Notes and Queries | Page 5

Cambridge, Dr.
Stamford, Preb. of York, and Mr. Banks the present Incumbent of the
Great Church in Hull. She added, withall, that The Decay of Christian
Piety was hers (The Lady Packington's) also, but disowned any of the

rest to be her Mother's.
"This is a true Copy of what I wrote, from Mr. Caulton's Mouth, two
days before his Decease.
"Witness my hand,
"Nov. 15. 98.
"JOHN HEWYT."
"Bp. Fell tells us, that all these Tracts were written by the excellent
Author (whom he makes to be one and the same person) at severall
times, as y'e exigence of the Church, and the benefit of soules directed
y'r composures; and that he (the Author) did likewise publish them
apart, in the same order as they were made. The last, it seems (w'ch is
_The Lively Oracles_), came out in 1678, the very year Dr. Woodhead
died. Had the Author liv'd longer, we should have had his Tract _Of the
Government of the Thoughts_, a work he had undertaken; and certainly
(as Bp. Fell hath told us), had this work been finished, 'twould have
equall'd, if not excelled, whatever that inimitable hand had formerly
wrote. Withall it may be observ'd, that the Author of these Tracts
speaks of the great Pestilence, and of the great Fire of London, both
w'ch happen'd after the Restoration, whereas Bp. Chappell died in 1649.
And further, in sect. vii. of the _Lively Oracles_, n. 2., are these words,
w'ch I think cannot agree to Bp. Chappell [and less to Mr. Woodhead].
_I would not be hasty in charging Idolatry upon the Church of Rome,
or all in her Communion; but that their Image-Worship is a most futall
snare, in w'ch vast numbers of unhappy Souls are taken, no Man can
doubt, who hath with any Regard travailed in Popish Countries: I
myself, and thousands of others, whom the late troubles, or other
occasions, sent abroad, are, and have been witnesses thereof_. {293}
These words seem to have been spoke by one that had been at Rome,
and was forced into those Countries after the troubles broke out here.
But as for Chappell, he never was at Rome, nor in any of those
Countries.
"As for Archbp. Stern, no Man will believe him to have any just Title
to any of these Tracts. [The last Passage concerning idolatry, will not
agree with Mr. Woodhead, nor the rest with Lady Packington.]
"In a letter from Mr. Hearne, dat. Oxon, Mar. 27, 1733, said by Dr.
Clavering, Bp. of Petr. to be wrote by one Mr. Basket, a Clergyman of
Worcestershire. See Dr. Hamond's Letters published by Mr. Peck, et

ultra Quære."
On so disputed a point as the authorship of the _Whole Duty of Man_,
your readers will probably welcome any discussion by one so
competent to form an opinion in such matters as Hearne.
The letter above given was unknown to the editor of Mr. Pickering's
edition.
J.E.B. MAYOR.
Marlborough College.
[Footnote 2: The printed copy has Trinity College.]
* * * * *
MISTAKE ABOUT GEORGE WITHER.
In Campbell's Notices of the British Poets (edit. 1848 p. 234.) is the
following, passage from the short memoir of George Wither:--
"He was even afraid of being put to some mechanical trade, when he
contrived to get to London, and with great simplicity had proposed to
try his fortune at court. To his astonishment, however, he found that it
was necessary to flatter in order to be a courtier. To show his
independence, he therefore wrote his _Abuses Whipt and Stript_, and,
instead of rising at court, was committed for some months to the
Marshalsea."
The author adds a note to this passage, to which Mr. Peter Cunningham
(the editor of the edition to which I refer) appends the remark inclosed
between brackets:--
"He was imprisoned for his _Abuses Whipt and Stript_; yet this could
not have been his first offence, as an allusion is made to a former
accusation. [It was for The Scourge (1615) that his first known
imprisonment took place.]"
I cannot discover upon any authority sufficient ground for Mr.
Campbell's note resecting a former accusation against Wither. He was
undoubtedly imprisoned for his _Abuses Whipt and Stript_, which first
appeared in print in 1613, but I do not think an earlier offence can be
proved against him. It has been supposed, upon the authority of a
passage in the _Warning Piece to London_, that the first edition of this
curious work appeared in 1611; but I am inclined to think that the
lines,--
"In sixteen hundred ten and one, I notice took of public crimes,"
refers to the period at which the "Satirical Essays" were composed. Mr.

Willmott, however (_Lives of the Sacred Poets_, p. 72.), thinks that
they point to an earlier publication. But