The name of his lady whose bust accompanies his own on the monument, is mentioned in the epitaph, which is as follows :→→→ "Dedicated to the memorie of William Platt of Highgate in the countie of Midd. Esq. sonne and heire of Sir Hugh Platt of Kerbie Castle, on Bednal Green, in the countie of Midd. knight, who married ye youngest daughter of Sir John Hungerford of Downamay, [Down Amney] in the countie of Gloucester, knight. He had one Brother of the whole blood, and three Sisters, viz. Robert Platt, Judith Platt, Judith Platt, and Mary Platt. He departed this world upon the seventh day of November, one thousand six hundred and thirtie-seven, aged five and fortie years." On the other compartment : "Here by lieth the body of Mary, daughter of Sir John Hungerford of Downamay, in the county of Glocester, knight, who was first married to Wm. Platt, Esq. and afterwards was married to Edward Tucker of Maddingley, in the county of Wilts, Esq. By whom she had one onely daughter married to Sir Thomas Gore of Barrow, in the county of Sommerset, knight, and was here interred ye 26th of September, Anno 1686, in the 86th year of her age. "Repair'd and beautified at the charge of St. John's colledge, Cambridge, in memory of their generous benefactor. A. D. MDCCXLII." It is to be regretted that the present Heads of St. John's college do not appear to be equally zealous to honour the memory of their generous benefactor," as those of 1742. Since the demolition of the Chapel, this monument has laid in pieces in the stonemason's workshop. It is too large for the blank portions of wall which occur in the new Church; there is not room for it in Hornsey church; the parties benefited at Cambridge do not invite it; and it is now at length proposed to be set up in old St. Pancras church. Let it be hoped that it will be restored in a manner correspondent to the deep obligations which Mr. Platt conferred upon the College. The numerous shields which surround the busts are described by Mr. Lysons (Environs of London); but he suggests that some of the coats were probably altered and deranged when the monument was beautified in 1712. The next monument, consisting of a fluted column with a Corinthian capital, surmounted by a shield, commemorates " Lewis Atterbury, LL. D. formerly Rector of Sywell, in the county of Northampton, and one of the six Preachers to her late sacred Majesty Queen Anne, at St. James's and Whitehall. He was 36 years Preacher of this chapel, 24 years Rector of Sheperton, in the county of Middlesex, and 11 years Rector of this parish of Hornsey.' The remainder of his epitaph is printed by Lysons. He was brother to the celebrated Bishop, and died Oct. 20, 1731, in his 76th year. This monument has been removed to Hornsey church. Further on, on the same wall, was a handsome monument, to Joseph Edwards, Esq. ob. 1728, and John Edwards, Esq. ob. 1769, sons of Thomas Edwards, Esq. of Bristol; and another to John Schoppens, Esq. merchant, and a Governor of the Charity, who died in 1720, and left the sum of 100l. to keep his tomb in repair, and when not required for that purpose to be disposed at the discretion of the Governors. It is a rather elegant design of white and coloured marbles, with two seated figures of weeping boys. Both these monuments, together with that next described, have been put up in the belfry of the new church, because the interior walls did not afford space for them. Of course they are completely out of sight in such a situation, and we must say that it ought to have been an instruction to the architect to have provided a better place for them, which before the church was completed he might readily have done, either near the altar, or elsewhere. The large monument facing the view in our plate, at the end of this south aile, is in style somewhat similar to the last. It has two standing boys, one weeping, and the other apparently haranguing; and above the cornice two boys, seated. This is to the wife of the gentleman who gave 700l. to the repair of the church in 1720. On the upper tablet is the following inscription: "H. S. E. Rebecca Edwardi Pauncfort de Highgate Armigeri uxor, eademq. filia natu maxima D. Samuelis Roger Moyer de Pitsy Hall in comitatu Essexie, Baronetti. Excessit secundo die Novembris, ætatis XLII, salutis MDCCXIX anno." A long eulogy occupies the first column of the lower tablet; but the other part of it, which was left for Mr. Pauncfort's epitaph, was never inscribed, notwithstanding he had been such a liberal benefactor to the institution. Mrs. Pauncfort's gravestone was in the chancel, with a brief English inscription, in which her name was written "Rebekah." The most remarkable monument on the north wall was that of Sir Francis Pemberton, Chief Justice of both Benches, in the reign of Charles the Second. He died June 10, 1697. This is merely a large tablet, with urn, cherubs, drapery, and shield of arms; it has been removed to Cambridge, but to what sacred edifice we are not informed. The epitaph will be found in Lysons. Two other handsome tablets on the same wall, with sculptured borders in the old taste, were to the memory of Sir Edward