To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.
April 3, 1826.
Sir,—I shall be happy to communicate any thing in my power, connected with antiquities to the Every-Day Book, which I have taken from the beginning and been highly pleased with; and, first, I send you a drawing for insertion, if you think it worthy, of a carving, in my possession, on an ancient oak board, two feet in diameter.
Ancient Carving.
It represents the letters I. h. c. in the centre, surrounded by this legend, viz.
“An harte that is wyse wyll obstine from
sinnes and increas in the workes of God.”
As this legend reads backward, and all the carving is incuse, it was evidently intended to give impression to something; I imagine pastry.
An original letter is now before me, from lord chancellor Thurlow, to a Norfolk farmer, who had sent him a hare, and two and a half brace of partridges, enclosed in a large turnip of his own growth. The farmer had not any personal knowledge of his lordship, but, being aware he was a Norfolk man, he rightly conceived that his present would be looked upon with more interest on that account. The following is a copy of the chancellor’s letter:—
Bath, Dec. 31, 1778.