OAKEN TOMBS, ETC.
(Vol. vii., p. 528.)
At Banham, Norfolk, in a recess in the wall of the north aisle of the church, is an oaken effigy of a knight in armour in a recumbent position. Blomefield says:
"It is plain that it was made for Sir Hugh Bardolph, Knight, sometime lord of Gray's Manor, in this town, who died in 1203, for under his left arm there is a large cinquefoil, which is the badge of that family," &c.
Since he wrote, however (1739), with a view to the better preservation of this interesting relic, some spirited churchwarden has caused it to be well painted and sanded so that it now looks almost as well as stone. At the same time, the marks by which Blomefield thought to identify it are necessarily obliterated.
T. B. B. H.
William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who was slain at Bayonne in 1296,—his effigy in wood is in St. Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, covered with enamelled brass. There is also in Abergavenny Church, amongst the general wreck of monumental remains there, a cross-legged effigy in wood, represented in chain mail; which the late Sir Samuel Meyrick supposed to have been that of William de Valence. It is mentioned in Coxe's Monmouthshire, p. 192.
The effigy of Aymer de Valence referred to in Whitaker ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 528.) is not of wood; he evidently refers to that of William de Valence.
In Gloucester Cathedral there is the wooden monument of a cross-legged knight attributed to Robert Duke of Normandy, the eldest son of the Conqueror; but it is probably of a little later period.
Thomas W. King (York Herald).
College of Arms.
In the Cathedral of Gloucester, there is a wooden effigy of the unfortunate Robert Duke of Normandy, eldest son of the Conqueror. It is so many years since I saw it, that I do not offer any description: but, if my memory be correct, it has the legs crossed, and (what is curious) is loose, and can be turned about on the tomb.
A. C. M.
Exeter.
On the south side of the chancel of St. Giles' Church, Durham, is a wooden effigy in full armour; the head resting on a helmet, and the hands raised as in prayer. It is supposed to be the tomb of John Heath, who became possessed of the Hospital of St. Giles Kepyer, and is known to have been buried in the chancel of St. Giles' Church. He died in 1590. At the feet of the wooden effigy, are the words "HODIE MICHI." The figure was restored in colours about ten years ago.
Cuthbert Bede, B. A.
"COULD WE WITH INK," &c.
(Vol. viii., p. 127.)
The bonâ fide author of the following lines—
"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the heavens of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretch'd from sky to sky."
is Rabbi Mayir ben Isaac. The above eight lines are almost a literal translation of four Chaldee ones, which form part of a beautiful ode on the attributes of God, not unmixed with a considerable proportion of the fabulous, which is sung in every synagogue during the service of the first day of the feast of Pentecost.
May I now be permitted to ask you, or any of your numerous correspondents, to inform me who was the bonâ fide translator of Rabbi Mayir ben Isaac's lines? The English lines are often quoted by itinerant advocates of charity societies as having been found inscribed, according to some, on the walls of a lunatic asylum, according to others, on the walls of a prison, as occasion requires; but extempore quotations on platforms are sometimes vague.
Moses Margoliouth.
Wybunbury.
The verses are in Grose's Olio (p. 292.), and are there said to be written by nearly an idiot, then living (March 16, 1779) at Cirencester. It happens, however, that long before the supposed idiot was born, one Geoffrey Chaucer made use of the same idea, and the same expressions, although applied to a totally different subject, viz. in his "Balade warnynge men to beware of deceitful women:"—
"In soth to saie though all the yerth so wanne
Wer parchment smoth, white and scribbabell,
And the gret see, that called is th' Ocean,
Were tourned into ynke blackir than sabell,
Eche sticke a pen, eche man a scrivener able,
Not coud thei writin woman's treacherie,
Beware, therefore, the blind eteth many a flie."
Again in the "Remedie of Love," the same lines occur with a few slight alterations.
In vol. x. of the Modern Universal History, p. 430. note, I meet with this sentence:
"He was succeeded by Jochanan; not in right of descent, but of his extraordinary merits; which the Rabbies, according to custom, have raised to so surprising a height, that, according to them, if the whole heavens were paper, all the trees in the world pens, and all the men writers, they would not suffice to pen down all his lessons."
In later times, in Miss C. Sinclair's Hill and Valley, p. 25., we have:
"If the lake could be transformed into an ink-stand, the mountains into paper; and if all the birds that hover on high were to subscribe their wings for quills, it would be still insufficient to write half the praise and admiration that are justly due."
C. I. R.
These lines are by Dr. Watts. I cannot just now distinctly recollect where they are to be found, but I think in Milner's Life of Watts. My recollection of them is that they were impromptu, given at an evening party.
H. S. S.