44 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 246. 



It is well known that Christians of the Middle 

 Ages were sometimes buried with their arms 

 elevated. In Gonalston Church, Notts, a skeleton 

 was discovered in a stone coffin with a coating of 

 fine red mud. The head had fallen a little to one 

 side, the hands had been placed on the breast, and 

 the left arm was in its original position. Vain is 

 it to protest that holding a sceptre, a sword, a 

 book, a chalice, or a pastoral staff, implies a degree 

 of action incompatible with a state of dissolution, 

 for embalmed bodies have been brought to view 

 with such objects placed in the hands, and even 

 with open eyes. When the tomb of Edward III. 

 was opened in the year 1774, "the body was 

 richly habited. Between the two forefingers and 

 the thumb of the right hand, the king held the 

 sceptre with the cross made of copper gilt, and 

 between the two forefingers and thumb of the left 

 hand he held the rod or sceptre with the dove." 

 Without reference to stern realities, the poetry of 

 Longfellow might dispel such allusion : 



" Slain by the sword lies the youthfal lord, 

 But holds in his hand the crystal tall ; 

 The shatter'd luck of Edenhall." 



" And there on the smooth yellow sand display'd, 

 A skeleton wasted and white was laid ; 

 And 'twas seen as the waters moved deep and slow, 

 That the hand was still grasping a hunter's bow." 



As before quoted, "the soul of the sixteenth 

 century dared not contemplate its body in death ! " 

 but stranger still, supposing it to be the truth, the 

 nineteenth century even denies that the prostrate 

 effigies of its forefathers are dead. C. T. 



UNPTIBLISHED POEM BY THOMAS CAMPBELL. 



The mistake made by X. Y. Z. in ascribing to 

 Mrs. Hemans Campbell's poem of Roland the 

 Brave (Vol. ix., p. 372.) has reminded me of a 

 circumstance that may be interesting to the 

 readers of " N. & Q." 



Some five-and-twenty years ago I went to dine at 

 a friend's house. On entering the drawing-room, 

 I found that the object of attraction was an album, 

 which had been presented that morning to the 

 young lady of the house. Her name was Florine, 

 and the lines were as follows : 

 "to florine. 

 " Could I recall lost youth again, 

 And be what I have been, 

 I'd court you in a gallant strain, 

 My young and fair Florine. 

 " But mine's the chilling age that chides 

 Affection's tender glow ; 

 And Love — that conquers all besides — 

 Finds Time a conquering foe. 

 " Farewell ! we're parted by our fate, 

 As far as night from noon. 

 You came into the world so late, 

 And I depart so soon ! — T. C." 



Dinner was announced; and ere it was half 

 over, a loud knock was heard at the door, and 

 Mr. Campbell came into the dining-room some- 

 what excited, and making many apologies for 

 intruding. He was asked to join the party, but 

 he declined ; and merely begged to see the album, 

 as there was an error in the verses which he wished 

 to correct. The album was brought ; and taking 

 from his waistcoat pocket a small penknife, he 

 proceeded to erase the word " parted" in the first 

 line of the stanza, and substituted for it " severed ;" 

 which, from the occurrence of the word " depart" 

 in the last line, of course improved the verses : 

 the repetition having evidently haunted his poetic 

 ear. The correction made Mr. Campbell take a 

 hasty leave ; he had another engagement, and could 

 not stay. 



The lines were published, I believe, in the New 

 Monthly Magazine, of which Campbell was then 

 editor ; but I have never seen them in his col- 

 lected poems. L. H. J. Tonna. 



Successful Guesses. — Your columns should be 

 open to successful critical guesses. Let me give 

 you one. Dr. Johnson, in his Life of John Philips, 

 says : 



" This ode [his ode to St. John] I am willing to 

 mention, because there seems to be an error in all the 

 printed copies, which is, 1 find, retained in the last. 

 They all read : 



Quam Gratiarum cura decentium 

 O ! O ! labellis cui Venus insidet. 



The author probably wrote : 



Quam Gratiarum cura decentium 

 Ornat; labellis cui Venus insidet." 



I have referred to the first edition, and there 

 the reading is Ornat, as Johnson conjectured. 



Peter Cunningham. 

 Kensington. 



Dickens's'^ Child's History of England." — In 

 one of the last chapters of this work, Mr. Dickens 

 gives us the novel piece of information that the 

 Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Rochester 

 of Charles H.'s reign were the same person : he 

 ought to have told us whether the Duke's family 

 name was Carr, Wilmot, or Hyde, as persons of 

 all these families held the earldom during the 

 Duke's lifetime. It may be rather creditable 

 than otherwise to those to whom the History is 

 addressed, to be ignorant of the lives and works 

 of two such profligates ; but one looks for more 

 acquaintance with the history of that age in a 

 writer like Mr. Dickens. J. S. Warden. 



The Chits (Lady RusselFs Letters). — A' mis- 

 take of Miss Berry, the accomplished editor 



