exceptions to these? Marry, they misse sometimes in the numbers, and in the rimes;-it is well known by the copies, that those faults lie most upon the corrector and the printer. But, put the case, there might be some slips in that kinde, is all the booke damn'd for it? No, mercy, gentlemen; when, for the numbers, every schoole-boy can make them on his fingers; and for the rimes, Fenner would have put down Ben Johnson; and yet, neither the boy nor Fenner so good poets. No; it is neither of these either makes or condemns a poet: it is new-born and creating phansies that glorifie a poet; and, in her booke of poems, I am sure there is excellent and new phansies as have not been writ by any; and that it was onely writ by her is the greatest truth in the world. "Now for the book called, the World's Olio, say somehow is it possible that she should have such experience to write of such things so? I answer, that I, living long in the great world, and having the various fortunes of what they call good and bad, certainly the reading of men might bring me to as much experience as the reading of books; and this I have now and then discourst unto this lady, who has wisely and elegantly drest it in her own way, and sumptuously clothed it at the charge of her own phancies and expressions. I say, some of them she has heard from me, but not the fortieth part of her book; all the rest are absolutely her own in all kindes. This is an ingenuous truth, therefore believe it. "As for the book of her Philosophical Opinions, there is not any one thing in the whole book, that is not absolutely spun out by her own studious phancy; and if you will lay by a little passion against writers, you will like it, and the best of any thing she has writ: therefore, read it once or twice, not with malice, nor to finde a little fault, but with judgement to like what is good. Truly, I cannot believe so unworthily of any scholar, (honouring them so much as we both do) that they should envie this ladye, or should have so much malice or emulation, to cast such false aspersions on her, that she did not write those books that go forth in her name. They will hardly finde out who else writ them, and I protest that none ever writ them but herself. Here's the crime-a lady writes them; and to intrench so much upon the male prerogative is not to be forgiven; but I know gown-men will be more civil to her, because she is of the gown too. I had not troubled you with this, but that a learned doctor, our noble friend, writ us word of the infidelity of some people in this kinde. Whatsoever I have writ is absolutely truth, which I here (as a man of honour) set my hand to. "W. NEWCASTLE." THE DUNMOW BACON. THE Custom at Dunmow, of giving a gammon of bacon to any couple, who would swear that they had been married a year and a day, without having "offended each other in deed or in word," or wished themselves unmarried again, is well known, though its origin is very doubtful. The whimsical institution, however, is not peculiar to Dunmow. There was the same in Bretagne :-" A l'abbaie saincte Melaine, près Rennes, y a plus de six cens ans sont, un costé de lard encore tout frais, et ordonné aux premiers qui, par an et jour, ensemble marie, ont vescus sans debat, grondement, et sans s'en repentir."* We need not, however, go to Bretagne for an instance of this custom, since we find that, in England, it is not confined to Dunmow. "Sir Philip de Somervile, knight, held the manor of Wichnour in com. Stafford, of the eirle of Lancaster, then lord of the honour of Tutbury, by these memorable services, viz. by two small fees, that is to say, when other tenants pay for relief (of) one whole knight's fee, one hundred shillings; and when escuaget is assessed throughout the land, or ayde for to make the eldest son of the lord knyght, or for to marry the eldest daughter of the lord, the sayd Sir Philip shal pay bot the moty of it, that other shal paye. Nevertheless, the said Sir Philip shal fynde meynteinge and susteinge one bacon flyke, hanging in his halle at Wichenour, ready arrayed all tymes of the yere, bott in Lent, to be given to everyche mane or womane married after the yere and day of their marriage be passed; and to be given everyche mane of religion, archbishop, prior, or other religious, and to everyche priest, after the year and day of their profession finished, or of their dignity reseyved, in form following, whensoever that ony such before-named wylle come for to enquire for the baconne in their owne person, or by any other for them, they shall come to the bayliff or to the porter of the lordship of Whichenour, and shall say to them, in the manere as ensewethe. 66 6 Bayliffe or porter, I doo you to knowe, that I am come for myself, (or if he come for any other, shewing for whom) to demand one bacon flyke, hanging in the halle of the lord of Whichenour, after the forme thereunto belonginge.' "After this relation, the bailiff or porter shal assigne a day to him, upon promise by his feythe to returne, and with him to Contes d'Entrap. tome ii. p. 161. + A pecuniary satisfaction, instead of personal military service. bring tweyne of his neighbours; and in the meyn time, the said bailiff shal take with him tweyne of the freeholders of the lordship of Whichenour, and they three shal goe to the manour of Rudlowe, belonging to Robert Knyghtleye, and there shal somon the forsaid Knyghtleye, or his bailiffe, commanding hym to be ready at Whichenour, the day appointed, at pryme of the day, with his carriage, that is to say, a horse, and a sadyle, a sakke and a pryke, (i. e. spur) for to convey and carry the said baconne and corne a journey owt of the countee of Stafford, at his costages; and