Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/144

 136

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL FEB. w, 1903.

Holy Catholic Church, but the local structure, while " the lay " with which the epitaph con- trasts it is not lay people as opposed to clerical, but lay = grass-land or pasture-land, modernly spelt lea (cf. 'H.E.D.,' s.v. 'Lea,' sb. 2).

The whole epitaph is a protest from a sen- sible old Cavalier or his executor against the insanitary habit of burial within churches, common throughout the seventeenth, eigh- teenth, and first half of the nineteenth cen- turies.

Those who have seen and smelt an ancient parish church when the floor has been dis- turbed during restoration, and where putre- fying corpses, often buried only a few inches below the pew-floor occupied by the living, have been exposed, will agree with the writer of the epitaph in grudging the fattening or pollution of the church while the churchyard lea was robbed of its just enrichment.

As you have recently given some epitaphs of parish clerks and sextons, the following pronouncement from one of them while living, in connexion with the above subject of intra-mural interments, may amuse your readers. He was the well-known Yorkshire sexton of a well-known Yorkshire parish church. The church was undergoing restora- tion, with the above undesirable accompani- ments of exposure of human remains, bones, &c. As he entered the building one day he saw a large thighbone lying on the ground. "Here," said he to the workman standing by, "this bone has no business there; it is a M-

M bone, I can tell," mentioning the name

of a local family, " and must be buried up at

on Resurrection day, if they turn up wi' t ! wrong tickets, there '11 be a bonny how d' ye

&> W. SYKES, M.D., F.S.A.

Exeter.

Probably fees were higher than Mr. Gell cared to pay for interment inside the church or on the popular south side of the church- yard. A more contented mind composed the following epitaph, which puts the grievance more clearly :

Here lies I, at the chancel door ; Here lies I, because I 'm poor ; The further in, the more you pay, tfut here lies I, as warm as they.

F. J. ODELL.

M.M.6. Defiance, Devonport.

ht ^ e an u e P ifca Ph in the old

books of 'Extracts ' to this effect :

Here lies I, outside the door ; Here lies I, because I 'm poor ; The further in, the more to pay ; Here lies I, as warm as they.

W. C. B.

" LA TRISTE H^RITIERE " : LADY ROCHESTER (9 th S. x. 509; xi. 75). I have to thank COL. MALET for his kind answer to my question. The portrait he possesses is not the one about which I was asking, but it will doubtless greatly interest the friend for whom I was making the inquiry, and who already owns a superb portrait of the husband of " La Triste He'ritiere." Z.

PORTRAITS OF CELEBRITIES WANTED (9 th S. xi. 48). MR. WINBOLT will find a very inter- esting and sympathetic account of Thomas Barnes in Talfourd's * Final Memorials of Charles Lamb,' new edition. 1850, pp. 316-21. This may help him in the biographical por- tion of his work, if not in the pictorial.

W. H. PEET.

NUMBER OF 'QUARTERLY REVIEW' (9 th S. xi. 88). The article on * The Chronology of the Gospels' will be found in vol. cxxx. (April, 1871), pp. 497-512. Interesting papers thereon subsequently appeared in S.B.A. Transactions, i. pp. 93-105, by Mr. J. W. Bosanquet, and iv. pp. 226-47, by Dr. Lowth. WYNNE E. BAXTER.

FELIX BRYAN MCDONOUGH (9 th S. xi. 87). If CELT will refer to Foster's 'Alumni Oxonienses ' he will find the following entry : "Felix Macdonnogh, s. of Felix of Maryle- bone, Middx., arm., Oriel Coll. ; matric. 3 July, 1784, aged 16 ; a student of Lincoln's Inn 1787." This gives him roughly the date of birth, the name of his father, and the place of birth. T. COLYER-FERGUSSON.

Wombwell Hall, near Graves end.

PRINCESS CHARLOTTE (9 th S. xi. 8, 94, 112). I have a small parcel of letters connected with this subject. They appear to be written chiefly by a Mrs. Mayne, who was perhaps the monthly nurse, and are addressed to Lady Anne Hamilton. If it would interest MR. WILLIAMS to see them, I should be very pleased to forward them. I do not think they are of much importance, nor do the statements made in them appear to be reliable. C. L. LINDSAY.

97, Cadogan Gardens.

ST. NICOLAS (9 th S. x. 368, 472 ; xi. 52). I think MR. RANDOLPH is needlessly severe on MR. HEMS when he condemns the latter's communication as " offensive to your Catholic readers." For my own part, I do not feel