264 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 151. 



Ovid also tells us of the human body : 



" Sunt qui, cum clause putrefacta est spina sepulcro, 

 Mutari credant humanas angue medullas." 



Metam. xv. 389. 



I know not how far it may be lawful to press 

 the words of the son of Sirach into my service 

 here : 



" For when a man is dead, he shall inherit creeping 

 things, beasts, and worms." — Eccles. x. 11. 



Our old English divines make great practical 

 use of the light that met the eyes of St. Augustine 

 and Monica, when they were introduced by the 

 Roman Prefect Pontianus into the sepulchre of 

 Caesar. Taylor alludes to it in the Epistle Dedi- 

 catory to his Holy Dying ; and again describes it 

 all too vividly in his Life of Christ {Of Tempta- 

 tion^ ad Sect. ix. cap. 36. p. 115., London, 1703, 

 fol.) 



The good Richard Sherlock depicts the fearful 

 scene more graphically still {Practical Christian, 

 vol. ii. pp. 167-8., Oxford, 1844). 



The original would be more to my purpose 

 were it exactly as represented by them, but I pre- 

 sume that it was not written by St. Augustine : 



" Nam cum essemus apud ostia Tyberina matre 

 charitatis sociati, expectantes temporis tranquillitatem, 

 causa remeandi ad Africam, et gratia illius cui terra et 

 mare obediunt, compulsi a Pontiano pr£efecto viro 

 clarissimo qui de Roma ad nos videndum venerat. 

 Cum eodem iterum reversi sumus Romam ad intuen- 

 dum diligentius magnifica aediiicia et opera Paganorum. 



" Et ductus sum cum caeteris ad videndum cadaver 

 Csesaris in sepulchro, et vidi quod omnino esset livido 

 colore ornatum, putredine circumdatum, ventrem ejus 

 diruptum et vermium per ilium catervas transeuntes 

 prospexi : Duo quoque famelici in foveis oculorum 

 pascebantur, crines ejus non adhserebant capiti, denies 

 ejus apparebant labiis consumptis et revelatum erat 

 narium fundamentum." — Ad Fratres in Eremo ; Serm. 

 XLViii., De Cura Animce, S. Aug, 0pp., torn. x. 

 fol. 303. : Paris, 1541. 



Such passages strike us now as too much in the 

 *' Alonso the Brave and the fair Imogene" style for 

 over-sensitive readers ; but the application made 

 of the pseudo-Augustine would not have been 

 unworthy of Hamlet himself in his moralisings 

 upon " the noble dust of Alexander," or — 



" Imperial Cassar dead and turn'd to clay." 



The swarms of flies that issued from the violated 

 tomb of St. Narciscus cannot fairly be brought up 

 in illustration of this subject; but the "muscae S. 

 Narcisci" passed into a proverb (Baronii, Martyrol. 

 Rom. die Mart. 18. ; Stengelii, Mundus et Mundi 

 Partes, p. 440. : Ingolstadii, 1645). Rt. 



Warmington. 



KUFUS OAK. 



The true site of the oak beneath which Rufus 

 met his death is still said to be marked at Stoney 

 Cross in the New Forest by the well-known 

 " Rufus' Stone." Will the following Notes of this 

 simple monument, with the accurate transcripts of 

 its present inscriptions, prove of sufficient intei'est 

 for the " N. & Q. ? " If so, they are quite at your 

 service. 



The original memorial was an equilateral, three- 

 sided, upright stone — rather more than four feet 

 high — but this wasting before time and curiosity- 

 mongers was fortified a few years since by a solid 

 casing of cast-iron about an inch thick : having 

 the inscriptions raised in good, legible, Roman 

 capitals on its three sides ; which at the ground 

 are each twenty-six inches wide, tapering to 

 twenty-two inches. The top is a flat grating 

 arranged trianglewise, through which is seen the 

 head of the stone. The height of this truncated 

 iron obelisk is four feet, ten inches ; its sides are 

 panelled, with a margin three inches wide sur- 

 rounding the following inscriptions, which tell 

 their own tale. 



No. I., or that on the southern side : 



" Here stood the oak tree, on which an arrow shot 

 by Sir Walter Tyrrell at a Stag, glanced and struck 

 King William the Second, surnamed Rufus, on the 

 breast, of which he instantly died, on the second day 

 of August, anno 1100," 



No. II. : 



" King William the Second, surnamed Rufus, bein»- 

 slain, as before related, was laid in a cart, belonging to- 

 one Purkis, and drawn from hence to Winchester, and. 

 buried in the Cathedral Church of that City." 



No. III. : 



" That the spot where an Event so Memorable oc- 

 curred might not hereafter be forgotten ; the enclosed 

 stone was set up by John Lord Delaware, who had seen 

 the Tree growing in this place." 



" This Stone having been much mutilated, and the 

 inscriptions on each of its three sides defaced, this more 

 durable memorial, with the original inscriptions, was 

 erected in the year 1841, by Wm. Sturges Bourne, 

 Warden," 



Allow me to append a Query: Who was the 

 "John Lord Delaware" mentioned? Is it known 

 in what year he erected the subject of the above 

 Note ; and where is the statement to be found ? 



JOSIAH CaTO. 



EXTRACTS FROM OLD NEWSPAPERS RELATING TO 

 CHARING CROSS AND KING CHARLEs's STATUE, 



1. " Morning gowns for Men and Women of all 

 sorts of rich brocaded Silks, Japaned Satins, and 

 great variety of other rich Silks, Stuffs, and Gallicoes 

 (being a fresh parcel of choice goods of Sam. Edwards 