Gould, Knt. one of the Governors of the School, who died 1728, and Samuel Forster, Esq. who gave 300l. to the almshouses, and died in 1752. These have been removed into the new church; with eleven other tablets of more modern date, bearing the following names: Hodges, Brunsdon, Makepeace, Throckmorton, Mendham, Harden, Anderson, Bennett and Knatchbull, (the two clergymen mentioned hereafter), Roberts, (40 years Director of the East India Company, died 1810), and Littlehales. To these has been added one new tablet, to Thomas Jones, Esq. who died Feb. 3, 1833, aged 56. Alexander Anderson, Esq. who died Nov. 13, 1796, aged 66, was a Governor of the School; and among the epitaphs about the old chapel were commemorated these two other Governors, besides those already named: Basil Nicolls, d. 14 Oct. 1648, aged 72; John Smith, Esq. d. March 3, 1655, æt. 59. In the vaults below the new church, not erected because the families have not come forward to pay the expense, are the monuments of Pretty, 1678, Bailey, Cheetham, and Jellicoe; and in the shop of Mr. Martin, the stonemason, is that of "Mrs. Martha Lowe, only child of Mr. Jonathan Lowe, d. Apr. 15, 1795, aged 46; and Martha her mother, d. March 19, 1808, in her 63rd year." "The old monument of Springnell, 1624, having been partly wood and plaster, was destroyed on being taken down. The Master of the School was always Reader of the Chapel and afternoon preacher. Mr. Carter, who was master in the reign of Charles I. was turned out by the Puritans, in such haste, that Walker says his wife was delivered in the church porch. Humphrey Vernon, who was put in by the Committee, was in 1654 allowed an augmentation of 40l. per annum. John Browne, MA. chaplain, died 1728, and had a monument against the chapel wall outside, bearing this inscription : "M.S. Johannis Browne, A.M. qui in castello Bolsover inter Darbienses natus v id. Septembris, A.C. 1686, denatus id. Julii A.C. 1728, ætatis 42o, harum ædium Sacellani et. Scholarchæ per annos septemdecim munera ornavit, et hic tandem a laboribus requiescit, felicem expectans resurrectionem." Copies of the epitaphs in the Chapel and Chapel yard, taken by the late John Simco, bookseller, nearly forty years ago, having been presented to the British Museum in 1829, by Mr. Thomas Faulkner the Historian of Chelsea, are now the MS. Addit. 7943. Some other notes will be found in Stowe's Survey by Strype, 1720, vol. II. Appx. p. 134, but they are not very correct. The name Watkinson, for instance, is misprinted Wilkinson; and Mrs. Hobart, for Mrs. Frances Hewit. There are also some other epitaphs in Seymour's Survey of London, 1735, vol. II. p. 859. Several coats of arms which were in the windows of the old chapel, are now worked into the border of the east window of the new church, the greater part of which consists of glass brought from the Continent. The Rev. William Porter, died June 11, 1793, aged about 70. He died suddenly, whilst playing cards at a friend's in Quality Walk, Highgate. He was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Bennett, D.D. of Trinity college, Cambridge, who was also Vicar of Tillingham, in Essex, a Minor Canon of St. Paul's, and a Magistrate for Middlesex. He died Aug. 24, 1810, in his 74th year. 1818, the Rev. Samuel Mence, B.D. the present master of the School, and Minister of the new Church. The income of the Reader was augmented with 107. per annum, by Edward Pauncfort, Esq. A Preacher was appointed as early as 1658, when Sir John Woolaston bequeathed 10l. per annum for one. Among the Preachers have been: 1695-1731; Lewis Atterbury, LL.D. (before noticed.) 1731-1769; Edward Yardley, Archdeacon of Cardigan, and author of Discourses on the Genealogies of Christ, &c. He died in 1769, and was buried at Highgate, and his monument was against the chapel wall outside. 1769-1773; Wadham Knatchbull, M.A. of Christ Church, Oxford; he died Jan. 6, 1773, and was buried here. His monumental tablet has been removed to the new church. Rev. James Saunders, LL.D. Rev. Charles Mayo, B. D. The area of the old Chapel is now thrown into the Burial Ground. A portion only of the north wall, including the stone frame-work of two windows, still remains, forming the partition between the burial ground and the garden of the Rev. Mr. Mence. The new Church of Highgate has been erected on another situation, which has been selected with great judgment, and its elegant spire rises conspicuously to the heavens, in a position which reminds us of the practice of more pious and considerate ages. The School was rebuilt in 1819, on a new site within the old premises. It is, like the former, a brick edifice, with stone dressings and Tudor windows; a Committee-room and Lobby, recently added, form wings on either side. The roof of the school-room is cruciform, and the rafters seen inside have a good effect. J. G. N. THR VISIONS OF PIERS PLOWMAN. THERE is no monument of the literature of our semi-Saxon forefathers, next to the works of Chaucer, which so well deserves a good edition, and which has always met with a fate so contrary to its desert, as the Visions of Piers Plowman. The object of