Chapter C: I. R

_Brasses since 1688_ (Vol. vi., pp. 149. 256.).--In connexion with the subject of late brasses, a rubbing which I took from one in Masham Church, Yorkshire, may not be unworthy of a note. It runs thus:

"CHRISTOPHER KAY,
Buried October the 23d,
Anno Dom. 1689.
[MRS. JANE NICHOLLSON,
Bu. June the 4th, 1690.]

C onfined . in . a . bed . of . dust
H ere . doth . a . body . lye
R aised . again . it . will . I . trvst
I nto . the . Heavens . high
S in . not . bvt . have . a . care
T o . make . yovr . calling . svre
O mit . those . things . which . trivial . are
P rise . that . we . will . indure
H ange . not . your . mind . on . secular . things
E ach . one . doth . fade . apace
R iches . the . chief . of . we . hath . wings.

[A . Matron . grave . is . here . interr'd
Whose . soul . in . heaven . is . preferr'd
Aftwher . grandson . lost . his . breath
She . soon . svrrender'd . vnto . death.]

K eeping . no . certaine . place
A dict . your . selues . unto . his . conuersation
Y our . purchase . heaven . for . your . habitation."

This, it will be seen, is an acrostic: the lines between brackets are insertions.

WM. PROCTER.

York.

_Derivation of Lowbell_ (Vol. vii., p. 181.).--In my younger days I frequently had occasion to draw out (from old established precedent) the form of an appointment, by the lord, of a gamekeeper for a manor, in which the latter was authorised and required to seize and destroy all and all manner of gins, snares, springs, &c., including a dozen or more technical words, one of which was "lowbells." The manors in question were in Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, but I doubt not but that the same form was adopted in other counties in various parts of England. Being strongly impressed with the familiarity of the word on reading H. T. W.'s Note, I was induced to refer to Johnson's _Dictionary_, where I find my own notion fully borne out as follows:

"LOWBELL.--A kind of fowling in the night, in which the birds are
wakened by a bell and lured by a flame."

At this moment I have only the abridged edition (3rd edition, 1766) to refer to, and that does not give any reference or authority for the definition in question. I would observe, however, that I believe "loke" is either a Saxon or Scandinavian word, signifying a flame or firebrand, which, coupled with "bell," fully bears out the definition, and I think sufficiently accounts for the term "lowbelling" in H. T. W.'s Note, as the offender might have been greeted with bells and firebrands in lieu of the "tin pots and kettles," or by way of addition to them.

May not this also serve to explain what is considered as a puzzling term in Beaumont and Fletcher? Lowell being nothing more nor less than a snare, may not "Peace, gentle lowbell," mean "Peace, gentle ensnarer?"

M. H.

_The Negative given to the Demand of the Clergy at Merton_ (Vol. vii., p. 17.).--Warburton agrees with Bishop Hurd on this subject, for he observes as follows, in one of his letters (the 84th), that--

"At a parliament under Henry III., 'Rogaverunt omnes Episcopi ut
consentirent quod nati ante matrimonium essent legitimi, et omnes
Comites et Barones una voce responderunt quod nolunt leges Angliæ
mutari.' This famous answer has been quoted a thousand and a thousand
times, and yet nobody seems to have understood the management. The
bishops, as partizans of the Pope, were for subjecting England to the
imperial and papal laws, and therefore began with a circumstance most
to the taste of the Barons. The Barons smelt the contrivance; and
rejected a proposition most agreeable to them, for fear of the
consequences, the introduction of the imperial laws, whose very genius
and essence was arbitrary despotic power. Their answer shows it:
'Nolumus leges Angliæ mutari:' they had nothing to object to the
reform, but they were afraid for the constitution."