(5) Petrus Jani Schelderup, a Dane, buried at Oxford 17 Aug., 1670. (6) Sir Leoline Jenkins, ex-Secretary of State, 1685. (7) John Upton, of Wadham College, Dec. 21, 1686. It has been a matter of great difficulty to discover directions in print for the process of embalming in use in Cromwell's time. Eighty-two medical books are listed in the Catalogue of the Thomason tracts,' and these range from translations of treatises on surgery, written abroad, down to Culpeper's 'Herbal,' but not one gives instructions for embalming. After a prolonged search, however, I at last succeeded in finding such a book. It would ill become a layman to attempt to explain or even to summarise the process, for a medical antiquary is needed to translate the prescriptions given. So I will set out the section in full, first noticing the author and his position in the medical world of the times. James Cooke, "Practitioner in physic and chirurgery,' "lived at Warwick, and was the medical attendant to the Grevilles, Lords Brooke. The "Robert," Lord Brooke, whose body he states he embalmed, was probably the second Lord Brooke, slain at Lichfield in 1643, on St. Chad's day, whilst endeavouring to destroy the Cathedral. It may, however, have been that peer's second son, the fourth Lord Brooke, for the 'D.N.B.' does not give the dates, either of the deaths of the third and fourth Baron Brooke, or of the succession of the fifth Baron, Fulke Gre ville, a third son. In 1662, Cooke published his Mellificium Chirurgie, or, the Marrow of many good Authors enlarged' with the imprimatur of "Jo. Clerk, Praeces," and "Fran. Prujean,' Guliel. Rant,' "Geo. Ent." and Jo. Micklethwaite,' censors of the College of Medicine. In 1676, he published the second edition, with the imprimatur of the then President and censors, giving it the subtitle of the Marrow of Chirurgery much enlarged.' To this edition his portrait is prefixed, the legend stating that his age was 64. In 1703, the "third edition" of this work, by Thomas Gibson, was advertised in the London Gazette. Copies of the first and second editions are in the British Museum library. On pp. 380-383 of his edition of 1662, Cooke gives detailed instruction for "Encearing and Embalming." The editior of 1676 contains a much lengthier account with alternative, but similar, recipes, on pp. 798-801, but I set out the account in the first book, because it is the nearest in date to Cromwell's death, and will enable readers to understand why such a rough and ready process occupied only one September afternoon-that of the day after Cromwell's the Publick Intelligencer :· death, according to Mercurius Politicus and A living body hath been the subject of our former discourse, here we are to deal with it having paid its last debt to nature, a conquest having been made after a strong encounter with death, the King of terrors. where it lies breathlesse; being not only a certain prognostick of our following after, but also a monitor to prepare for the like condition, for after death there's no place found for repentance. Something might be said for its laudablenesse, from authors, Jewish, Christian and Heathenish, but the Scripture doth give it a sufficient warrant. The encearing requires little discoursing. "Tis thus perform'd. First let all the hurds alone [i.e. passages of the body be well stopt, either with 66 'hards "- =coarse flax or hemp] or dipt in the composition prepar'd several glysters one after another, made of wine vineger or salt water, after hanging the body up by the armes, that the excrements may issue out. for the cearcloth and on them apply a cloth Secondly, lap the body up in two or three dipt in the same. Some before this cast in cear cloths one on another, made either of new cloth or of old sheets; if but in one, cord the body before you lap it up; if in two or three, cord it upon the first; some forbear For embalming, having all cording at all. in a readiness, as fit instruments for dissection, as spunges, stuphs [pieces of tow or flannel] linnens, needles, etc., embowel the corps, removing all the parts contained in the three venters [i.e., abdomen, thorax and head] saving the heart, which is to be embalmed with the body. The rest are speedily to be bury'd, unlesse the body being distant from the place where 'tis to be interred, and friends desire they may be interred together, then follow the following course, which I took with the bowels of the Right Honourable, Robert, Lord Brook. I caused a cooper to make a strong, tight barrel fit to contain them and to pitch it within very well. Into which I put the bowels, with good store of bran and some salt. After, he put on the head and pitched it very well, after which I besmeared the top with the oyle after prescribed; and so it kept till the time of his interring, without any offence, which was a month or six weeks time. After you have freed the venters and dry'd them very clean with clothes and spunges, if you would have them keep the longer, you are to make incisions into the inside of the thighs, armes and other parts where the great vessels are, that so the blood may be thrust forth. Yea, you may, if you please, do it through the whole body. But if, or if not, wash the body cum aceto vini" in which is infused Rue, wormwood, colocynthid, salt, alum and aloes after 'tis boyl'd, or else with aq. vit. or acet. only. The venters are to be filled with this or the like. [Marginal note "Pu." i.e. pulvis.] (?)