2"4 S. VI. 145., Oct. 9. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



295 



until I should hear from persons to whom I would 

 write. 



He, in the meanwhile, at his own expense ob- 

 tained a celebrated sculptor from Oxford to esti- 

 mate the expense of restoration, which was ex- 

 pected to amount to about fifty pounds. 



My family subscribed towards the matter, as 

 did others of the name ; but after a great deal of 

 correspondence, owing to the absence of interest in 

 the matter evinced by some, and the apathy of 

 others, only twenty pounds was promised, five of 

 which was offered by a relative of the Vicar. 



Seeing no prospect of obtaining more, and the 

 matter having been kept open for nearly two 

 years, the Vicar said to me, as the only person who 

 evinced any real interest, " Am I to sacrifice the 

 restoration of the chancel to a ruin I am justified 

 by law in removing, or must I remove the ruin ? " 



I could not but reply, as far as I am concerned 

 you may remove it; especially as he had taken 

 more trouble, and exhibited more interest than 

 could have been expected from any one. 



Pedestrian will be glad to learn I possess a 

 sketch of the tomb, for which I am indebted to 

 the Vicar. The only mention of it I have seen is 

 in the Genealogist and Topographer, vol. i. p. 81. 



J. F. N. Hewett. 



Pedestkian conveys an erroneous impression, 

 I am sure most unintentionally, when he speaks of 

 the Hewett sarcophagus having been "lately de- 

 molished." Its demolition was probably begun b 

 the Puritans, and carried on by the damp, roug 

 usage, and neglect of two centuries and a half, 

 so that it had become a most unseemly object in 

 the house of God. Allow me to mention the state 

 at which it had arrived before we touched it. 

 The heads of the recumbent effigies were battered 

 about until not only any likeness there may have 

 been to the originals, but all vestige of the human 

 face, had well-nigh disappeared. Moreover, the 

 hands of both figures, and half the body of Wil- 

 liam Hewett, had been knocked off, as also the 

 heads and arms of the children in the niches be- 

 low. The rest of the sarcophagus had suffered 

 considerably ; the stonework was broken, and the 

 plaster defaced and crumbling away. There were 

 but very slight remains of the graceful arabesques 

 mentioned by your correspondent. 



Let it be considered also that this ruined tomb 

 was most inconveniently large for the chancel, 

 and that its continuance would have entirely pre- 

 vented Mr. Butterfield's plans for restoration be- 

 ing carried out ; your readers will then hardly 

 wonder that after nearly two years' correspon- 

 dence with members of the family, one of them a 

 devoted archaeologist, I should have at last re- 

 moved it. And surely the time must always come 

 to our edigies, as well as to ourselves, when, being 

 old and broken, the best service our frieuds can 

 do is to put us respectfully aside. 



But if Pedestrian should visit " the Midland 

 Counties" next September, and would favour me 

 with a call, he should have still farther information 

 which, I believe, would convince him that the de- 

 molition (so-called) was not only warrantable, but 

 necessary. Here, however, my taste for destroying 

 monumental relics must stop : whatever Pedes- 

 trian may think from the past, I am quite inca- 

 pable of assisting to "demolish" poor Tom Allen's 

 tablet, by laying sacrilegious hands upon his horse 

 or his lord, the " Crocus Rotuloram." 



Three rectors have cherished it carefully, and It 

 certainly will always receive the consideration it 

 merits from J. Hakkies Thomas, 



Millbrook Rectory. 



Robert Nelsons Letters and Papers (2"* S. vi. 

 244.) — The letters of the Earl of Melfort to 

 Nelson, which formerly belonged to P. C. AVebb, 

 are now in the British Museum, and form part of 

 the register of Lord Melfort's correspondence, in 

 three volumes folio, from March to December, 

 1690, in MS. Lansdowne, 1163. In regard to 

 letters of Nelson, there are thirty-five original 

 letters and notes from him to Humphrey Wanley, 

 Lord Oxford's librarian, between 1701 and 1714, 

 in MS. Harl. 3780. fol. 188.; also among Birch's 

 collections, copies of five letters from Nelson to 

 Lord Harley, from 1710 to 1714, MS. Add. 4253. 

 fol. 53., and a copy of a letter from Nelson to 

 Archbishop Tenison, 4 Sept. 1708, in MS. Add. 

 4297. fol. 61. A few of the above letters have 

 been printed. F. JMadden. 



Mr. Teale, in his Lives of Laymen, has by no 

 means exhausted the extant materials for the life 

 of this devout and munificent Churchman. Be- 

 sides the notices in Calamy's Own Times (vol. i. 

 pp. 383, 384.), Brydges's Restituta (vol. iii. p. 

 221.), Knight's Life of Colct (pp. 420. seg.), and 

 the Life of Amhrose Bonwicke, (pp. 15. 24. 34. 50. 

 58. 78. 107, 108. 110. of the reprint), I would call 

 particular attention to the valuable series of let- 

 ters from Nelson to Nicholas Ferrar's godson and 

 great-nephew, Dr. John Mapletoft, preserved in 

 the 15th and 16th volumes of the European Ma- 

 gazine (a.d. 1789). See vol. xv. pp. 11. 91. 186. 

 274. 353. 433.; vol. xvi. pp. 8. 97. 167. Amongst 

 many other interesting particulars of literary and 

 ecclesiastical history, we learn the extraordinary 

 circulation of some of Nelson's own works ; one of 

 them translated into Welsh by Williams of Den- 

 bigh had a sale of 10,000 copies in four years and 

 a half (vol. xv. p. 433.). J. E. B. Matob. 



.St. John's College, Cambridge. 



S. A. Mackeijs Works on the Theory of the 

 Earth (1" S. viii. 468. 565.) — On referring to a 

 back volume of " N. & Q." for a reference, I came 



