Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/391

 __ _ f 0-vgn ng- ..4_f?--f_~{q:='- '_'-"i ‘_,'_f'..*1.. _ _ _..._ . ._ 9°-s. VL ocr. 27, 1900.1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 321 LONDON, SA TURDA Y, OCTOBER 27. 1900. CONTENTS. -No. 148. NOTES :-Translations of Edward the Confessor, 321-Footf prints of Gods, 322-‘Dictionary of National Biography ’ -Note on Army Reform, 325-B.A. Degree at Glasgow- Ugo Foscolo in London, 326-Scotch Bull-‘° Buffet”- “The devil to pay ” - Tenure by Burnt Offering - ° ° Tapster ”-Folk-lore, 327 . ¢-“J ktel °’-“O lil bush"-"Mlrrup” QElI}uBS| gc_.pqg f PW if vy 328-Source of To m rtle rice o arc ment, Quotation-Frensham Cauldron-Francis Bacon-Fiction or Histo ?- Inscription in Mull- Latest Mention of .s.u.c. -Ighort Story - General Slr John Cope, 329 - °‘ Galluses "=Brsces-Wilcocks of Knosslngton-Authors Wanted, 330. REPLIES :-St. Anne’s Church, Blacklrlars, 330-Vanishing London, 331-Tobacco Tongs-Guest Family-Medallion of Scott-Hon. Henry Paget, 332-Source of Quotation- “ Marglowlet”-Plantagenet Chair-° The Lost Plelad '- Age of Entry at Inns of Court, 333-“ Twopenny-halfpenny dime "-Otter Hunting - ‘ Wedded ’ - “ Pllek0C»" 334 * King’s College Chapel-Orientation in Interments-Thos. Wrlght, ILA.-English Accent v. Etymology, 335-Ben- well Burial Register-Moated Mounds-1.0.U.-Installm tlon of a Midwife, 336- “Garland”-Names of Cities- Defoe-King and Painter- ‘ History of Preston,’ 337- Rime on Days of Month- “Loviot” -Simon Fraser- Quotatlon from Carlyle-“ Blssona,” 338. N OTE8 ON BOOKS :-Morley’s ‘ Shakespeare’s Greenwood ’ -Massé's ‘ Clty of Chartres’-Kltton’s ‘Minor Writings of Charles Dickens ’-° The Library! Death of Mr. W. L. Thomas. Notices to Conespondents. gain. THE TRANSLATIONS OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. THE anniversary of the translations of Edward the Confessor occurred on 13 October, and is an event which is kept with great solemnity even now in the king’s own foundation of Westminster Abbey. When the Confessor died in January, 1066, he was buried the very day after his decease before the high altar of the then newly consecrated West Minster. There, beneath a lain marble or stone slab, the body lay un- sisturbed (though William the Conqueror, upon witnessing the miracle of Bishop Wulf- stan’s staff; raised a new and costl tomb over his kinsman’s remains) until I-fenry I. in the year 1101 had the grave opened, in order to°satisfy his curiosity as to whether the body was still uncorrupted. A Norman chronicler relates that it was found entire, and “the joints as flexible as if it were a body aslee .” Having thus satisfied himself, Henry had) the tomb closed again, and left Edward to sleep in peace. Henry II. during is reign, instigated, it is true, by Thomas a Becket, and acting through the medium of Abbot Laurence of West- minster Abbey, procured a Bull of Canoniza- tion for the venerated Confessor. One Pope (Innocent II.) had refused it, but Alex- ander II. granted the king’s petition. At mid- night on 13 October, 1163 Abbot Laurence, accompanied by Thomas ix ,Becket, and in the gresence of Henry, opened the grave of the ead king. It is said that the two ecclesias- tics foun the remains of the Confessor in as complete a state of preservation as they were upon the day of his death. Edward had been buried in the full royal regalia, but he was no longer to be allowed to lie in state in his cofhn. The vestments, with but little rever- ence, were taken off the cor se and turned into gorgeous copes, while tlie famous ring which it was believed St. John had sent to Edward during his lifetime was drawn from his finger and was deposited as a relic in the Abbey. The body was then laid by Henry’s order in a new and magnificent shrine which he had built for the purpose. The ceremony was completed by the consecration of the famous Gilbert ffo liott as Bishop of London, and by the cure of two men supposed to be afflicted with demoniacal possession. After this, the first translation the body of the Confessor remained undisturbed for over a hundred years; then Henry III. in order to honour Ed ward’s memory as he thought still more highly, pulled down nearly the whole of the origina Abbey, only a fra ment of the old nave eing left standing. The church he built in its p ace stands to-day much as it did when Henry erected it, “ the most lovely and lovable thing in Christendom.” In the very heart of the new Abbey Henry made a new shrine for the Confessor’s remains. All that wealth combined with loving veneration could do to make it beautiful was done. The high altar was moved westwards to its present position, and behind it a mound of earth was raised up; upon this the shrine was built. Only the basement now remains of the ma nificent fabric, the material of which is Pugbeck marble adorned with glass mosaic; above this once no doubt was “a golden shrine enclosing the Confessor’s cofhn.” In the lower part are the arches, or rather recesses, which were made for the accom- modation of the sick persons who came there in order that the saint mi ht heal their diseases. At the sides upon time two twisted pillars which now support the western end of the shrine stood two golden figures repre- senting Edward himsel and St. John the Evangelist, his patron saint. When the mag- nificent shrine was completed on 13 October, 1269, the second translation took place. Upon that day the chest containing the
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