Chapter 2

"Le roi Jaques etant monte sur le trone, il lui donna un regiment d'infanterie en Irlande et le gouvernement de Limeric. Mais ce prince, ayant ete oblige de quitter ses etats le comte Hamilton repassa avec la famille royale en France. C'est-la et pendant le long sejour qu'il y a fait, qu'il a compose les divers ouvrages qui lui ont acquis tant de reputation. Il mourut a S. Germain le 21 Avril 1720. dans de grands sentimens de piete, et apres avoir recu les derniers sacremens. Il etoit age alors d'environ 74 ans. Il a merite les regrets de tous ceux qui avoient le bonheur de le connoitre. Ne serieux, il avoit dans l'esprit tous les agremens imaginables; mais ce qui est plus digne de louanges, a ces agremens, qui vent frivoles sans la vertu, il joignoit toutes les qualitez du coeur."

If the above _avertissement_ first appeared in 1746, which I have much reason to conclude, this is certainly a very important edition. The biographical portion of the advertisement is the foundation of the later memoirs of Hamilton. In the Moreri of 1759, we have it almost _verbatim_, but taken from the _Oeuvres du comte Antoine Hamilton_, 1749. Neither Brunet, nor Renouard, nor Querard notice the edition of 1746. The copy which I have examined has the book-plate G. III. R.

3. "_Memoires du comte de Grammont, par le C. Antoine Hamilton_. 1760." [De l'imprimerie de Didot, rue Pavee, 1760.] 12^o. I. partie, pp. 36 + 316. II. partie, pp. 4 + 340.

This edition has the same _avertissement_ as that of 1746. The imprint is M.DCC.LX. The type resembles our small pica, and the paper has the water-mark _Auvergne_ 1749. At the end of the second part appears, _De l'imprimerie de Didot, rue Pavee_, 1760. This must be M. Francois Didot of Paris. I find the same colophon in the _Bibliographie instructive_, 1763-8. v. 631. This very neat edition has also escaped the aforesaid bibliographic trio!

4. "_Memoires du comte de Grammont, par monsieur le comte Antoine Hamilton_. _Nouvelle edition_, _augmentee de notes et d'eclaircissemens necessaires, par M. Horace Walpole_. Imprimee a Strawberry-Hill. 1772." 4^o, pp. 24 + 294. 3 portraits.

[Dedication.] "A madame....

"L'editeur vous consacre cette edition, comme un monument de son amitie, de son admiration, et de son respect; a vous, dont les graces, l'esprit, et le gout retracent au siecle present le siecle de Louis quatorze et les agremens de l'auteur de ces memoires."

Such are the inscriptions on the _Strawberry-Hill gem_. Much has been said of its brilliancy--and so, for the sake of novelty, I shall rather dwell on its flaws.

The volume was printed at the private press of M. Horace Walpole at Strawberry-Hill, and the impression was limited to one hundred copies, of which thirty were sent to Paris. So much for its attractions--now for its flaws. In reprinting the dedication to madame du Deffand, I had to insert _eight_ accents to make decent French of it! The _avis_ is a mere medley of fragments: I could not ask a compositor to set it up! The _avertissement_ is copied, without a word of intimation to that effect, from the edition of 1746. The notes to the _epitre_ are also copied from that edition, except _L'abbe de Chaulieu_; and two of the notes to the memoirs are from the same source. The other notes, in the opinion of sir William Musgrave, are in part taken from an erroneous printed _Key_. Where are the _eclaircissements_? I find none except a list of proper names--of which about one-third part is omitted!

In quoting Brunet, I have used the fourth edition of the _Manuel du libraire_, 1842-4; in quoting Renouard, I refer to the _avis_ prefixed to the _Oeuvres du comte Antoine Hamilton_, 1812; in quoting Querard, to _La France litteraire_, 1827-39. The other references are to sale catalogues. The titles of the books described, and the extracts, are given _literatim_, and, except as above noted, with the same accentuation and punctuation.

To revert to the question of a new edition: I should prefer the French text, for various reasons, to any English translation that could be made. That of Abel Boyer is wretched burlesque!