Crowley, and those who published the early editions, was to expose to their countrymen, through the medium of the vivid images and biting satire of the old Reformer, the vices of the system over whose crumbling ruins they were now beginning to exult; and they knew nothing of, and cared little for, the critical accuracy of the text which came from their presses. Good philology, applied to the Teutonic languages, is but of late birth, and we cannot therefore look for it in those times; but unluckily, not content with printing what they found, they hesitated not to alter whatever they could not understand, in a language which had then in some part become obsolete. Thus manuscripts, which, however, are fortunately almost or quite as plentiful as copies of the printed editions, became the only texts to which we could safely refer. With so many manuscripts in our possession, it was to have been hoped that some one would have been found both able and willing to give us a good edition of this once popular work. It would have been a gift grateful equally to the philologist and the historian, But to make it thus grateful, it would require some little learning and judgment; learning to understand the character of the manuscripts, and judgment to estimate their individual value. The language of English manuscripts differs widely in different ages, and it differs not less with the dialect which the copyist happened to use, even in those which are contemporary. To form, therefore, a mixed text out of manuscripts written at different periods and in different counties, would be to bring into the world a monster, a language which never could have existed; it would be no less anomalous than to mix up in one confused mass the older language of Homer with the later dialects of the Ionians and the Dorians. It will be seen, then, that only one manuscript can be adopted as a text, and that that manuscript must be strictly adhered to, except in a very few instances, where there is an evident error of the copyist, and where some other manuscripts of authority supply an equally certain correction. The choice of this manuscript will be a GENT. MAG. VOL. I. 3 C matter of great care; for it will not only be necessary to ascertain that it is as nearly as possible contemporary with the author (when this can be done), but also that its language is the nearest to the dialect in which he wrote. When all this has been properly attended to, the editor will still owe a debt to philology. He will do inestimable service to its cause by collating all the other manuscripts to which he has access, and by giving, wherever they are important, a rather copious list of their variations, both in words and orthography. This is the more desirable, as there are now but few instances in which we have an opportunity of comparing our language in its various forms, in different copies of the same book. No task is more invidious, and to us more unpleasant, than that of pointing out the faults of others; yet it is in many cases a duty none the less imperative upon us, and we should be acting dishonestly towards the world, were we on that account to hold back from it our judgment. The text which Dr. Whitaker has published, is not one with which we can be satisfied. He has, it is true, followed the text of one manuscript, but we cannot allow that manuscript to be chosen on so capricious a ground as "that the orthography and dialect in which it is written approach very near to that semi-Saxon jargon, in the midst of which the editor was brought up, and which he continues to hear daily spoken on the confines of Lancashire, and the West Riding of the county of York." (Pref.) Dr. Whitaker laboured under many disadvantages; he had access to only three manuscripts, and those not very good ones; but we think that he has not chosen the best text even of those, though he may have chosen the best and oldest manuscript. It is remarkable that we find two distinct classes of manuscripts of Piers Plowman which give us two widely different texts; and if we were disposed to admit, as barely possible, "that the first edition of this work appeared when its author was a young man, and that he lived and continued in the habit of transcribing to extreme old age," (Pref.) we cannot agree with an editor in adopting a copy which he believes to be "a faithful representation of the work as it came first came from the author,” and which not only abounds in words and idioms which he afterwards altered, but which contains also "many original passages which the greater maturity of the author's judgment induced him to expunge." We believe, however, that there would be no difficulty in showing that there are many passages in the text thus chosen, which it is improbable ever came from the author of Piers Plowman. We hope and trust that the time is now gone by, when the language and works of our forefathers were sought for only as far as they yielded the means of gratifying a little idle vanity; that the black letters and so-called Saxon character, in which old Thomas Hearne loved to see himself in print, have disappeared. We think we can see springing up