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mainder by the late Sir Gilbert East, of Hall Place, Bart., in the parish of Hurley.

The old mansion of Lady Place, with its enclosure of fifteen acres, having fish-ponds communicating with the Thames, and venerable even in decay, having been much neglected, or inadequately occupied, for so many years, is almost past repair as a modern habitation, nor is its future destination at present known. It cannot fail, however, to be agreeable to the numerous readers of the Gentleman's

Magazine, to have an accurate view of a place of such notoriety (see Plate I.) from a recent drawing by that celebrated artist, John Buckler, Esq. F.A.S., to whom and his son, John Chessell Buckler, Esq. author of " Observations on the original architecture of Magdalen College, Oxford," and of "An Account of the Royal Palace at Eltham," our ecclesiastical and other antiquities are under the highest obligations for correct delineation and description.

MR. URBAN,

W. M.

Some brief Notices of the Family of COPINGER, of Buxhall, co. Suffolk. Glebe House, Navestock, Essex. SUBJOINED are a few scattered Notices of the Family of Copinger; a family which was once so famous for its hospitality, that "to live like Copinger" became a proverbial expression throughout the county of Suffolk.

They were originally, and at a very early period, seated at Farcings Hall, in the parish of Buxhall, and were lords of that manor. Here they flourished in great repute for many generations.

The first of this ancient and highlyrespectable family, of whom I find any authentic account on record, is John Copynger, who was twice married. His first wife appears to have been Anne, the only daughter of John Sorrel, from whom he inherited the manor of Bucks-hall. He deceased in 1517, and was interred in the church of Buxhall, with the following inscription, as given by Weever: viz.

"John Copynger, Esquire, Lord and Patrou, Anne and Jane his wives, who had vii. children, and dyceased an. MDXVII."

II. He was succeeded by his son,
Copinger, who married Bea-

[Jan.

trix; and who, dying on the 10th of March, 1532, was buried likewise in the same place, together with his wife, who deceased on the 2d of Feb. 1512, with the following memorial:

"Walter Copynger, gent. which died the x. of Marche, an. MDXXXII, and Beatrix his wife, the second of February MDXII."

The following curious grant, given in the year 1513 to this Sir Walter Copinger, by that ruthless monarch Henry the Eighth, who, in this instance seems to have had a special regard to the head of his loving subject,

is still extant in the Glebe-house at Buxhall:

:

"To all manor our subjects, as well of the spiritual pre-eminence and dignities, as of the temporal auctority, these our Letters hearing or seeing, and to every of them greeting. Whereas we be credibly informed that our trusty and well-beloved subject Walter Copinger is so diseased in his head that without his great danger he cannot be conveniently discovered of the same: In consideration whereof, we have by these presents licensed him to use and wear his Bonet upon his said head, as well in our presence as elsewhere, at his liberty. Whereof we will and command you and every of you to permit and suffer him so to do, without any your challenge, disturbance, or interruption to the contrary, as ye and every of you tender our pleasure.Given under our signet, at our manor of Greenwych, the 24th day of October, in the fourth year of our reigne.-Henry R."

They had issue two sons, viz. Henry, of whom hereafter, and William," who was bred a fishmonger in London, and so prospered, through God's good providence, in his trade, that he became Lord Mayor of that city in the year 1512, and received the honour of knighthood. What estate God gave him, which was very large, he divided at his death to God and man; that is, half to the poor, and other pious uses, and half to his heirs and kindred.”

"His bounty," says Fuller, "mindeth me of the words of Zaccheus to our Saviour: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.'-Luke, xix. 8.

"Demand not of me whether our Copinger made such plentiful restitution, being confident there was no cause thereof, seeing he was never one of the publicans; persons universally infamous for extortion. Other

Bordure."

III. Henry Copinger, the eldest son, succeeded his father at Buxhall. He married Agnes, the seventh daughter of Sir Thomas Jermyne, of Rushbroke, Knt., by Anne his wife, the daughter of Thomas Sprynge, of Lavenham, esq. They had issue eleven sons, of whom Ambrose was presented by his father, in 1569, to the rectory of Buxhall, and died in the following year.

