TOM A LINCOLNE. THE History of Tom a Lincolne, the Red Rose Knight, is one of the numerous productions of Richard Johnson, the author of that very popular Romance The Seven Champions of Christendom, which was said by Ritson to contain "all the lyes of Christendom in one lye," and like that favorite volume of his contemporaries, contains abundant evidence of the writer's intimate knowledge of the old Romances of Chivalry; for a cursory perusal will suffice to show that his claims to originality are but limited, his incidents being principally copied from the Metrical Romances of former ages, and his style from that of Lylie's Euphues: Talking of stones, stars, planets, fishes, flies, If it were necessary to adduce more direct proof of the author's acquaintance with the earlier Romances, than the general character of the incidents introduced into his performance, (and which are literally old a friends with new faces, being only the favourite and well established adventures of Knighthood, rendered once more interesting by a novel mode of relating them) it would be found in his having conferred upon the Red Rose Knight the especial favor of the Fairy Queen, when a storm had driven him to the "Lande of Faërie," the Elysium of the Middle Age Romances: "Here is the quene of Faerie With harp and pipe and simphonie And in the manner in which "fair Anglitora with her own hands" washed the body of the Knight, which is evidently copied from the Mort d'Arthur (Book 8. cap. 9.) in which Sir Tristram is put in the ward and keeping of La belle Isoud King Anguishes daughter, "because she was a noble surgion." And Sir Tristram, like the present worthy, requited her kindness with his love. Her namesake, Iseult aux blanches mains, wa sequally expert and successful. The Great Bell at Lincoln, which our hero is said to have sent to that city, and to have called after his name, (though without doubt his name was selected from the popularity which Great Tom already enjoyed,) hangs in the north steeple of the Cathedral, called St. Mary's Steeple, and is thus described in the History of Lincoln, 8vo. 1816. p. 74:-the passage in inverted commas is from Don Espriella's (Mr. Southey) Letters: "We ascended one of the other towers afterwards to see Great Tom, the largest bell in England. At first it disappointed me, but the disappointment wore off, and we became satisfied that it was as great a thing as it was said to be. A tall man might stand in it upright; the mouth measures one and twenty English feet in circumference, and it would be a large tree of which the girth equalled the size of its middle. The hours are struck upon it with a hammer. I should tell you that the method of sounding bells in England is not by striking, but by swinging them; no bell, however, which approaches nearly to the size of this is ever moved, except this; it is swung on Whitsunday, and when the Judges arrive to try prisoners-another fit occasion would be at executions, to which it would give great solemnity, for the sound is heard far and wide over the Fens. On other occasions it was disused, because it shook the tower, but the stones have now been secured with iron cramps. Tom seems to be the only name which they give to a bell in this country." Round the crown thereof is this inscription, SPIRITUS SANCTUS A PATRE ET FILIO PROCE DENS SUAVITER SONANS AD SALUTEM, ANNO DOMINI, 1610, DECEMBRIS 3, REGNI JACOBI, ANGLIE 8°, ET SCOTIE, 44°. And round the skirt is the following, LAVRENTIVS ROGERVS STANTON, DECANVS, The weight of this surprising bell is nine thousand eight hundred and ninety-four pounds. It has been gauged, and will hold four hundred and twenty-four gallons, ale measure. The compass of its mouth is about seven yards and a half, and two inches.* Great Tom of Lincoln has never travelled beyond the precincts of his own church, but was manufactured on the spot; for which purpose a furnace was erected in the minster yard in the year 1610; from which he was cast by Henry Holdfield, of Nottingham, and William Newcomb, of Leicester, bellfounders, and partners in this concern only; which correct. Don Espriella's statement of the circumference is not connection arose from the former being a man of the first eminence in his profession, and to whom such a charge could with safety be committed, and the latter living within the diocese; for the honour of which it was deemed necessary he should have some concern in the business. In the historical account of Lincoln Cathedral, 8vo. 1771, we have some account of Great Tom's predecessor. The weight of the old bell, before the present was cast, was seven thousand eight hundred and seven pounds, at one hundred and twelve pounds per hundred. The weight of the present is nine thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, at one hundred and twelve pounds per hundred; added, two thousand and eighty-seven pounds. The motives which induced our author to select so popular a title for his hero, probably guided him in his selection of a father-in-law, and accordingly the daughter of Prester John is won by him, and becomes his wife. Many particulars respecting this celebrated personage are to be found in Todd's Illustrations to Gower and Chaucer, p. 365, et seq. where it is said he was 66 no doubt, commended to public notice more powerfully in Chaucer's time, on the return of Sir |