Chapter C: W. B

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Minor Notes.

_Inscription._--The following quaint inscription is to be found on a gravestone in the churchyard of Llangollen, North Wales:

"Our life is but a winter's day:
Some only breakfast and away;
Others to dinner stay, and are full fed;
The oldest man but sups, and goes to bed.
Large is the debt who lingers out the day;
Who goes the soonest has the least to pay."

J. R. G.

Dublin.

_Antiquarian Documents._--At a time when public records and state papers are being thrown open by the Government in so liberal a spirit, might not some plan be devised for admitting the public to the Church's antiquarian documents also, treasured in the various chapter-houses, diocesan registries, and cathedral libraries?

Might not catalogues of these be printed, as well as the more historically valuable and curious of the papers themselves? And is there any sufficient reason why the earlier portions of the parochial registers throughout the country might not be published, say down to the commencement of the present century, prior to which they appear to have no other value except for literary purposes?

J. SANSOM.

_Bishop Watson's Map of Europe in 1854._--The following paragraph is an extract from a letter written by Bishop Watson to Dr. Falconer of Bath, in the year 1804:

"The death of a single prince in any part of Europe, remarkable either
for wisdom or folly, renders political conjectures of future
contingencies so extremely uncertain, that I seldom indulge myself in
forming them; yet it seems to me probable, that Europe will soon be
divided among three powers, France, Austria, and Russia; and in half a
century between two, France and Russia; and that America will become
the greatest naval power on the globe, and be replenished by migrations
of oppressed and discontented people from every part of Europe."--See
_Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Watson, Bishop of Llandaff_, 2 vols.
8vo., London, 1818, vol. ii. p. 196.