Chapter C: H. quotes some lines said to have been written on a window-shutter of

the "Golden Lion," Brecon, when a Mr. Longfellow was proprietor, fifty or sixty years ago:

"Tom Longfellow's name is most justly his due;
Long his neck, long his bill, which is very long too;
Long the time ere your horse to the stable is led," &c.

These lines remind me of the following passage of the poet Longfellow's in his _Hyperion_, which, not to speak of a possible plagiarism, has at least a strange _family_ resemblance:

"If you go to Zurich, beware how you stop at 'The Raven.' I wrote in
the travellers' book--

'Beware of the Raven of Zurich;
'Tis a bird of omen ill,
With a noisy and an unclean breast,
And a very, very long bill.'

"If you go to 'The Golden Falken' you will find it there. I am the
author of those lines--LONGFELLOW."

G. DYMOND.

* * * * *

BOOKS BURNT BY THE HANGMAN.

(Vol. ix., pp. 78. 226.)

As the subject is interesting, you will probably permit me to cite a few more examples:--In Geo. Chalmers' _Catalogue_, "Burnt by the hangman" is appended to a copy of Wm. Thomas' _Historie of Italie_, 1549; but I do not find this stated elsewhere. The opinions emitted in this work are of a free nature certainly, in respect to the governed and governing powers; but whatever was the fate of his book, I rather think Thomas (who was executed in Mary's reign) suffered for some alleged act of overt treason, and not for publishing seditious books. _An Information from the States of the Kingdome of Scotland to the Kingdome of England, showing how they have bin dealt with by His Majesty's Commissioners_, 1640: in a proclamation (March 30, 1640) against seditious pamphlets sent from Scotland, this tract was prohibited on account of its containing many most notorious falsehoods, scandals, &c.; it was ordered to be burnt by the common hangman. (Rymer's _Foed._, as quoted by Chalmers.)

There is now before me a modern impression of an old cut in two compartments: the upper representing the demolition of the "Crosse in Cheapeside on the 2nd May, 1643;" and the lower a goodly gathering of the public around a bonfire, viewing, with apparent satisfaction, the committal of a book to the flames by the common executioner, with this inscription:

"10th May, the Boocke of Spartes vpon the Lord's Day, was burnt by the
hangman in the place where the Crosse stoode, and at (the) Exchange."

That great lover of sights, Master Pepys, notices one of these exhibitions:

"1661, 28th May, with Mr. Shipley," says our gossip, "to the Exchange
about business; and there, by Mr. Rawlinson's favour, got into a
balcone over against the Exchange, and there saw the hangman burn, by
vote of Parliament, two old acts: the one for constituting us a
Commonwealth, and the other I have forgot; which still do make me think
of the greatness of this late turne, and what people will do to-morrow
against what they all, thro' profit or fear, did promise and practise
this day."

A note to this passage in the _Diary_ (vol. i. p. 236., 3rd edit.) supplies the defective memory of Pepys, by informing us that the last was an "Act for subscribing the Engagement;" and adds, on the same day there had been burnt by the hangman, at Westminster Hall, the "Act for erecting a High Court of Justice for trying and judging Charles Stuart." They seem to have been just then cleansing out the Augean stable of the Commonwealth: for it is added, "two more acts" were similarly burnt next day.

In _A Letter to a Clergyman, relating to his Sermon on the 30th Jan._, by a Lover of Truth, 1746, the lay author (one Coade, I believe), inveighing against high churchmen, reminds the preacher that he--

"Was pleased to dress up the principles of the Presbyterians in a
frightful shape; but let me tell you, Sir, in my turn, that the
principles of your party have been burnt, not by a rude and lawless
rabble, but by the common hangman, in broad day-light, before the Royal
Exchange in London, and by authority of Parliament. Perhaps," he
continues, "you never heard of this contemptuous treatment of the
Oxford principles, and therefore I will give it you from the
Parliamentary Records:--'Anno Domini 1710. The House of Lords, taking
into consideration the judgment and decree of the University of Oxford,
passed in their Convocation July 21, 1683,--it was resolved by the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, that the said
judgment and decree contains in it several positions contrary to the
Constitution of this kingdom, and destructive to the Protestant
Succession as by law established. And it was thereupon ordered, by the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, that the said
judgment and decree shall be burnt by the hands of the common hangman
before the Royal {426} Exchange, between hours of twelve and one, on
Monday the 17th March, in the presence of the Lord Mayor of the City of
London,' &c."

Doleman's _Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England_, reprinted at N. with licence, in 1681, was, in 1683, condemned by the University of Oxford, and burnt by the common hangman.

