"It is not, perhaps, generally known, that we have a form of prayer for prisoners, which is printed in the Irish Common Prayer-Book, though not in ours. Mrs. Berkeley, in whose preface of prefaces to her son's poems I first saw this mentioned, regrets the omission; observing, that the very fine prayer for those under sentence of death, might, being read by the children of the poor, at least keep them from the gallows. The remark is just."—Southey's Omniana, vol. i. p. 50.
What Irish Common Prayer-Book is here meant? I have the books issued by the late Ecclesiastical History Society, but do not see the service among them. Could the prayer referred to be transferred to "N. & Q.;" or where is the said Irish Prayer-Book to be found?
Thomas Lawrence.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
[The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Church of Ireland, we believe, may frequently be met with. An edition in folio, 1740, is in the British Museum, containing "The Form of Prayer for the Visitation of Prisoners, treated upon by the Archbishops and Bishops, and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland, and agreed upon by Her Majesty's License in their Synod, holden at Dublin in the Year 1711." We are inclined to think that Mrs. Berkeley must have intended its beautiful exhortation—not the prayer—for the use of the poor. See "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 246.]
[Replies.]
EDMUND SPENSER, AND SPENSERS, OR SPENCERS, OF HURSTWOOD.
(Vol. vii., pp. 303. 362.)
Without entering on the question as to possible connexion of the poet with the family above mentioned, the discussion may be simplified by solving a difficulty suggested by Cliviger (p. 362.), arising from Hurstwood Hall (another estate in Hurstwood) having been possessed by Townley, and by explaining, 1st, The identity of the tenement once owned by Spencers; 2ndly, The seeming cause of Whitaker's silence; and, 3rdly, The certainty of possession by the Spencers.