Thavies Inn.
_The Mitred Abbot in Wroughton Church, Wilts_ (Vol. viii., p. 411.).--The
figure was painted in fresco, not on a pillar, but on the spandril-space
between two arches. The vestments, as far as I can make out, are an alb, a
tunicle and a cope, and mitre. The hands do not appear to hold anything,
and I see nothing to show it to represent a mitred abbot rather than a
bishop. The colours of the cope and tunicle were red and green, the
exterior of the cope and the tunicle being of one colour, the interior of
the cope of the other. The figure was the only perfect one when I visited
the church, and the rain was washing it out even as I sketched; but there
had been one between every two arches, and there were traces of colour
throughout the aisle, and the designs appeared to me unusually elegant. I
believe my slight sketch to be all that now remains; and shall be glad to
send a copy of it to your correspondent if he wishes for it, and will
signify how I may convey it to him.
_Passage in Virgil_ (Vol. viii., p. 270.).--Is this the passage referred to
by Doctor Johnson?
"Nunc scio, quid sit Amor: duris in cotibus illum
Aut Tmarus, aut Rhodope, aut extremi Garamantes,
Nec generis nostri puerum, nec sanguinis, edunt."
Virgil: _Bucolica_, Ecl. viii. l. 43.
"The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a
native of the rocks." Dr. Johnson found his reward not in vain
solicitations to patrons, but in the fruits of his literary labours.
The famous lines in Spenser's "Colin Clout's come home again,"[3] on the
instability and hollowness of patronage, may occur to the reader:
"Full little knowest thou, that hast not tride,
What hell it is in suing long to bide:
To lose good days that might be better spent,
To waste long nights in pensive discontent.
To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow,
To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow.
To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares;
To eat thy heart through comfortless despaires," &c.