"Now as to the History of Suffolk, it is a work that, upon several substantial accounts, I never had any thoughts of publishing myself, though I should be glad to see it done by some abler hand; and therefore it were a pity that Ives's Collections (which were T. Martin's) should fall into such useless hands as mine. I therefore give you this intelligence, that you may avail yourself of it, if you think proper; or that you may communicate it to any one else, who may think this Collection worth his attention. I shall answer the fair lady by this post with respect to myself; and shall at the same time let her know, that I could wish she would keep her MSS. a few days longer in her possession, that you may have an opportunity of seeing them. If, however, you should decline this visit, it will be no breach of promise on my part, as I shall not, indeed cannot, engage for you. JOHN CULLUM." "DEAR SIR, West Ham, May 8, 1780. "I return you my best thanks for the melancholy pains you have taken in informing me of the last scenes of our poor Friend's life *. I should always have been much concerned for his loss; but the having been with him so short a time before, and receiving from him the last effort of his excellent pencil †, with some other circumstances, makes me particularly affected at this mournful event. I was at Lambourn yesterday, and found his widow as well as I could expect, with a visitor whose errand I did not much like. As far as I could collect, he was sent by the Father, to make a full enquiry into his Son's circumstances, without bringing the slightest present, but charged to carry off all the MSS. Drawings, and Paintings, of the deceased: a request which I dissuaded her from complying with as to the latter part, and which indeed she seemed much averse from on many accounts. I pity her condition most sincerely, and shall be ready to co-operate with her friends, in being of any service to her: We shall meet on Wednesday, to attend the last melancholy office; and may then talk over the subject. "I beg you will accept my best acknowledgements for the present of the British Topography;' a favour I had but little pretensions to. The small help which it was in my power to afford you in that noble work, would have been well repaid by the Suffolk Poll, which, notwithstanding its imperfection, is a most acceptable present to yours very faithfully. JOHN CULLUM." "DEAR SIR, Hardwick House, June 10, 1780. "If your last had not reached me on the eve of an excursion into Norfolk, I would immediately have thanked you for the in Mr. Tyson; see before, pp. 660. 664. 667. In the "Antiquarian Repertory," vol. IV. p. 57, is a View of "The Hospital of St. Petronilla at Bury," with a Description of it, by Sir John Cullum, dated Nov. 2, 1780; who observes, "This Drawing was made by my late friend Mr. Tyson, in April last, and was the last effort of his excellent pencil."-In vol. II. p. 237, of the same work, is a Letter from Sir John Cullum, describing Little Saxham Church, Suffolk, with a Drawing by Mr. Tyson. In p. 225, of the same volume, is an engraving from a brass figure in Trumpington Church, communicated by Mr. Tyson; see p. 665. formation formation you gave me about Tyson's affairs, in which I confess myself much interested, as I had a great regard for him, notwithstanding his little blemishes, which were abundantly overbalanced by his substantial good qualities; and this regard I cannot but extend to his widow, who certainly did her duty to him in the strictest manner. As I know your communication with Mr. Urban, I will thank you to send him the following. I am much pleased with his late publication of Royal Wills. His Glossary is good, and is quite in my way; but, if I had seen it before publication, I might perhaps have helped it a little. JOHN CULLUM." "DEAR SIR, June 13, 1780. "Now one's thoughts are a little composed, after the horrid distractions which have reigned in the Metropolis, notwithstanding the New River is still guarded within three miles of me, and an association in vain attempted in our Vestry, I may resume the history of Lambourn affairs. The furniture was valued at 3651 and Mr. Walshy* immediately paid down 4001, He agreed to pay at Christmas 1201. as arrear of tithes, and to give up dilapidations. The books have been valued by Robson at 2501.; but, at the same time, he gave it as his opinion, that Mr. Walsby should pay 10 or 12 per cent. more, making it about 2801. But, upon looking over the catalogue, and consulting Charles Nalson Cole, they have agreed that the books are not enough in his way to induce him to give more than 250l.; still allowing Mrs. Tyson to offer them to any other Bookseller, which is now in agitation. I met Mr. Walsby at Lambourn last Saturday, and saw no ground for violent prejudices against him. He has pleased the neighbourhood where he has been introduced; and proved himself a powerful preacher. He certainly ought to win Mrs. Tyson's heart by his behaviour to her. Whenever you are at leisure to correct or complete the Glossary †, your labours will be thankfully