IV. Henry, the fourth son, was born in 1550, and received his acade

mical education at St. John's College, Cambridge, of which Society he was elected Fellow. On entering into holy orders, he was promoted to a Prebendal stall in the cathedral church of York. By a mandate from Queen Elizabeth, he was elected Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, which, at her request, and to avoid a forcible removal, he afterwards resigned; but soon after this, viz. in 1577, he was presented by the Earl of Oxford, the then patron, to the rectory of Lavenham. He was an intimate friend of that eminent scholar and renowned wit of the seventeenth century, the Rev. George Ruggle, A.M. and Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, the ingenious writer of that celebrated dramatic satire, the comedy of "Ignoramus," and from him received the following legacy:

"Item, I give and bequeath to my worthy friend, Mr. Henry Copinger the elder, of Lavenham, fifty shillings to make him a ring."

Dr. Fuller, in his "Church History," gives the following interesting account of this spirited divine :

1622, Dec. 21.-Henry Copinger, formerly Fellow of St. John's College, in Cambridge, Prebendary of Yoike, once Chaplain to Ambrose Earl of Warwick (whose funeral sermon he preached), made Master of Magdalene College in Cambridge, by her Majesty's mandate, though afterwards resigning his right at the Queen's (shall I call it?) request, to prevent trouble, ended his religious life. He was the sixth son of Henry Copinger of Bucks Hall, in Suffolke, esquire, by Agnes, daughter of Sir Thomas Jermyn. His father, on his death-bed, asking him what course of life he would em

13

brace, he answered, he intended to be a divine. "I like it well," said the old gentleman, "otherwise what shall I say to Martin Luther, when I shall see him in heaven ; and he knows that God gave me eleven sons, and I made not one of them a Minister?"

expression proportionable enough to Luther's judgment, who maintained, some hours before his death, that the saints in another. Laneham living fell void; which heaven shall knowingly converse one with both deserved a good minister, being a rich parsonage; and needed so, it being more than suspicious that Dr. Reinolds, late incumbent, who ran away to Rome, had left some superstitious leaven behind him. The Earl of Oxford, being patron, presents Mr. Copinger to it, but adding withal that he would pay no tithes of his park, being almost half the land of the parish. Copinger rather than by such sinful gratitude to bedesired to resign it again to his lordship, you be of that mind, then take the tithes,' tray the rights of the church. • Well! if saith the Earl, I scorn that my estate should swell with church goods.' However, it afterwards cost Master Copinger sixteen hundred pounds, in keeping his questioned and recovering his detained rights, in suit with the agent for the next (minor) E. of Oxford and others; all which he left to his churches quiet possession; being zealous in God's cause, but remiss in his own. He lived forty and five years the painful parson of Laneham, in which market town there were about nine hundred communicants; amongst whom, all his time, no difference did arise which he did not compound. He had a bountiful hand and plentiful purse (his paternal inheritance, by death of elder brothers, and other transactions, descending upon him), bequeathing twenty pounds in money, and ten pounds per annum, to the poor of the parish; in the chancel whereof he lieth buried under a fair monument, dying on St. Thomas his day, in the threescore and twelfth year of his age."

Mr. Copinger deceased on the 21st of December, 1622, and was interred in the chancel of the church of Laven

ham; where, on the north side of the altar, a very handsome monument is erected to his memory, of marble and alabaster, gilt and painted. It consists of an arched recess, between two Corinthian pillars, supporting a cornice surmounted with the arms of the family. In this recess are represented, in alto relievo, the reverend divine and his wife, facing each other, and kneeling before a table, with their hands in the attitude of prayer. They are both habited in black, with white ruffs round their necks. Under the principal figures are three compartments.

