86 ANTIQUITIES AT EYAM. (See Mr. Rhodes's Peak Scenery.) NEAR the entrance into the chancel of the church stands an old stone Cross, which, according to village tradition, was found on some of the neighbouring hills. It is curiously ornamented and embossed with a variety of figures and designs characterized by different symbolic devices; and its sides are liberally adorned with what many regard as Runic and Scandinavian knots. Were the value of this antique specimen of the workmanship of former times more accurately appreciated, it might easily be made a more engaging object as it now appears, the earth covers a portion of its shaft, no part of which ought to be so obscured: lifted from its present bed, a distinction which it eminently deserves, it would not only be a valuable fragment, rich with the uncouth sculpture of former times, but an ornament to the church-yard and the village of Eyam. This Cross has suffered dilapidation from the culpable neglect of those who should have felt an interest in its preservation. About two feet of the top is wanting. The present sexton of the church, who is an old man, well recollects the part now missing being thrown carelessly about the church-yard as a thing of no value, until it was broken up by the inhabitants for domestic purposes. The cross at Eyam is probably indebted for its present appearance to the circumstance of its having, about thirty years ago, attracted the attention of a man who had spent the ripest years of his existence in mitigating the horrors of a prison, and ameliorating the condition of a forsaken and friendless class of his fellow-creatures. When the benevolent HOWARD visited the village of Eyam he particularly noticed the Cross, even though at that time the finest part of this vestige of antiquity was laid prostrate in a corner of the church-yard, and nearly overgrown with docks and thistles. The value this hitherto unregarded relique had in the estimation of Howard made it dearer to the people of Eyam: they brought the top part of the cross from its hiding-place, where it had long lain in utter neglect, and placed it on the still dilapidated shaft, where it has ever since remained. Condemning, as I most cordially do, the little attention which has been paid to the Cross at Eyam, it is nevertheless some gratification to know that it owes its present state of preservation to the intervention of no less a man than Howard. Other crosses, similar in appearance and workmanship, have been found on the hills of Derbyshire, particularly one in the vicinity of BAKEWELL, which is now in the church-yard there. It evidently originated with the same people as the one at Eyam, though it is extremely inferior in the design of its embellishments as well as more mutilated in its parts. These crosses are of remote antiquity, and, from their prevailing character and the rude sculpture they exhibit, they have generally been regarded as Saxon or Danish structure. The interlaced and curiously involved tracey work, with which they are frequently intervested, have been denominated Runic and Scandinavian knots; but I have not yet learnt that any of them are marked with eharacters decidedly Runic, and it is highly probable that the ornaments they con tain were adopted from buildings of a different nature, for they do not appear to have any thing peculiarly national about them. That they are not Roman, may perhaps be inferred from the very uncouth figures sculptured upon them, and the general inferiority of their workmanship. They must thereforehave originated amongst a people less acquainted with art than the Romans were at the time they invaded this country; and the Danes being only "almost and not altogether Christians," and being moreover but little removed from barbarism, were, perhaps, not likely to indulge in the erection of these extensiye emblems of their newly acquired faith; nor am I inclined to adopt the supposition that the civilised Britons were the founders of those crosses, which have generally been regarded as Scandinavian. On the whole the The Saxons probability is in favour of a Saxon origin of this monument. used the sign of the cross on many occasions; and so highly did they venerate this sacred symbol that they always affixed it to their signature, whether they could write or not: hence, no doubt, arose the custom of making a cross instead of writing a name, a custom which is recognised as a valid mode of signature on the most important occasions. It Mr. Clarke, F. S. A. in a letter addressed to Mr. Britton, the author of the Architectural Antiquities of Britain, says, "the cross became a part of the decoration of every church and of every altar. It was employed in every sacred rite, and occurred in the diplomas as an inviolable test of every compact; nor can we be surprised to find it sculptured on so many of our public monuments, when designed to excite sentiments of piety or compassion; or on land-marks, which no man was, for conscience sake, to remove. was frequently fixed at the entrance of the church, to inspire recollection in those persons who approached, and reverence towards the mysteries at which they were about to be present. On the high road the cross was frequently placed with a view to call the thoughts of the passengers to a sense of religion, and to restrain the predatory excursions of robbers. In the market place it was a signal for upright intention and fair dealing, and was in every place designed as a check upon a worldly spirit."The preceding extract is taken from the first volume of "the ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES OF GREAT BRITAIN," by J. Britton, F. S. A. and its introduction here has afforded me an opportunity of paying a tribute of respect to the author of that excellent and splendid work. With a spirit not less enlarged than honourable to himself, he has under taken aseries of successive production, equally interesting and important in their object; and, if possible, more beautifully executed. It would be a libel on the taste of the country to suppose that this deserving author was not even now enjoying the rich reward of his exertions. He may truly be regarded as the patron of those artists, whose labours, in conjunction with his own, will probably preserve the recollection of many a beautiful specimen of Gothic architecture, even when the structure itself has mouldered into ruins. We likewise noticed in Eyam church-yard a cemetery, or family buriallace, of a singular construction. It is an oblong structure, formed by eight stone columns placed at regular distances, and surmounted with urns, the intervening space between the columns being built up with stone walling; and on two sides are small iron-grated windows; not unlike the light-holes into a prison. Originally this building had a heavy-leaden roof, which is now removed. Nothing in this place appertaining to the dead appears to have been held sacred. It was thrift, thrift, Horatio," that unplumbed this repository. The materials which covered this house of departed mortals, like the trees that lately distinguished the tomb of Mrs. Mompesson, was of value; the roof was an accommodation not necessary for the dead, and the produce might be useful to the living: it was therefore taken down and sold to the best bidder. This, though not a very delicate mode of proceeding, is, at