Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 123, March 6, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 123, March 6, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
_Cure for Hooping Cough._--This complaint is very prevalent in my
neighbourhood just now. I overheard a conversation the other day between
some farmers: one was recommending the patient to inhale the breath of a
horse as a certain cure; another gravely informed his audience that the
sight of a piebald horse would afford immediate relief!
G. A. C.
SAINTED KINGS INCORRUPTIBLE.
In the Appendix to Evelyn's interesting _Diary_ (last edition, 1850),
your readers may recollect there is a note upon the "unexpected finding
the crucifix and gold chain of that pious prince, St. Edward the
Confessor." The note contains an extract from the narrative of the
circumstances attending the finding of those relics by "Charles Taylour,
Gent." (or, Henry Keepe--the writer's correct name). It appears from
that account, that when, in 1163, Thomas à Becket obtained a
canonisation of the king, and the coffin was opened, the body was found
uncorrupted; and that, 136 years after William I. had commanded the
coffin to be enshrined, when the abbot resolved to inspect the body,
then likewise "said to be incorruptible," he found it so, "being
perfect, the limbs flexible," &c.
A curious parallel to this presented itself recently to one in the
course of a reference to the 2nd volume of Mr. W. B. MacCabe's curious
and laborious _Catholic History of England_. [_En passant_, allow me to
express the hope, in which I well know many sympathise, that the
long-promised _third_ volume, bringing the history down to the accession
of William the Conqueror, will ere long appear. The work gives in a
well-arranged form so much that is curious in our early national
records, that it would be a matter of regret that it should not be
completed. It is a great pity indeed that the author's original plan, to
carry the history down to the Reformation, should have been abandoned.]
After describing the burial of Edgar (also a "Confessor," as well as St.
Edward), it is stated that "in the year 1052, upon his tomb being opened
by the Abbot Eilward, his body was found perfectly _free from_ the
slightest stain of _corruption_;" and that upon the body being
"profanely hacked," in order to make it fit the receptacle prepared for
it, "torrents of blood burst from the king's corpse." (W. Malmsb. _Ges.
Reg. Ang._) This, be it remembered, was eighty-seven years after burial.
The body was afterwards deposited in a shrine. Are there other examples
mentioned by the chroniclers of the incorruptibility of saintly kings?
Both Edward and Edgar were, it should be recollected, good friends to
the monks. William of Malmsbury, in the course of his eulogium upon
Edgar, mentions the important fact that the monarch not only gave--
"Templa Deo,"
but also--
"Templis Monachos, Monachis dedit agros."
Were not these strong reasons why the king should remain uncorrupted, at
all events in the memory, and also the records, of the brotherhood?
J. J. S.
Minor Notes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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