346 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 154. 



than four members of the jamb-mouldings, and 

 one of the hood-mould, enriched with the ball- 

 flower ornament. Thos. L. Walkjek. 

 Leicester. 



I am glad to inform Me. Fraser that there 

 is an exterior holy-water stoup in the west 

 Tvall of the tower of the fine old village church 

 at Badgeworth. It is about two feet south of 

 the west door, entering the belfry, which is 

 open to the nave. This door, in the west wall 

 of the tower, seems to have been originally the 

 chief entrance. The stoup is in fine preserva- 

 tion, and it was evidently formed when the walls 

 of the tower were built. The hollow or basin of 

 the stoup projects a little from the wall, and the 

 opening above the basin is about sixteen inches. 

 The bottom of the stoup is about thirty inches, 

 and the top about forty-six inches from the ground. 

 The top of the opening extends to a moulding, 

 which serves as a canopy to the stoup. 



Jos. BOSWOBTH. 



Chfelteflham. 



south's sermons. 

 (Vol. vi., p. 25.) 

 It is only occasionally that the Numbers of 

 ^' N. & Q." come into my hands ; but I never 

 read them without finding something in their 

 pages that is instructive and useful, as well as 

 curious and amusing; and I regret that such a 

 publication should be allowed to become the 

 vehicle of slander and abuse against men to whom 

 England is indebted for some of her dearest rights 

 and privileges. I allude here to an article I have 

 just_ seen in your Number for July last, headed 

 *' Historical "Value of South's Sermons," in which 

 the writer appears to regard the vituperations of 

 this Jacobite parson against the Puritans as a suf- 

 ficient authority for holding them up to reproach 

 and derision.^ " If," says he, " we want to know 

 Puritanism in its rampant state, we must read 

 South, as well as Cleveland's poems, and Hudi- 

 bras." It would be quite as fair to say, " If we 

 want to know tyranny and perfidy in their ram- 

 pant state, we must read the character and acts of 

 Charles I., as pourtrayed by Milton, or given in 

 Stirling's poems." As you have admitted into 

 your work South's scurrilous defamation of Crom- 

 well and the Puritans, it will be but justice to 

 admit also an extract from Stirling's lines on 

 Carisbrook Castle : 



*' Would that till now the dungeon had remain'd • 

 To mark the fate for sceptred crime ordain'd ! 

 When those strong spirits from whose loins we spring, 

 Gave guilt its meed, nor spared a felon King. .... 

 Who fed his pride on priestcraft's fawning breath, 



While glorious Eliot pined away to death 



False friend ; dishonest foe ; the thorny rod 

 To bruise a sinful people sent by God." 



Your correspondent asks, '" Has any one de- 

 scribed more vividly than South the apparent 

 sanctity and real profligacy of the Puritanical 

 leaders ?" and has any one described more vividly 

 than Tertullus the real delinquency of Paul, as 

 "a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition, and a 

 profaner of the temple?" But the most vivid 

 description cannot give substance to fiction, nor 

 verity to falsehood. Even James II. objected to 

 South as a controversialist, saying, that " he had 

 not temper to go through a dispute, and that, in- 

 stead of arguments, he would bring railing accu- 

 sations." 



Your correspondent justifies this charge by a 

 quotation from a sermon he preached before 

 Charles II., in which he alluded to Cromwell's 

 entering parliament as " a bankrupt beggarly 

 fellow, with a threadbare, torn cloak, and a greasy 

 hat, and, pei'haps, neither of tliem paid for." At 

 this the king is said to have laughed heartily ; and 

 turning to South's patron, Lawrence Hyde (Lord 

 Rochester), said, " Odd's fish, Lory, your chaplain 

 must be made a bishop." 



It had long been South's practice to accommo- 

 date his principles to those of the times ; and he 

 knew that this aspersion of Cromwell, contempt- 

 ible as it was, would tell well upon Charles — that 

 its vulgarity would not offend his taste, nor its 

 falsehood his feelings ; indeed, that the grosser the 

 calumny the more likely it would be to please him, 

 and to secure his favour. 



"When Cromwell was in power. South pursued 

 the same policy. His previous attachment to 

 royalty had then given way to zeal for the new 

 authority ; and on a particular public occasion he 

 addressed some flattering congratulatory verses to 

 Oliver, which, as they are rather an intractable 

 fact for your correspondent's purpose, he inti- 

 mates " were most probably (!) imposed upon him 

 by the head of his college, tlie notorious John 

 Owen." But if Owen had tlien any suspicion of 

 South's allegiance to Ci'omwell, is it within the 

 compass of probability that he would have en- 

 gaged him, or trusted him, to compose this ad- 

 dress, even if he had the power to impose it upon 

 him y Or is it to be believed that South himself 

 would have undertaken, at the dictation of an op- 

 ponent, to compliment a ruler whom he did not 

 acknowledge. 



The fact is, that Owen and South were both at 

 that time the friends of Cromwell ; or if South 

 was not his friend, he was at least his open parti- 

 zan, and had also professedly adopted the religious 

 opinions of the Protector's party, having appeared 

 at St. Mary's as the great champion for Calvinism 

 against the Arminians ; and his behaviour was 

 such, and his talents esteemed so serviceable, that 

 the leaders of that party were considering how to 

 give proper encouragement, and proportional pre- 

 ferment, to so hopeful a convert. Before this was 