any rate, making the most of one's ancestors. This church-yard appears to be poetic ground; scarcely a stone but has its distich commemorative of the deceased, and the sorrows of surviving relatives. The following inscription, which is sufficiently whimsical to amuse the reader, may be found on a humble tablet; placed against the south side of the church, neer the tomb of Mrs. Mompesson: I have preserved the spelling, and the division of the lines, as they occur upon the stone. HERE LIETH THE BODY OF ANN SELLARS BURIED BY THIS STONE-WHO DYED ON JAN. 15TH, DAY, 1731. ON THAT SAME DAY COME Many of the epitaphs in this burial-place are from the Rev. R. Cunningham, who was the officiating curate of Eyam church nearly eighteen years, and who often strewed upon the graves of those he buried, the offerings of his not "unletter'd muse." The following stanzas, inscribed upon a stone to the memory of a young man of the name of Froggat, exhibit so fair a specimen of the style and manner of those little productions, on which he was so frequently employed, that I have not hesitated to introduce them here:"How eloquent the monumental stone, Where blooming modest virtues prostrate lie, Is happiness thy aim? or death thy fear? Who gave the glory of his days to God.” Miscellaneous Correspondence. [This department will occasionally contain Select Extracts from old and rare works, or from expensive modern publications, but kept within strict limitations, so as not to encroach on the original matter.] HOURS AFTER TEA. THE coincidences in thought and expression which may be observed in the works of different authors, admit of three explanations: either they are altogether accidental, or they arise from intentional plagiarism, or they originate in unconsciously adopting the ideas and language of former writers. It is possible, in the first place, that there may be a striking similarity between two passages which shall be completely accidental. Two minds, without any medium of communication, may catch exactly the same view, the same attitude of things, and adopt the same language, and even the same metrical arrangement of words. This may be a rare case, but it has happened; and it is perfectly reconcileable with what we know of the formation of that train of ideas which is perpetually passing through the mind, and which in every instance directs the pen of the writer and the tongue of the speaker. Intentional plagiarism, however, may be considered as a much more copious source of such coincidences than mere chance. Of this sort of pilfering we may notice the open and the clandestine. The open, or that which it is not wished to conceal, is generally displayed in transplanting the beauties of other languages into the writer's own. Formerly it was much the fashion to levy contributions from the classical writers of antiquity, and set them forth with no little ostentation; and writers of the present day take similar freedoms with the books of neighbouring nations. The Abbe de Lille, for example, has been largely indebted to English literature, more so indeed than can be justified in one who aspires to the character of an original author. Clandestine plagiarism, it is to te hoped, is not of very frequent occurrence, although there are cases on record in which it may be suspected that the temptation of a fine thought has proved too strong for an author's integrity. But writers of real genius can hope to derive so little advantage in this way, and the chances of detection are so numerous, that we must look for some other explanation of the frequent examples of strong similarity and even identity of thoughts and expressions to be found in authors of the first eminence. On this subject every candid mind will be ready to adopt the language of an eloquent philosopher of the present day:-"In mentioning these historical facts, (says Dugald Stewart, after pointing out two examples of extraordinary coincidence,) I have not the most distant intention of insinuating any suspicion of plagiarism; a suspicion which I never can entertain with respect to any writer of original genius, and of fair character; but upon the most direct and conclusive evidence." If we attend to the process by which we acquire ideas and words, wé shall find that the whole of a man's thoughts and expressions will essentially depend on the company and the authors with whom he has been familiar. VOL. III N He will perpetually use the same terms; but as words are susceptible of almost infinite combinations, he will use them in a different train and connection. His combinations, nevertheless, cannot always be new. From the law of association, groups of ideas formerly presented to his mind will be occasionally repassing before it, and his words will naturally fall into the same order in which he has before seen or heard them employed. Particular images and particular phrases will cling to his mind, from some peculiarity of association, long after he has forgotten the source whence they were derived, and will be inserted in his writings with a total unconsciousness that they have been appropriated by others. It is only on comparatively rare occasions that the memory retains those accidents of time and place and person, which have attended the acquisition of ideas and modes of language. Those who are accustomed to composition, and particularly to composition in verse, will not fail to recollect that forms of expression have spontaneously presented themselves, which they have been afterwards led to reognise as the legitimate property of others. An author's writings will, in this manner, often take a hue from the last work which he has been reading, or which have made a strong impression on his mind. It would probably at all times make a sensible difference in the productions of a poet, whether he had been previously occupying his mind with Dryden and Pope, or Shakspeare and Milton; not perhaps in the ability shown in his poem, but in the peculiar tone and tinge of the composition. Thus, many remarked, on the publication of Lord Byron's 3d Canto of Childe Harold, that he had been studying Wordsworth, from the prevalent hue of some of the sentiments and expressions. Lines and even stanzas might be adduced which would probably never have been written, had not the author read "The Excursion." In Lord Byron's poems, indeed, we frequently meet with passages which remind us of some preceding writer. His lordship's mind is too rich to be suspected of any designed imitations, and it is rather too extravagant a supposition that such coincidences are altogether accidental, conversant as the noble author, is generally understood to be, with almost every thing deserving the name of English poetry. It may therefore be safely concluded that any instances of strong similarity between him and his predecessors, have originated in the unperceived adhesion of thoughts and expressions to the memory. The following lines in the Giaour Shrine of the mighty! can it be That this is all remains of thee?- seem in this manner to have been suggested by a passage in Wordsworth, Thou soul of God's best earthly mould, Thou happy soul! and can it be That these Are all that must remain of thee? Here there is nothing that a poet would have thought of purposely selecting for imitation, but there is a form of expression which would easily dwell on the mind. |