72 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 247. 



ANECDOTE BELATED BT ATTEBBUBY. 

 (Vol. X., p. 6.) 



The Historie of the Council of Trent, edit. 1620, 

 London, folio, mentioned by your correspondent 

 Wm. Fraser, is, I presume, a translation of Fra 

 Paolo Sarpi's work bearing the same title, and 

 hence Atterbury's note. The anecdote appears 

 in a foot-note by Pierre Frangois Le Courayer, in 

 his translation into French of Sarpi's work, of 

 which there are more than one edition : the first 

 was published at London, in 2 vols, folio, 1736 ; 

 but the one from which I am about to quote, and 

 which is in the library of the British Museum, is 

 in 3 vols. 4to., Amst., 1751. The quotation is 

 from La Vie de TAuteur, vol. i. p. Ixiv., and a 

 " relat. MS." is referred to in the margin as the 

 authority : 



" Un Docteur Duncomb, qui charge de la conduite de 

 quelques Seigneurs Anglois se trouvoit h. V^nise aprfes la 

 mort du Pfere Paul*, y ^tant tomb^ malade et paroissant 

 tout h fait abattu, le Pfere Fulgence f lui demanda la cause 

 de son accablement et lui ofFrit tous ses services. Le Doc- 

 teur avoua ingenument au Pfere, qu'il avoit toujours de- 

 mande' h, Dieu la grace de mourir dans un endroit oil il 

 piit recevoir le Sacreinent selon I'usage de I'Eglise Angli- 

 cane, c'est-k-dire sous les deux Espfece.'*, et que malheu- 

 reasementil se trouvoit sans cetteesp^rance dans lepays oil 

 il se trouvoit. Ce qui eut e't^ une difficulte pour un autre, 

 ne le fut pas pour le Pfere Fulgence. II eut bientot con- 

 «oW le Docteur, en lui disant qu'il avoit les priferes com- 

 munes en Italien, et que s'il le souhaitoit il viendroit lui- 

 mgmeavecquelques-uns de ses confreres lui administrer la 

 Communion sous les deux espfeces, d'autant plus qu'il y 

 avoit encore dans son monastfere sept ou huit des disciples 

 du Pfere Paul, qui s'assembloient de terns en terns pour 

 recevoir ainsi le Sacrement. C'est ce que le Docteur Dun- 

 comb rapporte h. Mylord Hatton k son retour en Angle- 

 terre, et ce que I'^vdque Atterbury atteste aprfes I'avoir 

 appris de la bouche du Capitaine Hatton qui I'avoit en- 

 tendu dire plusieurs fois h, son pfere." 



I have now to trouble you with another Query 

 arising from Atterbury's Note. Who and what 

 was Dr. Buncombe? I think there is ground in 

 the extracts given by Mb. Fraser and myself to 

 warrant a surmise that he was a clergyman, and 

 one of those ejected by the Puritans. That a 

 friendly confidence should have been established 

 between a disciple of Laud, as I take him to have 

 been, and the Protestantising monk of Venice, is 

 nothing to be wondered at at. 



Mb. Fraser, I apprehend, wrote with a theo- 

 logical, while I write with a genealogical, purpose; 

 but if I err in this conjecture, and Mr. Fraser 

 wishes for, or will impart, any genealogical details 

 concerning Dr. Duncombe, and as such would not 

 be generally Interesting to your readers, I inclose 

 my address for him, and shall be happy to hear 

 from him. J. K. 



* He died January 14, 1642. 



t Fulgenzio was a Minorite. His Life of Fra Paolo was 

 published in English (8vo., 1651). He was burnt in the 

 Field of Flora. 



ANCIENT USAGES OF THE CHURCH. 



(Vol. ix., pp. 127. 257. 566.) 



The custom of dressing the church with flowers, 

 green boughs, or holly and ivy, prevails at Leigh, 

 Worcestershire, at the three great festivals of the 

 Church. On Good Friday, too, the church is 

 dressed with yew, which gives place to the flowers 

 on Easter-day. At this church, the ascription of 

 praise after the Gospel is sung ; in some of the 

 neighbouring churches it is said by the clerk. At 

 Leigh, when a funeral approaches the church, 

 they cease the tolling of the bell, and ring a 

 peal. Tiie passing-bell is tolled three times three 

 for a woman, and three times two for a man. 



It is the custom in some village churches in 

 Huntingdonshire, for the communicants to leave 

 their pews and seats as soon as the sermon is 

 ended, and to arrange themselves (kneeling) on 

 hassocks placed in rows in front of the altar. 

 They continue in a kneeling posture from the 

 beginning to the end of the service (a custom that 

 causes great fatigue to aged and infirm people), 

 and only move from their places when they come 

 to kneel at the altar rails. After partaking of the 

 Communion, "the better class" retire to tlie soli- 

 tude of their pews, leaving the poorer communi- 

 cants kneeling at, or in front of, the rails. At two 

 churches in Huntingdonshire, it is the custom for 

 the clerk to receive, respectively, two shillings, 

 and eighteen-pence, at the conclusion of this 

 service. 



I have never been anywhere (I think) without 

 observing what is termed " tlie ancient practice of 

 an obeisance," as often as the Gloria occurs in the 

 course of the service. I have seen this done by 

 the poorest sort ; and have more particularly noted 

 it in country villages. But it has always struck 

 me that the obeisance was not to the Gloria as a 

 whole, but only to that part of it which relates to 

 the second person of the Trinity ; and that it was 

 a custom founded on a too-full rendering of the 

 text, "at the name of Jesus every knee shall 

 bow." I am somewhat confirmed in this belief, 

 by the answers of many of the poor made to re- 

 marks on this subject; and I have frequently 

 observed that the obeisance is as regularly made 

 by them whenever the names of the three persons 

 in the blessed Trinity (i. e. at the mention of the 

 second person) are repeated during the sermon, or 

 at some other part of divine service. The bowing 

 of the head, believed by the Bishop of London to 

 be a novelty (Vol. ix., p. 566.), I presume to be 

 that obeisance made by some Scotch and other 

 members of the Church, where the bowing posture 

 is retained from the beginning to the end of the 

 Gloria. Any reader of " N. & Q.," who may have 

 attended the daily prayer at Durham Cathedral 

 some six years ago, may remember how two or 

 three Scotch members of its congregation were 



