THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES iejI christian JHoniiments IN Cuglauti anti ^Mulm HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH VARIOUS CLASSES OF SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS WHICH HAVE BEEN IN USE IN THIS COUNTRY FROM ABOUT THE ERA OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE TIME OF EDWARD THE FOURTH. MXiti) numerous JfUustratious. BY THE REV. CHARLES BOUTELL, M.A. AUTHOR OF "MONUMENTAL BRASSES AND SLABS," "THE MONUMENTAL BRASSES OF ENGLAND," ETC. LONDON: GEORGE BELL, 186 FLEET STREET. 1854. LONDON : PRINTKD BY ROBRON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLY'N, Great New Street and Fetter Lauc. CONTENTS. PAGE In Raveningliam Cliurcli, Norfolk ....... 1 Small Slab, Stow, Lincolnshire ....... 3 Fragment of Coffin-slab, York ....... G Stone Coffin-lid, Churchyard of St. Mary Magdelen, in Wiggenhale, Norfolk 7 Stone Coffin, site of Bermondsey Abbey ...... 8 Diagrams of Coffin-slabs ......... 9 Stone Coffin of King William II., Choir of Winchester Cathedral : A.D. 1100 11 Anglo-Saxon Coped Coffin-lid, Bakewell . . . . . .12 Fragments of Coped Coffin-lids of the xii. Cent. Bakewell, Derbyshire 13 Anglo-Saxon Coped Coffin-lid, Church of St. Dyonis, York . .14 Stone Coffin-lid, Cambridge Castle : xi. Cent. . . . .15 Fragment of Saxon Coffin-lid, York . . . . . .16 Stone Coffin-lid of Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, now preserved in Llanrwst Church : a.d. 1240 . . . . . . .17 Stone Coffin-lid, Repps, Norfolk : circ. a.d. 1100 . . . .18 Stone Coffin-lid, Burgate, Sufflalk : xiii. Cent. . . . .18 Stone Coffin-lid, Watlington, Norfolk : xiii. Cent. . . . .19 Stone Coffin-hd, Sandringham, Norfolk : a.d. 1300 . . . .19 Fragment of Stone Coffin-lid, Elstow, Bedfordshire, temp. Henry III. 20 Stone Coffin-lid, Wood Perry, Oxon : xiii. Cent. . . . .21 Founder's Coffin-lid, Narford Church, Norfolk : xiii. Cent. . .21 Stone Coffin-lid, Little Casterton, Rutland : drc. a.d. 1225 . . 22 Stone Coffin-lid, Lyddington : xiii. Cent. . . . . .22 Coffin-lid, Llanvair Cwmmwd : a.d. 1226 . . . . .23 Incised Coffin-lid, Temple Church : temp. Henry III. . . .24 Purbeck Marble Coffin-lid, Temple Church, London: circ. a.d. 1200. . 'lb Stone Coffin-lid, Bredon, Worcestershire : xiv. Cent. . . .2^ Stone Coffin, Little Welnetham, Suffialk : xiv. Cent. temp. Richard II. 1^ IV CONTENTS. Stone Coffin-lid, and section of the Lid and Coffin, Laughten-en-le- Morthen, Yorkshire : xiii. Cent 27 Stone Coffin-lid, Brandon, Suffolk : xiv. Cent 27 Stone Coffin-lid, Dorchester Abbey, Oxon : xiv. Cent. . . .27 Incised Coffin-lid, Barnwood, Gloucestershire . . . . .28 Stone Coffin-lid, Elford, Staffordshire 28 Fragment of Slab, Cilcain ........ 29 Incised Coffin-slab, Southwell Minster . . . . . .29 Incised Coffin-lid, Thornton Abbey, Lincolnshire . . . .29 Fragment of Slab, Penrith . . . . . . . .30 Coffin-slab, Rhuddlan, Denbighshire ; xiv. Cent 31 Stone Coffin-lid, Haukswell ........ 32 Two small Monumental Slabs, Church of St. Peter's, at Gowis, Lincoln 33 Monumental Slab, All Saints, York . . . . . .33 Small Monumental Slab, Tadcaster, York : circ. a.d. 1225 . . 34 Small Slab, St. Michael's Church, Lichfield 35 Small Coffin-slab (with section), Fletching, Sussex . . . .35 Slab, Bowes, Yorkshire . . 36 Coffin-lid, Bircham Tofts, Norfolk 37 Stone Coffin-lid, Enville, Staffordshire . . . . . .37 Stone Coffin lid, Weston near Bath : a.d. 1200. . . . .38 Fragment of Stone Coffin-lid, Priory of St. Bartholomew : circ. a.d. 1300 38 Cross to Margaret Oliver, Beddington Church, Surrey : a.d. 1425 . 40 Cross to the Memory of Thomas Chichele and Agnes his wife, Higham Ferrers Church, Northamptonshire . . . . . .42 Head and Base of a Cross, Grainthorpe Church, Lincolnshire : circ. A.D. 1400, 2d Henry IV 43 Incised Slab, Thornton Abbey : a.d. 1463 44 Incised Slab, Lichfield ......... 45 Monumental Slab of Gundrada, Countess de Warenne, Lewes : circ. A.D. 1250 46 Inscription and Coffin-lid, Lewes . . . . . . .48 Monumental Slab, Sulby Abbey, Northamptonshire . . . .50 Slab, Margam . . . . . . . . . .51 Fragment of Slab, Margam , . . . . . . .51 Coped Coffin-lid, Rochester Cathedral . . . . . .52 Despoiled Slab, Thornton Abbey . . . . . . .52 Despoiled Slab, Ainderby ........ 53 Monumental Slab, Ecclestone Priory, York . . . "v .53 CONTENTS. V PAGE Fragment of Stone Coffin-lid, Komsey Abbey . . 54 Despoiled Slab of Abbot Sutton, Dorchester Abbey Church . 54 Stone Coffin-lid, Flaxley Abbey . 55 Stone Coffin-lid, St. Pierre near Chepstow . 55 Monumental Slab, Barnard Castle : xiii. Cent. . 5G Monumental Slab, Gainford, Durham : xiii. Cent. . . 56 Incised Black Marble Slab, Blanchland, Durham . 57 Fragment of Incised Slab, Newcastle .... . 58 Fragments of Monumental Slabs, St. Andrew's, Newcastle . 58 Frg-gments of INIonumental Slabs, St. Mary's, Newcastle . 58 Fragment of Stone Coffin-lid, Sproatley, Yorkshire . . 59 Incised Slab, Marrick ....... . 59 Monumental Slab, Great Salkeld ..... . 60 Fragment of Incised Slab, St. Mary's, Leicester . 60 Incised Slab, Southwell Minster ..... . 61 Incised Slab, Amplefortb, Yorkshire .... . 61 Incised Slab, Clixby, Lincolnshire ..... . 62 Incised Slab, Well, Yorkshii-e ..... . 63 Slab, All Saints', York . 63 Monumental Slabs, Corbridge, Northumberland . 64 Monumental Slab, Jervalx Abbey, Yorkshire . . 65 Slab, Melsonby ........ . 67 Stone Coffin-lid, St. Pierre, near Chepstow : a.d. 1239, 24:th Henr ylll. 68 Stone Coffin-lid of the early English Gothic period, at Tick] lill in Yorkshire ........ . 68 Stone Coffin-lid, St. John's, Chester : xiii. Cent. . 69 Coffin-slab of Griffith ap-Jor worth, Bangor . 69 Stone Coffin-lid, Gilling, Yorkshire ..... . 70 Coffin-slab, Ehuddlan, Denbighshire .... . 70 Incised Slab, Thormanby, Yorkshire .... . 71 Slab, Rhuddlan Priory ....... . 71 Fragment of Incised Slab, Bakewell .... . 72 Incised Slab, Garstang ....... . 73 Incised Slab, Ainstaple . . . . . . 73 Incised Slab at Brougham in Westmoreland . 74 Incised Slab at Newton Bigney in Cumberland . 74 Monumental Slab, Greystoke, Cumberland . . . . . 75 Incised Slab, Kirkby Stephen ....... . 76 Stone Coffin-lid, Durham Cathedral . . . . . . 76 VI CONTENTS, I'AGE Stone Coffin-lid, Great Milton 78 Monumental Slab, Haltwhistle : xiv. Cent. . . . . .79 Incised Slab, Heysham . . . . . . . . .79 Incised Slab of Adam de Clitherow and Lady, Ribchester, Lancashire 80 Two Monumental Slabs of the early English Gothic Period, Cambo, Northumberland . . . . . . . . .81 Monumental Slab, Woodhorn, Northumberland . . . .82 Incised Slab, Castle Chapel, Newcastle ...... 82 Small Incised Slab, Rhuddlan ....... 83 Monumental Slab, Cambo, Northumberland 83 Fragments of Incised Coffin-lid, Castle Chapel, Newcastle . . 84 Incised Slab, Gorforth, Northumberland ...... 84 Double Incised Slab, Aycliffe . . . . . . . .85 Double Monumental Slab, East Shaftoe ...... 88 Coffin-slab, Bakewell, Derbyshire . . . . . . .90 Monumental Slab of the Early English Gothic period, Newbigging, Northumberland . . . . . . . . .91 Shears and Keys, Monumental Slab, Newbigging . . . .91 Incised Slab, Gateshead. . . . . . . . .91 Fragment of Incised Slab, Bakewell ...... 92 Incised Slab, Greystoke . . . . . . . . .92 Slab, Dearham : circ. a.d. 1300 ....... 93 Monumental Slab, Newbigging . . . . . . .93 Fragment of Slab, Bakewell : xiii. Cent. ..... 94 Small Slab, Rokeby ......... 95 Fragment of Slab, Horton, Northumberland ..... 95 Incised Slab, St. John's, Chester . . . . . . .96 Brass, Fletching 97 Monumental Slab, Bakewell 98 Stone Coffin-lid, Thornton Abbey, Lincolnshire . . . .98 Incised Slab, Woodhorn 99 Incised Slab, Chelmorton, Derbyshire 99 Incised Slab, St. Dyonis, York 100 Stone Coffin-lid, Guildhall Chapel 100 Fragment of Slab, Llanvihangel 102 Brass to Eoger Cheyne, Esq. Cassington Chm-ch, Oxfordshire : circ. A.D. 1415, 2d Henry V 103 Despoiled Slab, Aldborough, Yorkshire 104 Iron Slab, Burwash . . . . . . . . .105 CONTENTS, VU PAGE Brass to Henry Frowyk, South Miinms . . . . . .109 Brass, Felbrigg . . . . . . . . . .110 Chalice to William Langton, Rector St. Michael's Church, York : a.d. 146.3, 3d Edward IV. HI Chalice upon a Monumental Slab, Catfield . . . . .111 Brass to Sir Eol)ert Kervile, St. Mary's, Wiggenhale, Norfolk . .112 Slab, Chichester Cathedral 113 Mural Arch and Slab, Bredon 11 4 Part of Brass to John and Joanna Bacon, All Hallow's Barking, London 11-3 Eemains of Semi-effigial Slab to Bishop Ethelmar de Valence, Win- chester Cathedral : a.d. 1261, 45th Henry III. . . .119 Mural Arch and Monumental Slab, Howell, Lincolnshire . .119 Founder's Slab, Gilling, Yorkshire . . . . . .121 j\Ionumental Slab, East Tisted, Hants . . . . . .122 Brass to Britellus Avenel, Buxtead, Oxford . . . . .12.3 Floriated Cross, with Head of an Ecclesiastic, Chinnor Church, Ox- fordshire : circ. a.d. 1330, 4th Edward III 124 Brass of John and Maud de Bladigdone, East Wickham, Kent : circ. A D. 1325 125 Slab to Matilda le Cans, Brampton, Derbyshire . . . .126 Small Monumental Slab, Moor Monkton, Derbyshire . . .126 Coffin-slab, Llantwit : xiii. Cent. . . . . . .127 Slab to William de Aumberworth, L^tterby, Lincolnshire . . .127 Indent of a lost Brass, Exeter Cathedral 128 Monumental Slab, Kedleston, Derbyshire . . . . .129 Coped Coffin-lid, Stow, Lincolnshire . . . . . .129 Coffin-slab, Lyddington, Ptutland . . . . . • .130 Coffin-slab, Ashton Ingham, Herefordshire . . . . .130 Semi-effigial Slab, Washingborough, Lincolnshire . . . .131 ]\Ionumental Slab to one of the Disney Family, Kingerby, Lincoln- shire : circ. A.D. 1350 . . . . . . . .132 ^Monumental Slab, Billesford, Leicestershire . . . . .134 ]\Ionumental Slab, Appleby, Westmoreland . . . . .134 Stone Coffin-lid, Bitton, Gloucestershire . . . . .135 Monumental Slab, Silchester Churchyard, Hampshire . . .135 Despoiled Slab of Prior John Crauden, Ely Cathedral . . .136 Bemains of Brass to Pdchard de Harebourne, Chapel of Merton Col- lege, Oxford : circ. a.d. 1315 . . . . . .137 Despoiled Slab of Bishop Bingham, Salisbury Cathedral . . .138 vni CONTENTS. PAGE Ecmains of a Bracket Brass, Great Brington, Northamptonshire : clrc. A.D. 1310 139 Remains of a Bracket Brass, Clifton Campville, Staffordshire . .139 Monumental Slab of Sir William de Staunton Staunton, Notts: A.D. 1226 140 Monumental Slab to Sir John Daubygne, Norton Brize, Oxfordshire : A.D. 1340 141 Stone Coffin-lid of the Princess Joanna, wife of Llewellyn Prince of Wales, now at Margam . . . , . . . .142 ]\Ionumental Slab to Agnes de Ridelegh, St. John's Church, Chester 143 Stone Coffin-lid, Hambleton, Rutland . . . . . .144 Stone Coffin-lid, Hambleton, Rutland . . . . • .144 Mural Arch and Semi-effigial Slab, exterior of the Church, Great Cas- ter ton, Rutland 145 Monumental Slab, Elford, Staffordshire : circ. a.d. 1450 . . . 146 Slab and Brass of Sir Richard de Boselyngthorpe, Buslingthorpe, Lincolnshire: circ. a.d. 1280 . . . . . . .146 Remains of a Brass, Croft, Lincolnshire ...... 