460 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 84. 



" In Maps of Cheshire 1670, and i)eihaps later, the 

 city of Chester is thus called." 



Tiie writer has t.lie maps an<l jilans of Braiin, 

 Hollar, Saxton, Speed, ami Blome, before liim, 

 but these have " Chester" simply ; and does not at 

 pi-eseiit recollect any county map with the prefix 

 mentioned. Perhaps X. will oblige by a reference. 



Lakcastbiensis. 



West Chester (Vol. iii., p. 353.). — So called in 

 contradistinction to Chester-le-Street, Chester 

 Magna, Chester Parva, Cliesterfield, Chesterton, 

 and a hundred other Chesters throughout Eng- 

 land. To be sent to West Chester (frequently so 

 called in the beginning of the last century), was 

 to be sent into banishment, i. e. into Ireland ; of 

 which Chester was in those days the usual, and 

 indeed almost the only, route. C. 



Registri/ of Dissenters (Vol. iii., p. 370.). — I 

 beg to inibrm D. X. that I have met with several 

 instances of Dissenters' burials being entered in 

 parish registers, at a time when a more amicable 

 feeling than now e.xists prevailed between church- 

 men and themselves. In the register of Warblcton, 

 CO. Sussex, in particular, there arc several entries 

 of Quakers who were buried in their own cemetery 

 in that parish, about 150 years since. 



M. A. Lower. 



Lewes. 



Begistrij of Ministerial Offices performed hy 

 Dissenters (Vol. iii., p. 370.). — Tlio note of D. X. 

 has led me to examine the baptismal registers of 

 Ecclesfiehl parish, and I find on the parchment 

 fly-leaf of the book which contains the baptisms, 

 that date from nearly the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century, the following iieading — " Births of 

 the children of some Dissenters enterM as given." 

 Then comes a list of the names of fourteen chil- 

 dren, with the dates of their births ; and, after 

 several miscellaneous entries of b.aptisms, I find, 



" January 3. 1750-1, Samuel, son of Thomas Saylts, 

 said to be baptized at Sheffield by y" Popish priest." 



The enrolment of births is, no doubt, quite im- 

 proper. But the entering of dissenting baptisms 

 in the parish register (mentioned by D.X.) would 

 not, I think, be equally open to reprobation ; in- 

 asmuch as the registering has always been of bap- 

 tisms in the parish, and not merely in the church. 

 Hence, if dissenting baptism be, as no doubt it is, 

 a valid title to burial by the clergyman, he might, 

 not unreasonably, be disposed to keep a list of 

 such irregular administrations. That the law has 

 regarded them as ^irregular, is evident from the 

 fiict, that when in 1812 an act was passed "for the 

 better regulating and preserving parish and other 

 registers "of births, baptisms, marriages, and burials 

 in England," the 14(3th chap, of the same distinctly 

 declares, that when a baptism is performed by 



any other than the licensed minister of the parish' 

 the certificate of its performance must state that 

 it was " according to the rites of the United 

 Church of England and Ireland." No dissenting 

 baptism, therefore, could now be registered by the 

 clergyman. 



In our burial register there is a slip of paper 

 pinned, with this inscription iqion it : 



" These are to certify that the remains of Ann, the 

 wife of Thomas Ellis, was buried in the Methodist 

 chapel-yard in Ecclesfield, the 5th day of November, 

 1826, aged (about) seventy-three." 



The poor woman chose to lie apart from her 

 "rude forefathers;" and she has continued to be 

 the solitary tenant of the small enclosure round 

 the chapel. It seems, however, that her friends 

 did the best they could towards preserving her 

 name on the list of those who sleep in the conse- 

 crated cemetery. Alfred Gatty. 



Poem on the Grave (Vol. iii., p. 372.). — A cor- 

 respondent in your No. of May 10th, signed A. D., 

 wishes to be informed of the author of " The Grave," 

 a very beautiful poem ; and he gives a portion of 

 it thus : — 



" 1 st Voice. 



" How peaceful the grave, its quiet how deep. 

 Its zephyrs breathe calmly, and soft is its sleep, 

 And flow'rets perfume it with ether." 



" 2nd Voice. 

 " How lonesome the grave, how deserted and drear," 



(From what I remember of the poem, this stanza 

 ilows on thus) : — 



" With the howls of the storm wind, the creaks of the 

 bier, 

 And tlie white bones all clattering together." 



This poem extends to fifteen or twenty stanzas, 

 and is exquisite in its imagery, and peculiarly 

 forcible (its author was a Russian, I think Der- 

 zhavin), and in its original language might com- 

 pare with the works of the most polisiied poetry 

 of advanced nations. It can be found translated 

 in Bowring's Bussian Anthology., 12mo., published 

 about 1824 : where also will be found some beau- 

 tiful translations from Lomonosoffi, "Or Broken 

 Nose," and other Russian poets. Derzhavin also 

 has his grandest poem on God, translated there : 

 this poem is popular in no less than thirty-six 

 languages, and is familiar to the Chinese and Tar- 

 tar nations, and even as fir as Southern India. 

 I give the exordium, which is noble : — 



" O Thou Eternal One, whose presence bright 

 All space doth occupy, all motion guide ; 

 Unchanged through time's all-devastating flight ; 

 Thou only God ! There is no God beside I " 



And in a further portion of the poem, describ- 

 ing Heaven as the abode of God, he speaks thus : 



