194 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 122. 



"We need scarcely point out the allusions in the 

 eleventh and twclttli lines to Sir T. Overbury's 

 Character of a Good Wife; but we cannot help 

 calling attention to the curious fact that these 

 lines, written in 1613, must have been carefully 

 preserved by the unhappy man to whom they were 

 addressed, through all his trials and difficulties; 

 and then, on the publication of the 1640 edition of 

 Rare Ben's Works, — twenty-seven years after his 

 disgraceful marriage, five years before his death, — 

 been pasted by him in the cover of the volume 

 which is now very properly deposited in the Na- 

 tional Library. 



JUJflUS AND THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. 



Speculations about Junius are once again the 

 fashion. I would recommend the editor of " N. 

 & Q." not to enter on the general question ; but 

 there are ways, within his legitimate province, by 

 which he might do good service. For example, 

 there have been many obscure persons alluded to 

 in these discussions, about whom we should all be 

 glad to receive information. Thus, Mr. Combe, 

 the author of Dr. Syntax's Tour, figures promi- 

 nently in the last number of the Quarterly Meview. 

 Now, of Mr. Combe very little is known : his name 

 never, I believe, appeared in a title-page, although 

 he lived, or rather starved, by literature, for half 

 a century. From a correspondent of The Athenceum 

 I learn that a list of Combe's works, in his own 

 handwriting, is in the possession of Mr. Robert 

 Cole ; and as Mr. Cole is said to be a very liberal 

 man, I have no doubt he would allow you to print 

 that list. What a waste of speculation, not on one 

 subject, but many subjects, might thus be saved 

 to another generation of editors and contributors ! 



There ai-e also numberless facts, or assumed 

 facts, made to do duty in these discussions, which 

 might with great propriety be subjected to the 

 seai'ching test of " N. & Q." I submit one as a 

 specimen. The writer of the above-mentioned 

 article in the Quarterly says : " It is universally 

 admitted that Junius must have been indefatigable 

 in acquiring information, and that he was pre- 

 eminently distinguished by the variety and extent 

 of his knowledge ; " and he then quotes from the 

 Parliamentary History the reported opinion of 

 Burke on this point : " Were he [Junius] a mem- 

 ber of this House, what might not be expected 

 from his knowledge ? . . . Nothing would escape 

 his vigilance and activity. Bad ministers could 

 conceal nothing from his sagacity, nor could pro- 

 mises or threats induce him to conceal anything 

 from the public." On this I desire to observe, 

 that the " variety and extent " of the knowledge 

 of Junius is not universally admitted — has indeed 

 been publicly denied ; and that what Burke said, as 

 above quoted, had no reference to Junius what- 

 ever, but to the author of Another Letter to 



Mr.Almon in Matter of Libel, then just published, 

 and believed to have been written by the author 

 of the still more celebrated pamphlet, published 

 in 1763 or 1764, called^ Letter concerning Libels 

 and Warrants, &c. It is quite true that the passage 

 has been quoted, and so applied, twenty times, 

 and been forced to do double duty, thatis, been 

 adduced in proof of directly opposite opinions. 

 This was allowable up to 1842, but inexcusable 

 since the Cavendish Debates have been published. 

 (See Cav. Deb., vol. ii. pp. 106, 107.) J. Q. R. 



SIMON OF SUDBUar, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 



In a niche in the vestry of St. Gregory's Church, 

 Sudbury, SufiTolk, is preserved the skull of the 

 murdered archbishop : beneath the niche is placed 

 the following inscription, which appears to me 

 worthy of a place in your pages : — 



" The head of Simon Tlieobald, who was born at Sud- 

 bury, and thence called Simon of Sudbury; he was 

 sent when but a youth into foreign parts to study the 

 civil law, whereof he was made doctor : he visited 

 most of the universities of France, was made chaplain 

 to Pope Innocent, and auditor rotas, or judge of the 

 Roman court. By the interest of this Pope he was 

 made Chancellor of Salisbury. In the year 1361, he 

 was consecrated Bishop of London ; and in the year 

 137.5 was translated to the see of Canterbury, and 

 made Chancellor of England. While he was Bishop 

 of London he built the upper part of St. Gregory's in 

 Sudbury ; and where his father's house stood he erected 

 a college of secular priests, and endowed it with the 

 yearly revenue of one hundred and twenty-two pounds 

 eighteen shillings, and was at length barbarously be- 

 headed upon Tower Hill, in London, by the rabble in 

 Wat Tyler's Rebellion, in the reign of Richard II. 

 1382." 



This inscription is written in an old hand on a 

 piece of parchment. On turning to Stow's Annates 

 for an account of these transactions, I find a very 

 interesting relation of the circumstances above 

 mentioned. I trust to be excused if I add a few 

 brief extracts. King Richard had ordered the 

 Tower gates to be opened to the rebels, though — 



" There was the same time in the Tower 600 vcarlike 

 men, furnished with armour and weapon, expert men 

 in armes, and 600 archers, all which did quaile in 

 stomacke." — Stow's Annates (edit. 1601, 4to.), p. 457. 



The rebels having entered, conducted themselves 

 with unbridled license, and " with terrible noyse 

 and fury" laid hands on the archbishop, "drew 

 him out of the chappell," and proceeded at once 

 to put him to death : 



" He, kneeling downe, offered bis necke to him that 

 should strike it off; being stricken in the necke, but 

 not deadly, he putting his hande to his necke, said 

 thus, a ha, it is the hand of God : he had not removed 

 his hand from the place where the payne was, but that 



