HYDRIOTAPHIA. URN BURIAL; OR, A DISCOURSE OF THE SEPULCHRAL URNS LATELY FOUND IN NORFOLK. NINTH EDITION. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1658. VOL. III. B THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. TO MY WORTHY AND HONOURED FRIEND, THOMAS LE GROS, OF CROSTWICK, ESQUIRE. WHEN the funeral pyre was out, and the last valediction over, men took a lasting adieu of their interred friends, little expecting the curiosity of future ages should comment upon their ashes; and, having no old experience of the duration of their relicks, held no opinion of such afterconsiderations. But who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he is to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes, or whither they are to be scattered? The relicks of many lie like the ruins of Pompey's,* in all parts of the earth; and when they arrive at your hands these may seem to have wandered far, who, in a direct and meridian travel,† have but few miles of known earth between yourself and the pole. That the bones of Theseus should be seen again in Athenst was not beyond conjecture and hopeful expectation: but that these should arise so opportunely to serve yourself was an hit of fate, and honour beyond prediction. *Pompeios juvenes Asia atque Europa, sed ipsum terrâ tegit Libyos. + Little directly but sea, between your house and Greenland.2 + Brought back by Cimon Plutarch. 1 Le Gros, &c.] Descended from an ancient family of the name (Le Gross, or Groos), settled at Sloly, near Crostwick, so early as the reign of Stephen, and who became possessed of the manor and hall of Crostwick in the 38th of Henry VIII. His grandfather, Sir Thomas, was knighted by James I. at the Charter-house, in 1603. The property descended to his nephew, Charles Harman, who took the name of Le Gros, but sold the estate to the Walpole family in 1720. 2 Little directly, &c.] Crostwick-hall is not twenty miles distant from the north coast of Norfolk. We cannot but wish these urns might have the effect of theatrical vessels and great Hippodrome urns* in Rome, to resound the acclamations and honour due unto you. But these are sad and sepulchral pitchers, which have no joyful voices; silently expressing old mortality, the ruins of for gotten times, and can only speak with life, how long in this corruptible frame some parts may be uncorrupted; yet able to outlast bones long unborn, and noblest pile among us.† We present not these as any strange sight or spectacle unknown to your eyes, who have beheld the best of urns and noblest variety of ashes; who are yourself no slender master of antiquities, and can daily command the view of so many imperial faces; which raiseth your thoughts unto old things and consideration of times before you, when even living men were antiquities; when the living might exceed the dead, and to depart this world could not be properly said to go unto the greater number. And so run up your thoughts upon the ancient of days, the antiquary's truest object, unto whom the eldest parcels are young, and earth itself an infant, and without Egyptians account makes but small noise in thousands. We were hinted by the occasion, not catched the opportunity to write of old things, or intrude upon the antiquary. We are coldly drawn unto discourses of antiquities, who have scarce time before us to comprehend new things, or make out learned novelties. But seeing they arose, as they lay almost in silence among us, at least in short account suddenly passed over, we were very unwilling they should die again, and be buried twice among us. Beside, to preserve the living, and make the dead to live, to keep men out of their urns, and discourse of human fragments in them, is not impertinent unto our profession; whose study is life and death, who daily behold examples of mortality, and of all men least need artificial mementos, or coffins by our bedside, to mind us of our graves. * The great urns in the Hippodrome at Rome, conceived to resound the voices of people at their shows. + Worthily possessed by that true gentleman, Sir Horatio Townshend, my honoured friend. Abiit ad plures. Which makes the world so many years old. 'Tis time to observe occurrences, and let nothing remarkable escape us: the supinity of elder days hath left so much in silence, or time hath so martyred the records, that the most industrious heads* do find no easy work to erect a new Britannia. 'Tis opportune to look back upon old times, and contemplate our forefathers. Great examples grow thin, and to be fetched from the passed world. Simplicity flies away, and iniquity comes at long strides upon us. We have enough to do to make up ourselves from present and passed times, and the whole stage of things scarce serveth for our instruction. A complete piece of virtue must be made from the Centos of all ages, as all the beauties of Greece could make but one handsome Venus. When the bones of King Arthur were digged up,† the old race might think they beheld therein some originals of themselves; unto these of our urns none here can pretend relation, and can only behold the relicks of those persons who, in their life giving the laws unto their predecessors, after long obscurity, now lie at their mercies. But, remembering the early civility they brought upon these countries, and forgetting long-passed mischiefs, we mercifully preserve their bones, and piss not upon their ashes. In the offer of these antiquities we drive not at ancient families, so long outlasted by them. We are far from erecting your worth upon the pillars of your forefathers, whose merits you illustrate. We honour your old virtues, conformable unto times before you, which are the noblest armoury. And, having long experience of your friendly conversation, void of empty formality, full of freedom, constant and generous honesty, I look upon you as a gem of the old rock, and must profess myself even to urn and ashes, Your ever faithful Friend and Servant, Norwich, May 1st. THOMAS BRowne. * Wherein Mr. Dugdale hath excellently well endeavoured, and worthy to be countenanced by ingenuous and noble persons. + In the time of Henry the second.-Camden. Adamas de rupe veteri præstantissimus. |
