Various - Notes and Queries, Number 78, April 26, 1851

The following communications have reached us since the publication of our remarks on the proposed Monumentarium Anglicanum (No. 73. p. 217. et seq.). They serve to show how much interest the subject has excited among those best qualified to judge of the great utility of some well-organised plan for the preservation of a record of our still existing monuments.

Mr. Dunkin's letter (which was accompanied by a copy of the prospectus issued by him in 1844) claims precedence, as showing the steps which that gentleman has already taken. It is a communication highly creditable to his exertions in the cause, but does not alter our views as to the practicability of any successful attempt to accomplish this object by individual exertion.

In No. 73. Vol. iii. of "Notes and Queries" you have honoured me by an allusion to the Monumenta Anglicana I have in the press, as "a plan which would have your hearty concurrence and recommendation, if it were at all practicable; but which must fail from its very vastness." It may be so; but the motto of my family is Essayez . Every "gigantic scheme" must have a commencement, and this "scheme," I am perfectly aware, is one "that no individual, however varied in attainments and abilities, could without assistance hope to achieve." My father, upwards of half a century since, commenced collecting mortuary memorials; many of the monuments from which he copied the inscriptions have since been destroyed by time, and many, very many, more by the ruthless innovations of beautifying churchwardens. These "very vast" collections—the labour of a life—however, only form a portion of the materials I now posses; for since I issued my prospectus in 1844, I have received many thousands of inscriptions and rubbings of brasses from clergymen and others; and I trust I shall be favoured with still further assistance, as in all cases where information is rendered, the source whence derived shall be most thankfully and freely acknowledged.

The plan I have adopted with regard to arrangement is to folio each page three times, viz., i. each parish by itself; ii. each county; iii. alphabetically; so that each parish can be considered complete in itself; each county can be bound up by itself; or the whole alphabetically, gazetteer-wise.

The index will be also in three divisions,—i. general; ii. names of places; iii. names of persons.

With regard to the number of volumes,—I need not say that that is entirely in nubibus . My impression is limited to seventy-five copies, the same as my father's Oxfordshire , with which it corresponds in size.

I should have preferred seeing the government performing the task of preserving manuscripts of all existing monuments; but it is the fashion in Britain for government to leave all apparently national undertakings to individual exertion. I will here conclude with a quotation from the report I have just published of the Transactions at the Congress of the British Archæological Association held in Worcester:

"Lamentation is, however, worse than useless: the spirit of the age forbids all idle mourning. If we would awaken a sympathy and interest in our pursuits, we must gird up our loins like men, and be doing, and that right earnestly; for it is hopeless any longer waiting for the government, as a 'Deus ex machina,' to help us to rescue our antiquities from destruction."

Our next is from a correspondent (who has favoured us with his name) who proposes a scheme almost more extensive than that advocated by Mr. Dunkin, but who differs from that gentleman by recognising the necessity of combined endeavour to carry it out.

A few years since I propounded a scheme for an Ecclesiologicon Anglicanum , or record of the history, not only architectural and monumental, but also local and traditional, of every parish in England. Though I had long conceived such a design, I must confess myself indebted to some excellent remarks on the subject which appeared in the Ecclesiologist (New Series, No. x., April 1846). Fully aware that so stupendous a work could never be accomplished by any single individual, I compiled a prospectus of my design, and invited the co-operation of all antiquaries. I proposed to publish at intervals, and in alphabetical order, the parishes of every county, and by dividing the labour among different coadjutors, and giving to each a separate branch of inquiry, thereby insuring, by successive revisions, a certainty of correctness, I hoped to succeed in the undertaking. My project was, however, laid aside by reason of other engagements; but, as I still think it worthy of consideration, I have troubled you with these "Notes" in the hope that, by publication in your pages, they may be the means of suggesting to others interested in the matter the practicability of carrying them out. Though with no definite object in view, but with a presentiment of their after utility, I have, during many provincial campaigns, collected architectural notes, as well as genealogical memoranda, from the churches I have visited. To these, such as they are, any of your readers is welcome, for the purposes to which I have referred, and I know many who would gladly send their contributions to such an undertaking.

Our next letter, though brief, is valuable as furnishing a case in point, to prove the practical utility which would result from the realisation of some well-considered scheme for the attainment of the great national object which we are advocating.

As an instance of the practical use of such a collection, let me inform your readers that in 1847, being engaged in an ejectment case on the home circuit, it became most important to show the identity of a young lady in the pedigree, the parish register of St. Christopher le Stocks only giving the name and date of burial. I found that when St. Christopher's was pulled down for the enlargement of the Bank of England, some kind antiquary had copied all the monuments. The book was found at the Herald's College; it contained an inscription proving the identity, and a verdict was obtained.

Our last communication is, we have reason to believe, from an active and zealous Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, who would heartily co-operate in carrying out the practical suggestions thrown out in his letter.

In Vol. iii, p. 218., you suggest that the Society of Antiquaries is the body which should undertake the task of forming a record of existing monuments in churches. Entirely agreeing in the opinion you have expressed, I would venture to offer some remarks on the subject. The undertaking is a vast and laborious one, and can only be effected by great subdivision of labour.

That the Society of Antiquaries is the fittest agent for the work, I think admits of little doubt; its Fellows are widely spread throughout the country. In every neighbourhood may be found one or more gentlemen able and willing to give their aid, and to excite others to assist. The Archæological Institute and the British Archæological Association would doubtless add the weight of their influence, and the personal assistance of their members.

The clergy throughout the country would be able and willing labourers; and surely these conjoined forces are adequate to the occasion.

One consideration suggests itself, viz., whether the record be confined to monuments in churches, or whether it should be extended to those in churchyards? I think it should be so extended, partially—that is, that all the monuments in churches should be given; and such of the monuments in churchyards as, upon a careful inspection, may appear to be in any way worthy of preservation. We do not perhaps want the ten thousand "afflictions sore" which ten thousand John Smiths are stated to have "long time bore."