His head was upon London bridge: there goes this story in the family, viz. that one day as one of his daughters was passing under the bridge, looking on her father's head[349], sayd she, 'That head haz layn[350] many a time in my lapp, would to God it would fall into my lap as I passe under.' She had her wish, and it did fall into her lappe, and is now preserved in a vault in the cathedrall church at Canterbury. The descendant of Sir Thomas, is Mr. More, of Chilston, in Herefordshire, where, among a great many things of value plundered[351] by the soldiers, was his chap, which they kept for a relique. Methinks 'tis strange that all this time he is not canonized, for he merited highly of the church.
Memorandum:—in the hall of Sir John Lenthall, at Bessils-Lye in Berks, is an original of Sir Thomas and his father, mother, wife, and children, donne by Hans Holbein. There is an inscription in golden letters of about 60 lines, which I spake to Mr. Thomas Pigot, of Wadham College, to transcribe, and he has donne it very carefully. Aske him for it. Vide Mr. Thomas Pigot, in part[352] iii.
Memorandum:—about the later end of Erasmus's Epistolae, Antverp edition, pag. 503, 504, 505, is an epitaph for Sir Thomas More, and another for his lady.
Memorandum:—Sir Thomas More's father had a countrey house at Gubbins in Hertfordshire, which is in the familie still, who are still Catholiques; whether he was borne there or no, non constat:—<from> Seth Ward, episcopus Sarum.
[353]Educatus in aula cardinalis Morton, prout in Utopia pag. 49, 50.
Sir John Lenthall at Besilslye haz a rare and large picture of Hans Holbein's painting in his hall there, where are the figures, as big as the life, of Sir Thomas <More> and his father (a judge) and mother, wife and children, and a long inscription, which gett Mr. Pigot to transcribe, for it begins to be defaced.
Sir Thomas More, knight: Quaestiones duae:—
—An chimaera bombinans in vacuo possit comedere secundas intentiones?
—An averia capta in Withernamio sint replegiabilia?