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T. HE

Gentleman's Magazine;

For NOVEMBER, 1783.

BEING THE FIFTH NUMBER OF THE SECOND PART OF VOL. LIII.

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Nov. 9. N making fome repairs at the Temple-Mill in Leyton parish, Effex, on the border of Hackney Marth, now em ployed for lead works, in widening and deepening the channel at the mill-tail, the workmen ftruck on a ftone coffin. The lid being broken in pieces by the pickaxes, they found within the coffin the feveral articles engraved in the Plate annexed, except Nos 3 and 6, which were in the mud on the outfide. The coffin lay E. and W. and four or five feet below the bed of the channel; and being firmly funk in the bed, was left there as the beft foundation for the new fuperftructure. The articles here reprefented are preferved at the adjoining public-houfe, where the writer of this faw them about fix weeks ago. Two or three coins, one of which by the defcription of the labourers appeared to be large Roman brafs, and tolerably fair, and the ather a jetton or Nuremberg counter, were found at a little diftance in the water.

No 1. Is the blade of a fword, 12 inches long at the hilt, in the tranfverfe part of which fome fmall traces of wood

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No 5. Is a brafs fpur, which has loft its rowel. The pattern not uncommon, but the proportions rather large, though the exact measure was not taken.

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No 6. Is the rib-bone of fome beast, foot 10 inches long, which probably fell in by accident.

This, Mr. Urban, is the whole of the particulars I could collect on the spot; which, according to the account given of this difcovery in one of the newfpapers, produced" an urn full of Roman coins, fome in high prefervation, from Julius Cæfar to Genftantine the Great, with feveral medals, a ftone coffin with the skeleton in it entire, measuring 9 feet 7 inches long, and an infcription on it unintelligible, it was added, that in removing the old foundation, a vault was difcovered, in which were feveral urns, but quite imperfect; and that it is very remarkable, the vaults for centuries paft are fuppofed to have been 16 feet under water."

Inftances of human feletons in ftone coffins in places remote from churches, cemeteries, or even from towns and vil lages, are not unfrequent in this kingdom. They have been found under barrows or fepulchral hills, and even ip what are now corn fields diftant from houfes, and without any elevation of ground above the furface.

Perhaps the accompanyment of armour may not be fo frequent in ftone coffins; though under barrows frequent.

The remains of Childeric, king of the Franks, who died A. D. 481, and was interred without the walls of Tournay, were difcovered 1635. Along with his bones, and thofe of another perfon, and of an horfe, were found his fword, pear, and battle-axe, almoft confumed with ruft, and a variety of more valuable ar

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ticles, fuch as feal rings, horfe trappings, and gold coins. Alaric, king of the Goths, was buried in the bed of a river, and Attila in three coffius of different metals, with a variety of fpoils and weapons taken from his enemics.

The Knights Templars of St. John of Jerufalem certainly had a mill and fome tenures in Hackney parish. In the Cotton Library there is a volume about the Knights Templars, wherein mention is made of St. Augufline's, Hackney, and the lands and rents they had there, namely, about 12 acres, and 71. quit rents, and a mill commonly called Temple Mill. Thus Strype, in his Survey of London, Appendix, 122. Thefe lands are not, however, fpecified in the Inquifition of the Templars' poffeffions, 1185, [Mon. Angl. II. 526]: but in the lift of the poffeffions which the Knights Hofpitalers held 1434, after thofe of the Templars had been tranfferred to them [Ib. 543.] we read,

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Willielmus Harings dedit Tem"plariis pratum juxta Hackney voca"tem Haflings mede."

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The manufactory of brafs work set up here was one of the many bubbles of the South Sea year. There was published, 1721, 66 The report of the pro"ceedings of the infpectors of the Temple mills brafs work," replied to in "The answer of the treasurer and managers of the Temple mills brafs "work to the unjust réfection and infinuations contained in a printed paper “iptituled The Report. &e."

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1. Tranflations of three authentic Regifters of the Monaftery of St. Edmund's Bury, formerly kept by the facrift. "THIS indenture certifies, that

master John Swaffham, facrift of the monaftery of St. Edmund's Bury, with the confent and permiffion of the prior and convent of the fame, hath demited and to farm let to Simeon Lolepeke, of Bury aforefaid, yeoman, the manor called Habyrdon in Bury aforefaid, &c. to have and to hold for the term of feven years, &c. paying yearly, &c. And the faid Simeon, his executors and aligns, shall find or

caufe to be found ONE WHITE BULL every year of his term as often as it fhall happen that any gentlewoman (mulierem generofam) or any other women, from devotion or vows by them made, fhall vifit the tomb of the glorious king and martyr St. Edmund, to make the oblations of the faid white bull, &c. In witnefs whereof, to one part the feal of the facrift is affixed, &c. Dated the 4th day of June, in the 2d year of the reign of King Henry, King of England, the feventh fince the Conqueft."

2. Another Regifter of the faid Monaftery. "This indenture, made the 12th day of September, in the 11th year of the reign of King Henry the VIIIth. between mafter John Eye, facrift of the monaftery of St. Edmund's Bury, and Richard Skinner, of Bury aforefaid, husbandman, certifies that the aforefaid John Eye, with the confent, &c. hath demifed and to farm let to the aforefaid Richard the manor of Habyrdon, &c. for the term of ten years, &c. And the faid Richard fhall find ONE WHITE BULL as often as it fhall happen," &c. as before.