147 Stone Coffin-lid, Brandon, Suffolk 147 Monument of Jorwerth Sulien, Corwen Church .... 148 Monumental Stone, Stoke, Lincolnshire . . . . .149 Semi-effigial Brass to John de Eastbury and Wife, Lambourne, Berks : circ. A.D. 1400 150 Head of Pastoral Staff, Temple Church, London .... 150 Brass to Rauf de Cobham, Esq., Cobhani Church, Kent : a.d. 1405, 4th Henry IV 151 Brass to Walter Frilende, Rector and Founder, Oakham Church, Surrey : aVc. A.D. 1370, 44th Edward III 153 Brass to John Alderburne, Lewknor Church, Oxfordshire : circ. a.d. 1370, 43d Edward III 153 Palimpsest Brass to Thomas Cod, Vicar, St. Margaret's Church, Rochester: a.d. 1465, 5th Edward IV. ..... 154 Small Mural Semi-effigial Monument, north wall of Chancel, Nar- borough, Norfolk ......... 155 Semi-effigial Monument, Lichfield Cathedral . . . . .156 Arcade and Semi-effigial Monument, Lichfield Cathedral . . .156 In Ravemngham Cbiorcb. Norfolk. Cljristian JHonuments in €nalaulr anti gsaalts. INTRODUCTION. For several ages had the Christian religion been finally established in Britain, before there appears to have prevailed amongst our an- cestors of those early times any system of sepulchral commemora- tion, of which the vestiges yet remain, visible and tangible, and of indisputable authenticity. "With the close of the sixth century took place the conversion of Ethelbert : and this most important event liavhig led to the 2 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS gradual diffusion of Christianity throughout the seven Saxon kingdoms, we may reasonably infer that, during the course of the seventh century of the Cliristian era, heathen sepulchral rites and heathen monumental memorials had in this country fallen into general disuse, and had been superseded by inter- ments in consecrated ground. Christian ceremonials, and monu- ments, which, though rude as works of art, yet bore expressive testimony to the faith in which our forefathers of that age had, by the blessing of Providence, been taught to live and die. Such, however, is the obscurity which envelopes the greater part of the Saxon period of our national history, — and particularly in respect to that highly important branch of history, the personal memoirs of the Anglo-Saxons themselves, the details of their manners and customs, — that the earliest Christian monuments must be, for the most part, assigned to the eleventh century. Some few relics, designed originally for the purpose of sepulchral com- memoration, have been here and there discovered, which appear, without doubt, to have been executed much earlier ; in some instances, in the ninth and eighth centuries, or possibly even in the seventh : but these mvist be regarded rather as the scanty traces of an obscure period, than as examples of works known to have been in common use, for a specific purpose, and at a definite time. Such are the remarkable stones exhumed, in the years 1833, 1838, and 1843, at Hartlepool, in Durham, on the long-forgotten site, as it would seem, of the ancient monastery of St. Hilda. Here, in the course of certain excavations, at a depth of somewhat more than three feet from the surface, and lying immediately upon the limestone rock, several skeletons, apparently of females, were discovered ; " their heads were rest- ing upon small flat stones, as upon pillows, and above them there were other stones of a larger size, which were marked with crosses, and with inscriptions in Saxon and Runic letters. "^ One ^ See Journal of the Archmological As- had been previously engraved by Carter sociation, vol. i. p. 185, where will be in his Ancient Painting and Sculpture, found a minute description of these sin- plate cxi. See also Gentleman''s Maga- gular memorials, with several engravings. zine for 1844, p. 187, for a notice of the The Wensley slab is also described and Hartlepool stones. When we consider figured at p. 196 of the same volume ; it that these small tablets of stone Avere ori- IN ENGLAND AND WALES. of these stones, of which a few fragments only have been pre- served, was eircnlar, and bore a cross of much elegance, and the legend reqviescat in pace, all within a border. The other stones may be described as small tablets, the largest measuring somewhat less than a foot square ; they all have crosses, either incised or wrought in relief, with Saxon and Runic legends ; and upon some, on either side of the head of the cross, are the Greek characters alpha and omega, precisely after the manner of the Catacomb slabs at Rome.^ A somewhat similar slab or tablet is preserved at Wensley, in Yorkshire. And, again, at Stow, in Lincolnshire, two small slabs of the same class have been discovered, though in these, interlacing patterns, executed in low relief, appear in place of the cross and legend. Of one of these curious stones I give a figure ; the other differs from it only in having the pattern of its ornamentation more lozenge-shaped. This last slab was found during some excavations in the churchyard, covering the head of a skeleton, which was lying in a very rude cist or coffin, constructed of such stones as are used to form a rubble-wall.