Two Suffolk Friends Part 8

MISERERE.

{Music score: p133.jpg}

"_Lord_, _have mercy_."

1. LORD, who wast content to die, That poor sinners may draw nigh _cres._ To the throne of grace on high, _p_ _Miserere_, _Domine_.

2. Who dost hear my every groan, Intercedest at the throne, _cres._ Making my poor prayers Thine own, _p_ _Miserere_, _Domine_.

3. When some sorrow, pressing sore, Tells me, that life nevermore _cres._ Can be, as it was of yore, _p_ _Miserere_, _Domine_.

4. Let me hear the Voice, that said, "It is I, be not afraid"; _cres._ So the sorrow shall be stay'd, _p_ _Miserere_, _Domine_.

5. When the hour of death is nigh, And the watchers, standing by, _cres._ Raise the supplicating cry, _p_ _Miserere_, _Domine_.

6. Take me to Thy promised rest, Number me among the blest, _p_ Poor, and yet a welcomed guest.

_f_ _Alleluia_, _Domine_.

Footnotes:

{5} I remember once walking from Alton to Petersfield, and pa.s.sing unwittingly through Selborne.

{8} This was the Samuel Henley, D.D., that translated Beckford's 'Vathek' from the French.

{11} She was hanged on 26th June 1815, for attempting to poison her master's family; and her story, reprinted from 'Maga,' forms a chapter in Paget's 'Paradoxes and Puzzles' (1874). That chapter I read to my father the summer before his death. It disappointed him, for he had always cherished the popular belief in her innocence.

{12} I am reminded of a case, long afterwards, where a clergyman had obtained a wealthy living on the condition that the retiring rector should, so long as he lived, receive nearly half the t.i.thes. An aged man at the time the bargain was struck, that rector lived on and on for close upon twenty years; and his successor would ever and again come over to see my father, and ask his "advice." "What could I advise him?" said my father; "for we live in Suffolk, not Venice, so a bravo is out of the question."

{17} A writer in the 'Athenaeum' (I could make a shrewd guess at his name), after quoting the whist story, goes on: "Dr Belman was the country doctor who, on being asked what he thought of Phrenology, answered with equal prompt.i.tude and gravity, 'I never keep it and never use it. But I have heard that, given every three hours in large doses, it has been very efficacious in certain cases of gout.'"

{20} In 1881 the population was exactly 400. Ten years before it had been 470, ten years later had sunk to 315.

{22} I don't think it was Tom who employed that truly Suffolk simile--"I look upon this here chapel as the biler, yeou togither as the dumplins, and I'm the spoon that stars yeou up."

{31} Nicknames are very common--"Wedgy," "Shadder," "Stumpy," "Buskins,"

"Colly," &c.

{33} Seemed.

{39} Amazed.

{42} Word forgotten.

{43a} Something.

{43b} Thrandeston.

{43c} Heard.

{43d} Flung.

{43e} Amazingly.

{43f} Loins.

{44a} Heat.

{44b} Do you two.

{44c} Head.

{44d} Do you always keep.

{44e} _Dutfen_, bridle in cart harness.

{52a} This story is less unknown than its fellows, for in 1878 Mr FitzGerald got some copies of it reprinted at Woodbridge to give to his friends. I may well, however, republish it, for since the appearance of FitzGerald's '_Letters_,' in which it is referred to (pp. 427, 428), I have had many requests for copies,--requests with which I was unable to comply, myself having only one copy.

{52b} _Mawther_, girl.

{52c} Word.

{52d} Do.

{53} Quiet.

{55} Halesworth.

{56a} Something.

{56b} Fr. _journee_, one day's work without halt, ending about 3 P.M.

{57} Query, would not the burning of 'Pickwick' and 'Bleak House' by the common hangman do more to appease Nonconformist susceptibility than even Disestablishment? 'Salem Chapel,' again, and 'Adam Bede.' Fancy 'Adam Bede '_without_ Mr Irwine, who yet is not held up for a model parson.

{58a} "Robin Cook's wife" evidently refers to some well-known character, and is doubtless intended to personify "England."

{58b} The "old mare" is some old inst.i.tution, and probably embodies the "Established Church."

{58c} The mare was not perfect. What inst.i.tution is, that has its alloy of humanity? Lookers-on see _these_ failings and _stare_.

{58d} But the "sore back"! It evidently alludes to some special ailment, one which would make it difficult for any one to _ride_ her.