* Calam. aromat. irid florent. rad. Aristol. rotund. Caryoph. Styrac. Calam. benion. ladan. Myrrh. Aloes (to) lb. s. Caryophilon, pip. Nuc. Mosch. Cinam. (to 4 ounces) fol. sic. Major origan. Calaminth. Scord. puleg. absinth. salv. rorism. Lavendul. Cham. botyros (to) M. iiij. rosar balaust (to) p. 1 Calc. viv. gyps (to) lb. j. (ounce) omn. pul. gros. If this quantity be not suffi cient, double it, or mix with it a sufficient quantity of bran and salt, in which cast (ounce) j. ol, spic. & ol. Rhod. (ounce). Having filled all the places, sow them up close, after which anoint the whole body, either with the former oyls, or [Marginal note, "Ol. odorif."] (?) ol, Cham. ros, Aneth, (to) lb. s. ol. Tereb. lb. i. ol. spic. (ounce) iiij, ol. Caryoph. & Thymi (to ounce) j. ol. Rhod. (ounce) iiij. M. Upon this strew some of the pouders, and then lap it up in two or three several cearecloths, having if incision hath been made in the thighs etc., corded first the body, yea, the very fingers if necessary. If the venters be only opened, then you may cord upon the first cearcloth. The matter for the cearcloth may be this, (?) Colaphon. lb. (ounce) resin. pin. Thur. (to) lb vj. aloe. mirrh, commun. (to) lb. ij. Styrae, Mastic. (to) lb. s. ol spic. (ounce) iij. ol Caryophil (ounce) ij. Rhodii (ounce) iij. cum. pingu ovi q. 8. f. Cerat. Or, if you please, you may make a mixture onely of Colophon (turpentine?], pitch, rosin, frankinsence, was and aloes, adding what oyles you please. In this your cloth, or sheets, are to be dipt. He then gives directions for de-odorising the room where the operation takes place. But there is no direction in either edition about sawing asunder the head, and it is evident that the process described above was not fully carried out in all cases. If the brain was removed, therefore, ordinary methods of dissection must have been employed. I should like to conclude this series of articles with a hypothesis. There is always some truth hidden behind a legend, no matter how silly the story may be an, more often than not, that truth is destructive of the legend in its final form. The tale of Cromwell selling his soul to the Devil in return for seven years' power, for instance, was adequately explained, I think, by Nash, the historian of Worcestershire, who points out * Obsolete symbols are used in the original, so that I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the renderings in brackets. that in all probability Cromwell did meet someone before the battle of Worcester and did need a witness, for he met a stranger by appointment to discuss the terms of a lease. Leases, then, as now, were usually for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years. Lindsey's malevolence altered the story of this transaction into a question of a term of years for power. What, therefore, is to be said of the legend of 1787 about Cromwell's head, and what about the head of 1710 to which MR. QUARRELL has opportunely referred us? I think that the origin of both the heads is to be found in the tale of the great storm at the end of 1703 How terrible this storm was can only be gathered from the newspapers of the times, for the Calendars of Domestic State Papers say practically nothing about it. Yet Queen Anne herself thought the storin so serious that she issued a Proclamation, dated 23 Dec., 1703, ordering a collection to be made for the families of mariners lost in it. By another Proclamation, dated 12 Dec., a public fast was ordered to be held, on 19 Jan., for the storm was a token of the Divine displeasure.' This storm commenced in the small hours of Saturday, Nov. 27, and the damage caused, particularly at the ports and throughout the South of England, was enormous. The Bishop of Bath and Wells and his wife were killed in their bed by the fall of a stack of chimneys. Lady Penelope Nicholas also was killed, at Horsley in Sussex, not to mention less well known persons. Twelve ships of the Royal Navy were lost and over 1,300 seamen In London 21 persons perished in them. were killed by falling chimneys. The Postman for Nov. 27-30, 1703, states: About 2.0 of the clock we had here a violent storm of wind which lasted about 4 hours, together with such violence that the like was never seen in the memory of man. We shall not presume to give a particular account of the damage it has done, which is almost incredible, neither are we sufficiently informed thereof, nor of the number of persons that have been killed by the falling down of houses and stacks of chimneys, but there is hardly any house but has had a share in that calamity. The churches have also suffered very much, several pinnacles blown down, a vast quantity of lead rolled up in heaps and carried to an incredible distance. The Inns of Court, and particularly the Temple and Lincoln's Inn have had their share in this disaster. 