FROM COLCHESTER CORPORATION RECORDS
I inclose you some rather curious extracts from the corporation books of Colchester, which I made a few years since, during an investigation of some of the charities of that ancient borough.
"The informacōn of Richard Glascock of Horden-of-the-Hill, in the County of Essex, Cordwayner, aged twenty-four yeeres or thereabouts, taken upon oath the 5th of June, 1651, before Jno. Furlie, Gent., Mayor of the Towne of Colchester.
"The Informant saieth, that upon the Lord's daie, the fower and twentieth daie of May last, that Wm Beard of Horden abovesaid, did cut off the taile of the catt of Thomas Burgis of Fanies Pishe, and Margaret, the wife of the sd Thos Burgis, after the catt's taile was cutt off, came home, and seeing that her catt's taile had bin cutt off she enquired who had done it, and being told that the sd Wm Beard had done it, she sd she would be even wth him before he went out of towne.
"The informacōn of Hy Potter, aged twenty yeeres or thereabouts, of Horden abovesaid, Lynnen Weaver, taken upon oath the day and yeere abovesaid.
"This informant saieth, that ye sd fower and twentieth daie of May the taile of the catt of the sd Thomas Burgis being cutt off by the sd Wm Beard, and ye sd Margaret the wife of the sd Thos Burgis haveing bin told that the sd Wm Beard had done it, she prsentlie told the sd Beard she would be even with him before he went out of towne, and flewe in his face, and said she would give him something before he went out of her howse. And this informant saieing, Good woman, I hope you will give him noe poyson, and she replyed, he would not be soe foolish as to take any thinge of her, but she would be even wth him before he went out of towne."
"The informacōn of Rd Spencer, aged thirtie yeeres or thereabouts, Servant to Captn Thomas Caldwell, taken upon oath the day and yeere aforesaid.
"This informant saieth, that the before-named Wm Beard being very sicke and in a strange distemper, and haveing heard that Margaret, the wife of the before-named Thomas Burgis, had threatened him, did suspect the sd Wm Beard might be bewitched or ill dealt wth, did cut off some of his haire off from his head, and did wind it up together and put it into the fire, and could not for a good while make it burne, untill he tooke a candle and put under it or into it, and then wth much adoe it did burne, and after it was burnt ye sd Beard laie still, and before it was burnt he was in such a distemper that three men could hardlie hold him into his bed.
CONVOCATION IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE II
One hears it so often repeated, that Convocation was finally suppressed in 1717, in consequence of the accusations brought by the Lower House against Bishop Hoadley, that it seems worth while noting in correction of this, that though no licence from the Crown to make canons has ever been granted since that time, yet that Convocation met and sat in 1728, and again for some sessions in the spring of 1742, when several important subjects were brought before it; among which was the very interesting question of curates' stipends, in these words:
"VIIth. That much reproach is brought upon the beneficed, and much oppression upon the unbeneficed, clergy, by curates accepting too scanty salaries from incumbents."
and which was really the last subject that was ever brought before Convocation. On Jan. 27, 1742, it was unanimously agreed, that "the motion made by the Archdeacon of Lincoln concerning ecclesiastical courts and clandestine marriages, the qualifications of persons to be admitted into holy orders, and the salaries and titles of curates," should be "reduced into writing, and the particulars offered to the House at their next assembly." But in the next session, on March 5, 1742, the Prolocutor, Dr. Lisle, was afraid to go on with the business before the House, and after "speaking much of a præmunire," and "echoing and reverberating the word from one side of good King Henry's Chapel to the other," the whole was let drop; and Convocation was fully consigned to the silence and the slumber of a century. The whole of these transactions are detailed in a scarce pamphlet, A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Lisle, Prolocutor of the Lower House, by the Archdeacon of Lincoln (the Venerable G. Reynolds).
Tor-Mohun.
PARALLEL PASSAGES
1. "When she had passed it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music."—Longfellow's Evangeline, Part i. I.
"When she comes into the room, it is like a beautiful air of Mozart breaking upon you."—Thackeray "On a good-looking young Lady." (Quoted in Westminster Review, April 1853.)
2. "Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere."—Whence?
"We are the twin stars, and cannot shine in one sphere. When he rises I must set."—Congreve, Love for Love, Act III. Sc. 4.
3. "Et ce n'est pas toujours par valeur et par chasteté que les hommes sont vaillants et que les femmes sont chastes."—De La Rochefoucauld, Max. I.
"Yes, faith! I believe some women are virtuous, too; but 'tis as I believe some men are valiant, through fear."—Congreve, Love for Love, Act III. Sc. 14.
4. "Mais si les vaisseaux sillonnent un moment les ondes, la vague vient effacer aussitôt cette légère marque de servitude, et la mer reparait telle qu'elle fut au premier jour de la Création."—Corinne, b. I. ch. 4.
"Such as Creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now!"—Byron, Childe Harold.
5. "Il est plus honteux de se méfier de ses amis que d'en être trompé."—De La Rochefoucauld, Max. LXXXIV.
"Better trust all, and be deceived,
And weep that trust, and that deceiving,
Than doubt one heart that, if believed,
Had blessed thy life with true believing!
"Oh! in this mocking world, too fast
The doubting fiend o'ertakes our youth:
Better be cheated to the last,
Than lose the blessed hope of truth!"
6. In "N. & Q.," Vol. iv., p. 435., I cited, as a parallel to Shelley, the following from Southey's Doctor, vol. vi. p. 158.:
"The sense of flying in our sleep might, he thought, probably be the anticipation or forefeeling of an unevolved power, like an Aurelia's dream of butterfly motion."
In Spicer's Sights and Sounds (1853), p. 140., is to be found a poem professing to have been "dictated by the spirit of Robert Southey," on March 25, 1851, the fourth stanza of which runs as follows:
"The soul, like some sweet flower-bud yet unblown,
Lay tranced in beauty in its silent cell:
The spirit slept, but dreamed of worlds unknown,
As dreams the chrysalis within its shell,
Ere summer breathes its spell."
What inference should be drawn from this coincidence for or against the reality
