180 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Sept. 8. 1855. 



where the walrus is scan'ely ever found, but into 

 the Wliite Sea. (Forster's notes in JBarrington's 

 Orosius, p. 243.) We have Forster's opinion con- 

 firmed by one of the best zoologists of the present 

 day. Mr. Broderip assures me in a letter : " I do 

 not think it likely that Olitliere, a Norwegian, 

 would go into the Baltic to take the walrus; 

 . . . nor do I believe that walruses or whales 

 were ever so numerous in that sea, within the time 

 of authentic history, as to attract the attention of 

 fishers." J. Bosworth. 



Islip, near Oxford. 



SUTTON CHUECH, NEAR SSREWSBTIRY. 



Information respecting small churches of an- 

 cient date, which are scattered over the country, 

 would, I think, be found interesting to your nume- 

 rous readers. The elucidation of the yet unknown 

 history of many of these remarkable structures 

 might be obtained by a little inquiry and research 

 on the part of some of your correspondents. Such 

 facts would be valuable to the antiquary, and to 

 every lover of sacred places, associated as these 

 places are with the progress of Christianity in 

 early times. Sutton, near Shrewsbury, is an an- 

 cient parish, existing as such as early as the time 

 of Richard I. The church, from the character of 

 its architecture, being anterior to that period, be- 

 came very early an appurtenant to Wenlock 

 Priory, co. Salop. The style of the building is 

 exceedingly plain. Originally it had probably 

 some connexion with a hermitage, which is said 

 to have stood in the wood of Sutton. Scarcely 

 anything is known at present of its antecedent 

 history. Its dimensions are, interior thirty feet 

 two inches by eighteen feet ten inches. An old 

 oak pulpit stands in one corner ; and on the in- 

 side of the back is carved the following name, pro- 

 fession, and date : " Richard Atkis, Scholemaster, 

 1582." This is an exact transcript. He was the 

 earliest third master of the Royal Free Grammar 

 School founded by Edward VI., and enlarged 

 by Queen Elizabeth, in Shrewsbury. He was 

 appointed third master in 1562, and died July 30, 

 1587. He was undoubtedly rector of the church 

 when the pulpit was erected. The width of the 

 windows (except the one over the entrance, wliich 

 is of the ordinary kind) is six inches. There is an 

 old font, very plain in its character. The floor of 

 the church is of red brick. The accommodation 

 consists of three pews, and eleven forms or benches. 

 The parish only contains five liouses ; four farm- 

 houses, and one house adjoining a mill. The 

 average attendance is from ten to twenty persons, 

 and in bad weather it is sometimes as kw as five. 

 Small as this church is, there is more room than 

 the inhabiUnts require. The tithes of Sutton 



No. 306.] 



Church were probably alienated some time in the 

 sixteenth century, leaving scarcely any provision 

 to the rector for the celebration of divine service. 

 The stipend was augmented under Queen Anne's 

 Bounty, and now amounts to 17Z. per annum. 

 Service is performed on the second Sunday after- 

 noon in each month ; and I believe this has been 

 the case for the last forty years. 



The above facts are drawn from a private source 

 and a personal inspection of the place. It will 

 well repay a visit by any of your readers who 

 may be travelling in that direction. 



I should like to see from time to time in " N. 

 & Q." some notes of these curious and time- 

 honoured edifices. We love to linger about their 

 history, for they are hallowed ; and they deck ap^- 

 propriately the landscape, and lend enchantment 

 to many a rural scene. H. M. Bealby. 



North Brixton. 



BUXiLS AND BLUNDERS : ENGLISH AND IRISH. 



Coleridge, in a paper contributed by him to his 

 friend Southey's Omniana, or Horce Otiosiores, 

 furnishes (vol. i. p. 220.) an exemplification and 

 definition of bulls, which he asserts, — ■ 



" Will be found always to contain in them a confusion 

 of (wliat the schoolmen would have called) objectively 

 with svbjectivety ; in plain English, the impression of a 

 thing as it exists in itself and extrinsically, with the idea 

 which the mind abstracts from the impression," 



and defines farther that — 



"A bull consists in a mental juxtaposition of incon- 

 gruous ideas, with the sensation, but without the sense, 

 of connexion." 



Adopting this explanation, which appears as satis., 

 factory as any yet given, our own experience both 

 from reading and conversation will hardly allow 

 us to dissent from the Quarterly Reviewer, who, 

 in a notice of Miss Edgeworth's Essay on h'ish 

 Bulls (vol. ii. p. 281.), coincides with that de- 

 lightful writer as to the gross injustice of the 

 exclusive attribution of these phraseological pe- 

 culiarities to the natives of the country of which 

 she was so distinguished an ornament. That the 

 soil, however, of the Irish intellect does afford 

 more congenial pasture for the animal than is to 

 be found elsewhere, I am not prepared to deny ; 

 hut do believe that the genuine thoroughbred 

 buU is far more rarely found in less favoured 

 climes. Mere blunders, however, are plentiful 

 enough everywhere ; and as an appropriate in- 

 stance, perhaps that of the honest lowland farmer, 

 though well known, may here bear repetition, who, 

 having purchased a copy of Miss Edgeworth's 

 Essay, pronounced her "A puir silly body to 

 write a book on bulls, and no ane word o' horned 

 cattle in it a', forby the bit beastie (the vignette) 

 at the beginning." 



