Volume 5 — Notes.
Reading edition
SITTING IN BEDE'S CHAIR.
One of the most interesting antiquities of Jarrow Church, Northumberland, is the chair of the Venerable Bede. It is preserved in the vestry of the church, whither all brides repair as soon as the marriage service is over, to seat themselves upon it. This, according to the popular belief, will make them the joyful mothers of children; and the expectant mothers (as I have been informed) would not consider the marriage ceremony complete, until they had been enthroned in the Venerable Bede's chair. The chair is very rude and substantial; made of oak; in height, four feet ten inches; having an upright back, and sides that slope off for the arms. According to the barbarous English fashion, it is carved over with the nomenclature of all the vulgar obscurities of the neighbourhood, whose sacrilegious penknives, together with the wanton depredations of relic-hunters, have so "shorn" the chair of its "fair proportions," that soon nothing but its attenuated form, "small by degrees, and beautifully less," will be left for the future Childe Harold to address with—
"Can it be, That this is all remains of thee?"
Every foreigner who has visited our churches and cathedrals cannot fail to remark how the English love of popularity glares forth in its most sickly form in this barbarous custom of writing and carving names upon monuments, or other works of art. Every observant person, too, when he sees John Smith's name and full address, scratched with painful and elaborate accuracy upon the stern but noseless face of some alabaster knight, while he wonders at the gratuitous trouble which John Smith has taken, must deplore the want of education thus so lamentably evinced. Happily, this vulgar taste (so far as our churches are concerned) is now under some control; but, nevertheless, it is still sad to see—at Lichfield, for example—that control obliged to take the visible shape of railings, to prevent Messrs. Smith, Brown, Jones, and Robinson from handing their names down to posterity on the life-like marble of Chantrey's "Sleeping Children." I have heard that this mode of defacing monuments took its rise in the time of the Protectorate; and I would wish to put this in the form of a Query: Whether it was so, or no? With the impression that it was the case, I have for many years past examined the dates that accompanied names scratched upon monuments, and never found a date earlier than the Protectorate. The subject seems worth the inquiry.
To return to Bede's chair. It has often been engraved: but the best representation of it that I know, is that by Mr. W. B. Scott, in his Antiquarian Gleanings of the North of England. Besides his careful etching of the present state of the chair, he also gives a suggestive woodcut of its restoration. The ornamental portion he confines to the front of the seat, and the head of the chair.
CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.
Dedication Stone at Jarrow Church.
—While on the subject of Bede's chair at Jarrow, it may not prove altogether useless to transcribe you a faithful copy of the dedication stone of Jarrow Church, which is now placed against the tower-arch of the nave:
DEDICATIO BASILICAE SCIPAVLI VIIII KL MAI ANNO XVECFRIDIREG CEOLFRIDIABBEIVSQ Q·ECCLESDOAVCTORE CONDITORIS ANNO IIII
CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.
INEDITED POETRY.
The first piece in the volume of MS. poetry referred to in my communication in Vol. v., p. 387., may perhaps be deemed of sufficient interest to occupy a place in your columns. It is entitled "A Ballad," and appears to me worthy of notice from its quaintness both in style and rhythm.
"A BALLAD. "Sure glorious Modesty again will rise, Since she can conquer in bright Marcia's eyes. Each look of hers creates a lambent fire, And youth and age concur her virtue to admire. Hence flow these lines from an unpolish'd hand, Which thinks her Marcia should the world command. Go, lovely maid, and let each virgin see How graceful modesty appears in thee. That they may all thy imitators be, And give example to posterity. 1. "View Marcia's native charms, She's graceful in behaviour, By wise advice she steers, And with all the world's in favour. No foolish talk slides from her tongue, Her eyes ne'er wanton seem, Regards her friends, respects the great, And is humble to the mean. 2. "How gentle is her voice, Not loud with foul detraction, Good sense guides all her words, And prudence every action. Not stiff in dress, or careless she, But in the graceful mean, What e'er she wears she still appears Like some majestic queen. 3. "Her mind and thoughts still tends [sic] How to perform her duty; To her parents' laws she bends, Which adds more to her beauty. In conduct she a matron is With cheerful air and mein, [sic] The steddiness of sixty years, [sic] In look she's scarce fifteen. 4. "In friendship most sincere, As well as in devotion, To herself alone severe, And guards her every motion. Her conquering eyes give her no pride, Her charms she will not know, Nor meaner beautys does deride [sic], Tho' they their envy show. 5. "How lovely is that face Where modesty's adorning, And Marcia with that grace Is improving every morning. She like the glorious sun in spring Is encreasing every day, For her Apollo's harp he'll string, And the Muses sing their lay. 6. "How happy is this nymph, Whose noble inclination, All subtle arts contemns And sligh made assignation: [sic] Whose hours are spent in useful works, Or reading tracts divine, The young, the grave, the wise, the brave, Pay homage at her shrine. And so does Her humble slave, "JUBA ISSHAM."
I hope that some of your readers will be able to explain this signature, which is to me inexplicable.
W. SPARROW SIMPSON.