AN OLD MARRIAGE REGISTER.
[To rex EDITOR Of TER " SPECTATOIL."]
Sin,—I have come across the following singular entry in an old marriage register of this parish :-
A6 Drii, 1648.
Charles Napier of Puncknoll, in Dorset was maried to Prucilla Hornando of the Parish of Loock- ont, In Vtopia.
Can it be possible that More's famous island really existed, and was discovered by Raphael Hythloday, the friend of Amerigo Vespucci ? The marriage lice entered in the same hand and on the same page as many still well-known local names, and its presence suggests the subject for a stirring romance for some of our historical novelists. But further still, is there not enough in that old, faded record to quicken the pulse and stir the blood of some worthy descendant of our old West Country explorers, and start him on a quest which might lead him not only to Utopia, but (who knows P) even to Atlantis and the Gardens of the
Hesperides and "The Island Valley of Avilion "14—I am,
The 23+ of the moneth zif.
Sir, &c., JOHN R. DIIIEMELOW, M.A.
Membury Parsonage, Chard, April 2nd.
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