186 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°'i S. Ko G2., Mar. 7. '57. 



by his Lordship's visiting their Kemains in the Chapter 

 House, 10 Dec. 1G75 ; to which Place they were removed 

 with other Bodies from St. Paul's — and of the singular 

 Devotion of a Lady towards the Pemains of the good 

 Bishop, which were entire, after 250 years' Interment, 

 upon her Ladyship's entering the Chamber, but dis- 

 covered to be strangely' mutilated upon her Departure. 

 Copied from his Lordship's Hand-writing by Timothy 

 Thomas. 1721." 



The lot was published by General Carnac for 

 IZ. 9*. Lord Coleraine's narrative, it is believed, has 

 never been printed ; but surely it would be worth 

 publication, if preserved. Can its existence now 

 be traced ? Or is it known what became of 

 General Carnac's library ? J. G. N. 



[ We are enabled at once to answer this Query of our 

 excellent contributor. Amongst some curious MSS. trans- 

 mitted to us by our valuable correspondent A. M. (Franc- 

 fort), is the following copy of Lord Coleraine's narrative. 

 We have been obliged to omit some few words as un- 

 suited to modern notions : — . 



*' A Copy (from the Original) of a Letter, or De- 

 claration written by the Lord Colrain, bound 

 up at the end of S' W"" Dugdale's 1" Edition 

 of The History of S* Pauls Cathedral ; which 

 Book, with the aforesaid Letter, is now in the 

 Library of The Earl of Oxford at Wimpole, in 

 Cambridgeshire, Sept. 1730. 



" For the further reviving or preservation of 

 y* Memory of Rob' Braybroke, I shall add this. 

 That I suppose him descended from Henry Bray- 

 broke, a Judge of Assize in the reign of Henry III., 

 1224, who was surprised and forcibly detained 

 Prisoner in Bedford Castle, by Fulco de Breant 

 (a false foreigner). This man has 130 verdicts 

 against him at one time ; which so enraged him, 

 as thereupon he imprisoned the foresaid Judge 

 Braybroke, the supposed Ancestor of Robert, who 

 about that time was very honourable, as may ap- 

 pear, not onely by the Barony appertaining to 

 Kob* May, alias Braybroke (King John's favourite, 

 •who built Braybroke Castle, now belonging to the 

 Griffins), but also by that esteem the Pope him- 

 self had of the said Family, which may be legible 

 in the Indulgence of Boniface the 9* to Sir Gerard 

 Braybroke the younger (mentioned in Dugdale's 

 Hist, of S' Paul's, p. 46.). This S' Gerard was 

 near of kin, perhaps a Nephew to B? Roberts, and, 

 together with others, gave the whole Manour of 

 Losthall, in Essex, to pray for the Founder in the 

 Bishop's Chappell, &c. 



" Above 250 years after B'' Braybroke's decease, 

 after the burning of S' Paul's Church, his bones 

 were dug up, as his kinsman S"" Gerard's had like- 

 wise been. But altho' the Pope's Indulgence w"* 

 not preserve S' Gerard's Corps from being dis- 

 solv'd, yet the body of this good Prelate was 

 taken up intire (by some labourers while they 

 were removing the rubbish after the furious con- 

 flagration both of Paul's and London), except in 



two places onely, where the pickaxes had (as I 

 may say) wounded the corps afresh. 



" For myself, going with two other gentlemen 

 into the Chapter House of S* Paul's on Friday, 

 Decemb' 10"', 1675, to see this considerable kind 

 of Skeleton, I beheld it complete and compact 

 from head to foot, excepting onely the pious and 

 accidental injuries it had received, by its too early 

 extraction from the grave : viz. It had a breach 

 on the skull on the left side, and another on the 

 same side into the breast, within which one might 

 perceive the lungs and other entrails dried up (in 

 the same manner as the outward was), without 

 dissoluon or other kinde of decay. 



"But it hath lately rec"^ a greater maim than 

 these before mentioned by a Female's defrauding 

 (shall I say) or deroding it, as I was told by 

 Thomas Boys, Keeper of y" Chapter- House, and 

 then present, who gave me y" following relation : — 



" A Lady (as she seem'd to be) of Great 

 Quality being attended with a Gentleman, and 2 

 or 3 Gentlewomen, desired to see y*^ body, and to 

 be left alone by it for a while. Whereupon her 

 Train withdrew together with Tho. Boys out of 

 sight, and as they retired, they perceived her 

 Ladyship addressing herself towards the carcass 

 with many Crossings, and great tokens of super- 

 stition. Afterwards comeing away to her Com- 

 pany, with much satisfaction she told them she 

 had done, and went her way, having gratified the 

 keeper of y® curiosity, Thomas Boys. He re- 

 turned then to shut up the carcass, but unex- 

 pectedly found it serv'd like a Turkish Eunuch. 



" This odd piece of devotion (shall I call it) or 

 curiosity (if not worse), was so notorious to the 

 man Tho. Boys (before recited), that he still averrs 

 that Bp. Braybrooke (who had also been Lord 

 Chancelleur of England in y" reign of Richard II.) 

 was thus more despoiled by a kind Lady in a 

 quarter of an hour than his Lordship had been by 

 the teeth of time for almost 3 centuries of years. 



" The w'' I thought worth further taking notice 

 of concerning the Bishop's body, is, that notw*"- 

 standing it hath been too commonly, and methinks 

 too carelessly exposed to y® air (on y" damp 

 earthen or ground floor), and to the sight and 

 handling of most spectators for 2 or 3 years to- 

 gether, yet the head keeps firm upon the neck, 

 and the whole weight of the body (w'' is but about 

 9 pounds), is supported upon y' tip toes, the 

 bones and nerves continuing all (as they were 

 stretch'd out after death), without having any 

 Egyptian art used to make mummy of the carcass. 



"For tho' I pryed very narrowly about it, I c"* 

 not perceive it had been embowell'd or embalm'd 

 at all. On the right side of y" cheek, there was 

 flesh and hair visible enough to give some notice of 

 his effigy, and his stature (which was but ordinary) 