The chief requirements of a French edition would be, a collation of the editions of 1713 and 1746--the rectification of the names of persons {5} and places--a revision of the punctuation--and a strict conformity, as to general orthography and accentuation, with the _Dictionnaire de l'Academie francaise_, as edited in 1835. The substance of the _avis_ of 1713 might be stated in a preface; and the _avertissement_ of 1746, a clever composition, would serve as an introduction and memoir of the author. Those who doubt its value may consult the _Grand dictionnaire historique_, and the _Biographie universelle_. As one hundred and sixty persons are noticed in the work, brevity of annotation is very desirable. It would require much research. The manuscript notes of sir William Musgrave would, however, be very serviceable--more so, I conceive, than the printed notes of M. Horace Walpole.

As the indications of a projected re-impression may be fallacious, I shall conclude with a word of advice to inexperienced collectors. Avoid the _jolie edition_ printed at Paris by F. A. Didot, _par ordre de monseigneur le comte d'Artois_, in 1781. It is the very worst specimen of editorship. Avoid also the London edition of 1792. The preface is a piratical pasticcio; the verbose notes are from the most accessible books; the portraits, very unequal in point of execution, I believe to be chiefly copies of prints--not _d'apres des tableaux originaux_. The most desirable editions are, 1. The edition of 1760; 2. That of 1772, as a _curiosity_; 3. That edited by M. Renouard, Paris, 1812, 18^o. 2 vols.; 4. That edited by M. Renouard in 1812, 8^o. with eight portraits. The latter edition forms part of the _Oeuvres du comte Antoine Hamilton_ in 3 vols. It seldom occurs for sale.

BOLTON CORNEY.

* * * * *

THE "ANCREN RIWLE."

The publication of this valuable semi-Saxon or Early English treatise on the duties of monastic life, recently put forth by the Camden Society, under the editorship of the Rev. James Morton, is extremely acceptable, and both the Society and the editor deserve the cordial thanks of all who are interested in the history of our language. As one much interested in the subject, and who many years since entertained the design now so ably executed by Mr. Morton, I may perhaps be allowed to offer a few remarks on the work itself, and on the manuscripts which contain it. Mr. Morton is unquestionably right in his statement that the Latin MS. in Magdalen College, Oxford, No. 67., is only an abridged translation of the original vernacular text. Twenty-three years ago I had access to the same MS. by permission of the Rev. Dr. Routh, the President of Magdalen College, and after reading and making extracts from it[1], I came to the same conclusion as Mr. Morton. It hardly admits, I think, of a doubt; for even without the internal evidence furnished by the Latin copy, the age of the manuscripts containing the Early English text at once set aside the supposition that Simon of Ghent (Bishop of Salisbury from 1297 to 1315) was the original author of the work. The copy in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, I have not seen, but of the three copies in the British Museum I feel confident that the one marked Cleopatra C. vi. was actually written before Bishop Simon of Ghent had emerged from the nursery. This copy is not only the oldest, but the most curious, from the corrections and alterations made in it by a somewhat later hand, the chief of which are noticed in the printed edition. The collation, however, of this MS. might have been, with advantage, made more minutely, for at present many readings are passed over. Thus, at p. 8., for _unweote_ the second hand has _congoun_; at p. 62., for _herigen_ it has _preisen_; at p. 90., for _on cheafle_, it reads _o muthe_, &c. The original hand has also some remarkable variations, which would cause a suspicion that this was the first draft of the author's work. Thus, at p. 12., for _scandle_, the first hand has _schonde_; at p. 62., for _baldeliche_ it reads _bradliche_; at p. 88., for _nout for_, it has _anonden_, and the second hand _aneust_; at p. 90., for _sunderliche_ it reads _sunderlepes_, &c. All these, and many other curious variations, are not noticed in the printed edition. On the fly-leaf of this MS. is written, in a hand of the time of Edward I., as follows: "_Datum abbatie et conventui de Leghe per Dame M. de Clare._" The lady here referred to was doubtless Maud de Clare, second wife of Richard de Clare, Earl of Hereford and Gloucester, who, at the beginning of the reign of Edward I., is known to have changed the Augustinian Canons of Leghe, in Devonshire, into an abbess and nuns of the same order; and it was probably at the same period she bestowed this volume on them. The conjecture of Mr. Morton, that Bishop Poore, who died in 1237, might have been the original author of the _Ancren Riwle_, is by no means improbable, and deserves farther inquiry. The error as to Simon of Ghent is due, in the first place, not to Dr. Smith, but to Richard James (Sir Robert Cotton's librarian), who wrote on the fly-leaves of all the MSS. in the Cottonian Library a note of their respective contents, and who is implicitly followed by Smith. Wanley is more blamable, and does not here evince his usual critical accuracy, but (as remarked by Mr. Morton) he could only have looked at a few pages of the work. The real fact seems to be that Simon of Ghent made the abridged Latin version of the seven books of the _Riwle_ now preserved in Magdalen College, and this supposition may well enough be reconciled with the words of Leland, who says of him,--

