Jan. 24. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



81 



minster Assembly of Divines — was afterwards 

 transmitted by them to the General Assembly of 

 the Kirk of Scotland, who appointed commis- 

 sioners, &c., for consideration — and was, on 23rd 

 Nov. 1649, sanctioned by the General Assembly, 

 and any other version discharged from being used 

 in the Kirk or its families. Notwithstanding some 

 doggerel interspersed, the version is allowed to be 

 distinguished for a sweet easy simplicity, and well 

 suited to the devotional purpose intended. Rouse 

 evidently was considerably endowed with the vis 

 poetica ; and it is to be regretted, that he who has 

 rendered such important service to our national 

 church, should not be known more than by name ; 

 at least, this is the predicament in which I stand, 

 along with a few friends, whose notice has been 

 incidentally drawn to the subject. G. N. 



Glasgow, Jan. 9. 1852. 



[Our correspondent will find an interesting account 

 of Francis Rouse and his metrical version in Holland's 

 Psalmists of Britain, vol. ii. pp.31 — 38.] 



" Count CagUostro, or the Charlatan, a tale of 

 the Reign of Louis XVI." — I remember of having 

 read, somewhere about the year 1838-9, a novel 

 of this name ; and having inquired frequently 

 for it since, never heard of one. Can any of your 

 correspondents tell me who wrote it ? 



S. Wmson. 



[This work is in three volumes. We have seen it 

 attributed to T. A. James.] 



Churchyard Well and Bath. — Whilst making a 

 short antiquarian excursion in the county of Nor- 

 folk last autumn, I visited the ancient church at 

 East Dereham. Amongst other features of in- 

 terest which this fine church displays, may be 

 enumerated its massive bell tower, detached from 

 the sacred edifice, on the S.E. of the chancel ; and 

 a rude building, to the west of the building, also 

 detached, on the western front of which is the 

 following inscription : 



" This bath 



was erected in the year 



1793, 



in part by voluntary subscriptions, for public benefit, 



on the ruins of a tomb which contained the remains of 



WiTHBURGA, 



youngest daughter of 



Annas, 



king of the East Angles, 



who died A.n. 654. 



Tlie abbot and monks of Ely 



stole this precious relique 



and translated it to Ely Cathedral, 



where it was interred near her three royal sisters, 



A.D. 974." 

 The sexton informed me that the abbot and 

 monks of Ely made this bath, or well, to recom- 

 pense the good people of Dereham for the loss 

 they had sustained by the removal of the bones. 



It is yet used as a bath, both by residents and 

 strangers, the supply of water being very plentiful, 

 and delightfully clear. The water rises under an 

 arch of the Early English, or Early Decorated 

 period. I shall be glad of any notes upon this, or 

 similar baths, in any other churchyards. 



W. Sparrow Simpson, B.A. 



[This bath appears to have been formerly used as a 

 baptistery, which in the early British churches was 

 erected outside of the western entrance, where it con- 

 tinued until the sixth century, if not later (Bingham, 

 book viii. c. vii. ). Blomefield, in his History of Nor- 

 folk, \o\. V. p. 1190. fol. 1775., has the following notices 

 of tins building : " At the west end of the churchyard 

 are the ruins of a very ancient baptistery, over which 

 was formerly a small chapel, dedicated to St. With- 

 burga. At the east end of the baptistery there is now 

 remaining a curious old Gothic arch, from which runs 

 a spring of clear water, formerly said to have had many 

 medicinal and healing qualities. The fabulous account 

 is, that this spring took its rise in the churchyard from 

 the place where St. Withburga was first buried. In 

 the year 1752 it was arched over, and converted into a 

 cold bath." In the notices of the early churches a€ 

 Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland, frequent mention is 

 made of these baptisteries or holy wells, which we do 

 not remember to have seen fully discussed in any work, 

 and of which some account would be interesting alike 

 to the divine, the topographer, and the antiquary. The 

 learned Leland, in his Itinerary, iii. 30., in a descrip- 

 tion of Falmouth harbour, says, " there is a praty 

 village or fishar town with a pere, cawlid S. Maws 

 []\Iachutus], and there is a chapelle of hym, and his 

 chaire of stone, and his welle." Again, speaking of the 

 church of St. Germochus in Cornwall, he says, "it is 

 three miles from S. Michael's Mont by est south est,, 

 and a mile from the se ; his tomb is yet seene ther. 

 S. Germoke ther buried. S. Germoke's chair in the 

 chirch-yard. S. Germoke's welle a little without the 

 chirch-yard." (/itm. iii. 16.) Some further notices of 

 these holy wells will be found in The Chronicles of the 

 Ancient British Chicrch, pp. 136 — 140.] 



COLLARS OF SS. 



(Vol. iv., pp. 147. 236. 456.) 



I communicate the following names and dates of 

 the death, and in some instances bare notices of 

 the monumental effigies, of bearers of the various 

 collars of SS., which may be found in Bloxam's 

 Monumental Architecture, Boutell's Monumental 

 Brasses, Cotman's Sepulchral Brasses, Gough's 

 Sepulchral Monuments, and HoUis's Monumental 

 Effigies. 



I trust that the excellent example set by G. J. 

 R. G., in making known the existence of two of 

 these collars on a tomb in his own neighbourhood 

 will be extensively followed by the readers of 

 "N.&Q." 



1. An effigy on a tomb in Tanfield church, co. 