received, as well as your corrections on the Topography,' together with those of your neighbour, who, under an idea that it was only lent him, has travelled through it à bride abattu. As his notes will swell without being turgid, perhaps they may come in a parcel preparing for me at Cambridge, under the conduct of Mr. Essex. "Poor Nichols being personally threatened, as well as the King's Printer, all business stopped there last week. The distress of his family affected me more than all the shocking scenes I saw in London last Thursday, or that my servant related to me on his return from the scene of action that morning. R. GOUGH." "DEAR SIR, Hardwick House, Oct. 12, 1780. "As I esteem you at least my Foster-father in Antiquities, I look upon myself in some measure accountable to you for all my * Mr. Tyson's successor at Lamborn was the Rev. Edward Walsby (B. A. 1773; M. A. 1776), then senior Fellow of Bene't College, and junior Proc tor of the University (see vol. I p. 683.) He was afterwards of Trinity College; D. D. 1790; Tutor to Prince William, the present Duke of Glouces ter; and Prebendary of Canterbury 1797; married that year to Miss H.Bessett. To the "Royal Wills;" see above, The Rev George Ashby. efforts efforts that way. Be pleased therefore to accept from your humble elève the following sketch of a little tour which Ord and myself took last month, accoutered with our ink-pots, flannels, brushes, &c. Sept. 11. We first dismounted from our horses at West Harling, where the brasses in the Church were too trifling to induce us to open our apparatus. In the chancel is a very good bust of Richard Gipps, Esq. by Wilton, put up at the expence of the present Mr. W. Crofts, whose seat is close by, in not a very cheerful spot, particularly for a beaten candidate to retire to. Market or East Harling is less than a mile off: the East window of the chancel is superbly painted, and still very perfect. We sleep at Walton, a neat little town 29 miles from Bury: the North porch is surmounted with a very neat cross fleuré, with our Saviour upon it; how this piece of sculpture should escape so many perils, I cannot imagine: in Wales they are not uncommon. "12. Early in the morning we pay our devotions at the shrine of Mr. Parkins, in the noble Church at Oxburgh. At Downham, the church-yard afforded us specimens of the iron and car stones, as they are called, of which many of the civil and religious edifices in this part of Norfolk are built: they are both inelegant, but not friable like the vile stone at Chester; dug up in sandy soils; so that whence the name of car stone I know not. "15 miles of dead flat, almost always on the banks of the river, conduct us to Wisbich, which is seated in the midst of as fertile meadows, never overflowed, as ever I beheld. Here we took an impression of the Constable, six feet and a half high, with a hauberk more elaborately represented than any I have met with elsewhere. His name was Thomas de Braunstone *. You have a neat drawing of him. How the counterpart of this inscription came to be found in a country church-yard in Herefordshire, I should like to know.-Here I picked up a poor little etching of the Church; such as it is I enclose it for you, as it is not mentioned in the British Topography.' The steeple serves as a most noble porch to the North aile. "13. To Lynn, 16 miles of one uniform level, through such a string of noble Churches, most dreadfully situated, as cannot be matched, I believe, in the kingdom. The fine brasses in Walpole Church have been taken away within the memory of man: the building itself is glorious. The chief part of this road, as well as all that between Downham and Wisbich, is repaired with a very singular material, called Silt, a kind of greasy sand, dug out of pits by the road side, and which seemed to me as if it would be good for land; but I was told it was the hungriest stuff in the world, and made any soil it was laid upon worse, instead of better. At Lynn is the noblest parcel of brasses I ever met with, in perfect preservation. We began our operations, in the afternoon, with an Alderman, who died in 1490, and is remarkable for a long-tailed cap thrown over his shoulder, such as may be seen in plates 123 and 155 of Montfaucon. * See Mr. Gough's "Sepulchral Monuments," vol. II. Pl. III. p. 8. "14. By six in the morning we begin our attack upon a brass superior in size even to that at St. Alban's. It is for Robert Braunche and his two wives, as large as life, with most rich embellishments*. He died in 1364. Mackrell adds 100 years.Contiguous to this is another, almost equally fine, half of which the good taste of the Senate of Lynn has covered with some freestone steps. We then took off Robert Attelatha †, who died in 1376: his wife differed not from those we had before; but his bifid beard, and different dress, made him a valuable addition to us. By the bye, Mackrell says, this is the oldest in the whole Church, though he himself has given Walsoken's in 1349. These antique civil dresses we looked upon as singular curiosities, as very