then the said bailiffe shal, with the said freeholders, somon all the tenaunts of the said manior, to be ready at the day appoynted, at Whichenour, for to doe and performe the services which they owe to the baconne; and at the day assigned, all such as owe services to the baconne shal be ready at the gatte of the manoir of Whichenour, frome the sonne risinge to noone, attendyng and awayting for the comyng of hym that fecheth the baconne; and when he is comyn, there shal be delivered to hym and his fellowes chapeletts, and to all those whiche shal be there, to doe their services deue to the baconne; and they shal lede the seid demandant wythe trompets and tabours, and other manner of mynstralscye to the hall dore, where he shal fynde the lord of Whichenour, or his steward, redy to deliver the baconne in this manere. "He shall enquere of hym which demandeth the baconne, if he have brought tweyne of his neighbours with him, which must answere, they be here ready:' and then the steward shall cause theis two neighbours to swere, yf the said demandant be a weddyt man, or have been a man weddyt: and yf syth his marriage one yere and a day be passed: and if he be freeman or villeyn. And if his said neighbours make othe that he hath for hym all theis three poynts rehersed, then shal the baconne be take downe, and brought to the halle dore, and shall there be layd upon one half a quarter of wheatte, and upon one other of rye. And he that demandeth the baconne, shal kneel upon his knee, and shal hold his right hande upon a booke, which booke shall be layd above the baconne and the corne, and shall make oath in this manere: "Here ye, Sir Philip de Somervyle, lord of Whichenour, mayntayner and giver of this baconne, that I, A. syth I wedded B., my wife, and syth I had her in my keeping, and at my wylle, by a yere and a daye after our marryage, I wold not have chaunged for none other, farer ne fowler, richer ne powrer, ne for none other descended of gretter lynage, slepyng ne waking, at noo tyme. And if the said B. were sole, and I sole, I wolde take her to be my wife before all the wymen of the worlde, of what condytions soever they be, good or evyle, so helpe me God and his seyntys, and this flesh and all fleshes.' "And his neighbours shall make oath, that they trust verily he hath said truly and yf it be founde by neighbours before-named, that he be a free man, there shall be delyvered to him half a quarter of wheatte and a cheese and yf he be a villein, he shall have half a quarter of rye, without cheese; and then shal Knyghtley, the lord of Rudlowe, be called for to carry all theis thynges to fore rehersed: and the said corne shal be layd upon one horse, and the baconne above yt, and he to whom the baconne apperteigneth, shal ascend upon his horse, and shall take the cheese before hym, if he have a horse, and yf he have none, the lord of Whichenour shall cause him to have one horse and sadyl, to such tyme as he passed his lordshippe; and so shall they departe the manoyr of Whichenour, with the corne and the baconne to fore him that hath wonne yt, with trompets, tabourets, and other manoir of mynstralcye.-And all the free tenants of Whichenour shall conduct him to be passed the lordship of Whichenour, and then shall all they retorne, except hym to whom apperteigneth to make the carriage and journey withoutte the countye of Stafford, at the costys of his lord of Whichenour. And if the said Robert Knightley doe not cause the baconne and corne to be conveyed as is rehearsed, the lord of Whichenour shall do it to be carried, and shall distreigne the said Robert Knightley for his default, for one hundred shillings in his manoir of Rudlow, and shale kepe the distresse sotakyn, irreplevisable." COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE'S EPITAPH. THE well known epitaph of the celebrated countess of Pembroke, the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, has been generally ascribed to Ben Jonson. The first stanza is printed in Jonson's Poems; but it is found in the MS. volume of Poems, by William Browne, the author of "Britannia's Pastorals," preserved in the Lansdown collection, British Museum, No. 777; and on this evidence, may be fairly appropriated to him, particularly as it is known that he was a great favourite with William, earl of Pembroke, son of the countess. * Dr. Aikin, in his last edition of the British Poets, printed in 1820, gives the first verse as Jonson's, though this evidence (with which he ought to have been acquainted) is sufficient to establish the fact of authorship. On the Countess Dowager of Pembroke. 66 Underneath this sable hearse SYDNEY's sister! PEMBROKE's mother! Marble piles let no man raise Shall turn marble, and become Both her mourner and her tomb. THE TWO ROGUES. It was thought very witty in lord North, when speaking of two brothers, who were celebrated contractors, to denominate one "a rogue in spirit," and the other " a rogue in grain." Of the truth of the appellation, we know nothing; since, although one of the persons, (the "rogue in grain,") underwent the ignominious punishment of the pillory, yet parliament reversed the sentence, and afterwards admitted him as one of its members. Some have denied to lord North the merit of originality, in the designation he gave to the corn contractor, and have attributed it to Dr. Bentley, who embodied it in an epigram. The fact is, that it originated with neither of them, but is to be found in the following epigram, by Robert Heath, whose works were printed in 1650. 66 A ROGUE IN GRAIN. To Pistor. "When Pistor's bread is found too light, 'tis sent I do not approv't; 'tis charity mistane, Pistor, you're still an arrant rogue in grain." |