9 ts.v.MABCH24,i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
239
actions ; and we regret to find that the practice,
which we fondly thought was modern, of giving a
"dress for the lady of the house," as a bonus to
secure business, was in full play amongst these early
city men. Even in the time of Joshua, as we
know, a "Babylonish garment" was a coveted
possession too much for some people's virtue.
Cato, who possessed one, found it too magnificent
for e very-day wear. Very interesting, too, is the
chapter on the moneylender and the banker, the
typical Rothschilds of that day being the old-
established firm of the Egibi, whose name, by the
way, some would identify with that of Jacob.
This, and the author's remarks on the influence of
the natural features of the country on the character
and development of the people, might be read with
advantage in connexion with Prof. Ihering's sug-
gestive book on ' The Evolution of the Aryan,' in
which he deals with these matters. Of an interest
hardly less absorbing is the account of the original
autograph letters of some contemporaries of the
patriarch Abraham, which have lately been dis-
interred, and the hoary love-letter probably the
first on record to a young lady Kasbeya, which has
kept its warmth for more than three millenniums.
The conscientious care with which the scribes of a
later age reproduced even the mistakes and " mis-
prints " of the texts they were copying inspires us
with a grateful confidence in their integrity and
trustworthiness. It is a libel, however, on a worthy
Babylonian to represent him as saying anything so
ungrammatical as "I will lie up five shekels of
silver " (p. 225), for the context shows that he wrote
(in his own tongue) tie up for safe custody ; it is the
English printer who has misread his copy.
We feel indebted to Prof. Sayce for a volume which very few but himself would have the special knowledge to write ; and we congratulate the enter- prising publisher on the excellent start given to a series which the intelligent public will certainly appreciate, as well for its intrinsic interest as its material presentment.
Luton Church, Historical and Descriptive. By the late Henry Cobbe, Rector of Maulden. (Bell & Sons.)
PARISH histories are now frequently produced, but it is an uncommon thing to meet with the history of a church detached from its environment, except in the case of a monastery or a cathedral. This is easily explained. A parish church is so much an integral part of its surroundings that it is hardly possible to submit it to individual treatment. It is impossible, as the author has shown, to deal with the fabric, the clergy, and the endowments without introducing much regarding the lay folk. Mr. Cobbe did his Work well. Though the volume before us contains only about half the manuscript (parts iii. and iv. being kept back for the present), it is a goodly tome of upwards of 650 pages, and there is a rare thing in such cases hardly any padding to complain of. The author knew where to look, for information, and how to reduce it into a readable shape when found. Such a work as this must have been the result of long-continued labour, and we are very grateful for it. The connexion of Luton with the great abbey of St. Albans, which began in 1154, and with occasional interruptions continued until the Reformation, must in some degree have made the task of investigation less severe.
Mr. Cobbe not only gives a list of the rectors and vicars of Luton in a tabular form, but he also
succeeded in compiling something akin to a bio-
graphy of most of them. There are but very few in
- he long catalogue, extending from Edward the
Confessor to our own day, of whom he had not something interesting to tell. Among them the most notorious, though certainly by no means the oest, was Cardinal Adrian de Castello, a Tuscan of Cornuto. He held much Church preferment in this country, and was evidently at one time a favourite with both king and Pope. The Abbot of St. Albans presented him to the vicarage of Luton in 1492. A little while after Henry VII. promoted him to the bishopric of Hereford, from which he was soon after translated to Bath and Wells. He became very rich, and is said to have aspired to the Pope- dom ; but his life has never been investigated with the care it deserves. Dark crimes are attributed to him, but some, if not all, lack absolute proof. Without going into matters of controversy, we may safely say that he was a scheming ecclesiastic of evil repute of whom the country was well rid. He was deprived of all his preferments in England and elsewhere in 1518, and seems to have spent the latter years of his life in well-merited obscurity. John Gwynneth, who held the living from 1537 to 1558, was a Welshman of humble parentage, but more than ordinary ability. He was an Oxford man, and was there created a Doctor of Music in 1531. He wrote a book against Frith on the Eucharistic controversy, which still survives, as well as a sermon preached at Luton on the accession of Queen Mary. This is known to have been printed ; but no copy has, it is to be feared, reached our time. Thomas Pomfrett was Vicar of Luton in the latter part of the seventeenth century. He was not a noteworthy person, except as being the father of John Pomfrett, a once popular poet of whom Dr. Johnson thought highly, but whose works are now well-nigh forgotten.
Luton Church is a noble building, and Mr. Cobbe described it carefully. It must once have abounded in monumental brasses ; some still remain, and of several of those that are gone the author was able to recover the inscriptions. It is said that many of those that are lost were melted down to make a chandelier. This act of impiety alike to the living and the dead was, we are glad to know, not the work of a modern church restorer. One still existing brass bearing date 1524 is curious as commemorating a certain Anne Waren under her maiden name, although she had been married to Robert Collhill, a merchant tailor. Mr. Cobbe could not divine why the lady reverted to her maiden name. Could she have regarded herself as a descendant of William de Warrene, who married Gundreda, as to whose parentage there has been so much controversy? If so, it is probable that she did not wish her lineage to be forgotten.
The work is useful not only as a contri- bution to local history, but because it contains many facts incidentally illustrative of the life of the past. One of these bears on the observance of Sunday. Previous to the beginning of the thir- teenth century Luton market was held on the first day of the week ; but then it was changed to the following day. Other instances of an alteration of a like kind are known to have occurred about the same time. A change in the direction of greater strictness was in progress, which continued, though not without interruptions, down to the period of the Reformation. In the middle of the fourteenth century a strange sight might have been
