[1099]Next to Dr. Outram's inscription <in the south aisle of Westminster abbey> stands this of Dr. Triplett, in the very place where Mr. Thomas May's stood, of white marble[1100]:—
Hic requiescit vir
Reverend. Dr. Thomas Triplett,
ex agro Oxoniensi,
Praebendarius hujus ecclesiae,
Qui postquam ad annum aetatis septuagesimum
pietate et cultus assiduitate, Deo,
Graecae linguae peritia non vulgari, doctis,
largitate et continua beneficentia, egenis,
morum innocua jucunditate, omnibus,
carum se praebuisset,
Ab hac vita ad meliorem commigravit,
Anno Domini 1670
Die Julii 18.
He went to schoole to Dr. Gill, as appeares by his ballad[1101], which will last longer then any sermon that ever he made.
After his sequestration[1102] he kept a schoole at Dublyn (when the king was beheaded); afterwards at Hayes, Surrey, 12 miles from London. 'Twas here our[1103] common friend George Ent went to schoole to him, who told me that he had forgot the smart of his old master, Gill; he was very severe.
I'le tell you a story of our old friend. His master Triplett was a great lover of honey, and one of his schoolefellow's mother having sent a pott of honey to the doctor, G. Ent putt his schoolefellow to beg a little of his master, and he had gott a manchet and so they would have a regalio. The doctor was in his study; and the boy takes the confidence to approach, with his 'Quaeso, praeceptor, da mihi mel.' G. Ent was sneaking behind. Qd. the disturbed doctor, 'You audacious raskall,' and gave him a good cuffe on the ear, 'how dare you be thus impudent? Sirrah, who putt you on?' The boy answered (whiningly) 'G. Ent.' The enraged doctor flies out of his study (he was a very strong man), gives poore George a kick in the breech, and made him fly downe a flight of 7 or 8 staires to the landing-place, where his head first came to. He was stunn'd, but 'twas well his neck was not broken. 'Twas a most cruel and inhumane act to use a poore child so. It so happened that a day or two before G. E. had shaled a tooth. He writes a letter to his father (now Sir George Ent) and incloses the tooth in it; relates the story and that he lost the tooth by that meanes[1104]. The next day the grave and learned Dr. Ent comes to Hayes (the fame of whose learning and testimonie did give great credit and reputation to this schoole); expostulates with the doctor about his sonne. To be short, tooke him away, and placed him with Mr. William Radford at Richmond (an honest sequestred fellow of Trinity College, Oxon, and an excellent schoolmaster, having been bred at Thame under Dr. Birt[1105] and afterwards sent to Winton.) This accident well-nigh did breake Dr. Triplett's schoole. But shortly after this time, happened the restauration of his majestie, and then he was also restored to his former preferments.
Thomas Tusser (1527-1580).
[1106]Memorandum:—Edward Bullock, of Fayburne-hall, in Essex, esq. assures me, that this Tusser was borne at Riven-hall in Essex. The howse wherein he was borne they doe yet shew. He rented the parsonage of Fairested. He speakes in his booke of the people's cosening him of his tythes.