64 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"<i S. No 30., July 26. '66. 



But seldome heare at all : 

 And Courtiers find their Interest 

 In time to feather well their Nest, 



Providing for their Fall. 



Our comfort doth on time depend, 

 Things when they are at worst will mend, 



And let us but reflect 

 On our condition t'other day. 

 When none but Tyrants bore the sway, 



What did we then expect ? 



Meanwhile a calme retreat is best 

 But discontent if not supprest. 



Will breed Disloyalty : 

 This is the constant note I'le sing, 

 I have been faithfull to the King 



And so shall live and dye. 



No. 2641. of the Collection of Proclamations, 

 &c., presented to the Chetham Library, Man- 

 chester, by James O. Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S. 



BiBLIOTHECAR. ChETHAM, 



Prince of Orang-e (2"'^ S. i. 370. ; ii. 6.) — Be- 

 fore writing my note on the De Witts, I had exa- 

 mined the pamphlet to which P. H. refers. It is 

 not the sentence of a real court, but a " pasquil " 

 made up of the charges in circulation against the 

 brothers, put in the form of a judgment. The 

 attesting witnesses are, " De Borgery van de 7 

 Provincien, en alle Liefhebbers en voorstanders 

 van Gods Kerck en het lieve Vaterlandt." 



I do not think that any sentence was passed on 

 John De Witt. H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



DISSECTION. 



" To be dissected and anatomized." — Sentence on Murderers. 



" Poor brother Tom had an accident this time twelve- 

 month, and so clever made a fellow he was, that I could 

 hot save him from those flaying rascals the surgeons, and 

 now, poor man, he is among the 'otomies at Surgeons' 

 Hall." — Mat of the Mint, Beggar's Opera. 



I am rather at a loss to account for the change 

 in the law which took place a few years ago, by 

 which the murderer was relieved of that part of 

 his sentence which devoted bis body to dissection, 

 for the improvement of science. I have been the 

 more inclined to doubt the policy of this measure 

 from the perusal of several of the older volumes of 

 the Annual Register, from which it appears, in a 

 great many instances, that nothing has been so 

 terrible, or made the most hardened culprit shud- 

 der, as the judge pronouncing this part of the 

 sentence. Not to trespass too much on your co- 

 lumns, I will only quote two cases. 



Lord Ferrers on April 18, 1760, had sen- 

 tence passed upon him, by which he was to be 

 hanged by the neck till he was dead, after which 



his body was to be delivered to Surgeons' Hall to 

 be dissected and anatomized : at this part of the 

 sentence his lordship cried out, " God forbid ! " 

 {Annual Register, 1760, pp. 38. 93.) 



Dumas the highwayman declared that he valued 

 not death, but only the thoughts of being anato- 

 mized. He was the favourite of the ladies, and 

 while in prison was frequently visited by them, 

 which gave rise to the song, — 



" Certain Belles to Dumas. 



" Joy to thee, lovely thief! that thou 

 Hast 'scap'd the fatal string ; 

 Let gallows groan with ugly rogues, 

 Dumas must never swing," &c. 



This was made upon one of his acquittals. {An- 

 nual Register, 1761, pp. 51. 88.) 



I am not for showing leniency to murderers, and 

 would ask why the former sentence should not be 

 re-enacted ? a. 



EPITAPHS AT WINCHESTEB. 



(P' S. xii. 424.) 



I transmit the following epitaph for insertion 

 in "N. & Q.," where I wonder that it has not 

 hitherto appeared. I copied it from an inscription 

 on a tombstone in the churchyard of Winchester 

 Cathedral, and a military friend then quartered 

 there informed me that a statement once appeared 

 in Frasers Magazine to the effect that the qua- 

 train commencing " Here sleeps in peace," was 

 written by Dr. Benjamin Hoadley, sometime 

 Bishop of Winchester. Now, as Bishop Hoadley 

 died April 17, 1761, it is plain that he could not 

 have written an epitaph on a person who survived 

 him more than three years. 



I have divided the lines exactly as they appear 

 on the tombstone, and beg to direct your attention 

 to the ambiguity of " when hot," "which might 

 apply to the " beer " or to its victim ; also to the 

 disembodiment of the North Hants Militia iu 

 April, 1802, being assignable (owing to the ob- 

 scure language) to the destruction of the " ori- 

 ginal stone," and not to the peace of Amiens, 

 which was ratified in March, 1802. The inference 

 drawn by the poet that the grenadier was killed 

 by the smallness of the beer, and not by its want 

 of caloric, is as original as it is, doubtless, correct. 



" In memory of 

 THOMAS THETCHER, 

 a Grenadier in the North Regiment 

 of Hants Militia, who died of a 

 violent fever contracted by drinking 

 small beer when hot the 12th of May, 



1764, aged 26 years. 

 In grateful remembrance of whose universal 

 good-will towards his Comrades this Stone 

 is placed here at their expense as a small 

 testimony of their regard and concern. 



