Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

posture, in an elbow-chair; and beneath is the following elegant epitaph, written by the accomplished Sir Henry Wotton.

FRANCISC. BACON, BARO DE VERULAM, S.ti ALBANI VIC.mes
Seu, notioribus titulis,

Scientiarum lumen, Fæcundiæ lex,
Sic sedebat.

Qui, postquam omnia naturalis sapientiæ
Et civilis arcana evolvisset,
Naturæ decretum explevit,
Composita Solvantur,

Ano. Dni M.DC.XXVI.

Etat. LXVI.

Tanti viri
Mem.

THOMAS MEAUTYS,

Superstitis cultor,
Defuncti Admirator,

H. P.*

Sir

In the new edition of the Biographia Britannica, this epitaph has been thus translated:

FRANCIS BACON,

BARON OF VERULAM, VISCOUNT St. ALBAN'S,
or, by more conspicuous Titles,

OF SCIENCE THE LIGHT, OF ELOQUENCE THE LAW,

SAT THUS:

Who, after all natural Wisdom
And Secrets of Civil Life he had unfolded,
Nature's Law fulfilled:

Let Compounds be dissolved!

In the Year of Our Lord, 1626; of his Age, 66.

Of such a Man, that the Memory might remain,
THOMAS MEAUTYS

Living, his Attendant; Dead, his Admirer,

Placed this Monument.

In

Sir Thomas Meautys,* who erected this monument, had been Private Secretary to Lord Verulam, and continued his fidelity to him through all his troubles; and on the death of his master, inherited his possessions, as cousin and next heir. He, himself, was interred in this Church, as appears from an imperfect inscription on a stone on the pavement near the altar rails, and which stone is partly concealed by a pew. What remains of the inscription is as follows: the second line seems to have been chipped away by some invidious person, but is not effectually obliterated.

1

H THE BODY OF S.R
MEAUTYS K.T

In this Church is also the burial-place of the family of the Lords Grimston, of Gorhambury; the memory of those interred is preserved by hatchments, and other memorials.

ST. PETER'S CHURCH stands on elevated ground, at the northeast extremity of the town, on the Luton road. Though originally constructed in the Saxon times, it appears, from the style of its architecture, to have been re-built about the time of Henry the Third. Since that period, however, it has undergone considerable repairs and alterations; the most recent of which have been made at the expense of about 40001. since the year 1803, when an Act of Parliament was obtained to empower certain trustees, appointed under

In the commendation given in the same work, to Hollar's Etching of the Monument, the Biographers are not equally happy: so far, indeed, is the plate from being excellent, as they have characterized it, that it is extremely unlike, both in the features, and the position.

* The unsettled state of our orthography, even so late as the beginning of the seventeenth century, may in some degree be exemplified by the spelling of this name; which is Mcautys in the epitaph; though, in a letter from Lord Bacon to Sir Henry Wotton, it is spelt Meutus; and in Sir Henry's reply, Meautis: Sir Henry was related both to Lord Bacon and Sir Thomas.

*See Reliqua Wottonianæ, p. 297, 8.

under the Act, to levy a rate on the parishioners to the above amount. The tower having become extremely ruinous, and in great danger of falling, had been previously taken down; and a general reparation of the whole structure was deemed necessary.* VOL. VII. FEB. 1806. The

G

*All the expensive repairs and modern alterations of this fabric, have probably originated from an order of Vestry, made the twentieth of April, 1756, in the following words: "That the succeeding ChurchWardens have the old belfry taken down, and the middle floor sunk as low as it can conveniently be, to make another belfry." To explain this, it is necessary to observe, that the original belfry was so low, as to obstruct that perspective view of the chancel which the then rulers of the parish were desirous of obtaining; and therefore, under the order above stated, they had a new belfry erected, the floor of which is said to have been about twenty-two feet higher than the old floor. This answered the purpose of opening the view, but was soon discovered to have done essential injury to the building, from violating the principles on which it had been originally constructed. The old belfry-floor had rested against the four great piers which supported the tower, and were below of solid masonry; yet it now appeared, that the original builders had not carried them up solid so high as the place which the new floor was to rest upon, but had contented themselves with an outside casing, filled only with rubble. Under these circumstances, on the eleventh of May, 1785, the vestry resolved, "That, whereas the two piers (or part thereof) of the Church tower next the south aisle, is in a dangerous and ruinous condition," the same be forthwith "repaired." For that purpose, a carpenter in the parish was employed, who introduced one of his own friends in the character of a surveyor: these fit associates, having undermined the piers of the tower, a heavy building, thirty-three feet square, prepared to set them upon wooden legs, and accordingly dragged from London (where probably they had been lying upon the mud in the river Thames) thirty-six great blocks of Memel timber, which they set upright, nine in each pier, and then surrounded them with brick-work separately; and afterwards walled round, and covered with plaster, the four piers, so as to make them look like strong massy columns. With similar inconsideration, the Vestry, on the sixth of September, 1786, granted permission to certain persons, who desired it, to add, at their own expense, two new triples to the eight bells already belonging to the Church; all tending to increase the superincumbent weight.