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In the middle are seen their children habited in black, and kneeling before a covered table; eight sons, two and two, on one side, and four daughters, singly, on the other. The first of the former is represented cross-gartered down the leg, in the fashion alluded to by Shakspeare in the fifth act of his Twelfth Night. On either side of the monument, upon a pedestal, stands an angel at full length, with a scroll in his hand, on one of which is written, "dilecti accipite coronam vitæ ;" and on the other, "mortui venite ad judicium." Over one angel, on the cornice, "novissimus lectus sepulchrum;" and over the other, "viventes sequentur mortuos."

On a tablet, on the left hand, is this inscription:

"Sacrum memoria Henrici Coppingeri, antiquissima Coppingeroru familiâ, in agro hoc Suffolciensi, oriundi, hujus ecclesiæ per quadraginta et quinque annos pastoris; pacifici, fidelissimi, et vigilantissim.i. Monumentum hoc, amoris et pietatis ergo, dilectissima uxor, Anna, marito optimè merenti, heu invita superstes, morens posuit.

Amans maritus, prole fœcundus pater,
Sancti pius pastor gregis,
Qui sensa dextrè codicis docuit sacri
Nec voce quàm vitâ majus;

Qui largâ abundè favit indigis manu
Securus annonæ domi.

Hic plenus annis, plenior deo, jacet,
Secum polo gregem trahens
Mutus jacet; sed lingua quæ vivo decus,
Vitam paravit mortuo.'

39

On a tablet on the left side

"This monument was erected at the sole cost of Mrs. Ann Coppinger, in memory of her deare husband, the Rev'd and godly divine Mr. Henry Copinger, (fourth son of Henry Copinger, of Buxhal, in this county, esq. by Agnes his wife, daughter to Sir Tho's. Jermine, of Rushbrooke Hall, knt.) the painful and vigilant Rector of this church by the space of 45 years, Prebendary of the metropolitan church of St. Peter's in Yorke, Lord of the towne, and patron of the church of Buxhall aforesaide; who marryed Ann, daughter to Henry Fisher, of Linne, in Norfolk, gent., and by her had 8 sonues and 4 daughters; and, after he had lived godly 72

[Jan.

years, died peaceably the 21st of Dec. A.

1622."

On a tablet underneath

"This monument of Dr. Henry Copinger was new beautified, Auno Domini 1721, by Mrs. Judith Brinkley, daughter of Thomas Burly, gent. and Margaret, his wife, third daughter and coheir of Ambrose Copinger, D. D. by Judith his wife, only daughter of Roger Keddington, gent. ; which Ambrose was second son of the said Henry, and also Rector of this parish, and of Buxhall, where he was buried."

In a circle-"Justorum memoria benedicetur."

On the top of the monument are three escutcheons, viz. :

1. The arms of Copinger.

2.

Jermyn, Sable, a crescent between two mullets in pale, Arg. 3. In the centre, six quarterings; viz. 1st, Copinger; 2d, on a bend four...; 3d, Clopton, Sabl. a bend Arg. between two cotises dancette; 4th, Arg a fess between three boars' heads couped; 5th, Arg. a fess between three bugle horns stringed proper; 6th, Copinger.

Under the arch, Clopton impaling Fisher; viz. Gul. a chevron between three lions passant Or.

Mr. Copinger devised by his will,* dated the 31st Dec. 1621, as follows:

"To four of the most aged, needy, and impotent persons in Lanehame, which shall be after the death of Ambrose my son, and Judith his now wife, I give all the benefit and profit which shall arise of the tenement and yard, which now James Write dwelleth in and used, and all the free meadow called the Church Meadow, and the three rood, more or less, of copie lying in that meadow, if the lord of that manor will consent thereunto, to the use of four such parties as before be named successively for ever; which four persons, proposed to receive that benefit, are to be nominated by my sons, William, Henry, Ralph, Francis, and Thomas, the parson of the town then being, the headboroughs of that town, or the greater number of them; and if all my sons be dead, or being requested to join in choice of any of these, refuse, then my mind is, that the parson and headboroughs, if the parson be resident, otherwise the greater part of the headboroughs without the parson, to make

1831.]

choice of such as shall receive that help; and if the lord of the manor will not permit the copy plece therein to be applied to that good use, then I give that copy piece, after Ambrose and his now wife's death, to Thomas my youngest son, and his heirs; the intent of me is that the headboroughs of Laneham have the estate of the land to the only use beforesaid."

