Dec. 15. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



479 



at home, fighting, as they did, " under the cold 

 shade of the aristocracy." M. A. 



" Trumpeter unus erat" (Vol. xii., p. 226.). — 

 It may amuse some of your readers, who take in- 

 terest in such doggerel as the familiar verses com- 

 municated by your correspondent N. B., to be 

 furnished with a Greek version of them, imposed 

 by the great Dr. Vincent (then head master of 

 Westminster) as a punishment on my uncle, when 

 in the sixth form, for playing on a penny trumpet 

 in school : 



Kai \akUvSpov elxei', K^pKio <rvoj ap.4)i.(ra.pripov" 



The a.ix(ptad.prtpop is really classical. C. W. 



Carlton Club. 



Sedilia (Vol. xii., pp. 344. 392.). — Your corre- 

 spondent G. Brindley Ackworth has proposed 

 a question I have for some time contemplated 

 asking. During a long residence in Belgium, I 

 endeavoured to make myself acquainted with the 

 architecture of that country, and with that inten- 

 tion visited, and carefully examined, upwards of 

 five hundred churches. Within this number are 

 included some of the finest buildings in ancient 

 and modern architecture, as well as many of the 

 humblest, and I may add, meanest examples. 

 Taking my early lessons from the rich architec- 

 ture of England, it was natural I should more 

 particularly search for those details which are 

 only permitted to retain their accustomed places 

 in our remodeled churches. 



While thus employed, I sought in vain for a 

 sedilia, fully expecting to find it there, and more 

 fully enriched, with the occupants in such rich 

 habiliments as would have produced a harmoniz- 

 ing wholly forbidden in our own country. Al- 

 though there disappointed, 1 returned to pursue 

 the subject a little farther, and, I may here re- 

 mark, the sedilia, of whatever number of seats, 

 graduated or otherwise, was always terminated at 

 the east end by a piscina ; this in turn was again 

 formed of one or more recesses, but I believe one 

 basin alone possessed an orifice for the escape of 

 the waste water. This necessary appendage to an 

 ancient Roman altar is now very rarely to be met 

 with. In my searches three or four were all that 

 I discovered amongst as many thousand altars. 



In the church of Meusezhem, near Brussels, is 

 a piscina, formed of two basins, of which one 

 alone is perforated, and is enclosed by a wicket, 

 or half door, richly carved in window-like tracery. 



In the church of Drosenbosche is a piscina in 

 excellent preservation, the canopy is cracketed, 

 and the finials similarly enriched at the base of 

 the recess, and on a level with the flooring are two 

 stone basins, both perforated, and in a quarter- 

 foil form, but unusually shallow. 



For the existence of a third I must trust to 



No, 320.] 



memory, but it possessed the singularity of having 

 the basin divided in two equal parts, one half 

 having the usual perforation. These few remarks 

 may assist your correspondent, and I am en- 

 couraged to ask the question, Does the sedilia 

 exist in the Netherlands ? Hemst Dat£«£y. 



Boohs chained in Churches (Vol. xii., p. 312.). — 

 The motives which have led to putting books 

 under fetters may sometimes be as curious as the 

 f&ct. In the following, a writer has caught the 

 idea, and happily expiessed it ; and the lines may 

 not be unworthy of being revived in "N. & Q." : 



" Epigram. 

 When I called t'other day on a noble renowned. 

 In his great marble hall lay the Bible, well bound ; 

 Nor printed by Basket, and bound up in black, 

 But chained to the floor, like a thief, by the back. 

 Unacquainted with tone, and jour quality airs, 

 I supposed it intended for family prayers. 

 His piety pleased, I applauded his zeal, 

 Yet thought none would venture the Bible to steal ; 

 But judge my surprise when informed of the case, — 

 He had chained it for fear it would fly in his face ! " 

 Cumberland Joui nal, Oct. 27. 1798. 



G.N. 



In St. Chad's Church, Hanmer, Flintshire, is a 

 copy of Foxe's Acts and Monuments, in three 

 volumes. One volume is chained to a desk at 

 the east end of the south aisle, and the other two 

 to a desk at the west end. Abchueacon Weir. 



I have seen, in a recent Number of " N. & Q.," 

 an article from one of your correspondents (which 

 has now escaped me) on Bibles chained in 

 churches. This custom was not confined to eccle- 

 siastical edifices, or ecclesiastical works ; I can 

 supply, from a note before me, another link in the 

 chain of CA'idence, as regards a similar practice of 

 securing secular works in places non-ecclesiastical. 



The following is an extract quoted from the 

 registers of the parish church of Tavistock, 

 Devon : 



" Item. Paide for a chayne and settinge in thereof, 

 for the fastenynge of the Dictionarrie in the Scheie 

 Howse, ixd." 



Appended to the above is a foot-note, which re- 

 marks : 



" This is an amusing charge, and shows the scarcity 

 of lexicographic tomes in that day (1588)." 



The black-letter. Acts and Monuments of the 

 Martyrs, are also spoken of as being similarly at- 

 tached (in many parish churches), pro bono publico, 

 " to a chayne." Erasmus's Paraphi-use on the 

 Gospels is so secured in Tavistock Church, the 

 original cost of which was fifteen shillings. The 

 date of this parochial document appears thus 

 worded : 



" Ffrom the thirde of Maj-e, in the yere of our Lorde 

 Godd one thousande fFyve hundred flower schore and 

 eight, until the third day of Maye, in the yere of our 