5200 weight [sic] of lead was blown down from the old Mathematical School, in Christ's Hospital. and 4000 from the new, which is wrapt round a stack of chimneys. And near 100 tall trees torn up by the roots in St. James's park and Moor Fields. Did a single traitor's head remain in London after this storm? there given is briefly as follows: Adam was racked with_sore pains, and bade Eve and Seth go to Paradise and pray God to give them of "the tree of oil.” On the way they had difficulty in escaping from the jaws of It is justifiable to think, therefore, that the a fearsome wild beast. When they came to "Cromwell's head," owned by the foreigner Paradise they saw the Archangel Michael, Du Puy, was purchased by him from some who told them that Adam must die, and one who picked up a traitor's head after this that there was no remedy. However, he storm, and finding that the head was offen-gave Seth three branches-of, pine, cedar, sive, on account of the brain still contained and cypress-which he took to Adam. Adam in it, sawed the head asunder in the clumsy wove from these a crown and placed it on his manner depicted in the illustrations in vol. | head. lxviii. of the Archæological Journal. The removal of the brain would enable the head to become dry and remain in a mummified condition. But whether this head of 1710 is, or is not, the head of 1787 time and further evidence alone can prove. Nevertheless, if it was blown down in 1703, it could not possibly have been that of Cromwell. No head could have survived a forty-two years exposure to the weather. And, as I have already pointed out, Cromwell's head, or what remained of it, was thrown down in 1681. J. G. MUDDIMAN. A PRETTY LEGEND (cl. 441). See Old Testament Legends: from a Greek Poem on Genesis and Exodus by Georgios Chumnos,' edited by F. H. Marshall (C.U.P., 1925), pp. xvi., xxix., xxx., 16-33 and fig. 4. In this poem, which Krumbacher This story is contained in the Apocalypsis Mosis,' but the version is very different from that of Chumnos. The earlier group of Slavonic MSS. brings the story nearer to Chumnos, but there are still considerable differences. The story In the version of Chumnos the single stem is clearly symbolic of the Trinity in Unity; and the same idea appears also in Slavonic apocryphal literature, viz., in the 'Sermo de ligno crucis,' where Seth brings back a tree from which sprout three branches of pine, cedar and cypress. Tischendorf, in his Introduction to the Apocalypsis Mosis,' p. xi., notes that the legend of Seth sent to the gates of Pardise to fetch the Oil of Mercy probably goes back to an early period in the Christian era, and that it is, alluded to by the author of the Descensus Christi ad inferos.' The legend had a considerable vogue in the literature of the Middle Age (Tischendorf, p. xi. n. 2). Dr. James points out that the vison of the weeping Babe occurs in 'Cursor Mundi,' U. 1340 ff., and also the Babe in the tree of Paradise is mentioned in R. Morris, Legends of the Holy Rood,' pp. 18, 62 ff. (cf. also Morris's Introduction). A. R. BAYLEY. 13th Century,' p. 187, quotes the legend Mâle's Religious art in France of the that "The Cross was not fashioned from any chance wood but from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Its trunk, after having served as the bridge over which the Queen of Sheba passed when she entered Jerusalem, had been miraculously preserved at the bottom of the Temple reservoir. So by the will of God the instrument of the Fall became the means of the Redemption. For this story Mâle refers to Golden Legend,' iii. 169; Honorius of Autun's 'Spec. eccles., De invent. sanct. cruc.'; and Du Méril 'Poésies latines du moyen age,' 1847, p. 321. I have not been able to trace in Mâle the legend quoted by your correspondent. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. The legend to which MR. MCGOVERN refers was highly popular, and widely current, in the Middle Ages. A version of it is in "The Golden Legend,' by Jacobus de Voragine (circa, 1275); translated and printed by William Caxton (see edition by Dent, 1900). Baring-Gould, in Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (Rivington's, London, 1884) has devoted some space to it. As authorities for it, in addition to Jacobus de Voragine, he states that it is told in full In the Vita Christi, printed at Troyes in 1517, in an old Dutch work, "Gerschiedenis van het heylighe Cruys," and in a French MS. of the thirteenth century in the British Museum. Gervase of Tilbury relates a portion of it in his Otia Imperialia, quoting from Comestor: it appears also in the Speculum Historiale, in Gottfried von Viterbo, in the Chronicon Engelhusii, and elsewhere. He adds that it was frequently illustrated in painting and stained glass, occurring at Troyes alone in the windows of S. Martinès-Vignes, of S. Pantaleon, of S. Madeleine, and S. Nizier; that it is frescoed along the walls of the choir of the church of S. Croce at Florence, by the hand of Agnolo 'Gaddi; that Pietro della Francesca