Ambrose having died in or about

Nov. 1644, and Judith his wife on the 3d of Nov. 1675, the charity was, soon after the demise of the latter, applied in accordance with the will of

the testator.

The following account of the first appointment of persons to partake of the charity, is extracted from the "Account Book :"

"Of all the five sonnes which the donor, by his will, did appoint to joyne with the parson and headboroughs of the towne, in the choice of the foure poore persons, there was none that was alive at the death of Mrs. Judith Copinger, save only Mr. Henry, who, being requested to joyne in the said choice, did refuse, and made his owne request to the other electors that HE HIMSELF might be chosen for one of the foure to partake of the benefit. To whoin, being very aged and low in estate, his said request was readiely granted."

FOREIGN LITERARY FRAGMENTS.
MR. URBAN,

Jan. 2.

ONE of the earliest specimens of a Diatessaron, is the third part of Le Romant des trois Palerinaiges, 4to. b. 1. 15.-The first part contains the Life of Man in this world; the second, treats of the soul separate from the body; and the third is a life of Jesus Christ, compiled from the four Gospels. The author was Guillaume de Guileville, monk of Chaaliz (Chalus ?).

The first mention of the Small-pox is in an essay on that disorder, by Aaron of Alexandria, a priest and physician of the seventh century. He derives its origin from Egypt, where the Arabs caught it, and introduced it by their conquests into Europe.

Thomas d'Andrada, a Portuguese monk of the Augustine order, followed Don Sebastian into Africa, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Alcazer Kebir. The court sent over a sufficient sum of money to purchase his freedom, but he nobly preferred remaining in slavery, that he might console his fellow-captives. He composed a little treatise, on the Sufferings of Christ, during his detention, which has been often re-printed.

15

Barbier d'Aucour, a French advocate of talent, married the daughter of his bookseller, as a discharge of his bill.

A remarkable story is told of a French dog, in the Variétés sérieuses et amusantes. The bridge St. Michel at Paris fell down in 1616; a child, who preservation of his life to two beams was buried among the ruins, owed the which struck against each other in falling, and formed a sort of shed over his side, and escaped in the same him. A dog happened to be close to he barked with all his might, and drew manner. Finding himself a prisoner, several persons to the spot, who extricated him; but missing the child, who had not been observed, he returned to the ruins, resumed his former place, and began to bark again, till he attracted attention once more, and was taken out, as well as the child.

Louis XII. said that lawyers treat the laws as shoemakers do leather; they stretch, bend, and batter them, till they bring them to what shape they please.

Hobbes observes, that ignorance of true principles is less dangerous than pertinacity in false ones.

Manilius has a line well worth the attention of Reviewers :-" Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli."

To think and reason justly in a confined sphere, says a French writer, is by no means easy. This should be suggested to those who are fond of solitude.

The well-known lines, "Sunt aries, taurus, &c." were made by Anianus, an astronomer of the 15th century, author of a Latin poem on astronomy.

Angran d'Alleray, a magistrate of Paris, was brought before the revolutionary tribunal, in 1794, at the age of 69, on the charge of having forwarded money to the royalists. He acknowledged that he had done so to M. de la Luzerne, his son-in-law. "Were you ignorant that the law forbade it?" said one of the judges. "No," he replied; "but the law of nature spoke louder to my heart than the law of the republic."

The practice of computing by the æra of Jesus Christ, was first invented by Dionysius, surnamed the Less, a Roman monk, in the year 532.

