406 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 157. 



losse of that limme, thougli since he be well recovered 

 only with the losse of his heell : at the same time 

 were slayne Mons. Charnace, Ambassador Ligier for 

 the ffrench King, and CoUonel of a troope of horse 

 there, and Captain Crofts, besides many other gent, 

 of qualitie slayne and wounded. The seidge still con- 

 tinued by the Prince of Orange, and thought it will 

 not hold out longe, though in the interim the Spaniards 

 took two townes of importance from the States, as Ven- 

 low and Reremondt." 



" Thursday, 12 October. — At Arundel House, pri- 

 vately in the evening, Sir William Howard, my Lord 

 Marshall's second sonne, espoused Mrs. Mary Stafford, 

 sister and sole heir of Henry Lord Stafford deceased." 



" Februarie 8, 1637. — At Arundell House I was 

 created Chester Herauld-at-Armes in the place of H, 

 Chittinge, late Chester, which place I solely got by the 

 favour of the most excellent Earl of Arundell and 

 Surrey, Earl Marshall of England, my most honoured 

 Lord." 



« Februarie 13th His Majesty was pleased to sig- 



nifie his determination of having the Prince, his sonne, 

 to receive the Order of the Bath first, as also of the 

 Garter, the ceremonies of which to beginne of Monday, 

 21 May, next ; and to be continued here and at Wind- 

 sor that whole week." 



" May 20th, Sunday. — His Highnesse received the 

 dignity of Knighthood from his father the King, there 

 being then knighted with him, the Earls of Essex, 

 St. Albans, Elgin, and Viscount Grandison." 



" Monday 21st. — His Highnesse was elected Com- 

 panion of the Order, and that afternoon installed." 



« 1638, August. — This month, the people generally 

 of this kingdom were grievously afflicted with some 

 kind of feaver." 



"January, Monday the 14th present. — About five in 

 the evening there fell so great a storm of thunder and 

 lightning, that it burnt down in Kent and Surrey 

 divers steeples of churches, and slew many persons." 



G. 



SINGULAE MEMORIAL IN THE CHUBCHTARD OF 

 ARELEY-KINGS, WORCESTERSHIRE. 



Two miles from Kibbesford (the scene of the 

 *' Worcestershire Legend in Stone " described at 

 p. 216.), and on the same side of the river Severn, 

 over against Stourport, there is a hill, on which, 

 shut in by noble trees, stands the church of Areley- 

 Kings. The view from the churchyard is as 

 beautiful a specimen of the English landscape as 

 could well be seen. The broken ground slopes down 

 to the river, which flows broadly on in its winding 

 way, between hanging woods and rocks, and a 

 gently undulating stretch of rich meadow-land. 

 All the requirements of picturesque scenery are 

 there in pleasant profusion ; and, as may be sup- 

 posed, the churchyard of Areley-KIngs has many 

 visitors. But not the last thing that attracts a 

 stranger's attention in this 



" encincture small, 

 Yet infinite its grasp of weal and woe : " 



is the singular memorial which I now " make a 

 note of." On the brow of the hill, between and 

 resting against two fine old elms, are eight large 

 blocks of red-rock sandstone (placed four upon 

 four, and raised on a foundation course), on which, 

 in letters of a size proportionate to the stones, are 

 deeply cut the following words : 



" LITHOLOGEMA QVARE 

 REPONITVR SIB HARRY." 



Merely this, and nothing more. This singular 

 epitaph, presenting such a contrast to the Physic- 

 was-my-potion-Drugs-was-my-delight class of in- 

 scription which Is commonly found to triumph over 

 the tombstones of a country churchyard, naturally 

 attracts some notice ; and a short record of this 

 second "Worcestershire Legend in Stone" may 

 not be altogether devoid of interest to the readers 

 of'N. &Q." 



The " Sir Harry " of the inscription was Sir 

 Harry Coningsby, who lived, like Mariana, In a 

 " moated grange " somewhere In Herefordshire. 

 He was early left a widower, with only one child, 

 a daughter, on whom he centred all his happiness. 

 One day he was standing at an open window, with 

 his favourite In his arms, when In the height of 

 her childish joy she threw herself forward, and, in 

 the suddenness of the playful action, broke from 

 her father's nerveless arms, and fell Into the waters 

 of the moat beneath. From the dreadful moment 

 when the lifeless body of his child was drawn from 

 the water, existence lost all its charms for Sir 

 Harry Coningsby : the moated grange became un- 

 bearable, and leaving It he came into Worcester- 

 shire, to a house called " The Sturt," in the parish 

 of Areley-KIngs. There he led a solitary life, 

 dead to the world, and craving only for the time 

 when death should set him free to rejoin those on 

 whom all his earthly affection had been placed. 

 He desired his name to be forgotten, and whenever 

 he was spoken of, it was only as " Sir Harry." 

 Probably it was his own wish, that this was the 

 only title inscribed upon his tomb. Hie was buried 

 in a part of the churchyard where the trees made 

 a gloom that well accorded with the colour of his 

 life ; and the quaint epitaph, instead of being in- 

 scribed on the fiat stone that covers his grave, was 

 cut upon that part of the churchyard wall that 

 formed Sir Harry's " pane ; " and this part, when 

 In after years the rest of the wall was taken down 

 for the enlargement of the churchyard, was retained 

 as Sir Harry's tomb. The parish register shows, 

 that on the " 8th day of Dec"^ 1701, Sir Harry 

 Consby, Knight, was buried in wollin, according 

 to y<= late act of Pari'." The dimensions of the 

 memorial are thus given in The Beauties of 

 England: " This wall Is about eighteen or twenty 

 feet in length, each stone being more than four feet 

 long, and about one foot and a half square. _ The 

 gravestone is about eight feet long." Nash, in his 



