Echoes of old Lancashire

This seems to have been a rather favourite jest, for it is given also in the “Pleasant Conceits of Old Hobson,” 1607, and in the “Mery Tales,” 1530, and is one of the mediæval jokes given by Wright in his “Latin Stories” (Percy Society).

Alexander Barclay and Manchester

Probably the first purely literary reference to Manchester is that contained in the first eclogue of Alexander Barclay. Of the two shepherds who carry on a dialogue, Cornix is the chief speaker, and graphically pourtrays the miseries of life at court. Early in the conversation comes this passage: —

Cornix…Thus all be fooles which willingly there dwell,Coridon, the court is the bayting place of hell.CoridonThat is hardly saide man, by the roode of rest.CornixI graunt it is harde, but to say truth is best,But yet shall I proue my saying veritable,Aduert my wordes, see if I be culpable.Unto our purpose: by diuers wayes threeMen may be fooles, I shall them count to thee:They all be fooles which set their thought and mindeThat thing for to seke which they shall neuer finde.And they be fooles which seke thing with delite,Which if they finde is harm and no profite;And he is a foole, a sotte, and a geke also,Which choseth a place unto the same to go,And where diuers wayes lead thither directlyHe choseth the worst and most of ieopardie:As if diuers wayes laye unto Islington,To Stow on the Wold, Quaueneth or Trompington,To Douer, Durham, to Barwike or Exeter,To Grantham, Totnes, Bristow, or good Manchester,To Roan, Paris, to Lions or Floraunce.CoridonWhat ho man abide, what already in Fraunce.Lo, a fayre journey, and shortly ended to,With all these townes what thing have we to do?CornixBy God man knowe thou that I haue had to doIn all these townes and yet in many mo,To see the worlde in youth me thought was best,And after in age to geue my selfe to rest.CoridonThou might haue brought one and set by our village.CornixWhat man I might not for lacke of cariage.To cary mine owne selfe was all that euer I might,And sometime for ease my sachell made I light.CoridonTo our first matter we better must entende,Els in twelue monthes we scant shall make an ende.(Spenser Society’s Reprint, pp. 5-6.)

This passage has not escaped the notice either of Mr. T. H. Jamieson, who has edited Barclay’s translation of the “Stultifera Navis,” or of Dr. A. W. Ward, who has written his life in the “Dictionary of National Biography,” and puts the query that Godmanchester may be meant. The eclogue from which the quotation is taken, together with two others, are said to be “gathered out of a booke named in Latin, ‘Miseriæ Curialium,’ compiled by Æneas Silvius, Poet and Oratour.” This, of course, means that member of the Piccolomini family, who, after an earlier life not free from reproach, made a decorous pontiff, as Pope Pius II., and died in 1464. This book, drawn from his own experience of the unhappy life of courtiers, was the most popular of all his writings. It was often reprinted, but whether Barclay worked from a printed or a MS. copy is not known. Now, what his principles of translation were we know, both from his declaration and practice. In his version of Brandt’s “Ship of Fools,” he tells how he added and omitted as seemed best for his purpose of producing a book that should aid in strengthening the morality of the time. And in dealing with Æneas Sylvius, he has been even freer than in dealing with Brandt. Of the “Miseriæ Curialium,” there are several editions in the British Museum, and those of Paris (1475?), Cologne (1468?), Rome (1485? and 1578), have been examined for me by Dr. W. A. Shaw, to whom my best thanks are due for his kindness. “The book,” he says, “of Æneas Sylvius is in prose, and, in epistolary form addressed to ‘dñō Johī de Arch Pspicaci et claro Jurū cōsulto.’ There is none of the eclogue and dialogue form of Barclay’s work; there are no interlocutors, and there are no references, save to such names of classical antiquity as serve for satirical notice, in, say, Juvenal, with the exception that, in the section treating of the table and pleasures of eating, he refers briefly to the place of origin of the better known delicacies. There is no mention of Manchester, nor of England, from first to last, nor any possibility of it from the style of the letter, and taking it casually, side by side with Barclay, I cannot find a parallel point which would suggest a translation.”

