APPENDIX No. II. NOTE ON THE DISCOVERY OF THE REMAINS OF SIR THOMAS BROWNE IN 1840. By ROBERT FITCH,' ESQ., F.G.S. [Extracted from the Proceedings of the Archæological Institute, 1847.] : "In August, 1840, some workmen, who were employed in digging a vault in the chancel of the church of St. Peter's Mancroft, Norwich, accidentally broke, with a blow of the pick-axe, the lid of a coffin, which proved to be that of [Sir Thomas Browne,] whose residence within its walls conferred honour on Norwich in olden times. This circumstance afforded me an opportunity of inspecting the remains the bones of the skeleton were found to be in good preservation, particularly those of the skull; the forehead was remarkably low and depressed, the head unusually long, the back part exhibiting an uncommon appearance of depth and capaciousness; the brain was considerable in quantity, quite brown and unctuous; the hair profuse and perfect, of a fine auburn colour, similar to that in the portrait presented to the parish by Dr. Howman, and exhibited at the meeting of the Institute in 1847, and which is carefully preserved in I [Mr. Fitch's name was by mistake printed Firth in some of the reviews at the time of the discovery, and the error has been perpetuated almost ever since.] the vestry of St. Peter's Mancroft. The coffin-plate, which was also broken, was of brass, in the form of a shield, and it bore the following quaint inscription: 'Amplissimus Vir Dus Thomas Browne Miles, Medicinæ Dr Annos Natus 77 Denatus 19 Die 2 "I succeeded in taking a few impressions from the plate, and have presented one, with a counter-impression, to the Institute, to be deposited amongst the collections of the Society. 66 There was another singular circumstance connected with the discovery; the lead of which the coffin was made was completely decomposed and changed to a carbonate, crumbling at the touch.” * * * * [Spagyria is one of those Paracelsian terms of which Sir T. B. was rather fond, meaning "ars quæ purum ab impuro segregare docet, ut, rejectis fæcibus, virtus remanens operetur." (Castelli Lex. Med.) Used here as synonymous with Alchemy.] 2 [One of these impressions I have seen, and have thus been enabled to correct two minute errors in Mr. Fitch's copy of the inscription.] APPENDIX No. III. BRIEF NOTICES OF FORMER EDITORS OF THE "RELIGIO MEDICI.” THOMAS CHAPMAN, who has the credit of being the first modern editor of the Religio Medici, died in or near London, August, 1834, at the early age of twenty-two. Of his brief life, which gave promise of future literary activity, nothing has to be said but that his father was a London merchant, that he was born August, 1812, and after passing about six years at the Charterhouse, was entered at Exeter College, Oxford, in February, 1830; that he edited the Religio Medici in 1831, and that he took his B.A. degree (with a second class in Litt. Human.) about three months before his death. ALEXANDER YOUNG, D.D., an American divinę and historian, and the first trans-Atlantic editor of any of Sir T. B.'s works, born 1801, died 1854. He edited a series of works with the title, "Library of Old English Prose Writers," (the third volume of which (Cambridge, 1831,) contains the "Miscellaneous Works of Sir T. B.") and wrote An Account of the Pilgrim Fathers," (Boston, 1841). There is a notice of him in Allen's American Biogr. Dict., and in Ripley and Dana's New American Cyclop. SIMON WILKIN, F.L.S., to whom Sir T. B.'s readers are more indebted than to any other single person, was born near Norwich, July, 1790. He succeeded in early life to a handsome fortune, which left him at leisure to indulge in literary and scientific pursuits, especially botany and entomology. Having lost all his property by a disastrous speculation in some paper-mills, he established himself as a printer and publisher at Norwich, where he earned an honorable place in the list of literary booksellers by the publication of a variety of elegant works, and especially by his edition of Sir T. B.'s Works and Correspondence (1835), on which he had expended the leisure of a dozen years, and with which his name is inseparably connected. During his residence at Norwich he took an active part in the establishment of the local Museum and Literary Institution, both of which still continue to flourish. In 1837 he removed to London, and he died at Hampstead, July, 1862. A sketch of his life by his son appeared in the Trans. of the Linnæan Soc., and another in the Baptist Mag. for May, 1863; the former dealing more with his literary and scientific character, the latter with his religious and private life. JAMES AUGUSTUS ST. JOHN, "traveller, linguist, author, and editor," was born in Wales in 1800, and removed to London about 1817. He was for a time sub-editor of J. S. Buckingham's Oriental Herald, and during a long and active literary life published numerous works, of which no one requires to be specially noticed here. His edition of the Religio Medici, and Hydriotaphia, appeared in 1838; and he also edited Bunyan's xxxii NOTICES OF FORMER EDITORS. Pilgrim's Progress, More's Utopia, Locke's Philosophical Works, Milton's Prose Works, and Bacon's New Atlantis. He died in 1875. There is a notice of him in Walford's Men of the Time, and in Allibone's Dict. of English Liter. JOHN PEACE was born in Bristol in 1785, was for forty years keeper of the City Library, and died unmarried on Durdham Down in 1861. He at one time, rather late in life, thought of entering Holy Orders, and in 1824 kept some terms at Cambridge with that object; but this intention was given up on account of the failure of his voice. Owing to delicate health in early life he had (he says) but a broken education, or no education at all (Axiom. p. 46). He was a most regular worshipper at the Cathedral, and in 1839 published anonymously An Apology for Cathedral Service, dedicated to the Poet Wordsworth, with whom he was intimate. He was a man of much quaint humour, with various peculiarities and prejudices, e.g. against railroads and the penny postage, and especially his "defiance of modern punctuation" (p. 240), evinced in his abhorrence of commas, colons, and semi-colons. Shortly after his death was published a volume of detached thoughts, put together by himself, with the punning title, Axiomata Pacis, and the colophon, Pax tibi, to which is prefixed a biographical preface, the source of the preceding notice. HENRY GARDINER, M.A., who was loved and respected by all who knew him, was born in Surrey in 1815, was educated for a surgeon, and came up to Oxford in 1839, rather later in life than usual, with the intention of taking |