painted the history of the Cross in a series of frescoes in the chapel of the Bacci in S. Francesco at Arezzo; that it occurs as a predella painting among the specimens of early art in the Academia delle Belle Arti at Venice, and is the subject of a picture by Beham in the Munich Gallery. Baring-Gould gives a version of the legend somewhat more elaborated than that in the Golden Legend,' and differing from it in some of the details. It includes the statement that it was bough from one of the trees that sprang from the seeds obtained by Seth from Paradise which formed the rod with which "Moses performed his miracles in Egypt, brought water out of the rock, and healed those whom the serpents slew in the desert." WM. SELF-WEEKS. Westwood, Clitheroe. a MR. MCGOVERN having, no doubt inadvertently, ascribed to the robin redbreast the pious attempt to release the Saviour from the cross, may I remind him that the legend ascribes that enterprise to the crossbill (Loxia curvirostra, Linn). Not only is the plumage of the male crossbill's head, breast and shoulders deeply stained as if with the sacred blood, but its powerful beak is twisted all awry as if from wrenching the nails. HERBERT MAXWELL. Monreith. on JOHN MARBECK (cl. 441). The John Marbeck sentenced to the stake was certainly the musician. He is among Fuller's Worthies, and his life is in the D.N.B.,' the Biog. nouv. générale' and the 'Encycl. Brit.' (under Merbeck). The compiling of a concordance to the Bible in English was not the only offence with which he was charged. It was Bishop Gardiner who " account, it is said, of his regard for Mar beck's musical talents, obtained a royal pardon for him ('D.N.B.'). Grove's 'Dict. of Music' mentions, besides the favour of Gardiner, the interposition of Sir Humphrey Foster, one of the Commissioners. Fuller has an amusing account of Foxe's error who, in the first edition of his 'Actes and Monuments', had included Marbeck among the martyrs. Marbeck's son, Roger, at one time public orator of the University of Oxford, was the first registrar of the London College of Physicians. Where can one find the extraordinary legend of the four singing men introducing negatives into the creed? EDWARD BENSLY. In his account of this "musician and theologian" in the 'D.N.B.' (xxxvi. p. 120) the late Sir Sidney Lee says: He was condemned to suffer at the stake (July, 1544), but Gardiner, on account, it is said, of his regard for Marbeck's musical talents, obtained a royal pardon for him, and he was set at liberty. Anthony Peirson, Robert Testwood, and Henry Filmer, three of Marwho were convicted at the same time, were beck's Windsor friends and fellow-prisoners duly executed. Marbeck supplied an account of his prosecution to Foxe, who described the proceedings at length in his Acts and Monuments,' but by a curious error in the first وو edition of 1563 Foxe omitted mention of Marbeck's pardon, and described him as dying in the company of P. and T. Foxe made the needful correction of Filmer for Marbeck" in a concluding list of Faultes and oversightes escaped.' The error, although it was removed in the second and later editions, long excited the ridicule of Foxe's enemies, and helped to diminish his reputation for historical accuracy. A. R. BAYLEY. QUE The great abbey stands about m. from the town In the time of James I it REEN PARK COFFEE-HOUSE (cli. which still remains. It is not perfectly clear which countess of Devonshire was said to be the employer of Arthur Barefoot. The last countess, mother of the first Duke, was married 1639, and died 1689, the Earl having died 1684. Probably Oulton told his story of this countess. The alleged discovery of Wolsey's coffin, if in her time, would fit in with Evelyn's date but it should be noted that Evelyn does not say that he saw Wolsey's tomb. Indeed, "Here in one of the churches lies buried," etc., does not, I think, mean "I saw. now a mere In Charles Knight's Old England,' 1845, ROBERT PIERPOINT. It ments: 1757, Daily Advertiser, 6 May: 1780, Public Advertiser, 12 June: 'To be J. PAUL DE CASTRO. TOLERATION (cli. 11). The following tract, which does not appear to be in the British Museum Catalogue, is in the Wigan Public Reference Library: being the judgement of Fourscore and Four The Non-Conformist's Plea for Uniformity. Ministers of the County Palatine of Lancaster. Of the whole Provincial Assembly of Minister and Elders, in and about London. And of several other eminent Preachers, English, Scottish and new-English, concerning Toleration and Uniformity in matters of Religion, Together with a Resolution of this difficult Question: Whether the Penalty of the Law ought to be inflicted on those, who pretend and plead Conscience, in opposition to what the Law commands? London printed for Henry Brome, at the Gunn in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1674. The Wigan Library also has a copy of Bishop Parker's Discourse,' 1670, inscribed on the title-page" Ex dono authoris." A. J. H. Wigan. AUTHORS WANTED: FORMER OWNER JOHN HAWKESWORTH: CHEVALIER lated to Hereford in 1617. Francesco Colonna. EDWARD BENSLY. |