"Edidit inter caetera, libros _septem_ de Vita Solitaria, {6} ad Virgines Tarentinas, Duriae cultrices."--_Comment_., p. 316.

A second copy of the Latin version was formerly in the Cottonian collection (Vitellius E. vii.), but no fragment of it has hitherto been recovered from the mass of burnt crusts and leaves left after the fire of 1731. I am happy, however, to add, that within the last few months, the manuscript marked Vitellius F. vii., containing a French translation of the _Riwle_, made in the fourteenth century (very closely agreeing with the vernacular text), has been entirely restored, except that the top margins of the leaves have been burnt at each end of the volume. This damage has, unfortunately, carried away the original heading of the treatise, and the title given us by Smith is copied partly from James's note. This copy of the French version appears to be unique, and is the more interesting from its having a note at the end (now half obliterated by the fire), stating that it belonged to Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, whose motto is also added, "_Plesance. M [mil]. en vn_." The personage in question was Eleanor, daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and wife of Thomas of Woodstock, who ended her days as a nun in the convent at Barking in 1399. Is any other instance known of the use of this motto? Before I conclude these brief remarks, I may mention a _fifth_ copy of the _Ancren Riwle_, which has escaped the notice of Mr. Morton. It is buried in the enormous folio manuscript of old English poetry and prose called the Vernon MS., in the Bodleian Library, written in the reign of Richard II., and occurs at pp. 371^b.--392. In the table of contents prefixed to this volume it is entitled "The Roule of Reclous;" and although the phraseology is somewhat modernised, it agrees better with the MS. Cleopatra C. vi, than with Nero A. xiv., from which Mr. Morton's edition is printed. This copy is not complete, some leaves having been cut out in the sixth book, and the scribe leaves off at p. 420. of the printed edition.

It is very much to be wished that Mr. Morton would undertake the task of editing another volume of legends, homilies, and poems, of the same age as the _Ancren Riwle_, still existing in various manuscripts. One of the homilies, entitled "Sawles Warde," in the Bodley MS. 34., Cott. MS. Titus D. xviii., and Old Royal MS. 17A. xxvii., is very curious, and well deserves to be printed.

F. MADDEN.

British Museum.

[Footnote 1: At p. viii. of Mr. Morton's preface, for "yerze" (eye), my extracts read "yze."]

* * * * *

ORDER FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF VAGRANCY, A.D. 1650-51.

At a time when the question of "What is to be done with our vagrant children?" is occupying the attention of all men of philanthropic minds, it may be worth while to give place in your pages to the following order addressed by the Lord Mayor of London to his aldermen in 1650-51, which applies, amongst other things, to that very subject. It will be seen that some of the artifices of beggary in that day were very similar to those with which we are now but too familiar. The difference of treatment between vagrant children over and under nine years of age, is worthy of observation.

"BY THE MAYOR.

