Nov. 19. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



499 



CAWDRATt'S " TREASURIE OF SIMILIES," AND SIMILE 

 OF MAGNETIC NEEDLE. 



(Vol. viii., p. 386.) 



There can be no doubt as to the authorship of 

 the Store-house of Similies. The work is now 

 before me, and the title-page is as follows : 



" A Treasurie or Store-house of Similies ; both 

 Pleasaunt, Delightfull, and Profitable for all Estates 

 of Men in Generall : newly collected into Heades and 

 Common Places. By Robert Cawdray, London : 

 printed by Thomas Creede, 1609." 



The only reference to his Life, which I can find, 

 is in "The Epistle Dedicatorie ;" and two ances- 

 tors of mine, " Sir John Harington, Knight, and 

 the Worshipful James Harington, Esquire, his 

 brother," in which, when assigning his reasons for 

 the "Dedication," he says : 



" Calling to mind (right worshipfuls) not only the 

 manifold curtesies and benefits, which I found and re- 

 ceived, now more than thirty years ago, when I taught 

 the grammar schoole at Okeham in Rutland, and sundry 

 times since, of the religious and virtuous lady, Lucie 

 Harington," &c. 



The "Dedication" is subscribed " Robert Caw- 

 dray." Cawdray was also the author of a work 

 On the Profit and Necessity of Catechising, London, 

 1592, 8vo. E. C. Harington. 



The Close, Exeter. 



The "Epistle Dedicatorie," as well as the title- 

 page, appears to be wanting in J. H. S.'s copy of 

 Robert Cawdray's Store-house, which was "printed 

 by Thomas Creede, London, 1609." From this 

 we find that it was dedicated to "his singular 

 benefactors. Sir John Harington, Knight, as also 

 to the Worshipfull James Harington, Esquire, his 

 brother," whose " great kindness and favourable 

 good will (during my long trouble, and since)" 

 the author afterwards " calls to mind," and also 

 the "manifold curtesies and benefites which I 

 found and received, now more than thirtie years 

 agoe (when I taught the Grammar School at Oke- 

 ham in Rutland, and sundrie times since) of the 

 religious and vertuous lady, Lucie Harington your 

 Worship's Mother, and my especial friend in the 

 Lord." Would this be the " lady, a prudent 

 woman," who " had the princess Elizabeth com- 

 mitted to her government " (vide Fuller's Worthies, 

 Rutlandshire) ? 



J. H. S.'s Query recalls two examples of the 

 "magnetic needle simile" (Vol. vi. and vii. joasstm), 

 which Cawdray has garnered in his Store-house, 

 and which fact would probably account for their 

 appearance in many sermons of the period, as the 

 book being expressly intended to " lay open, rip 

 up, and display in their kindes," " verie manie 

 most horrible and foule vices and dangerous sinnes 



of all sorts;" and the "verie fitte similitudes" 

 being for the most part " borrowed from manie 

 kindes and sundrie naturall things, both in the 

 Olde and New Testament," and being as the 

 writer says " for preachers profitable," would find 

 a place on many a clerical shelf ; and its contents 

 be freely used to " learnedly beautifie their matter, 

 and brauely garnish and decke out" their dis- 

 courses. I fear that I have already encroached 

 too much on your valuable space, but send copies 

 for use at discretion. In the first, the " Sayler's 

 Gnomon" is used as an emblem of the constancy 

 which ought to animate every "Christian man;" 

 and in the second, of steadfastness amidst the 

 temptations of the world. I shall be glad to know 

 more of Cawdray than the trifles I have gathered 

 from his book : 



" Euen as the Sayler's Gnomon, or rule, which is 

 commonly called the mariner's needle, doth alwayes 

 looke towards the north poole, and will euer turne to- 

 wards the same, howsoeuer it bee placed : which is 

 maruellous in that instrument and needle, whereby the 

 mariners doo knowe the course of the windes : Euen 

 so euerie Christian man ought to direct the eyes of 

 his minde, and the wayes of his heart, to Christ ; who 

 is our north poole, and that fixed and constant north 

 starre, whereby we ought all to bee governed : for hee 

 is our hope and our trust ; hee is our strength, where- 

 upon wee must still relie." 



" Like as the Gnomon dooth euer beholde the north 

 starre, whether it be closed and shutte uppe in a coffer 

 of golde, siluer, or woode, neuer loosing his nature : 

 So a faithfull Christian man, whether hee abound in 

 wealth, or bee pinched with pouertie, whether hee bee 

 of high or lowe degree in this worlde, ought con- 

 tinually to haue his faith and hope surely built and 

 grounded uppon Christ : and to haue his heart and 

 minde fast fixed and settled in him, and to follow him 

 through thicke and thinne, through fire and water, 

 through warres and peace, through hunger and colde, 

 through friendes and foes, through a thousand perilles 

 and daungers, through the surges and waues of enuie, 

 malice, hatred, euill speeches, rayling sentences, con- 

 tempt of the worlde, flesh, and diuell : and, euen in 

 death itselfe, bee it neuer so bitter, cruell, and tyran- 

 nicall ; yet neuer to loose the sight and viewe of Christ, 

 neuer to giue ouer our faith, hope, and trust in him." 



Sigma. 

 Stockton. 



Robert Cawdray, the author of A Treasurie or 

 Store-house of Similies, was a Nonconformist 

 divine of learning and piety. Having entered into 

 the sacred function about 1566, he was presented 

 by Secretary Cecil to the rectory of South LufFen- 

 ham in Rutlandshire. After he had been em- 

 ployed in the ministry about twenty years, he was 

 cited before Bishop Aylmer and other high com- 

 missioners, and charged with having omitted parts 

 of the Book of Common Prayer in public worship, 



