class="indh i5">List of Notes and Queries volumes and pages

Notes.

AN EPITAPH IN ST. GILES'S, CRIPPLEGATE, POSSIBLY BY MILTON.

The chief glory of the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, is the possession of Milton's dust. But this does not constitute its only distinction. It boasts a magnificent organ, and the most beautiful epitaph with which I am acquainted. As this last may be as much of a stranger to many of your readers as it was to me, and may bestow upon the curious in such matters some portion of the pleasure which its discovery gave me, I venture to crave for it a nook in your columns. Considerably to the right of the pulpit, at no great distance, if I recollect aright, to the left of the main entrance, is a monument to William Staples, a citizen of London, who died in 1650, whereon is inscribed the following elegiac couplet:

Which may be thus Englished:

Below the inscription are the touching words—

Putting aside all partiality for one's own discovery, I confess that I do not know the fellow of this epitaph. It realises one's ideal of an epitaph, inasmuch as it combines exceeding brevity and beauty of expression with exceeding fulness of thought and feeling. Love, sorrow, and faith, bereaved affection and trustful piety, find most ample and exquisite utterance in these two lines. It has scarcely won the fame to which it is entitled: I have never met with it in any collection of epitaphs. The authorship would have done no dishonour to Milton himself, to whose place of sepulture it lends, if possible, an additional consecration. Curiously enough, not merely its singular excellence, but also its date, and one or two other circumstances, give some little encouragement to the idea of Miltonic ownership. The monument bears the date of 1650, when Milton was in the fulness of his powers and reputation. He was especially connected with Cripplegate Church; more than one of his many London abodes were in its neighbourhood. There, in the earlier part of his London life, during his residence in Aldersgate Street, he may have often worshipped; there his father lay; there he meant his own sepulchre to be. He who honoured "the religious memory of Mrs. Catharine Thomson, my Christian Friend," with his most glorious sonnet, would not have disdained to bestow a couplet upon the grief of another obscure friend. There are, then, certain presumptions in favour of Cripplegate Church containing an epitaph by Milton. But it does not appear in any collection of the works of one who was so careful of his smallest and most juvenile productions. This fact, I must confess, is quite strong enough to demolish a likely and pleasing fancy. The epitaph, however, though it may not be Miltonic, has every possible merit, and may find favour with such of your readers as delight in the literature of tombstones.

THOMAS H. GILL.

LIABILITY TO ERROR.

As I always strive to be accurate when writing for the press, an accidental error should not give me much compunction; nevertheless, a touch of the feeling is sure to obtrude itself on such occasions. Even the apprehension of having added to the mass of current errors gives me a fit of uneasiness, and having just recovered from an attack of that description it may not be amiss to report the case for the benefit of future patients.

When I wrote a memorandum on James Wilson, in reply to the query of professor DE MORGAN, I stated that the united libraries of Pemberton and Wilson were sold in 1772. It was guess-work.

I recollected that the two libraries were sold in conjunction, but could not recollect the date. On consulting the printed List of the original catalogues of libraries sold by auction by Mr. Baker and his successors in the years 1744-1828, which was issued by the firm in the latter year, the date appeared to be 1757. With that evidence, I penned a short comment on the remarkable circumstance of the two learned friends resolving to dispose of their libraries at the same time, on their surviving the separation from their beloved books for fourteen years, and on their dying within about six months of each other.

Some undefinable suspicions arose in my mind at this point of the inquiry. Now, the original sale catalogue is in existence, and accessible on proper application. I examined it. The sale commenced on Monday, February the 24th. The year 1757 is added in manuscript; and, since Pemberton and Wilson are described as lately deceased, it is an undoubted error. So I tore up my sentimental scrap, leaving the fragments on the table for the benefit of autograph collectors, and replaced it with the six lines which conclude my reply. On reaching home, I turned to the Chronology of history: the dominical letter was just what I wished it to be! The Book of almanacs added to my comfortable sensations.

On a re-examination of my notes, it appeared that the united libraries were sold by Baker and Leigh. Now, according to the above-described List of catalogues, the partnership between Baker and Leigh did not take place till 1775. The phrase lately deceased, applied to Pemberton and Wilson, is not very precise; the sale, however, must have been after 1774. Resolved to pursue the inquiry, I examined a copy of the catalogue in the royal library in the British Museum. It is bound with the catalogue of the library of Edward Stanley, Esq., secretary to the customs, which was sold in February 1776, and follows it. The volume is lettered 1776. As the libraries of Pemberton and Wilson were to be viewed on Monday the 17th, I turned to that day in the Stanley sale; it was Monday the 17th. This seemed to prove that the two collections were sold in the same year. Chronology says otherwise: the Monday the 17th of the Stanley catalogue is an error of the printer; and the lettering, with regard to Pemberton and Wilson, is an error of the binder!

Believing, on the evidence above stated, that the sale was after the year 1774, I came to the conclusion that it was in 1777—in which year the 24th February fell on Monday. On further search at home, I met with the catalogue in question. It is in a volume which was successively in the possession of Dent and Heber, and contains the rare Fairfax catalogue; also, A catalogue of the very valuable library of Phillip Carteret Webb, Esq., which was sold by Baker and Leigh in 1771. It now became evident that the libraries of Pemberton and Wilson might have been sold by Baker and Leigh in 1772; and on examining the Public advertiser for that year, I found the sale advertised on Thursday the 20th of February. So I was right by chance, and in spite of manuscript and printed authorities. Here ends the case.

Another anecdote in connexion with this inquiry deserves to be recorded. I had read the life of Pemberton in the General biographical dictionary. Chalmers therein states that his course of lectures on chemistry, "was published in 1771, by his friend Dr. James Wilson." I applied for the volume at the British Museum. By a rare accident the Scheme for a course of