"Forasmuch as of late the constables of this city have neglected to put in execution the severall wholsome laws for punishing of vagrants, and passing them to the places of their last abode, whereby great scandall and dishonour is brought upon the government of this city; These are therefore to will and require you, or your deputy, forthwith to call before you the several constables within your ward, and strictly to charge them to put in execution the said laws, or to expect the penalty of forty shillings to be levyed upon their estates, for every vagrant that shal be found begging in their several precincts. And to the end the said constables may not pretend ignorance, what to do with the several persons which they shal find offending the said laws, these are further to require them, that al aged or impotent persons who are not fit to work, be passed from constable to constable to the parish where they dwel; and that the constable in whose ward they are found begging, shal give a passe under his hand, expressing the place where he or she were taken, and the place whither they are to be passed. _And for children under five years of age, who have no dwelling, or cannot give an account of their parents, the parish where they are found are to provide for them; and for those which shall bee found lying under stalls, having no habitation or parents (from five to nine years old), are to be sent to the Wardrobe House_[2], _to be provided for by the corporation for the poore; and all above nine years of age are to be sent to Bridewel._ And for men or women who are able to work and goe begging with young children, such persons for the first time to be passed to the place of their abode as aforesaid; and being taken againe, they are to be carryed to Bridewel, to be corrected according to the discretion of the governours. _And for those persons that shal be found to hire children, or go begging with children not sucking, those children are to be sent to the several parishes wher they dwel, and the persons so hiring them to Bridewel, to be corrected and passed away, or kept at work there, according to the governour's discretion._ And for al other vagrants and beggars under any pretence whatsoever, to be forthwith sent down to Bridewel to be imployed and corrected, according to the statute laws of this commonwealth, except before excepted; and the president and governours of Bridewel are hereby desired to meet twice every week to see to the execution of this Precept. _And the steward of the workehouse called the Wardrobe, is {7} authorised to receive into that house such children as are of the age between five and nine, as is before specified and limited_; and the said steward is from time to time to acquaint the corporation for the poor, what persons are brought in, to the end they may bee provided for. Dated this four and twentyeth day of January, 1650.

SADLER."

JOHN BRUCE.

[Footnote 2: I suppose this to have been the ancient building known by the name of The Royal, or The Tower Royal, used for a time as the Queen's Wardrobe. It will be seen that it was occupied in 1650 as a workhouse.]

* * * * *

LETTERS OF EMINENT LITERARY MEN.

Sir,

I send you, as a New Year's Gift for your "N. & Q.," transcripts of half-a-dozen Letters of Eminent Literary Men, specimens of whose correspondence it will do your work no discredit to preserve,

Yours faithfully, HENRY ELLIS.

British Museum, Dec. 26, 1853.

I.

_Dean Swift to_ * * * * * * *.

[MS. Addit., Brit. Mus., 12,113. _Orig_.]

Belcamp, Mar. 14th.

Sir,

Riding out this morning to dine here with Mr. Grattan, I saw at his house the poor lame boy that gives you this: he was a servant to a plow-man near Lusk, and while he was following the plow, a dog bit him in the leg, about eleven weeks ago. One Mrs. Price endeavored six weeks to cure him, but could not, and his Master would maintain him no longer. Mr. Grattan and I are of opinion that he may be a proper object to be received into Dr. Stephen's Hospital. The boy tells his story naturally, and Mr. Grattan and I took pity of him. If you find him curable, and it be not against the rules of the Hospitall, I hope you will receive him.

I am, Sir, Your most humble Servt. JONATH. SWIFT.

II.

_The Rev. Thomas Baker to Mr. Humphry Wanley_.

[Harl. MS. 3778, Art. 43. _Orig_.]

Cambridge, Oct. 16th [1718].

Worthy Sir

I am glad to hear Mrs. Elstob is in a condition to pay her debts, for me she may be very easy: tho' I could wish for the sake of the University (tho' I am no way engaged, having taken up my obligation) that you could recover the Book, or at least could find where it is lodged, that Mr. Brook may know where to demand it. This, I presume, may be done.

If you have met with Books printed by Guttenberg, you have made a great discovery. I thought there had been none such in the world, and began to look upon Fust as the first Printer. I have seen the Bishop of Ely's Catholicon (now with us), which, for aught I know, may have been printed by Guttenberg; for tho' it be printed at Ments, yet there is no name of the Printer, and the character is more rude than Fust's Tullie's Offices, whereof there are two Copies in 1465 and 1466, the first on vellum, the other on paper.

