The following letters, which we have received since we last
brought the proposed scheme for preserving a record of existing
monuments under the notice of our readers, afford a striking proof
how widely the interest in the subject is extending.
We print them now, partly because the Number of "NOTES AND
QUERIES" now in the reader's hands completes the present volume,
and it is desirable that the various communications upon this
point should, as far as possible, be found together; and partly
because the time is at hand when many of our readers may have the
opportunity, during their summer excursions, of following out the
plan described by our valued correspondent YORK HERALD in the
following letter:--
References to this subject having appeared in your valuable miscellany,
I am unwilling to lose an opportunity it affords me of throwing in my
mite of contribution towards the means of preserving monumental
inscriptions. It may be better perhaps, to state the humble method I
adopt in attempting to rescue from oblivion those memorials of the dead,
than to suggest any. I avail myself of occasions, whenever I visit the
country, to take notes of monumental inscriptions in churches and other
places of sepulture; generally of all within the walls of the sacred
edifice, and those of the principal tombs in the surrounding graveyard.
Time very often will not allow me to take _verbatim_ copies of
inscriptions; so I merely transcribe faithfully every date, genealogical
note, and prominent event recorded upon monuments; omitting all
circumlocution and mere eulogistical epitaphs. By this means, much time
and labour are saved, and much useful and valuable information is
secured. I should prefer taking exact copies, or even drawings of the
most remarkable monuments; but this would occupy much time, and narrow
the means of collecting; and by which I should have lost much that is
valuable and interesting; copies, howsoever much they would have been
desirable, would not possess the character of legal evidence. Thus, upon
mere incidental occasions, I have collected sepulchral memorials from
many churches in various parts of the country; and, in some instances,
all contained in the village church, and the adjacent burying-ground. I
have frequently found also that preserving an account of the relative
positions of gravestones is important; especially when groups of family
memorials occur in the same locality. I need scarcely add that I
preserve memoranda of all armorial insignia found upon tombs and
hatchments, forming a collection of arms borne by various families; and
whether they stand the test of authority or not, at all events such
information is useful.
What store of information might be obtained, by persons having leisure
and inclination to pursue such an object, by the simple means of an
ordinary pocket-memorandum-book!
Thomas William King.
Our next communication, from the Rev. Canon Raines, is valuable,
as showing that unless some limit is placed to the antiquarian
ardour of those who would "collect and record every existing
monumental inscription," the historical and genealogical inquirer
will be embarrassed by a mass of materials in which, like
Gratiano's reasons, the two grains of wheat will be hid in two
bushels of chaff--a mass, indeed, which, from its extent, would
require to be deposited with the Registrar-General, and arranged
by the practised hands of his official staff.
MR. DUNKIN'S proposed record of existing monuments will be, if carried
into effect, a very useful contribution to genealogists. Many years
since I transcribed all the inscriptions _inside_ the parish church of
Rochdale, in Lancashire; but I never contemplated the possibility of any
antiquary having the ardour to undertake a similar _task outside_. There
are many thousands of gravestones, covering some _acres_; and I have
understood that when one side of a grave-stone has been covered with
inscriptions, the stone has been turned upside down, and the sculptor
has again commenced his endless work on the smooth surface. In a great
majority of these frail records nothing would be obtained which the
parish register could not supply.