In the above examples I have confined myself to those books, &c. only which were expressly consigned to the flames by the hangman. The instances of book-burning where this indignity was either not imposed, or its infliction not recorded, are numerous. Among the curiosities of literature of Elizabeth's reign, were certain books ascribed to a Dutchman, by name Henry Nicholas, translated into English, and probably imported from the Low Countries. This person, imbibing the "damnable heresies" of David George, of Leyden, became the apostle of a sect who styled themselves "The Family of Love," and their fanatical books becoming obnoxious to the dominant party, they were, by proclamation, ordered to be burnt; and, as such manifestations of the royal will usually ran, all persons were held punishable for having them in their possession. (See Herbert's _Ames._) As an example of the spiritual power thus dealing with a book, apparently upon its own authority, the following may be offered:--_Servetus de Trinitate, &c._ (London, 1723.) This edition, which is without name of place or printer, and without date, was printed by Palmer for Osborne the bookseller; but, as soon as completed was seized at the instance of Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London, and burnt, with the exception of a very few copies. (Davis' _Journey round the Library, &c._) The last unfortunate book I shall mention is the _Metrical Psalms_ of Dod; which was also, most likely, an episcopal seizure. Mr. Holland, in his _Psalmists of Britain_, quoting from George Withers' _Scholler's Purgatory_, says, "Dod the silkman's late ridiculous translation of the Psalms was, by authority, worthily condemned to the fire," and, judging from its extreme scarcity, I should say very few escaped.

J. O.

I have not seen in your list of martyred books the following, in the year A.D. 1684: _A Plea for the Nonconformists_, by Thomas De Laune, Gentleman. He died in Newgate, during his imprisonment for the book, in pursuance of the following sentence:

"Ad General. Quartercal. Session. Pacis Dom. Regis tent. pro Civitat.
London per adjornament, apud Justice-hall in le Old Bayly, die Mercurii
Scil. Decimo Sexto die January, Anno Regis Caroli Secundi cundi nunc
Ang. &c.

"Thomas De Laune Convict. pro illicite Scribend. Imprimend. et
Publicand. Libel. Seditios. dert. concernen. librum Communis
præcationis. Fin. 100 Marc. Et committit, etc.! Et ulterius quousq;
Inven. bon. de se bene gerend. per spacium Unius Anni Integri ex tunc
prox. sequen. Et quad libel. sedit. cum igne Combust. sint apud
Excambium Regal. in London, et si Del. Sol. 5 shil. WAGSTAFFE."

In a letter containing a narrative of his trial and imprisonment, written by him from prison, occur many touches of humour. In his remarks on the sentence he says,--

"The six shillings to be paid on my discharge is to the hangman, for
the faggots, I suppose."

"The Court told us that, in respect to our education as scholars, we
should not be pillory'd, though ('twas said) we deserved it.... We were
sent back to our confinement, and _the next execution-day_ our books
were burnt WITH FIRE (not with water, you must note), and we continue
here; but, since I writ this, Mr. Ralphson had a supersedeas by _death_
to a _better place_!"

In his account he affirms that, on his own confession of being the author of _The Plea_, and because he could find no bail, he was committed to Newgate--

"Lodged among the felons, whose horrid company made a perfect
representation of that horrible place which you describe when you
mention hell. A hard bench was my bed, and two bricks my pillow. But
after two days and nights, _without any refreshment_, the unusualness
of that society and place having impaired my health, which at the very
best is tender, and crazy, I was removed, and am now in the press-yard,
a _place of some sobriety_, though still a prison _ubi nihil amabile
est_!"

Twenty years after, 1704, his Plea was republished, with his narrative, by one of his fellow-prisoners, who had been released, and who calls it "an elaborate piece"! He adds, that De Laune, being unable to pay

"the seventy-five pound, his children, his wife, and himself were
imprison'd, and _all_ dy'd in New-gate; of which myself was an
eye-witness, and a companion with him for the same cause in the same
prison, where I continued above a year after his death."

E. F. WOODMAN.

P. S.--Query, What is the meaning, in the foregoing, of the expression "at the next execution-day"? Have we any instance on record of the execution of a malefactor in front of the Royal Exchange? and, if not, did the hangman come from Newgate, after "doing duty" there, and burn the book at the Exchange?

In 1611 the books of Conrad Vorstius were publicly burnt in St. Paul's Churchyard and both the universities by the king's order. (Wilson's _Life and Reign of James I._, p. 120.)

On Sunday, November 21, 1613, the books of Francis Suarez, the Spanish Jesuit, were publicly burnt at St. Paul's Cross. (_Court and Times of James I._, vol. i. pp. 279, 280.)