(Vol. iii., pp. 105. 229. 308.)
I remember hearing a worthy citizen of Norwich remark, that it was very
odd there should be three churches in the city called after saints whose
names began with the letter T. Having been myself resident in that city
many years, without being aware of this fact, I took the liberty of
inquiring to which three he alluded; when I was unhesitatingly told,
"Why, Sain Tandrew's, Sain Taustin's, and Sain Tedmund's, to be sure!"
Let me then be allowed to repeat ARUN'S question, and to ask, "Why not
Tanthony for Saint Anthony?"
The same worthy citizen was once sheriff of Norwich, and, as is, or
haply was, the custom,--for I know not how these matters are managed
now-a-days,--went forth in civic state to meet the judges of assize.
When their lordships were seated in the sheriff's carriage, one of them
charitably observed, "Yours, I believe, is a very ancient city, Mr.
Sheriff!" to which the latter, a little flurried, no doubt, at being
thus so pointedly addressed, but in decided accents, replied, "It _was_
ONCE, my Lord!" And without stopping to consider what was passing in his
mind when he gave utterance to these somewhat ambiguous words, may we
not take them up, and ask whether it be not even so, not only as regards
Norwich, but most of her venerable sister towns as well? Where are their
quondam glories--their arts and rare inventions--their "thoughts in
antique words conveyed"--their "boast of heraldry"--their pageantries
and shows? Where their high-peaked gables--their curiously wrought eaves
and overhanging galleries--their quaint doorways, so elaborately carved,
and all their other cunning devices?--"Modern Taste," with finger
pointed to the newest creation of her plaster genius, triumphantly
echoes the monosyllable, and answers, "Where?" Well, we are perforce
content; only with this proviso:--if, fatigued with the tinselled
superficialities and glossy refinements of the present, we are fain to
"cast one longing lingering look behind," and chance to light upon some
worthy illustrative memorial of the literature, the manners, or domestic
life of the past,--that the spirit of Captain Cuttle's sage advice be
made our own, and that we forthwith transfer our prize for the critical
examination of "diving antiquaries" to the conservative pages of "NOTES
AND QUERIES."