Vosgieu (l'advocat) says, in his Dictionnaire Géographique, that one part of the city of Orense, in Spain, which is situated at the foot of a hill, suffers

16

the severest cold, while another quarter enjoys the mildness of spring.

Who is the author of the pentameter, which alludes to the frequent vicissitudes of the Margraviate of Brandenburgh?

Mutavit dominos Marchia sæpe suos. Kirloff, a living Russian poet, is the author of several dramatic pieces, but his fame is chiefly owing to his talents as a fabulist. The Countess Orloff, an admirer of his writings, formed the idea of extending their reputation throughout Europe, by translations; but her design was interrupted by death, in 1824. However, her husband completed it, and published two volumes with French and Italian versions. The principal French poets, of both sexes, were concerned in the work, particularly Ségur, Daru, Jouy, the Delavignes, Rouget de l'Isle (author of the Marsellais Hymn), Stassart, Madame Delphine Gay, &c. The typographical part was executed by Firmin Didot. On account of the many composers, this work has been compared to the famous Garland of Julia. CYDWELI.

CRITICAL REMARKS ON FRENCH WRITERS.

Character of Crevier.-His arrangement of facts (in the History of the Roman Empire) does not want order: it contains just remarks, useful reflections, and good feeling in the course of the narrative; but the style is heavy, diffuse, generally careless, faulty, and without elevation.-Sabatier de Castres.

Maupertius.-Good philosopher, and able literatist. In his works, elegance does not detract from depth, or precision from perspicuity. Method renders every thing intelligible, as well as easy to retain. By turns, geometrician, astronomer, naturalist, geographer, moralist, he is always an instructive and amusing writer, because lessons are pleasing when they do not come as lessons, and when one has the art of informing, without the repulsive tone of dictation.-Ibid.

Saint Real.-Pupil of Varillas, whose style, taste, and love of the marvellous, he has adopted. However, he excels his master in purity of style, and exactness of language, and has more ability, though he has written less. If he had rejected untrue anecdotes, and chosen better authenticated facts, his pieces of history m have passed for models; but ! of Ve

[Jan.

nice, that of the Gracchi, and the history of Don Carlos, are now regarded, and with reason, as ingenious romances, which contain nothing true but the names of the parties, and some facts which are too much adapted to his brilliant imagination. In spite of these defects, we cannot refuse him the praise of genius, and of having shed over his style a seductive illusion, which makes us regret that we cannot add conviction to the interest which he produces in the mind of his readers. -Ibid.

CYDWELI.

MR. URBAN,

Jan. 3.

THE Syrian Christians of St. Thomas, in the South of India, appear, from the narrative of Dr. Buchanan, to be a very interesting people, though, indeed, the late Bishop Heber, a less sanguine judge, was inclined to think his representations overcharged. One of the most obscure points in their history is the origin of their name some referring it to St. Thomas the Apostle, and others, I believe, to a Nestorian missionary of the sixth century.

;

There is, however, a legend on this subject, which ought to be examined, even if rejected at last. 1 mean the Apostolical History of Abdias, discovered by Wolfgang Lazius in a monastery of Germany, and published in 1551. It is supposed to have been written about the sixth century, and to have been framed from older materials, perhaps from the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. I have not seen it myself, but extract this information from a French miscellany.

The chapters are entitled as follow: 1. Peter; 2. Paul; 3. Andrew (nothing is said of his coming into Scotland); 4. James the Great; 5. John; 6. James the Less, Simon, and Jude; 7. Matthew; 8. Bartholomew; 9. Thomas; 10. Philip. The labours of Bartholomew, as well as of Thomas, are placed in India, but in what part is not mentioned in the extract. The legend of Thomas is as follows:

An Indian merchant passing through The Syria, stopped at Jerusalem. Deity appeared to him in open day, in a human form, and demanded what brought him so far from his country. He replied, that he came from his master, King Gundafer, and was seeking a skilful architect to build him a palace. He was led to the house of St. Thomas, who was pointed out to him as a fit person, and they departed together for India. They arrived after