In reply to a Query as to the meaning of this epithet in an obituary notice, quoted, in Vol. i, p. 384., your correspondent Arun suggests, in the same volume, p. 489., that it was most likely "used in its primary signification, and in the sense in which we still apply it to troops in the pay of a state, foreign to their own." I cannot help thinking, that by the designation mercenary was implied something more disreputable than that merely of "one who, having no settled cure, was at liberty to be 'hired;'" and in this I am borne out by Chaucer, no mean authority, who, in his well-known picture of the parson, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, amongst the various items of piety and virtuousness with which, in that inimitable piece of character-painting, he credits the "pore persoun of a toun," distinctly states (I quote Mr. Wright's Percy Society edition),—

Now this emphatic disclaimer shows clearly enough that when Chaucer wrote, to be a mercenary preacher was not, in reputation at least, a desirable position; and whether some two centuries and a half later, the appellation became less objectionable, is a question not unworthy of elucidation. No lengthened transcript is needed from so popular a description; its whole spirit is directed not only against hirelings, but also against non-residents:—

Neither hireling nor non-resident found favour in Chaucer's eyes. They could have very little in common with one whom he says:—

The date of the obituary quoted, 1646, lends, too some force to the supposition that "old Mr. Lewis" was, vulgarly speaking, "no better than he ought to be." Milton not many years afterwards published his memorable philippic On the likeliest Means to remove Hirelings out of the Church; and after all allowance is made for the sternness of the Puritan poet's theology, there would still remain enough to show that his fiercely eloquent tract might well have been called forth by the presence in the church of an overweening army of "Mercenary Preachers." Further space, however, need not now be trenched on; but should any new facts be adduced by some of your correspondents illustrative of the curious entry referred to, I am sure they will be welcomed by all your readers, and by none more than by yours, obediently,

Henry Campkin.

Reform Club, Dec. 2. 1850.

"THE OWL IS ABROAD."

(Vol. ii., p. 393.)

A.R. asks, "On what ground is the base song, 'The Owl is abroad' attributed to Henry Purcell?" To which I reply, the mistake—for mistake it is—originated with Dr. Clarke (afterwards Clarke Whitfield), who inserted it in his Beauties of Purcell. How little this musician knew of the "beauties" of Purcell is exhibited in his work; and how little he knew of the style and peculiarities of the music of the period, is shown by his insertion of the song in question. Dr. Clarke's mistake is noticed in the late William Linley's elegant work entitled Shakspeare's Dramatic Songs, vol. i. p. 6. His words are these:

"In regard to the Tempest music of Mr. Smith, it has been put to a strange medley of words; some of them are, however by Shakspeare; but they do not appear to come the brighter from the polish it was his design to give them; here and there we have a flash or two, but they must ever be vainly opposed to Purcell's pure and steady light. The song of 'No More Dams,' is however an excellent one, and it has been selected accordingly. The other song, 'The Owl is abroad,' is also characteristic, but the words are not Shakspeare's. The last air has been inserted in Dr. Clarke's Beauties of Purcell, as Purcell's. This is a mistake, which, in justice to Smith, should be rectified."

Your correspondent also refers to Mr. G. Hogarth's Memoirs of the Musical Drama, as an authority for attributing the song in question to Purcell. Mr. Hogarth's work, I am sorry to say, can never be depended upon as to facts. It is almost entirely made up from second-hand authorities; consequently blunders of the greatest magnitude occur in every chapter. It has the merit of being a well-written and an entertaining book; but here any praise must end.

A.R. speaks of having referred to Purcell's Tempest. I must beg to correct him in this statement, as no complete copy of that work (my own excepted) is known to exist. Goodeson's (printed at the end of the last century) is the only copy approaching to anything like completeness, and that is very unlike Purcell's Tempest. Did A.R. find in Purcell's Tempest the music of the beautiful lyric, "Where the Bee sucks?" No. Yet Purcell composed music to it. The absence, then, of "The Owl is abroad," is no proof that Purcell did not write music for that song also.

But, in the present case, A.R. may rest assured that the song about which he inquires is the veritable composition of John Christopher Smith.

Edward F. Rimbault.

OLD ST. PANCRAS CHURCH.

Your correspondent Stephen (Vol. ii., p. 407.) asks for information respecting the "Gospel Oak Tree at Kentish Town." Permit me to connect with it another Query relative to the foundation of the old St. Pancras Church, as the period of its erection has hitherto baffled research. From the subjoined extracts, it appears to be of considerable antiquity. The first extract is from a MS. volume which I purchased at the sale of the library of the Rev. H.F. Lyte (Lot 2578.), entitled,—

"Spicilegium: or A Brief Account of Matters relating to the ecclesiastical Politie of the British Church, compiled from Histories, Councils, Canons, and Acts of Parliament," A.D. 1674.

It was apparently written for publication, but is without name or initials. At p. 21. the writer, after giving an account of the foundation of the cathedral church of Canterbury, goes on to say,—

"Without the walls, betwixt the Cathedral and St. Martin's Church, stood an idol temple, which, with the leave and goodwill of King Ethelbert, St. Augustine purged, and then consecrated it to the memory of St. Pancras the martyr, and after prevailed with the king to found a monastery there for the monks, in honour of the two prime apostles, St. Peter and Paul, appointing it to be the burial-place of the Kentish Kings, as also for his successors in that see. The like to this was Pancras Church, near London, otherwise called Kentish Church, which some ignorantly imagine was the mother of St. Paul's Church in London. I rather think it might be the burying-place belonging to the church of St. Paul, before Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, obtained leave of the Pope to bury in cities. And in imitation of that at Canterbury, this near London was dedicated to St. Pancras and called Kentish Church."

Connected with the Query of Stephen, it is worthy of notice that St. Augustine held a conference with the Cambrian bishops at a place called by Bede, Augustine's Ac, or Oak, on the borders of the Weccii and West Saxons, probably near Austcliffe, in Gloucestershire (Bede's Eccles. Hist. lib. ii. c. 2.).

Norden, who wrote in the reign of Elizabeth, in his Speculum BritainniÆ, says that—

"The church of St. Pancras standeth all alone, as utterly forsaken, old and weather-beaten, which, for the antiquitie thereof, is thought not to yield to Paule's of London."

which idea is repeated by Weever. And in the year 1749, some unknown poet, soliloquising upon the top of Primrose Hill, bursts out into the following rapturous musing at the sight of "the old weather-beaten church" in the distance.—

"The rev'rend spire of ancient Pancras view,

To ancient Pancras pay the rev'rence due;

Christ's sacred altar there, first Britain saw,

And gaz'd, and worshipp'd, with an holy awe,

Whilst pitying heav'n diffus'd a saving ray,

And heathen darkness changed to Christian day."