SECOND WINTER MEETING. xivii. 



depressed and depressing. There could be no hope of 

 attracting a congregation without radical alteration and 

 thorough restoration, and he rejoiced to know that a move 

 was being made. 



EXHIBITS. 



1 . By the PRESIDENT : 



(a). A miniature of S. John the Baptist, on a leaf of a 15th 

 century Antiphonarium. 



(b). Two small editions of the Bible in verse, by Simon 

 Wastell, 1629, and Samuel Wesley, 1715. 



On these he read the following note : 



It is interesting to remember, in connection with the two little books 

 which I have brought for exhibition, that the first attempt of which we 

 have any record at a translation of the Bible into the language of this 

 country took the form of a poem by Caedmon (d. 680), the cowherd of 

 Whitby, afterwards a monk, in the 7th century. The story is related by 

 Bede (672 735) of how he was unable to sing, but, being encouraged by a 

 divine messenger in a dream, he produced this poem, which comprised 

 much of the Old and New Testaments. His work is preserved in a MS. 

 of the 10th century at Oxford. A 12th century metrical version of part of 

 the New Testament is known, and there were others in verse, of the Psalms 

 and other parts specially suited for metrical rendering. King Alfred is 

 said to have been one of these poet translators. 



The first metrical version of any portion of the Bible in English, since 

 the appearance of Coverdale's English Bible in 1535, is the celebrated 

 metrical version of the Psalms by Sternhold & Hopkins, which appeared 

 in a modified form in 1549 and afterwards went through a great number 

 of editions. A metrical version of Solomon's Song by Wm. Baldwin 

 appeared the same year, and Proverbs by John Hall in 1550, part of Acts 

 by Christopher Tye in 1553, and part of Daniel by Thos. Cotsforde in 

 1555. This last poet lived at Geneva, for, Mary being on the Throne, such 

 a book could not have been produced by an English Author without the 

 greatest danger. Other parts of the Bible versified in the 16th century 

 were " The Book of Wisdom," " The Waitings of the Prophet Hierimiah" 

 u Genesis," also " The Hoiie Historic of King David," and " The Life and 

 Death of Joseph." u An abridgement of the Canonical Books of the Old 

 Testament " by William Samuel, Minister, in 1569, sounds a fuller version, 

 as does also " A brief c, of the Bible's Historic in verse" by Henoch Clapham 

 which had three editions, in 1596, 1603 and 1608. In 1611 came "The 

 Historical part of the Holy Scripture " by Edmund Graile. We now come 

 to the author of my first little book, Simon Wastell, who in 1623 published 



