July 20. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



119 



NICHOLAS TERRAR OF LITTLE GIDDING. 



Dr. Peckard, in his Prefiice to the Life of 

 Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding, says the memoir 

 he published was edited or compiled by him from 

 " the original AIS. still in my possession" (p. xi.) ; 

 and in the Appendix adds, that "Mr. John Ferrar," 

 the elder brother of Nicholas, was the author of it 

 (p. 279.). 



How he compiled or edited " the original MS." 

 he states with much candour in his Preface (p. xv.) : 



" The editor's intention," in altering the narrative, 

 " was to give what is not observed in the original, a 

 regular series of facts ; and through the whole a sort 

 of evenness and simplicity of stile equally free from 

 meanness and affectation. In short, to make the old 

 and the new, as far as he could, uniform; that he 

 might not appear to have sewed a piece of new cloth 

 to an old garment, and made its condition worse by 

 his endeavours to mend it." 



Again, at page 308., he says, — 



" There is an antient MS. in folio, giving an 

 account of Mr. N. Ferrar, which at length, from Gid- 

 ding, came into the hands of Mr. Ed. Ferrar of Hunt- 

 ingdon, and is now in the possession of the editor. 

 Mr. Peck had the use of this MS. as appears hy se- 

 veral marginal notes in his handwriting ; from this and 

 some loose and unconnected papers of Mr. Peck .... 

 the editor, as well as he was able, has made out the 

 foregoing memoirs." 



Can any of your numerous correspondents inform 

 me if this " antient MS." is still in existence, and 

 in whose possession ? 



Peckard was related to the Ferrars, and was 

 ^Master of Magdalen Coll., Cambridge. 



In " A Catalogue of MSS. (once) at Gidding," 

 Peckard, p. 30G., the third article is " Lives, 

 Characters. Histories, and Tales for moral and 

 religious Instruction, in five volumes folio, neatly 

 bound and gilt, by Mary Collet." This work, with 

 live others, "undoubtedly were all written by 

 N. Ferrar, Sen.," says Dr. Peckard ; and in the 

 Memoir, at page 191., he gives a list of these " short 

 histories," ninety-eight in number, " which are 

 still remaining in my possession;" and adds further, 

 at p. 194.,— 



" These lives, characters, and moral essays would, I 

 think, fill two or three volumes in 8vo., but thei/ are 

 written in ao minute a character, that I cannot form any 

 conjecture to be depended upon," 



I have been tlius i)articular in describing these 

 " histories," because the subjects of them are 

 identical with those in Fuller's JLdij and Pnfuiie 

 Slate, th(; first edition of which was puljlislujd at 

 Cambridge, in 1(142. "The characters I have 

 conforme<l," says Fuller in his Prefice, " to the 

 Uien standing laws of the realm (a twelvemonth 

 ago were they sent to tlio press), since which time 

 the wisdom of the King and state hath" altered 



many things. Nicholas Ferrar died December 2, 

 1637, and the Query I wish to ask is. Did Fuller 

 compose them (for that he was really the author 

 of them can hardly be doubted) at the suggestion 

 and for the benefit of the community at Gidding, 

 some years before he published them; and is it 

 possible to ascertain and determine if the MS. is 

 in the handwriting of Ferrar or Fuller ? 



Is there any print or view in existence of the 

 " Nunnery," at Little Gidding ? 



In the Life of Dr. Thomas Fidler, published 

 anonymously in 1661, it is stated, that at his fu- 

 neral a customary sermon was preached by Dr. 

 Hardy, Dean of llochester, " which hath not yet 

 (though it is hoped and much desired may) passe 

 the presse," p. 63. 



Query. Was this sermon ever published ? and, 

 secondly, who was the author of the Life from 

 which the above passage is quoted ? 



John Miland. 



STUKELEy's " STONEHENGE." 



May I request a space in your periodical for the 

 following Queries, drawn from Dr. Stukeley's 

 Stonehenge and Abury, p. 31. ? 



1st. " But eternally to be lamented is the loss of 

 that tablet of tin, which was found at this place (Stone- 

 henge) in the time of King Henry VI II., inscribed 

 with many letters, but in so strange a character that 

 neither Sir Thomas Elliott, a learned antiquary, nor 

 Mr. Lilly, master of St. Paufs school, could make any 

 thing out of it. Mr. Sammes may be right, who 

 jutlges it to have been Panic. I imagine if we call it 

 Irish we shall not err much. No doubt but what it 

 was a memorial of the foundets, wrote by the Druids, 

 and had it been preserved till now, would have been 

 an invaluable curiosity." 



Can you or any of your contributors give me any 

 further inlbrmation about this inscription ? 



2. The Doctor continues, — 



" To make the reader some amends for such a loss, 

 I have given a specimen of supposed Druid writing, 

 out of Lambecius' account of the Emperor's library at 

 Vienna. 'Tis wrote on a very thin plate of gi>ld with 

 a. sharp-pointed instrument. It was in an urn found 

 at Vienna, rolled up in several cases of other metal, 

 together with funeral exuviaj. It was thought by the 

 curious, one of those epistles which the Celtic ])eople 

 were wont to send to their friends in the other world. 

 Tlie reader may divert himself with trying to explain 

 it." 



Has this inscription ever been explained, nml 

 how ? Stukeley's book is by no means a rare one; 

 therefore I have not trusted myself' to copy the 

 inscription : and such as feel disposed to help mo 

 in my difliculty would doubtless prefer seeing the 

 Doctor's own ilhistratioii at p. 31. 



Henry Cunliffei 



Hyde Park Street, 



