Mar. 19. 1853.] 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 



287 



Bishop Francis Turner. — He left a manuscript 

 liife of Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding, which 

 formed the basis of Dr. Peckard's Life of Ferra7', 

 reprinted in Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biogra- 

 phy. Where can this manuscript be found ? Are 

 there any literary remains of the bishop to be met 

 with anywhere ? J. J. J. 



[We believe all that is known of Bishop Turner's 

 3VIS. Life of Nicholas Ferrar is, that it was in the cus- 

 tody of the editor of The Christian Magazine in 1761, 

 Foster the Essayist (^Lectures, vol. ii. p. 504. edit. 1848) 

 «ays, " A long and well-written account of Ferrar was 

 drawn up by a Dr. Turner, Bishop of Ely, and left by 

 him in manuscript. It remained in the hands of tlie 

 .-persons to whom his papers descended, till it was com- 

 municated to the conductors of a miscellany called !rAe 

 Christian Magazine, in a volume of which for the year 

 1761, this curious memoir was lately pointed out to 

 me." Gough, in his British Topography, vol. ii. p. 299.*, 

 -furnishes a f^w other particulars : — " The papers of 

 Bishop Turner, in the year 1761, appear to have been 

 in the hands of Dr. Dodd, who printed some of them 

 in The Christian Magazine for that year. In par- 

 ■ticular the Life of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar was abridged, 

 ^nd published at p. 356. In the introduction the 

 •editor says, ' As the Life is rather too long for our 

 pamphlet, even divided, we have taken the liberty to 

 abridge some particulars in the Bishop's account, and 

 now and then to alter a phrase or two in his language, 

 which through length of time is in some places rather 

 become obsolete.' From this passage it will appear 

 that it was published in the worst manner it could be." 

 Our correspondent will find much curious matter re- 

 specting the biographies of Nicholas Ferrar in our 

 Second Volume, pp. 119. 407. 444. 485. Among the 

 Addit. MSS. (No. 5540., f 53.) in the British Museum, 

 is a Letter of Bishop Turner's addressed to Mr. Read- 

 ing, and read at the trial of Lord Preston, 1691.] 



BaleigKs History. — What is the story of Ra- 

 leigh's burning the second volume of his History ? 



Kecnac. 



[The story is this : — A few days previously to his 

 •death, Raleigh sent for Walter Burre, who printed his 

 History ; and asking him how the work had sold, re- 

 -ceived for answer, " so slowly that it had undone him." 

 Upon which Sir Walter brought from his desk a con- 

 tinuation of the work to his own time, and, throwing 

 it into the fire, said to Burre, " the second volume shall 

 undo no more ; this ungrateful world is unworthy of it." 

 ■^Winstanley's English Worthies, p. 256.) There is, 

 however, no satisfactory authority for the truth of this 

 anecdote; and it has been rejected by Arthur Cay ley, 

 ^nd his other biographers.] 



aa^iiitc^. 



EPITAPHS. 



(Vol. vii., p. 178.) 



The following is a real epitaph. It was writ- 

 ten by Dr. Greenwood on his wife, who died in 

 childbed, and it is in all probability still to be 



seen, where it was originally set up, in Solyhull 

 churchyard, Warwickshire. The most amusing 

 point in it is, that the author seriously intended 

 the lines to rhyme. There is wonderful merit in 

 the couplet where he celebrates her courage and 

 magnanimity in preferring him to a lord or judge : 



" Which heroic action, join'd to all the rest. 

 Made her to be esteem'd the Phoenix of her sex ! " 



" Go, cruel Death, thow hast cut down 

 The fairest Greenwood in all this kingdom ! 

 Her virtues and her good qualities were such 

 That surely she deserved a lord or judge : 

 But her piety and great humility 

 Made her prefer me, a Doctor in Divinity ; 

 Which heroic action, join'd to all the rest, 

 Made her to be esteem'd the Phoenix of her sex : 

 And like that bird a young she did create, 

 To comfort those her loss had made disconsolate. 

 My grief for her was so sore 

 That I can only utter two lines more. 

 For this and all other good woman's sake, 

 Never let blisters be applied to a lying-in woman's 

 back." 

 The advice contained in the last couplet is sound. 



F. D. 



Pershore. 



Your correspondent Erica gives us some quota- 

 tions and epitaphs, in which the metaphor of an 

 Inn is applied both to life and death. I find the 

 former of these ideas embodied in the following 

 distich, copied from a tombstone at Llangollen ia> 

 North Wales, a village much frequented not only, 

 by tourists, but by holiday-makei-s from all tho^ 

 surrounding districts ; for whose especial benefit I. 

 conceive the epitaph to have been written : 

 " Our life is but a summer's day. 

 Some only breakfast, and away ; 

 Others to dinner stay, and are full fed ; 

 The oldest man but sups, and goes to bed. 

 Large his account, who lingers out the day: 

 Who goes the soonest, has the least to pay." 



George S. Masters. 

 Welsh Hampton, Salop. 



" The bathos can no further go" (Vol. vii,, 

 p.5.).- 

 Inscription copied, Nov. 21, 1833, from a tombstone 

 to a fisherman in Bathford churchyard. 

 « He drags no more, bis nets reclin'd, 

 And all his tackle left behind, 

 His anchors cast within the veil, 

 No storms tempestious him assail. ^ 



In peace he rest — a?i Jesus plain , 



Reader /here lies — an honest man, 

 A husband —father — friend — compeer — 

 To all — who knew him — truely dear. 

 Search the Great Globe ! — How few, alas! ] 

 Are worthy now to — take his place." 

 B. H. 1805." 

 Some rural wag had substituted with his pencil 



