Hay 8. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



447 



1787, banns of marriage were published in the parish 



church between J. D. T. M. F g and H. V. 



B 1 ; and after the third publication, no impedi- 

 ment being alleged, the said J. D. T, M. F g and 



H. V. B 1 were immediatehj married in the face of 



the ' congregation, on the 5th of August, 1787, by 

 J n F g, curate." 



The parties' names are appended to the form 

 *' This marriage was solemnised between us ;" and 

 then follows, "in the presence of" two witnesses 

 who signed their names, one of them being the 

 " dark," as he spelt the word. The event occurred 

 " on a Sacrament Sunday." An aged parishioner, 

 who was about seventy-four or seventy-five years 

 of age when my informant wrote, perfectly re- 

 membered the ceremony ; and added, that pre- 

 viously to Mr. F.'s return from the Lord's Table 

 to the reading desk, in order to continue the ser- 

 vice, from the Second Lesson, he exchanged a kiss 

 with his blushing bride ! It appears that, owing 

 to several persons having disputed the validity of 

 this marriage, the said parties were re-married by 



the Rev. W. i^T s, officiating minister, on the 



J 9th October in the same year. 



I have heard that Mr. F. was always regarded 

 as an eccentric man, if not deranged. I think I 

 have heard that the bride was a milk girl, with 

 whom the reverend gentleman fell in love because 

 " she reminded him of his first love ! " The mar- 

 riage was decidedly opposed by his relatives and 

 friends, which led to the above-mentioned singular 

 occurrence. I believe, before performing the cere- 

 mony himself, Mr. F. publicly inquired " whether 

 there was any one provided to marry him ? " As 

 there was not, he proceeded to the performance of 

 the ceremony himself. 



I have heard also of some such case of a clergy- 

 man marrying himself in Ireland. But the mar- 

 riage was, I believe, pronounced null and void, 

 and the clergyman deposed from the ministry. 



Connected with this subject, I would relate 

 another circumstance related to me as a fact by a 

 clergyman, now a surrogate, who for very many 

 years was curate of the parish adjoining that in 

 which it occurred. He related it to justify and 

 to explain his own somewhat unusual practice of 

 using the surnames as well as Christian names of 

 the^ parties throughout the Marriage Service, 

 saying that in the parish of B y, Gloucester- 

 shire, the not doing so led to the wrong couple being 

 married, owing to the stupidity of the parties and 



their friends ! The rector, Rev. Mr. M d, on 



discovering the mistake, formally pronounced the 

 whole proceeding null and void, and then married 

 the right couple ! 



A correspondent lately inquired whether a per- 

 son could be buried in a garden. In N h, 



Gloucestershire, such a thing occurred about six- 

 teen years ago. An eccentric old gentleman built a 

 kind of summer-house in his garden, and prepared 



his own tomb in it, and was there buried accord- 

 ing to his directions. I rather think the funeral 

 service was read, under the express sanction of 

 the bishop, by the rector of an adjoining parish, 

 who was a friend of the deceased. E. W. D, 



SRejjIttiS to ii^tnor <SMtviti. 



Algernon Sydney (Vol. v., pp. 318. 426.). — I can 

 hardly suppose that Mr. H. Dixon can have made 

 any progress in his inquiries as to Algernon Syd- 

 ney, without having met with the " authorities * 

 mentioned by your correspondent C. E. D. ; and 

 yet it is certainly strange that, if Mb. Dixon had 

 seen these authorities, he could have called Sydney 

 " an illustrious patriot." It may be therefore as 

 well to state that the specific evidence which de- 

 stroys Sydney's claim to the title not merely of an 

 " illustrious patriot," but even of an honest man, 

 and shows him to have been a corrupt traitor of 

 the worst class, is to be found in the Appendix to 

 Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs., vol. i. pp. 339. 

 386. (8vo edit. 1790), where are transcribed the 

 secret despatches of the French ambassador, 

 Barillon, to Louis XIV., detailing the bribes by 

 which he engaged Algernon Sydney to that fac- 

 tious and traitorous opposition which had, for a 

 hundred years prior to Dalrymple's publication, 

 passed off for patriotism. I shall be very curious 

 indeed to see what light Me. H. Dixon may be 

 able to throw on this curious and infamous case ; of 

 which the best that even Mr. Macaulay can say is, 

 that Barillon's louis dors were " a temptation which, 

 conquered the virtue and the pride of Algernon 

 Sydney." — History of England, vol. i. p. 228. C. 



Cock-and-Bull Stories (Vol. v., p. 414.). — It 

 may be doubted whether Mr. Faber will thank 

 J. R. R. for republishing his absurd blunder. It 

 must not, however, be allowed to gain a settlement 

 in " N. & Q.," or to pass for a real explanation, 

 while it is in reality one of the most unfortunate 

 " cock-and-bull" stories that ever was invented. 

 The truth is, that Reinerius, a writer of the Middle 

 Ages, lays it to the charge of the Waldenses that 

 they did not hold the traditions of the Church 

 and, by way ©f instance, he specifies that they did 

 not believe (as, he took for granted, all his ortho- 

 dox readers did) that the cock on the church 

 steeple was symbolical of a doctor or teacher. 

 Reinerius did not think of adding a word of ex- 

 planation about its overlooking the parish from its 

 elevated position, or of its prescriptive right from 

 the days of St. Peter to do a pastor's ofllce by 

 reminding men of the duty of repentance, or of 

 any of the things which writers on symbolism had 

 said, or might say. He nakedly states, "Item, 

 mysticum sensum in divinis scripturis refutant: 

 prsecipue in dictis et actis ab Ecclesia traditis : ut 

 quod gallus super campanile significat Doctorem." 