around us, a better taste, which shall lead to the cultivation of our old literature on a sounder foundation. One of our Universities, that of Cambridge, has already set a noble example. Mr. Kemble, who has done much for Anglo-Saxon literature by his scholar-like edition of Beowulf, is doing still more by the course of lectures on that language, which he is now delivering there; and the encouraging spirit in which they have been received, makes us hope further, that this University will ere long not only possess an Anglo-Saxon professorship, but that it will also have it filled by a learned and enterprising Professor. Mr. Thorpe's edition of Cadmon, if it may be taken as a specimen of what will follow, gives us ground for expecting much good from the series of Anglo-Saxon writings, the publication of which has been sanctioned by the Society of Antiquaries, and we wish that the next work printed may be that which ought perhaps to have been the first, the Exeter Book, as some atonement for the long neglect with which it has been treated. In the mean time, while all this attention is shown to the Anglo-Saxon, the Middle English will not be neglected, and trusting that the Visions of Piers Plowman will not be the last of the works of the old time which shall be given to us, in at least somewhat of its original integrity; and with the hope of forwarding so desirable an object, we will venture to offer a few suggestions on the text which we think ought to be adopted. We have only collated a few manuscripts which were at the time readiest of access to us, and as these all belong to the Cambridge libraries, and are not much known, a description of them will not perhaps be unacceptable to some of our readers. We will afterwards give two or three specimens of that which we think should be chosen for a text, placed side by side with the corresponding passages of Dr. Whitaker's edition. The text of each we arrange, as we hope every one in future will arrange it, in short lines, for by that arrangement only do we keep sight of the principle of the alliteration. The author of Piers Plowman has carefully followed the pure Anglo-Saxon model of verse, in which two successive lines have three words beginning with the same letter, the third word being the first in the second line which requires the emphasis in reading, while the two others must always be in the first line. To join these two lines in one, is no less ridiculous than it would be to join together in the same manner the couplets of our later rhiming poems. The first MS. which we have used, and which we call A, is contained in the library of Trinity College, a fair volume on vellum in the writing of the reign of Edw. III. with the shelf-mark B. 15, 17. It is well written, with ornamented initials, and contains at the end, in the same hand, a religious treatise in English prose, and a short poem beginning "Crist made to man a fair present, His blody body with loue ybrent," &c. This manuscript, we have no hesitation in saying, we think the best copy of The next (B) is a very large vellum MS. in the Public Library of the University of Cambridge, marked Dd, 1, 17, of a date very little later than the last, and containing, besides Henry of Huntingdon, and some others of the Latin Chroniclers, the old collection of metrical tales, entitled "The Seven Sages," which Weber has printed from the Cotton MS. C, our third MS., is in the library of Trinity College, marked R. 3, 14. This also is a very good MS. on vellum, and appears to be very nearly contemporary with A. At the beginning is a painting of men ploughing with oxen, and over it, "God spede the plouz, and sende us Korne i now." These three MSS. differ considerably in their orthography. In A and B, the nouns form their plural in es, in C almost always in is. B has commonly ai and ay, where A and C have ei and ey: it also has generally a, for o in the other two. Where B and C always use sch, A has generally sh. Whether in or out of composition, the preposition which in A and B is written bi and by, in C is constantly be. For k in B in such situations as in the word wirkyng, in A and C we generally have ch, this word being spelt werchynge, A, and worching, B. A has ech, where B and C not unfrequently have ilk and hilk. We have also commonly swiche A, swilke B, suche C; hire A, thayr B, here C; hem A,C, thaym B. In the verbs, A has the termination in en much more constant than the others; and ed, ede, in A, B, is in C, id, ide. D is a MS. on paper, which, from internal evidence, as well as by the writing, appears to have been written early in the reign of Henry IV. It is in the Public Library, and is marked Ll. 4. 14. Among its contents is a second copy of Piers of Fulham, which was printed from a MS. in Trin. Coll. by Hartshorne in his Metrical Tales.* E is a comparatively modern MS. on paper, in the Public Library, marked Gg, 4.31. * In collating this MS. we found at the end of Piers Plowman, another very interesting poem, in the same style and metre, written by a poet of the popular party against Richard II. about the time of his deposition, which is well worthy of being printed. |