May I make a small enquiry, after the mention of so great a name as Guttenberg? I remember, you told me, my Lord Harley had two Copies of Edw. the Sixth's first Common Prayer Book. Do you remember whether either of them be printed by Grafton, the King's Printer? I have seen four or five Editions by Whitchurch, but never could meet with any by Grafton, except one in my custody, which I shall look upon to be a great Rarity, if it be likewise wanting to my Lord's Collection. It varies from all the other Copies, and is printed in 1548. All the rest, I think, in 1549. One reason of my enquiry is, because I want the Title, for the date is at the end of the Book, and indeed twice; both on the end of the Communion Office, and of the Litany. But I beg your pardon for so small an enquiry, whilst you are in quest of Guttenberg and Nic. Jenson. My business consists much in trifles.

I am, Sir, Your most ob. humble Servant, THO. BAKER.

To the worthy Mr. Wanley, at the Riding Hood Shop, the corner of Chandois and Bedford Streets, Covent Garden, London.

A note in Wanley's hand says, "Mrs. Elstob has only paid a few small scores."

III.

_Extract of a Letter from Wm. Bickford, Esq., to the Rev. Mr. Amory of Taunton, dated Dunsland, March_ 7, 1731.

[MS. Addit., Brit. Mus., 4309, fol. 358.]

I cannot forbear acquainting you of a very curious passage in relation to Charles the Second's Restoration. Sir Wm. Morrice, who was one of the Secretaries of State soon after, was the person who chiefly transacted that affair with Monk, so that all the papers in order to it were sent him, both from King Charles and Lord Clarendon. Just after the thing was finished, Lord Clarendon got more than 200 of these Letters and other papers from Morrice under pretence of finishing his History, and which were never returned. Lord Somers, when he was chancellor, told Morrice's Grandson that if he would file a Bill in Chancery, he would endeavour to get them; but young Morrice having deserted the Whig Interest, was {8} prevailed upon to let it drop. This I know to be fact, for I had it not only from the last-mentioned Gentleman, but others of that family, especially a son of the Secretaries. As soon as I knew this, I took the first opportunity of searching the study, and found some very curious Letters, which one time or other I design to publish together with the account of that affair. My mother being Niece to the Secretary, hath often heard him say that Charles the Second was not only very base in not keeping the least of the many things that he had promised; but by debauching the Nation, had rendered it fitt for that terrible fellow (meaning the Duke of York) to ruin us all, and then Monk and him would be remembred to their Infamy.

(_To be continued._)

* * * * *

BURIAL-PLACE OF ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.

On a visit this autumn with some friends to the picturesque village and church of Horsted-Keynes, Sussex, our attention was forcibly arrested by the appearance of two large pavement slabs, inserted in an erect position on the external face of the south wall of the chancel. They proved to be those which once had covered and protected the grave of the good Archbishop Leighton, who passed the latter years of his life in that parish, and that of Sir Ellis Leighton, his brother. On inquiry, it appeared that their remains had been deposited within a small chapel on the south side of the chancel, the burial-place of the Lightmaker family, of Broadhurst, in the parish of Horsted. The archbishop retired thither in 1674, and resided with his only sister, Saphira, widow of Mr. Edward Lightmaker. Broadhurst, it may be observed, is sometimes incorrectly mentioned by the biographers of Archbishop Leighton as a parish; it is an ancient mansion, the residence formerly of the Lightmakers, and situated about a mile north of the village of Horsted. There it was that Leighton made his will, in February, 1683; but his death occurred, it will be remembered, in singular accordance with his desire often expressed, at an inn, the Bell, in Warwick Lane, London.

The small chapel adjacent to the chancel, and opening into it by an arch now walled up, had for some time, as I believe, been used as a school-room; more recently, however, either through its becoming out of repair, or from some other cause, the little structure was demolished. The large slabs which covered the tombs of the good prelate and his brother were taken up and fixed against the adjoining wall. The turf now covers the space thus thrown into the open churchyard; nothing remains to mark the position of the graves, which in all probability, ere many years elapse, will be disturbed through ignorance or heedlessness, and the ashes of Leighton scattered to the winds.