^ In Wales also are occasion- ally found inscribed stones, evidently sepulchral memo- rials, to which a very early ginally covered over with earth, we shall perhaps be disposed to regard them as simply the prototypes of the coffin-plates of modern times ; and thus shall exclude them altogether from being reckoned as monuments, {jroperly so called. ' See Maitland's Church in the Cuta- comis. Slabs of a similar character, and undoubtedly of the tenth and ninth cen- turies, if not earlier, have been oliserved in Ireland. See Mr. Petrie's admirable work on the early ecclesiastical architecture of the sister island. ^ In the ArchcBological Journal, vol. iii. p. 105, occurs a very interesting paper by the Rev. Abner W. Brown, describing the 4 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS date must be assigned. These stones are of the simplest, and indeed the rudest character ; but they are both interesting and valuable, as the relics of almost the primitive ages of our national Church.^ Besides these flat slabs of stone, which w^ere so placed as to cover the remains of the persons they were designed to commemo- rate, upright stones of memorial were also in use from a very early period ; but of these the known existing remains are very few in number, while in their character they are generally somewhat un- certain and indefinite. Memorials of this class almost invariably exhibit the symbol of the cross, accompanied with a profusion of interlaced and knotted carving; and they also have some brief legend. A most interesting fragment of such a memorial is pre- served in the chancel of the church at Hackness in Yorkshire, and which may possibly commemorate St. Hilda herself, the foundress of an abbey at that place. ^ With this passing notice of earlier times, I proceed at once to enter upon the object which I have in view in preparing this volume, — to furnish, that is, an historical and descriptive sketch of the various classes of monumental memorials which have been in use in this country from about the era of the Norman conquest. In carrying out this plan, I propose to divide the subject into five sections : of which Section I. will comprise stone coffins, stone coffin-lids, and monumental slabs, all of which are devoid of effigies. Section II. will treat of semi-effigial monuments. Section III. will be appropriated to monumental effigies, such as display the entire figure. discovery at Pytchley, in Northampton- by St. Hilda, a. d. (;74. See The Churches shire, of an ancient British cemetery be- of Scarloronyh and its Neighbourhood, (a neath the present churchyard, in which the model Guide-book,) p. 44, where this cu- remains of the dead were interred in cist- rious relic is figured, and fully described. vuens, or coffins of stone, partly wrought For further notices of these upright out of the natural rock, and partly con- commemorative stones, see Archceoloyical structed of rough slabs. Journal, vol. ii. pp. 75 and 388 ; vol. iii. ' See Archccolof/ia Cambrensis, vol. ii. pp. 70 and 259. See also Archoeologia p. 30. Cambrensis, vol. ii, p. 25, and vol. iii. p. ^ The Abbey at Hackness wa.s founded 105. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. O Section IV. will treat of altar-tombs or high tombs, and monumental canopies. And Section V. will treat of head-stones, and other churchyard memorials : and will also comprise some general observa- tions upon modern monuments, as now in use by our- selves. MATERIALS USED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MONUMENTS. The materials of which the mediaeval monuments were for the most part constructed, were — I. Marble or Stone ; comprising purbeck and forest marble, alabaster, various kinds of sandstone, &c. Monumental coffins and slabs, altar-tombs, canopies, and effigies, were commonly formed altogether of marble or stone. II. Wood ; generally oak or chestnut. The upper parts of altar-tombs were sometimes made of wood, as in the monument of William de Valence in Westminster Abbey : wood was also occasionally used for the construction of canopies, and even of effigies. III. A mixed metal denominated Latten, but now generally known as brass. Effigies, in full relief, were occasionally executed in this metal ; also the small effigies, or weepers, which were placed in niches about the sides of many of the more important altar- tombs. Plates of this metal were laid upon altar-tombs to support recumbent effigies. Narrow and long plates, or fillets, were also fixed in hollows, abated or sunk for their reception in the uppermost group of the moldings of these tombs. These fillets bore inscriptions, and were set chamfer-wise — on a slope that is — with the adjoining moldings. But the most common use of the latten-metal was in plates, which were engraven with effigies and various other designs, and, being affixed to slabs of stone, were laid in the pavement of churches, or, in some cases, 6 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS were placed on altar-tombs. Monuments of this class are known as Brasses.^ In the decoration of the more costly and elaborate monuments, enamel was not unfrequently introduced : gilding and colour were also used for the same purpose, and with a lavish hand. Now these gorgeous accessories for the most part have disappeared, leaving, as tokens of their former existence, but here and there some lingering remains. There is one other mode of decoration employed by the mediaeval artists for monumental purposes, which requires to be noticed ; this is the use of a composition spread upon the marble or stone, in which any minute elaboration of details might be ex- pressed, in place of the more tedious process of carving in marble or stone itself. In flat slabs also, upon which the desired device was incised or engraven in outline, the lines were filled-in with some tenacious substance, which would at the same time render the lines of the composition more distinct, and would tend to their preservation from injury. The incised lines in brasses appear to have been originally subjected to a similar process. ' For full particulars relative to the composition, character, and j^eculiar fea- tures of this very remarkable class of monu- ments, see Monumental Brasses and Slabs. See also Section III. of this Volume. FraftcicnL of Coffin-Hlah, York. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. Stone-Cofan Lid, Churchyard of St. Mary Magdalen, in Wiggenhale, Norfolk. SECTION I. STONE-COFFINS, STONE-COFFIN LIDS, AND MONUMENTAL SLABS, ALL OF WHICH ARE DEVOID OF EFFIGIES. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and apparently in the eleventh century also, Stone-Coffins were in general use for the interment of deceased personages of eminence and wealth ; and being fixed upon the pavement of the churches in which they were deposited, or so placed that the solid slabs which covered them formed a portion of the pavement itself, they were at once the resting-place of the remains of the deceased, and their monumental memorial.^ In some instances, and particvilarly in the case of ' Coffins of both lead and wood were also occasionally used at an early period ; but these appear to have been designed solely for the purpose of interment in the ground, and above them were commonly placed commemorative slabs of stone. Very curious coffins of lead were discover- ed during the late restoration of the Tem- 2ile Church in London : these are fully described and figured in the able treatise upon the early monuments of the Temple Church, by Edward Richardson, Esq., sculptor. For further notices of early leaden coffins, see Archeeologia, vol. xvii. p. 333, and vol. xxxi. p. 308 ; also Journal of the ArchcBolncfical Association, vol. ii. p. 297. Small coffins, or cists, formed of lead, were occasionally used as receptacles for the bones of any person whose remains, after the lapse of many years, might be removed from their original tomb, and de- posited in some more worthy resting-place. The cists of Earl de Warren and his Countess Gundrada, discovered in 1845, on the site of Lewes Priory, in Sussex, are remarkable examples of this species of coffin : see Journal of ArchcBological Asso- ciation, vol. i. p. 347. In vol. xxxii. of the ArchcBologia, p. 60, will be found an interesting account of the wooden coffin in which the Lady Joanna de Bohun was buried in Hereford Cathedral, a.d. 1327. At Thorby Priory, Essex, six early wooden coffins were recently disinterred, each of which was rudely cut out from a single log of timber: see Weale's Quarterly 8 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS founders of churches, the monumental character of the stone coffin was rendered still more decided, by its being placed beneath a low arch, formed within the substance of the church-wall, for the express purpose of receiving it. Stone coffins were also placed in churchyards, having their lids probably raised above the surface of the ground: and they now are continually found in old burial-grounds, and adjoining the sites of ruined and almost forgotten churches, covered with the accumulated soil of succeeding centuries. In some cases, the stone coffins may have been originally placed in the ground, or in vaults sunk for their reception. The specimen here represented was dug up from the site of the destroyed Abbey of Bermondsey. stone Coffin. Site of Bermondsey Abbey. These coffins were constructed from a single block of stone, hollowed out for the reception of the corpse, and having a cavity cut in the solid stone, at the upper end, for the head ; their covers or lids were also wrought from another sinirle block or slab.^ In Papers on Architecture. It will be borne in mind that, at an early period, the pre- vailing custom with our ancestors was to bury their dead without any coffin ; and consequently the early coffins now disco- vered, being exceptions to the general prac- tice, may be assigned to persons of unusual importance. ' The stone coffin, hewn from a single block, may be derived from the more an- cient cist-vaen, or receptacle for the dead, consisting of four or more stones, set up- right aliout the body to be intei-red, and covered with another slab. These cist- vaens were designed simply for sepulture, the monument being a distmct and subse- IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 9 form, both coffins and lids most commonly sloped gradually from the head to the feet ; but in some examples the tapering form is found to have been produced by a slope on one side only, the other side being worked at right angles to both ends of tlie coffin, as in the annexed diagram (Fig. A) ;^ and again, occasionally the coffin- slab assumed the form indicated by Fig. B of the same diagram. The coffin -lids, when designed to be laid as part of the pavement of the church, were sometimes flat ; but the more general practice in the construction of stone coffin-lids was to make them coped, or wrought to a ridge (whence their designation, en dos d'dne), the slopes of the coping being comparatively very slight when, the lid was placed on a level with the pavement. This coping rarely produced more than two sloping surfaces ; occasion- ally the ends as well as the sides of the coffin-lid were sloped off. Some examples of coped coffin-lids are perfectly plain ; in others, on the contrary, and these of very early date, the surface is deco- rated with a profusion