176 VIOLATION OF MILTON*S TOMB. 



worth who carried a flambeau, they sallied forth, and proceeded to 

 the church 



" When night 



Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons 

 Of Belial, flushed with insolence and wine." MILTON. 



The sacriligious work now commences. The coffin is dragged from 

 its gloomy resting place : Holmes made use of a mallet and chisel, 

 and cut open the coffin slant- ways from the head to the breast. The 

 lead being doubled up, the corpse became visible : it was enveloped 

 in a thick white shroud ; the ribs were standing up regularly, but 

 the instant the shroud was removed they fell. The features of the 

 countenance could not be traced ; but the hair was in an astonishingly 

 perfect state : its colour a light brown ; its length six inches and a 

 half, and although somewhat clotted, it appeared, after having been 

 well washed, as strong as the hair of a living being. The short locks 

 growing towards the forehead, and the long ones flowing from the 

 same place down the sides of the face, it became obvious that these 

 were most certainly the remains of Milton. The quarto print of the 

 poet, by Faithorne, taken from life in 1670, four years before he 

 died, represents him as wearing his hair exactly in the above manner. 

 Fountain said he was determined to have two of the teeth, but as 

 they resisted the presure of his fingers, he struck the jaw with a 

 paving-stone, and several teeth then fell out. There were only five 

 in the upper jaw, and these were taken by Fountain ; the four that 

 were in the law lower jaw were seized upon by Taylor, Hawkes- 

 worth, and the sexton's man. The hair, which had been carefully 

 combed and tied together before interment, was forcibly pulled off 

 the skull by Taylor and another ; but Ellis, the player, who had 

 now joined the party, told the former, that being a good hair-worker, 

 if he would let him have it he would pay a guinea bowl of punch, 

 adding, that such a relic would be of great service by bringing his 

 name into notice. Ellis, therefore, became possessed of all the hair ; 

 he likewise took a part of the shroud and a bit of the skin of the 

 skull ; indeed he was only prevented carrying off the head by the 

 sextons, Hoppy and Grant, who said that they intended to exhibit 

 the remains, which was afterwards done, each person paying six- 

 pence to view the body. These fellows, I am told, gained nearly 

 one hundred pounds by the exhibition. Laming put one of the leg- 

 bones in his pocket. My informant assured me, continued Mr. 

 Thornton, that while the work of profanation was proceeding, the 

 gibes and jokes of these vulgar fellows made his heart sick, and he 

 retreated from the scene, feeling as if he had witnessed the repast of 

 a vampire. Viscount C., who sat near me, said to Sir G. " This re- 

 minds me of the words of one of the fathers of the church, " And 

 little boys have played with the bones of great kings ! ' ' 



