Gents Mag 1834 part 1 p.176
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introduction | ||
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list, 2nd qtr 19th century | ||
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Gentleman's Magazine 1834 part 1 p.176
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library Naworth Castle King Arthur |
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Library, Naworth Castle, and
King Arthur
The scene is first set by an observation in Gloucestershire:- MR. URBAN, - In a journey I made a few since to Bristol, I passed through Newport, about 16 miles from Gloucester, and whilst the horses were changing, I saw from the window of the inn, where I was sitting, a board on the opposite side of the way, inscribed - "Here is to be seen the tomb of King Arthur." Attracted by this enticing inscription, I knocked at the door of a humble cottage, which was opened by an old woman, whom I desired to show me the tomb; on which she pointed to a large and ponderous stone coffin, between 7 and 8 feet long, and weighing as was said 3 tons. in it was a well preserved human skeleton, supposed to have been deposited in an inner wooden coffin, that was found to be almost decayed from time and moisture. At the bottom of the stone chest, I noticed two small bronze shovels, a fragment of a bronze hinge, a Roman key of the same materials, and some fragments of pottery. There was also the handle of a large vessel with the latters L. A. S. stamped upon it, which had most learnedly interpretted by the old dame to mean "Lord Arthur Sovereign." She informed me that this stone coffin was found at Gloucester, on the premises of a Mr. John Sims, of whom she purchased it on speculation for 16l. I should have mentioned that the edges of it are lined with a thick coating of lead, and a printed paper given to the visitors, replete with ignorance, mentions a leaden coffin, &c. This wonderful tomb of "the Lord Arthur," is certainly Roman, and of the same kind as some that have been described in Archaeologia. This specimen of popular ignorance would have better suited Glastonbury than either Gloucester or Newport. The monkish fraud of the supposed tomb of Arthur and his wife Guinevra, at Glastonbury, is too well known to your readers to require any enlargement concerning it in this place. It has been said, that at the dissolution of the monasteries in England, several articles belonging to Glastonbury Abbey were transferred to Naworth Castle, in Cumberland, then in the possession of Lord William Howard, the friend of Camden, who seems to have believed in the monkish fable and in the cross with Arthur's name, which he has given in the Britannia. Mr. Ritson, in his Life of King Arthur, p.139, states that there is still preserved at the above-mentioned castle a huge volume of three vellum leaves, standing on the floor, being the original legend of Joseph of Arimathea, which Leland beheld with admiration on his vist to Glastonbury Abbey. It would be very desirable to know whether this volume still exists, and to have a particular account of it, as well as of any articles formerly in Glastonbury. A catalogue too of the ancient library at Naworth Castle, if it could be obtained by permission of the noble owner, would also be a most acceptable present to many a bibliomaniac of the present day. D. |
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