of sculpture, which sometimes also covers the sides of the coffin itself; but more generally a cross was sculp- tured in low relief upon the stone, the ridge of the coping forming the stem of the cross. This symbol is also found to have been incised or engraved upon early coffin-lids, as well as executed in relief; and again, many examples occur, in the decoration of which parts of the design are incised, while other parts are sculptured in relief. In many slabs of this last-named description, by cutting away the adjoining surface of the stone, parts of the design are found to have been produced in apparent relief, though really they are in the same level with the face of the slab itself. Diagrams of Co£E.n-Slabs. quent erection : the stone coffin combined the two purposes. ' These were evidently designed to be placed in immediate connexion with one of the walls of the church. Such slabs may now not uncommonly be found forming the sill to the church doorway. 10 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS While the use of the coffin-tomb of stone was, for the most part, appropriated to the more costly interments of the higher classes in society, commemorative slabs were habitually laid down in churches in the pavement, above the remains of persons who were buried at some depth below the surface of the ground, and in most cases without any coffin whatsoever : they were also, without doubt, still more commonly placed within churches, as memorials of those whose remains were interred in the burial- grounds adjoining the sacred edifices; or, again, these slabs were occasionally placed above tlie graves in the churchyards them- selves. It may be confidently asserted, that incised slabs of memorial were once very common in our churches, particularly in the churches of those districts which produce the stone, though now they have generally been demolished or removed. ^ This may, in most cases, have resulted from the unsightly aspect of the slabs when worn away, as they would be liable to be worn away by habitual attrition : they would accordingly be taken up when the church was undergoing some repair or alteration, and, being con- sidered as altogether unfit to appear in the renewed structure, they would be built up in the walls of the new portions ; or, in some instances, they would be again laid down in the pavement, but not until the original surface of the stone had been entirely cut away ; or they would be reversed, and worked to a smooth surface on the other side. This system of demolishing the monumental memo- rials of others, and indeed of appropriating them afresh (as was constantly done) in the capacity of monuments, it is most difficult to account for, particularly in men who bestowed so much care and attention upon what they designed to commemorate them- selves.^ Commemorative slabs of stone or marble were almost invariably cut to the tapering shape of the actual stone coffin, previous to the ' 111 the ArchcBoloffical Journal, vol. iv. ineiital slabs have been observed. I may pp. .'57, 5f!, is an interesting account of add, that a very considerable number of the discovery of a vast number of early slabs of this character now form part of the incised slabs, during the recent repairs in pavement of the church at Gorlcston, in liakewell Church, Derbyshire. In many Suffolk, other churches similar collections of monu- ' See Archwolojjia, vol. x.\x. j). 121. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 11 commencement of the Decorated period of English Gothic archi- tecture, that is, about a.d. 1275 : subsequently their general form was rectangular ; and when of this latter form, they are often found to be of very large dimensions. I proceed now to notice some examples of stone coffins and stone coffin-lids, and also of such monumental slabs as are alto- gether devoid of effigies, with a view to illustrate the peculiar characteristics of these memorials. A.D. 1100. Stone Coffin of King WilHam 11. , Choir of Winchester Cathedral. The well-known monument of King William IT., which stands in the midst of the choir of Winchester Cathedral, is a stone coffin, entirely without ornamental sculpture or incised work. The form of the lid in this specimen is remarkable, its uppermost or coped portion being of much smaller dimensions than the coffin itself, and having its ends sloping off as well as its sides. It would appear that this mode of constructing the coffin-lid was derived from the usage of times long anterior to the termination of the eleventh century ; for, without doubt, the coped form is much earlier than the eleventh century, though but few examples of earlier date have hitherto been discovered. At Bakewell church, in Derbyshire, however, during the progress of the rebuilding and restoration of that edifice in 1841, amongst some other fragments of very early sculptured stones, there was discovered the coped lid of a stone coffin, which may be decidedly attributed to a period not later than the commencement of the tenth century. This most curious relic is of small dimensions, its extreme length measuring three feet four inches, while its average breadth is fifteen inches 12 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS and a half. It is a little broader at the head than at the feet, and is very acutely ridged. " One side is ornamented with knot-work ; the other with monsters, half-animal, half- vegetable : at the head Anglo-Saxon Coped Coffin-lid, Bakewell. are two griffins, standing back to back under a tree : the device at the feet appears to be an interlaced design, now much obliterated. A spiral or rope-like molding runs round the angles of the stone." We may, I think, reasonably consider this stone to have been ori- ginally set upon a coffin of much larger size than itself, after the manner of the coffin-tomb of William Rufus. Two other coped coffins of the twelfth century were also found, at the same time, at Bakewell ; one of which is " ornamented horizontally with zig-zag lines, the other with vertical ones, in such a manner as to convey the idea of the tiling of a house. "^ Portions of the lids of coped tombs, of precisely similar character with those at Bakewell, have been found, and are still preserved at Bedale, in Yorkshire.