We may, therefore, probably regard the passage as strictly autobiographical, and conclude that, in his wandering life as a preaching friar, Barclay, at some time or other, visited Manchester. From internal evidences, the eclogues are assigned to the year 1514, but it is curious that whilst there is a long reference to the death of John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, in 1500, there is none to his successors, Redmayne (1501) or Stanley (1509). The early editions of the eclogues are undated, and the first three eclogues were apparently issued before the others. There are many points of interest in regard to the life and work of Alexander Barclay, which cannot be discussed in directing attention to one of the earliest – probably the very earliest – purely literary mention of a place that in after ages has not been without claims to distinction in literature and science. The date of Barclay’s birth is conjecturally, but with tolerable certainty, fixed in 1476, and he died in 1552. Since the biographies by Mr. Jamieson and Dr. Ward were written, some fresh information has appeared in Mr. James Gairdner’s “Letters and Papers of the reign of Henry VIII.,” vol. xiii., pt. 2 (1893). These show that whilst Barclay was conscious of ecclesiastical abuses and desirous of their reform, he was an object of suspicion to those who were carrying out the work of the suppression of the monasteries, and ran some risk by his retention of the distinctive habit of the friars. Robert Ward writes on October 9th, 1538, to Cromwell that at Barking, Suffolk, when Barclay preached there in the Whitsun holidays, he did not declare the King’s supremacy. Ward states that he reproached the preacher for not doing so, but does not record his answer. On October 12th, William Dynham writes to Cromwell: “Of late I came to the priory of St. Germayne in Cornwall, and sat at supper with the Prior, accompanied by Alexander Barckley, who the day before preached in honour of the Blessed Virgin, but not so much to the edifying of his audience as his demeanour next day was, I heard, to their destruction. At supper I moved such questions as I thought might do good to the audience. He served my purpose, till, ‘after a sodeyne dompe, he brake silence, as a man that had spoken too well (and yet a frere in a somewhat honester weed),’ and glorified himself. He first protested he would preach no new things, not set out by the King and his Council. I answered, wondering what he meant, when all men of literature and judgment ‘knew that our so Christian a Prince and his Council set forth no new thing but the gospel of Christ, and the sincere verity thereof.’ Barckley replied, ‘I would to God that at the least the laws of God might have as much authority as the laws of the realm.’ Asked him what he meant, and Barckley said, Nothing, but he thought men were too busy pulling down images without special commandment of the Prince. Dynham answered, he knew none pulled down, except such as idolatry was committed unto, and reminded him ‘of St. Margarets Patent is rode’ (the rood of St. Margaret Pattens in London), and the assembly, although somewhat dispraised, yet for the intent and good fact thereof, tolerated. Here, he demanded, what followed thereof? I requiring him to answer his demand, he said I knew how many tenements and some people were burnt soon upon. ‘What, Barckley?’ said I, ‘here is somewhat moved; ye have a versatile ingeyne, but were ye so sleper as an eel, here will I hold you. Would you infect this audience with that opinion, that God for such cause plagued them? Your cankered heart is disclosed. My true little stomach, with reverence of the prior and his board, must be opened lest it break. You are, Barckley, a false knave and a dissembling frere. You get no pence might I rule here. You seek your own profit vocall to hinder the truth more than unity to set forth the true and princely endeavour of our most Crysten, and of his church Supremest Head, most laudable enterprises; whereof, I trust, thou shalt hear.’”

Writing to Cromwell on October 28th, Latimer says that “A man has written to him that Frere Bartlow does much hurt in ‘Corwall and in Daynshyre,’ both with open preaching and private communication. Suspects he has some comfort from Rome, through Dr. Nycolasse.’ The Abbot of Evesham, the bearer, asks Latimer to thank Cromwell for him. Thinks he will find few who will better remember his kindnesses. He seems a very civil and honest man, and one who puts all his trust in Cromwell. Requests Cromwell to maintain him in his right to what he has obtained by his goodness.” These passages enable Mr. Gairdner to identify the subject of this anecdote told by Foxe, the Martyrologist: “Hereunto also pertaineth the example of Friar Bartley, who wearing still his friar’s cowl after the suppression of religious houses, Cromwell coming through Paul’s Churchyard, and espying him in Rheines’s shop. ‘Yea,’ said he, ‘will not that cowl of yours be left off yet? And if I hear by one o’clock that this apparel be not changed, thou shalt be hanged immediately, for example to all others.’ And so, putting his cowl away, he durst never wear it after.” It is satisfactory to know that he survived these dangers, received some preferment, and died peaceably in 1552.