The

The Church, as it anciently stood, was in the form of a long cross, with a tower rising from the intersection of the nave, chancel, and transept;

The amount of the expense wasted on this repair, was 27901. and almost as soon as it was finished, the parish seemed to be alarmed with apprehensions of the consequence; for so early as the twenty-second of March, 1790, a Vestry met to inspect the state of the four principal pillars; and the Vicar having moved, that Mr. Richard Norris, of Christ's Hospital, should survey them immediately, he did so on the twentyfourth of April following, and gave it as his "opinion, that so long as the timbers used in them remained sound, the tower might be safe ; but,” he adds, "should they decay, I doubt the tower's standing; and am sorry to say, that, from the appearance of some of them, I should fear they are proceeding to that state." In the mean time, the Vicar, and the Archdeacon, did all in their power to prevent mischief, and promote peace, but in vain : vestries were held continually: one forbade the ringing of the bells; the next rescinded the prohibition, and ordered it. More surveyors were called in, of whom some said, that the timbers were "perfectly sound, and would be capable of supporting the tower for at least seven years to come;" others declared they were decaying; till at length Mr. James Lewis, of Christ's Hospital, having made a fair and unbiassed report of the state of things, the parish were persuaded to take down the tower; after they had gone on for years, sometimes using the Church, and at other times having it shut up. To close the scene, on the morning of Saturday, the twenty-first of November, 1801, (service being at that time performed every Sunday,) the whole floor of the belfry fell at once into the body of the Church, and crushed several of the pews to pieces; a beam that supported the floor, and rested on the piers, having broke off, being quite rotten. This event obliged the parish to apply to Parliament for an Act to enable them to re-build the tower and chancel upon a reduced scale, and more effectually to repair the Church: this Act passed on the twenty-fourth of March, 1803. The Bishop of Ely, to whom the chancel belonged, agreed to its being made smaller, and with his lessees of the great tithes of the rectory, handsomely contributed towards the expense, on condition that the parish should secure to the appropriator, the site of the old chancel, and maintain the new one for the time to come. The architect appointed to effect the recent alterations, was Mr. Robert Chapman, of Wormwood-Street, London.

transept; but the tower is now built up from the ground: the chancel has been shortened upwards of thirty feet; and both ends of the transept have been taken down to the level of the side walls of the Church. The present tower is of brick, neatly stuccoed, and embattled: its height is sixty-seven feet.

The interior of St. Peter's has a very light and elegant appearance, the nave being separated from the aisles by a double series of high pointed arches, supported on well-proportioned, clustered pillars. The tower is open to the nave by a pointed arch; and the windows of the aisles are large and graceful; those of the nave, which range above the roof of the aisles, have obtuse arches: the east window is an excellent modern imitation of the pointed style. The pews are plain, but regular; and the whole interior has a neat and pleasing effect.

Before the former repair, there were many sepulchral brasses with curious inscriptions in this Church; and in the windows was a great variety of painted glass, some of which still remains. The most remarkable of the inscriptions was under the figure of a Priest, on a slab in the chancel: it was engraved in a double circle, between the leaves of a rose, as in the G 2

cut

Salmon, in his Account of Herts, page 90, has noticed this painted glass in the following manner: "A great deal of painted glass in the windows. In the north window, St. Peter with his keys, twice: St. Andrew at the west. In the north window, a man drinking; a label, Ecce bibi Venenum crede: two stand by him; one of them holds the bottom of the cup to his mouth; a third is sitting, with two children leaning their heads in his lap. In the next, (window,) one in armour kneeling; two others standing by. In the middle window is a person naked, his hands tied down, an executioner stabbing him in the throat with a long sword; a woman stands behind: this seems designed for Offa's Queen, seeing young Alfred murthered. The third hath a grave man, in a blue gown and cap, with his hands tied to a pillar, a woman sitting by in a mournful posture."

« ZurückWeiter »