shillings. They likewise hold one yoke (or bank, jugum) of taxed land, three shillings and fourpence. At the Nativity, to pay for residence, five shillings and threepence. At Pasch, five shillings and threepence. At the feast of St. John the Baptist, five shillings and sevenpence. At the feast of St. Michael, five shillings and threepence. At the feast of St. Lawrence, instead of autumnal labours, thirty-twopence halfpenny. And if the archbishop should take his residence in the Manor House, every yoke of land is bound to bring four carriages with oxen for rent. And the Waldenses besides carried with two horses, and had their forage and food from the barns of the archbishop.' The whole of the annual rent, exclusive of labour, amounted to one pound eleven shillings, and eightpence." The above is taken from Blair's History of the Waldenses, vol. i. p. 276, and reference is made to " Archæologia, vol. ix. pp. 292-305." EXTRACT FROM THE PARISH REGISTER OF LYDD, IN "Memorandum. "That on the 7th day of January 172 His Majesty King George the First came from Rye to Lidd on his way to London from Hanover-he was driven to Rye by a storm and landed on the beach about Jury's Gut and walked from thence to Rye very much fateagued. He was detained there till Friday by a deep snow, he was received at Lydd by the Bailif and Corporation over against Mr. Lee's door. The trained band was under arms and lined the Street, the bells rang, a large ship's flag was displayed on the Great Pinnacle of the Steeple, and the great guns and small arms were fired as His Majesty passed thro' the Street. Mr. Baliff upon the stopping of His Majesty's Coach made him a short complement upon his safe arrival after the danger and fateague of the storm, and then offered the ensigns of his office which he was desired to keep for His Majesties use. Immediately when Mr. Richard Noble then Balif had ended his complement Mr. Henry Wood then Curate began the following speech to His Majesty : May it please Your Majestie, "We your Majesties most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Baliff, Jurats, and Commoners, Minister and Parishioners of your Majestie's ancient Town and Corporation of Lydd, humbly beg leave, with hearts full of gratitude to the Divine Providence, which hath preserved Your Majesty from the iminent danger of the Seas, joyfully to congratulate your safe arrival into this your Kingdom of Great Britain, to wish Your Majesty a safe and speedy journey to your Capital, and a long and happy reign over a dutyful and an affectionate people, a people who only want to know Your Majesty and their own happiness in order to love your sacred person with the most ardent affection, and to return the felicity they enjoy under your mild and gracious administration with the profoundest and most chereful obedience. There is yet one wish remaining which we reserve for the last because we know it is what sits nearest to your Royal Heart, even that it may please the Divine Providence to prosper Your Majesties pious endeavours for the protection and security of the Protestant Faith abroad, to the maintenance of true religion, to the just confusion of Superstition and Tyranny, to the lasting honour of Your Majestie's name, and to the brightening of that Crown of Glory which awaits your Majesty in the next life. "May it please Your Majesty, I have a very high sense of the great honour I now enjoy, but I am not at all forgetful of the rigour of the Season, and therefore in tenderness to your Majesty I must do violence to myself by putting an immediate stop to the most grateful of employments, that of prayers and good wishes for the prosperity of Your Majesty and Your Royal Family. But though the due consideration of time and place obliges me to contract my own happiness, my zeal for Your Majesty and Your Royal Family shall have its full scope elsewhere, even in the temple, in the desk, the pulpit, and at the Altar, and herein all considerate persons will in their several stations and capacities follow my example, as being intirely convinced, that whilst they are praying for Your Majesty and Your Royal Family, they are in the most effectual manner praying for the continuance of their own preservation and happiness. I humbly hope Your Majesty will be pleased graciously to excuse a faltering tongue unable to express the affection of a heart overawed by your Majestick Presence." "Lord Townsend said that His Majesty was well pleased with every part of the Speech, and so they drove on. TWO EARLY SPECIMENS OF PROLOGUES, OR ADDRESSES. Coverdale's Translation (1535-6) of the Bible. "To the Reader. "Ir thou be a man that hast wyfe and childre, first loue thy wiffe, accordinge to the ensample of the loue, wherwith Christ loued the cōgregacion, & remembre that so doynge, thou louest euen thyselfe: yf thou hate her, thou hatest thine awne flesh: yf thou cherishe her & make moch of her, thou cherisest & makest moch of thyselfe for she is bone of thy bones, & flesh of thy flesh. And who so euor thou be that hast children, bryng them up in the nurtour and informacion of the Lorde (Ephes. 