3. Another original inftrument, with the capitalar feal of the monastery annexed.

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"This indenture certifies that we John, by divine permiflion, abbot of the monaftery of St. Edmund's Bury, with the confent and permiffion of the prior and convent of the fame, have demifed and to farm let to Robert Wright, glazier, and to John Anable, pewterer, of Bury aforefaid, our manor of Habyrdon, with the appurtenances pertaining to the office of facrift of our said monaftery, &c. to hold from the feaft of St. Michael the Archangel next enfuing after the date of these prefents, for the term of twenty years, &c. pay. ing yearly to the faid abbot and his fucceffors, for the ufe of the office of facrift, 201. 4. &c And the faid Robert and John fhall find ONE WHITE BULL every year of the aforefaid term, as often as it shall happen that any gentlewoman, or any other women, from devotion or vows by them made, fhall vifit the fhrine of the glorious king and martyr St. Edmund, to make the ob. lations of the faid white bull, &c. In witnefs whereof, to one part of this indenture remaining with the abovenamed abbot, prior and convent, the faid Robert and John have affixed their feals, and to the other part remaining with the faid Robert and John, we the

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Papa in Dom. Dourget sp

+ It appears by the register that "Mr. William Hawkins, Curate, was tory of the Abbey of Bef, Lond. 1779 buried June 29, 1637."

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yearly, &c. And the faid Simeon, his feats, and to the other part remaining executors and affigns, hall find or with the faid Robert and John, we the

above named abbot, prior and convent, have caufed the common feal of our chapter to be affixed. Given in our chapter-house the xxviiith day of April, in the xxvth year of King Henry the Eighth, and in the year of our Lord 1533-2

The waxen impreffion, ftill perfect, has on the face St. Edmund fitting on a royal throne, with a bishop standing on each fide; on the reverfe he is bound to a tree, and transfixed with arrows. Below, in another compartment, is the body of St. Edmund, headless; and near it a wolf, bringing back the royal head to reftore it to the body. The inftrument is thus indorfed, Irrotulatur per me, Walterum Mildemey. A tranfcript of this fealed indenture remains in the court of augmentations.

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Whenever a married woman wifhed to be pregnant, this white bull, who enjoyed full eafe and plenty in the fields of Habyrdon, never meanly yoked to the plough, nor ever cruelly baited at the ftake, was led in proceffion through the principal streets of the town, viz. Church street, Guildhall-ftreet, Cook-row, of which the laft led to the principal gate of the Monaftery, attended by all the monks finging, and a fhouting crowd, the woman walking by him, and ftroking his milk-white fide and pendent dewlaps. The bull then being difmiffed, the woman entered the church, and paid her vows at the altar of St. Edmund, kiffing the tone, and intreating with tears the bletfing of a child. This reminds one of the Luperci among the Romans, who ran naked about the streets, and with thongs of goatskins ftruck women with child in order to give eafy labour. Virg. En. VIII. 663.

The above are extracted from the Corolla Varia of the Rev. William Hawkins*, M. A. fchoolmafter, of Hadleigh in Suffolk, an entertaining and claffical but now fcarce publication, printed at Cambridge in 1634t. It confifts of 1. Ecloga tres Virgilianæ declinate; Tityrus, ad Pefifugium; Pollio, ad Pofliminium; Gallus, ad Faflidum. 2. Corydon. Aufuga five podia Paftorilia Accipiendo Reverendo Patri ac domino Joanni Epifcopo Roffenfi per binos Schola Hadleiana Alumnos recitato. Apr:

*Heftyles himself Nifus. See Ovid. Met.1.8. + It appears by the register of Hadleigh, that Mr. William Hawkins, Curate, was buried June 29, 1637.”

9, 1632. 3. Nifis verberans et vapulans decantatus per Mufas vergiferas, juridicas.. The occafion of the latter was briefly this: The three fons of a Mr. Colman, of Payton-hall (Carbonius et Carbunculi) being admitted at Hadleigh fchool, one of them in less than two years, unprovoked, and unthreatened, ran away; but a few months after, in the abfence of the mafter and fcholars, thought proper to enter the fchool-room and filthily bedaub a wooden horfe, used for the purpofe of flagellation; feen, however, by one of the boys, and boafting of it afterwards to others. A week after, accompanied by a relation, he returned to repeat his prank, but was then detected by his mafter, who very properly chaftifed him, but gently, giving him only four lafhes, For this affault (as it was termed) an action was brought against him by the father, at Bury affizes, and the damages were laid at 40l. This action Mr. Hawkins was obliged to defend, at great trouble and expence, and at laft, before iffue was joined, the plaintiff withdrew his plea. All the circumftances of this cafe, the law procefs, &c. are defcribed with great elegance and humour; and feveral commendatory poems are prefixed.

MR. URBAN,

TH

Sept. 15. HE annexed Plate of the ancient Stone Bridge at Rouen in Normandy, copied from an engraving in Montfaucon's Monumens de la Monarchie Françoife, may poffibly prove fufficiently interefting to be ranked amongst the curious bridges which have been already illuftrated in your valuable Mifcellany; certain it is, that this bridge, when it exifted, was one of thofe monuments of grandeur and magnificence which reflected honour on the defcendants of the Norman Line.

The Emprefs Matilda, dau of Hen. 1. being difappointed in her claims to the English crown, eftablished her reftdence at Rouen, where the diftinguished herself in works of piety and munificence. She died there A. D. 1167, and was buried in the abbey of Bec‡, fome time after having built, at her own private coft, this noble bridge, the wonder of the age.

City of Rouen, mentions this bridge as Farin, in his admirable History of the remarkable for the height of its arches,

See her epitaph in Dom. Bourget's "Hiftory of the Abbey of Beg, Lond. 1779," p.99.

which,

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