^ Again, at Dewsbury, in the same county, there is another remarkable ex- ample of this same class of the coped tombs, of very early date. In the city of York itself also, when some workmen were recently removing the foundations of part of the old church of St. Dyonis ' See Bateman's Derbyshire, p. 184 : also Journal of A rchcBological A ssociation, vol. ii. p. 303. The figures of the Saxon monuments at Bakewell here given have been engraved from very careful drawings made expressly for this work. 2 See ArchcBological Journal, vol. iii. p. 258. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 13 Fragments of Coped Coffin-Uds of the Xllth century, Bakewell, Derbyshii-e. inWalmgate, another coped lid of an Anglo-Saxon stone coffin was discovered, and with it several fragments of other monumental stones. This Saxon relic, like its companion memorial at Bake- 14 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS well, measures in length three feet four mches, and is pro- fusely ornamented with figures of strange animals, which are no less strangely mixed up with scrolls and knot-work : the ridge of the coping also (which here forms an angle much less acute than at Bake- well), and the sides and ends of the stone, are traversed by a twisted molding. Originally this must have been an elabo- rate specimen of the monu- mental sculpture of the times, but now it is much worn and injured : its general character, together with the present aspect of its singular decoration, will be best explained by the an- nexed figure and section, both of which have been drawn for me from the original, with great care, and the most scru- pulous attention to exact ac- curacy.^ Early in the twelfth cen- tury, the coping of the lids of the stone coffins was much less acutely ridged than had been the previous practice, and the two slopes were continued from the central ridge to either edge of the slab. At Coningsburgh, in Yorkshire, is a good and characteristic specimen of such a monument : it is a coffin of grit-stone, tapering slightly from head to foot, and measuring in length five feet nine inches : its lid is coped, with two sloping surfaces, the ridge being Anglo-Saxon Coped Coffin-lid. Churcla of St. Dyonis, Tork ' For a descriptive notice of the church I'oi-k Volume of" the Archa;oh)giciil Insti- )f St. Dyonis, or Denis, York, see the lute, p. !). IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 15 traversed by a bold roll -molding. The south side of the coffin itself, as well as the two slopes of its lid, are covered with rudely- sculptured figures; those on the lid, except in the case of two mounted warriors, being arranged in a series of conjoined medallions. The Sagittarius, which appears in one of these medallions, may be considered to indi- cate the reign of Stephen (a.d. 1135-1154) as the date of this singular tomb.^ From some few examples of stone coffin- lids yet in existence, it appears that the slabs designed for this purpose were not invariably coped, but that occasionally the covering of the stone coffin was flat. During some exca- vations in Cambridge Castle, carried on in the yccir 1810, several coffin-lids and monumental slabs and stones were discovered, which must be all attributed to a period not later than the eleventh century : these coffin-lids are flat, and bear crosses, accompanied with ornamental bands of interlaced trellis-work. The specimen which I have here figured affords an example of the introduction of two circular crosses into the same composition : these crosses are placed towards either extremity of the slab, and are connected by a broad plain fillet, on either side of which appears the interlacing ornament, worked in relief in sunk panels. ^ The same singular knot-work is sculptured upon one of the fragments found with the Saxon coped coffin-lid at York : the lower part only of this stone has been preserved ; upon this are two bands of the interlacing pattern, each springing at the base of the slab from the mouth Xlih Century. Stone Coffin-lid, Cambridge Castle. ' See ArchcBological Journal, vol. i. p. 354. See also Carter's Ancient Painting and Sculpture, plate cxi. This coffin was apparently designed to stand close to the north wall of the church ; otherwise, doubtless, it would not have been orna- mented on one side only. ^ See ArchcBologia, vol. xvii. p. 22!!. 