460 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 58. 



GEORGE HERBERT AND BEMERTON CHURCH. 



It is gratifying to see that some of your corre- 

 spondents are taking an interest in tlie " worthy, 

 lowly, and lovely" (as Isaac Walton called him) 

 Mr. George Herbert (Vol. il., pp. 103. 414.). It 

 may tend to increase that interest, if I send you 

 a note I made a few years ago, when I visited 

 Bemerton, and had the pleasure of oiEciating 

 within the walls of that celebrated little church. 

 The rector kindly showed me the whole Parsonage 

 House ; the parts rebuilt by Herbert were trace- 

 able ; but the inscription set up by him on that 

 occasion is not there, nor had it been found, viz.: 



" TO MY SUCCESSOR. 



" If thou chance for to find, 

 A new house to thy mind, 



And built without thy cost ; 

 Be good to the poor, 

 As God gives the store, 



And then my labour's not lost." 



It may truly be said to stand near the chapel 

 (as his biographer calls it), being distant only the 

 width of the road, thirty-four feet, which in Her- 

 bert's time was forty feet, as the building shows. 

 On the south is a grass-plat sloping down to the 

 river, whence is a beautiful view of Sarum Cathe- 

 dral in the distance. A very aged fig-tree grows 

 against the end of the house, and a medlar in the 

 garden, both, traditionally, planted by Herbert. 



The whole length and breadth of the church is 

 forty-five feet by eighteen. The south and west 

 windows are of the date called Decorated, say 

 1300. They are two-light windows, and worthy of 

 imitation. The east window is modern. The 

 ■walls have much new brickwork and brick but- 

 tresses, after the manner recommended in certain 

 Hints to Churehtvardens, Lond. 1825. A little 

 square western turret contains an ancient bell of 

 the fourteenth century (diameter, twenty-four 

 inches), the daily sound of which used to charm 

 the ploughmen from their work, that they " might 

 offer their devotions to God with him." 



" Note, it was a saying of his ' That his time spent 

 in piayer and cathedral music elevated his soul, and 

 was his heaven upon earth.' " — Walton. 



The doorway is Jacobean, as is the chest or 

 parish coffer, and also the pulpit canopy ; the old 

 sittings had long been removed. The font is cir- 

 cular, of early English date, lined with lead, seven- 

 teen inches diameter, by ten inches deep. The 

 walls were (1841) very dilapidated. 



It cannot but he a surprise to every admirer of 

 George Herbert and to all visitors to this highly fa- 

 voured spot, to find no monument ^shateverto the 

 memory of that bright example of an English 

 parish priest. This fact need surely only to be 

 made known to insure ample funds for rebuilding 

 the little church, and " beautifying " it in all 



things as Herbert would desire (he once did it 

 "at his own cost"), retaining, if I maybe al- 

 lowed to suggest, the decorated windows, with the 

 font and bell, which, from my Notes and Recol- 

 lections, seem to be all that remains of what he 

 must have so often looked upon and cherished. 



From the register I was permitted to extract 

 this entry : 



" Mr. George Herbert, Esq., Parson, of Ffoughl- 

 ston and Bemerton, was buried 3 day of March, 1632." 



The locus in quo is by this still left doubtful. 

 May I, in conclusion, add a quotation from Isaac 

 Walton : 



" He lived and died like a s<iint, unspotted from the 

 world, full of alms deeds, full of bumilily, and all the 

 examples of a virtuous life, ' I wish (if God sliall 

 be so pleased) that I may be so happy as to die like 

 him."' 



H. T. Ellacombe. 



Clyst St, George, Nov. 25. 1850. 



iHtnor ^.a\si. 



Lord Mayors Show in 1701. — Among the varie- 

 ties which at different times have graced the pro- 

 cession of the City on Lord Mayor's day, be pleased 

 to take the following from the Post-hoy, Oct. 30. 

 to Nov. 1. 1701 : 



" The Maiden Queen who rid on the Lord Mayor's 

 day in the pageant, in imitation of the Patroness of the 

 Mercer's Company, had a fine suit of cloaths given her, 

 valued at ninety guineas, a present of fifty guine.is, 

 four guineas for a smock, and a guinea for a pair of 

 gloves." 



Y.S. 



Sir Thomas PhilUpps's Manuscripts. — ]\Iany 

 inquiries are made in your useful publication after 

 books and authors, which may easily be answered 

 by the querist referring to the Catalogue of Sir 

 Thomas Phillipps's Manuscripts in the British 

 Museum, the Society of Antiquaries, the Athenceum, 

 or the Bodleian Library. T. 



Translation from Owen, ^-c. — I do not remem- 

 ber seeing in a subsequent number of " Notes 

 AND QuERiKs" .any version of Owen's epigram, 

 quoted by Dr. Maitland in No. 17. I had lioped 

 KuFUS would have tried his hand upon it ; but as 

 he has not, I send you a translation by an old 

 friend of the Doctor's, which has at least the merit 

 of being a close one, and catching, perhaps, not a 

 little of the spirit of the original. ■ 



" Owen de Libra sua. 



" Oxoniae salsus (juvenis tum) more vetusto 

 Wintonireque (puer tum) piperatus j;ram. 

 Si quid inest nostro piperisve salisve libello, 

 Oxoniense sal est, Wintoniense piper." 