few of them have escaped the hand of Time, or of drunken sextons. The ornaments of these brasses are so very much in the style of the St. Alban's Abbot, that I can hardly doubt of that belonging to the 14th century, "At Southacre, a Harsick and his lady, hand in hand, 1384; the lady's head-dress is curious, and not ugly ‡. I have taken a copy of it for you, which I will send you. 15. At Nacton, near Swaffham, we were somewhat disappointed at finding a brass for one of the Warwick family so uninteresting that we did not meddle with it; but we took another that Blomefield mentions, very old and rude, but perfect: the înscription I subjoin from the fac-simile§, which will shew you the omissions and blunders of that in Blomefield, vol. III. p. 375. "In the evening returned home by Thetford, after what we esteemed a very prosperous expedition. "We have since been at Burgate in this County, where is a Knight and his Lady on an altar-tomb, which is always a prize, being so clean and perfect. Mr. Ord will present you with an impression of these ||; one of them died in 1401. The inscription round the ledge of the stone is beautifully executed in relief. "My neighbour George ¶ is exceedingly happy in having got through with the exchange of an Oxfordshire living, given him by the Bishop of Exeter **, for one in his neighbourhood. The triumph indeed of his institution was a little marred by a very bad overturn in a post chaise, which Dr. Sandby and he got in their way to Norwich. No bones were broken; but George's beauty was a little tarnished. I should be glad to hear of your summer operations: what I have just mentioned to you, and a visit to Bulstrode for a few days, is the sum of mine. A new chancel roof has carried off all my travelling money; however, I am well pleased now it is done-stramineam inveni, lateritiam relinquam. *Of "this admirable brass, the exertion of some Cellini of the 14th century," see a fine engraving and scientific description in the " "Sepulchral Monuments," vol. I. Plate XLV. p. 115. + Ibid. Plate XXXVI. p. 138. § Ibid. p. 131. Ibid. Plate XLVIII. p. 146. Rev. George Ashby, Rector of Barrow. "Yes "DEAR SIR, "Yesterday I dined at Barrow, and met there the Master of St. John's*, Dr. Pennington, and your friend the Milton Rectort, the latter of whom I had never seen before, and had every reason to be satisfied with his company. Dr. Farmer was to have compleated the parti quarré." JOHN CULLUM." Hardwick House, April 9, 1781, "You shall not have my long silence to throw in my teeth again: were there no other reason, your late hospitable and friendly reception of me as a black would be sufficient; for which I beg you will accept of my best thanks. I do not find that my friend George has been able to get you out of your scrape about my countrywoman Margaret Cutting; though, by the bye, some part of the New Correspondent's' account of her borders somewhat on the marvellous : that the tongue should fall out of her mouth into the basin while she was gargling, and that she should be able to speak without it directly (for so the account seems to intimate) are circumstances that require a pretty strong faith. The art of managing the tongue in such a manner as to make it appear only a stump, is an old trick: but whether my Compatriote had that knack, I presume not to say. In a Dictionary of the Terms used by the Canting Crew,' &c. printed at London without date, but apparently in this century, which I bought at Scott's sale, Domerars are said to be rogues pretending to have had their tongues cut out, or to be born dumb and deaf, who, artificially turning the tip of their tongues into their throat, and with a stick making it bleed, weak people think it the stump of their tongue. One of whom being asked hastily, how long he had been dumb, answered, ' But three weeks.' This is the twenty-first order of Canters. "This same Dictionary-writer is a most impudent rascal, for giving this definition of an Antiquary-'a curious critick in old coins, stones, and inscriptions, in worm-eaten records and antient manuscripts: also one that affects and blindly doats on relicks, ruins, old customs, phrases, and fashions.' "I am much pleased with Mr. Urban's late extract from the < Journal de Physique §'-foreign publications would be an inexhaustible fund of information to the generality of his readers. If you think the following little morceau worth his acceptance, let him have it. I do not transcribe it as singularly curious, but, as what I read just before I began this letter, and as giving a whimsical origin of a religious house, which has lately attracted our notice, by having its history translated into English. Un Duc de Normandie, chassant dans une Forêt de son pays, s'apperçut que le cerf qu'il poursuivoit, et tous les chiens qui entouroient cet animal, étoient arrêtés auprès d'un Buisson, et s'y étoient tous mis à genoux: il présuma, avec raison, que ce buisson renfermoit quelques precieuse reliques. Après avoir fait * Dr. John Chevallier. + The Rev. William Cole. See Gent. Mag. vol. LI. pp. 67. 208. 368. |