THE END

1

We append a few short notices of this family, in chronological order.

1333-1345. In the time of Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, W. Lurtyng, of Chester, is mentioned. See 31st Report of Record Office, p. 82.

The following are extracts from the “Liverpool Municipal Records”: —

1581. On the 21st August, John Lyrting, residing in Juggler Street, Liverpool, was assessed for a “Taxation or Levy at the sum of xviid.” – the highest charge in the street being 2s. 6d., and the lowest 4d. – ii., 218.

1617. Thomas Lurting, Juggler Street. – ii., 827.

1628, 7th October. “Item, wee prsent Thomas Lurtinge for switchinge Nicholas Rydinge wth a sticke.” – iii., 63.

1636/7. Nich Lurting first in jury. – iii., 177.

1644. John Lurting, “saler,” burgess of Liverpool. – iii., 359.

1644 and 1649. Peter Lurting and Thomas Lurting, freemen (iii., 361). Also John Lurting, Smith, Wm. Lurting de Cestr, Wm. Lurting, Smith, and Robert Lurting.

1651. “Tho. Lurting, for a Tussle upon Thos. Hoskins, iiis. iiiid.” – iii., 506.

1663-4. Peter Lurting, Mayor.

1672. Peter Lurting, tenant of Godscroft, 1s. rent; Rich. Lurting, of a smithy at Water Side, 5s.; Rich. Lurting, Castle Hill, 13s. for 13 yards front.

2

Majorca.

3

For further details on the commerce of the Arabs, and especially as to the extended currency of Kufic coins, J. J. A. Worsaae’s “Danes in England,” 1852; Ernest Babelon’s “Du Commerce des Arabes,” 1882; Le Bon’s “La Civilisation des Arabes,” 1884; may be consulted.

4

“Remarks on the Antiquities found at Cuerdale,” p. 2.

5

This is not a slave trading announcement as the unwary might suppose. “Baby” is an old word for a doll. It has survived in the Lancashire dialect in its more extended meaning of a small image or representation. “Aw’ve a book full of babs” is a phrase in Edwin Waugh’s most famous poem.

6

When the Rev. Joseph Bradshaw was in extremis, Mr. T. J. Trafford sold the next presentation of Wilmslow for £6,000 to Mr. E. V. Fox, who nominated the Rev. George Uppleby, B.A. The Bishop of Chester arguing that this was a simoniacal transaction, refused to induct, and a see-saw litigation ensued, ending in a judgment of the House of Lords in favour of Mr. Fox!

7

Those who desire to follow the fortunes of the Traffords in greater detail will find it recorded in Richmond’s “History of the Trafford Family,” a magnificent volume privately printed for the present baronet. The General Indexes of the Chetham Society also supply abundant evidences of the influence and consideration of the family.

8

The story of the life of Bauwens is told in “Un Précurseur de Richard Lenior,” par A. Boghaert-Vaché (Mulhouse, 1886).

9

I have to thank the Vicar (Rev. T. E. Powell) for searching the registers. There is no gravestone.

10

The authorities for the biography of Hugone de Maincestre are Dugdale’s “History of Warwickshire,” p. 763; Gregson’s “Fragments,” p. 235; Baines’s “History of Lancashire,” vol. ii., pp. 193, 356; vol. iv., p. 826; “Nicholas: Trivet Annales,” 1845 (and in Daccher, Spicil. Vet. Scrip., tom. viii.); “Robert of Brunne’s Rhyming Chronicle;” Hibbert-Ware’s “Foundations of Manchester;” “Pits de Angliæ Scriptoribus;” “Bale de Scriptoribus Britannicis,” cent. v., num. 62; Fuller’s “Worthies of England.” If the reader desires to see an example of the method of building without bricks, he may with advantage consult the notice of Hugh of Manchester in Edwin Butterworth’s “Biography of Eminent Natives of Manchester.”

11

Vultus is here translated literally. The metaphor is one frequently used, and is a reference to John x., 14.

12

An interesting account of this benevolent woman is given in “Chambers’s Miscellany,” 1872, vol. iv., No. 50.

13

Chief magistrate of the police.