6. a): and yf thou be ignoraunt, or art otherwize occupied lawfully that thou canst not teach him thyselfe, then be euen as diligent to seke a good Master for thy childrē, as thou wast to seke a mother to beare them: for there lieth as great weight in the one as in ye other. yee better it were for the to be unborne, then not to feare God, or to be euel brought up. which thynge (I meane trynynge up well of children) yf it be diligently loked to, it is the upholdinge of all comon welthes and the negligence of the same, the uery decaye of all realmes. "Fynally, who so euer thou be, take these wordes of scripture in to thy herte, & be not onlly an outward hearer, but a doer therafter, and practyse thyselfe therein: that thou mayest fele in thine hert, the swete promyses therof for thy consolacion in all trouble, & for the sure stably shinge of thy hope in Christ, & have euer an eye to ye wordes of scripture, that yf thou be a teacher of other thou mayest be within the boundes of the trueth, or at the leest though thou be but an hearer or reader of another mans doynges, thou mayest yet haue knowledge to judge all spretes, & be fre from euery erroure, to the utter destruccion of all sedicious sectes & straunges doctrynes, that the holy scrypture maye haue fre passage, & be had in reputacion, to the worshippe of the author thereof, which is euen God himselfe to whom for his most blessed worde be glory and domynion now & euer. Amen." Matthews Bible. 1549. "To the Christen Readers. "The grace & peace of God be give unto you by Jesus Christe. "As the bees diligently do gather together swete flowres, to make by natural craft the swete hony: so have I done y principal senteces conteyned in the Byble. The whych are ordeyned after the maner of a fable, for the conso lation of those which are not yet execysed & instructed in the holy scripture. In the whyche are manye harde places, as wel of ye olde as of y newe Testamēt expoūded gathered together, concorded, & cōpared one wyth another : to thintent that the prudent reader (by the spryte of God) maye heare alwaye pure & cleare understanding. Whereby euery man (as he is bound) may be made ready, stronge & garnyshed to answere to al them that aske him a reason of his faith. Thys is also profitable for the particular & general exhortacions whych we make to certayne personages, or cōmune people: & for to answere truely to Heretykes, & to confound the aduersaryes of the worde of God. In the which also we may fynd (that whych helpeth greatly the study of the readers) the openying of certayne Hebrue tropes, translations, symylytudes, & maners of speakynges (whyche we cal phrases) conteyned in the Bible. And for the more easely to fynde the matters desyred (because that disorder engendreth confusyon) I have proceded after thee order of an Alphabete: to thentet that none be depryved of so precious a treasure: the whyche ye shall use to the honoure & glorye of God, & to the edifieng of his church. How be it (good Reader) yf thou fynde not the thinges in this table expressed, in the same letters of the chapters wherein they are assigned: vouchsafe to loke in the letter goinge nexte before, or in the letter nexte followinge." SACRED POETRY. THE VOICE OF WATERS. "I heard the noise......like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the WE stood beside the banks of Tees, Where, thundering down his dreadful way, He flings his foam-shower to the breeze, We heard the voice of waters deep- And weary, fitful pauses keep- We gaz'd where the loud chiding flood Above, bright clouds the sunbeams chas'd, The storm-mist veil'd the unfathom'd pool. We gaz'd, while rapture still'd alarm, Nor strange it seem'd, if Pagan wild, With earth and earthborn cares foredone, Here deem'd some spirit, to mortals mild, Kept secret court in cavern lone; And when, more sadly sweet, the fall For where, but in such ceaseless flow, To whose loud chime the rock-vault rings, Is seen so near, on earth below, The shadow of eternal things? The restless motion, and the strife, Dark stream, so fleet, so fugitive, So changeful, yet thy waves abide, Thy sound is of the Eternal Power Call'd thy rejoicing fountains forth, Then roll'd, as now, that dark wave's shock; In echoes from the embattled rock, The voice of twice three thousand years. HYMN FROM THE LATIN. ILLESA TE PUERPERA. THOUGH a parent's thy control, When he gave, with dying brow, Thee another son's to be, But we see no rended hair, And we hear no wailing cry; LINES TO A LADY WHO PRESENTED THE WRITER WITH Rom. x. 18-" But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." WITH grateful eyes on Coverdale I look, Who first of Briton's sons unsealed the sacred book— That book from which all blessings flow What though three centuries are past, FUTURITY. THE fairest scenes beneath the skies, Still to the soul how dull the past, To him who longs the bliss to prove How lovely, smiling from afar, Alas, how tame, how flat they are There is an hour-an hour to come, * Matt. xix. 14-" Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me." |