xlviii. SECOND WINTER MEETING. 



"A true Christian's daily delight, being the summe of every chapter of 

 the Old and New Testaments, set down alphabetically in verse." How the 

 alphabetical part is arranged I do not know, but there is a copy in the 

 Bodleian, which seems to be the best hunting ground for these scarce 

 little books. I am afraid that I cannot call the volume which you have 

 before you, " Microbiblion or The Bible's Epitome in verse" a very high- 

 class production; and George Wither in his commendatory verses at the 

 beginning does not say more than that it will " helpe the memorie." But 

 300 years give it a certain sanctity, and it is certainly a curiosity and has 

 much matter in a little space. 



Passing over any other 17th century versions, I come to my other book. 

 The first (engraved) title calls it " The History of the Old and New 

 Testaments attempted in verse, by S. Wesley, 1704," the second title " The 

 History of The Old Testament in verse in two volumes 1715," which looks 

 as if there had been a previous edition of the whole Bible in 1704, with 

 330 cuts instead of the 180 in the present volumes. The cuts, or ' sculptures" 

 (copperplate engravings), by Start, are rather attractive, though there is a 

 good deal of imagination in some of them, as in Jacob's altar on p. 47, 

 where the stone that he set up is represented as an elaborate pillar with a 

 moulded base, with large and handsome vessels which he could not 

 possibly have carried with him. The verse is immensely superior in 

 quality to Simon Wastell's, and gives one a much better idea of the 

 original. But I am not aware of any metrical version of the whole Bible 

 that could be called a translation in the same way that the metrical Psalms 

 are. I may mention that Samuel Wesley* was the father of John and 

 Charles Wesley, and all seem to have had the poetical faculty more or less 

 developed. Other books that have been partly or wholly turned into 

 metre are Jonah, Job, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Habbakuk, The Song of the three 

 Children, Deuteronomy, Exodus, i Corinthians, Esther, &c. 



There is an edition of "The Bible in verse" by John Fellows in four 

 vols., 1778, which from the number of vols. may be a full translation, but 

 I have not seen a copy. 



2. By CAPTAIN ACLAND, F.S.A. 



An exchequer tally-stick (Dorset), 1825, on which he read 

 the following note : 



* Samuel Wesley was born at Winterborne-Whitchurch, of which parish 

 his father John Wesley was rector from May, 1658, until 1662. His mother 

 was a daughter of the celebrated Rev. John White, rector of Holy Trinity, 

 Dorchester, "the patriarch of Dorchester." Samuel was baptised at 

 Whitchurch, 17th December, 1662, and was educated at the Dorchester 

 Grammar School. (D.N.B.). J.M.J.F. 



