The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 335, October 11, 1828

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Various. The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 335, October 11, 1828

LAVENHAM CHURCH

FIRE TOWERS AND BELFRIES

BELLE SAVAGE INN

THE FLOWER AND THE OAK. IMITATED FROM THE ITALIAN

FROM ZAPPI

CROMLEHS

THE ALPINE HORN

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

ENGLISH GARDENING

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

THE DANDY TRAVELLER

ENCOMIUM MORIÆ, OR THE PRAISE OF FOLLY

VILLANOVA MILL

NOTES OF A READER

STORY OF RIENZI

ENGLISH WARS

CHAIN OF BEING

RABBIS

BARBER-SURGEONS

THE SELECTOR, AND LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS

THE COFFEE-DRINKER’S MANUAL

PERILS OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE IN SOUTH AMERICA

THE ANECDOTE GALLERY

LORD BYRON’S INTERVIEW WITH A MONK

THE GATHERER

ON LORD GROSVENOR’S ANNUAL INCOME

NOTICE FROM THE PUBLISHER

Отрывок из книги

Lavenham, or Lanham, a small town north of Sudbury, was once eminent for its manufactures, when there were eight or nine cloth-halls in the place, inhabited by rich clothiers. The De Veres, Earls of Oxford, whose names are blazoned in our history, held the manor from the reign of Henry I. till that of Elizabeth, and one of the noble family obtained a charter from Edward III. authorizing his tenants at this place to pass toll-free throughout all England, which grant was confirmed by Elizabeth. But the manufacturing celebrity of Lavenham has dwindled to spinning woollen yarn, and making calimancoes and hempen cloth; the opulent clothiers have shuffled off their mortal coil, and proved that “the web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”

The church of Lavenham is, however, a venerable wreck of antiquity, and is accounted the most beautiful fabric of the kind in Suffolk. It is chiefly built of freestone, the rest being of curious flintwork; its total length is 150 feet, and its breadth 68. From concurrent antiquarian authorities we learn that the church was built by the De Veres, in conjunction with the Springs, wealthy clothiers at Lavenham. This is attested by the different quarterings of their respective arms on the building. The porch is an elegant piece of architecture, very highly enriched with the shields, garters, &c. of many of the most noble families in the kingdom, among which are the letters I.O., probably intended for the initials of John, the 14th Earl of Oxford, who married the daughter of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. He is conjectured to have erected this porch.

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In the churchyard is a very old gravestone, which formerly had a Saxon inscription. Kirby, in his account of the monasteries of Suffolk, says that here, on the tomb of one John Wiles, a bachelor, who died in 1694, is this odd jingling epitaph:—

But as the point and oddity may not be directly evident to all, perhaps some of our readers will furnish us with a pithy translation for our next.

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