60 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 168. 



Burnet's truthfulness and impartiality in his deli- 

 neations of character completely at rest. 



From the Napier charter-chest, " by a species of 

 retributive justice," there has recently risen up in 

 judgment against him a letter of his own, proving 

 his own character. It is, I regret, too long for in- 

 sertion in your pages in exienso, but no abstract 

 can give an adequate idea of its contents. It is, in 

 fact, so mean and abject as almost to overpass 

 belief. I must refer your readers to Mr, Mark 

 Napier's Montrose and the Covenanters, vol. i. 

 pp. 13 — 21. All the reflections of the Whig his- 

 torian Dalrymple, all the severe remarks of Swift 

 and Lord Dartmouth, as to Burnet's dishonesty 

 and malice, would now seem well bestowed upon 

 a writer so despicable and faithless, and the credit 

 of whose statements, when resting on his own sole 

 authority, must be totally destroyed. This curious 

 epistle was written, in an agony of fear, on a Sun- 

 day morning, during the memorable crisis of the 

 Rye-House plot, and while Lord Bussell was on 

 the eve of his execution. Addressed to Lord 

 Halifax, it was intended to meet the eye of the 

 King. It evidently proves the writer's want of 

 veracity in divers subsequent statements in his 

 history. The future bishop also protests that he 

 never will accept of any preferment, promises 

 never more to oppose the Court, and intimates an 

 intention to paint the King in the fairest light — 

 " if I ever live to finish what I am about ; " i.e. the 

 History of his Own Time, in which the villanous 

 portrait of Charles afterwards appeared. 



" Here, then," says Mr. Napier, " is Burnet Redi- 

 vivus; and now the bishop may call Montrose a coward 

 or what he likes, and persuade the world of his own 

 super-eminent moral courage, if lie can. For our own 

 part, after reading the above letter, we do not believe 

 one malicious word of what Burnet has uttered in the 

 History of his Own Time against Charles I. and Mon- 

 trose : and he has therein said nothing about them that 

 is not malicious. We do not believe that the apology 

 for Hamilton, which he has given to the world in the 

 memoirs of that House, is by any means so truthful an 

 exposition of the character of that mysterious marquis 

 as the letters and papers entrusted to the bishop en- 

 abled him to give. We feel thoroughly persuaded 

 that Bishop Burnet, in that work, as well as in the 

 History of Ms Own Time, reversed the golden maxim of 

 Cicero, ' A^e quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non 

 audeat.' The marvellous of himself, and the malicious 

 of others, we henceforth altogether disbelieve, when 

 resting on the sole authority of tlie bishop's historical 

 record, and will never listen to when retailed tradition- 

 ally and at second-hand from him. Finally, we do be- 

 lieve the truth of the anecdote, that the bishop, ' after 

 a debate in the House of Lords, usually went home 

 and altered everybody's character as they had pleased 

 or displeased him that day ; ' and that he kept weaving 

 in secret this chronicle of his times, not to enlighten 

 posterity or for the cause of truth, but as a means of 

 indulging in safety bis own interested or malicious 



feelings towards the individuals that pleased or offended 

 him. So much for Bishop Burnet, whose authority 

 must henceforth always be received cum nota." 



Wm. L. Nichols. 

 Lansdown Place, Bath. 



A MONASTIC KITCHENERS ACCOUNT. 



(From a volume of memoranda touching the 

 monastery of Whalley, temp. Henry VIII., among 

 the records of the Court of Augmentation.) 



" Dyv'se somes of money leid oute by me Jamys 

 More, monke and kechyner to the late Abbot of Whal- 

 ley, for and conc'nynge dyv'se caitts bought by the seid 

 Jamys of dyv'se psons, as hereaft' dothe j)ticlerly appire 

 by pcells whiche came to tliuso of the seid house, and 

 spent yn the seid house from the last daye of Decem- 

 ber until the daye of Marche then next folow- 



ynge yn the xxviij"* yere of the reign of Kynge Henry 

 the viij"', whiche somes of money the said Jamys askcth 

 allowance. 



First payde to Edmunde Taillor Fischer 



for salt salmons, spent in the seyd 



late abbott kechyn syns the tyme of his 

 accompt - - . _ xxv' 



Itm. Payde to the seid Edmunde for xj 

 freshe salmons, bought of the said Ed- 

 munde to thuse, &c. of the seid house, 

 there spent by the seid tyme - - xxv' 



Itm. Payde to Will'm Newbbet for fresh 



fische . - _ _ iijs iijjd 



Itm. Payde for vj capons, bought at Fas- 



tyngeseven of dyv'se psons - - ij' 



Itm. Payde for xxxv hennes, bought of 



dyv'se psons - - - - v' x* 



Itm. Payde for eggs, butter, chese, bought 

 of dyv'se psons betwixt Cristmas and 

 Fastyngsevyn, spent yn the seid house - xxiiij' 



Itm. Payde for mustersede . - \* 



Itm. Bought of Will'm Fische viij potts 



hony-pric - - - - x' 



Itm. Bought of Anthony Watson vij gal- 

 lons hony - - - - ix' iiij<* 



Itm. Bought of John Colthirst ij gallons 



hony - -_ - - - - ij» iiija 



Itm. Payde to Richard Jackson for xvij<= 



sparlyngs - - - - ix" viii* 



Sum of the payments vj" xviij* (sic in orig.) 



Itm. The same Jamys askyth allowance of xiiij', whiche 

 the seid late abbott dyd owe hym at the tyme of his 

 last accompt, whiche endyd at Cristmas last past, as 

 yt dothe appire by the accompt of the seid Jamys 

 More. 



Itm. The late abbott of Whalley dyd owe unto the 

 seid Jamys More, for a grey stagg that the seid 

 late abbott dyd by of the same Jamys by the space 

 ofa yere syns - - - - - x». 



By me James Mor." 



The advowson of the parish church of Whalley 

 having been bequeathed to the White Monks of 

 Stanlawe (Cheshire), they removed their abbey 



