Aug. 9. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



105 



CURIOUS MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTION. 



(Vol. iv., p. 20.) 



The inscription on tlie tombstone of Christ. 

 Burraway, in Martham Church, copied by your 

 correspondent E. S. T., singular as it is, and start- 

 ling as the story attached to it seems, is not with- 

 out a parallel, for we have a similar inscription on 

 another mysterious mother of the name of MaruUa 

 in ancient times, which is given by Boxhornius 

 in his Monumenta Illustrium Virorum et Elogia, 

 Amst. 1638, fol. 112. He appears to have found 

 it on a ruined sarcojihagus at Rome, of which 

 he has given a representation, and in his Index 

 thus refers to it : 



" Hersilus cum Marulla, qum ei mater, soror, et 

 spoiisa fuit." 



Your correspondent has not mentioned the 

 source of his explanation of the enigma : I pre- 

 sume it is traditional. The ancient inscription, 

 it will be seen, solves it in the last two lines. The 

 coincidence of these two inscriptions is not a little 

 remarkable. 



"SENICAPRI QVICVMQVE SVBIS SACRARIA FAVNI 



H^C LEGE ROMANA VERBA NOTATA JIANV. 



HERSILVS HIC lACEO MECVM MARVLLA QVIESCIT 



QViE SOROR ET GENITRIX, QV^ jMIHI SPONSA FVIT 



VERA NEGAS, FRONTEMQVE TRAHIS: ENIVG5IATA SPHYNGOS 



CREDIS, SVNT PVTHIO VERA MAGIS TRIPODE. 



ME PATER E NATA GENVIT, MIHI IVNGITVR II.LA, 



SIC SOROR ET CONIVNCX, SIC FVIT ILLA PARENS." 



In that entertaining volume La Sijlva Curiosa 

 de Julian de Medrano, Cavallero Navarro, first 

 printed in 1583, and reprinted at Paris in 1608, a 

 somewhat similar story is related, and the monu- 

 mental inscription in French is given. Some of 

 these stories must surely be apocryphal.* 



" Passing through tlie Bouibonnese country I wqs 

 told, that many years since a young gentleman there 

 had, by some fortuitous accident, lain with his own 

 mother, who became pregnant by him. That some 

 time after, a favourable opportunity offering, he went 

 to the wars, and was absent from his home some four- 

 teen or fifteen years. At tlie expiration of that time 

 returning homo, he found his mother well stricken in 

 years, wlio had a few days previous taken into her ser- 

 vice a liandsome lass, who had been brought up from 

 Infancy in the mountains of Auvergnc. This young 

 woman being of a naturally affectionate disposition, 

 seemed mucli attached to her mistress, and relieved her 

 of all her household cares, without knowing how nearly 



• Stories of the same nature are told in the Hepta- 

 meron of the Queen of Navarre, 3me Jouruee, Nouve/lt 

 SOme, where the scene is laid in Languedoc ; and by 

 Jeremy 'J'aylor in his Duclor Dubitaiitium, B. i. C. ill. 

 Sect. ^., who cites Comitolus as his autliority : here 

 the scene is laid in Venice. By others the scene has 

 been placed in London, and also in .Scotland. Horace 

 Walpole's Postscript to his Tragedy will of course be 

 known to most of your readers. 



they were related ; for she was her daughter, the fruit 

 of the intercourse with her son, now master of the 

 house ; notwithstanding there was no one in those 

 parts that knew it. The young man seeing her vir- 

 tuous, graceful, and handsome, became enamoured of 

 her, in so much that, although his relations wished him 

 to marry a rich wife, and that all his friends endea- 

 voured to divert his passion, and Counselled him to be- 

 stow his love elsewhere, it was all to no purpose, but, 

 preferring her to all others he had seen, he married 

 her. They lived together many years, had several 

 children, and were buried in the same tomb, without 

 either of them having ever known that they were 

 father and daughter, brother and sister ! until after a 

 lapse of time, a shepherd from Auvergne coming into the 

 Bourbonnese country, told the history to the inhabitants 

 of the place where this doubly incestuous couple lived. 

 When I passed through the country I was shown the 

 spot where they dwelt, and the church where they were 

 interred ; and a copy of the epitaph which was placed 

 upon their tomb was given me, which was as follows : 



' Cy gist la fille, cy gist le pere, 

 Cy gist la soeur, cy gist le frere, 

 Cy gist la femme et le mary, 

 Et si n'y a que deux corps ici.' " 



S. W. Singer. 

 Mickleham, July 28. 1851. 



THE LATE RIR. WILLIAM HONE. 



(Vol. iii., pp. 477. 508. ; Vol. iv., p. 25.) 



Having been acquainted with Mr. Hone, when 

 a bookseller in the Strand (the firm, I think, was 

 Hone and Bone), who published several catalogues 

 of scarce works in poetry and the drama, I feel 

 some interest in the question raised upon his reli- 

 gious principles. It was no doubi, this avocation 

 which gave to Mr. Hone that extensive circle of 

 information, which enabled him to conduct those 

 amusing publications The Erery-daij Book, The 

 Year Booh, and The Tails Booh. In what way 

 my schoolfellow Charles Lamb became acquainted 

 with Mr. Hone I know not ; but I frequently 

 heard him speak of his misfortunes, and I was 

 witness to his endeavours to relieve his difficulties, 

 by requesting his acquaintance to visit the coffee- 

 house which Mrs. Hone opened in Gracechurch 

 Street. I may communicate hereafter some in- 

 formation upon the intimacy which existed between 

 Charles Lamb and Mr. Hone ; my present note 

 being confined to some more extensive and in- 

 teresting pieces of information relative to Mr. 

 Hone's conversion from infidelity to the pure 

 principles of Christianity, than are furnished by 

 Mr. William Barton. For this purpose I tr.in- 

 scribe a letter of Mr. Hone's, descriptive of his 

 conversion, tlie cause which led to it, and his 

 earnest desire to impress upon the public mind his 

 sincerity in tlie cliaiige whicli had taken place. A 

 more touching pictui'e of real conviction, and of a 



