fotheringay must once have been a magnificent edifice; but at present all that remains of it is the nave with its side aisles, and the tower, which are very beautiful. The nave is now used for divine service. The church contains a very handsome and large stone font, apparently of the early part of the fifteenth cen- tury ; which is not only an object of interest from its beauty, but as King Richard III. was born at Fotheringay on October 2, 1452 (see William of