16 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS of a dragon-like figure ; and between the bands is a narrow fillet, probably the stem of the cross. At Barningham, in Yorkshire, in the churchyard, there lies a slab, apparently the flat lid of a stone coffin, of about the same date with the slabs found in Cambridge Castle, which is covered with sculptured knot- work : this specimen is remarkable for taper- ing slightly towards the head, as well as towards the feetJ In Lincoln Cathedral is preserved another flat coffin-lid of stone, which also has its surface covered with early sculpture: the mystical tree of Jesse — a favourite subject with mediaeval art- ists — is here represented, the branches forming the three pointed -oval com- partments, within which the principal figures of the composition are placed. ^ Another flat coffin-slab, with archi- tectural devices and animals, has been noticed at Bridlington, in Yorkshire : part of the device in this strange monu- ment evidently represents the fable of the fox and the stork ; at the base is the figure of a lion lying on his back ; and at the head of the slab are two winged dragons.^ From the various specimens which yet remain in their original positions, or which have been discovered during excavations, the early stone coffins themselves appear to have differed but little from one another in form and general character. Those which were designed to be so far buried in the ground as to leave their lids only exposed to view, were probably invariably plain, and more or less roughly hewn from the block. In the greater num- Fragment ot Sas.oa Cullia Ud, York. • Sec Arckceoloffical Journal, vol. iv. Sculpture, plate xlv. See also Gough's p, 357. IMonumeiits, vol. i. - See Carter's Ancient raintbuj and '* Hoc Journal of Archceol. Assoc, i. '32i. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 17 ber of those stone coffins, also, which were originally placed upon the pavement of the church, scvilptured ornament appears to have been considered as unnecessary, except indeed, as before, upon the coffin-lids. Occasionally, however, when a coffin-tomb of this description was required, on the decease of some personage of unusual importance, the sculptor was employed to decorate both the coffin and its covering. The most beautiful example of a stone coffin thus decorated, to which I can refer, and the one also which possesses in itself greater interest perhaps than any similar me- morial in existence, is the coffin of the great Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, which is now preserved in the Church of Llanrwst, hav- ing been removed thither from Conway at the dissolution of th'e monasteries. The date of this noble work of monumental art is A.D. 1240.1 A. V. :2-!0. stone Coffin of Llewkltk, Prince of Wales, i ■ preserved in Llanrwst Church. The great Christian symbol, the cross, though certainly intro- duced into the decoration of the monumental stones of the eleventh century, was not generally adopted until towards the close of the succeeding century, to indicate upon their monuments the Faith of deceased believers. From this period, until the age of monu- mental debasement in this country, some modification of the cross was almost invariably placed upon all sepulchral memorials, ex- ' Within tills stone coffin is now fixed a brass plate, bearing tlie following inscription : This is the Coffin of Leolinvs Magnvs Pkince Of Wales who was bvriku in the Abbey of Conway and vpon the dissolvtion removed thence. The lid of this colKii is unfoilunatolv lost. 18 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS cept, indeed, when this symbol of the Faith was superseded by an effigy of the individual commemorated. From a very early period, the cross, wrought upon the lids of stone coffins, and also upon other monumental slabs, was floriated, and otherwise enriched with various ornamental devices. In the earliest specimens the favourite ornaments were circles, and various flowing lines, as in the designs sculptured upon the coffin-lids at Repps and Burgate. In the last-named of these monuments, the base of the cross is formed -; — x;~~Wi[i\ Si uc- Coiiuhd Bs'pib iMoitolk. Stone Coffin-lid, Burgate, Stiflblk. of steps : and it may be observed, that the ridge of the coping, both above and below the cross, has the same rounded form as when forming the stem of the cross itself.^ The Repps slab, ' This arrangement of a series of stejis mental slabs, when a cruciform device is will be found to constitute the prevailiuf; not ])laced at liotli ends of the same com- base to crosses on cotfin-lids and monu- jjosition. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 19 whicli probably commemorates the founder of the circular Norman tower of the church, bears two shields ; but these, like the cross and other ornaments, are too much worn to exhibit the slightest traces of any device. The repetition of a circular cross (itself a Xlllth Century. Stone Coffin-lid. Watlington, Norfolk A. -a. VAX). Ston CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS at Llanvair Cwmmwd, in Anglesey : the last-named line slab is now placed vertically in the nor tlnvall of the cluirch.^ In addition to these, I must spe- cify one other good example, now lying buried at some little depth beneath the pavement of the Temple Church in London, but which was without doubt originally intended to form a part of the pavement of that most interesting edifice : the cross which is incised upon this memorial is remarkable for the strictly architectural character of its design. ^ In the Early English Gothic period, the more ancient prac- tice of sloping off the ends of stone coffin -lids, as well as their sides, continued to be occasionally adopted. This arrangement is exemplified by the fine specimen of this class of monument in the Temple Church, London. The ridge of the coping of this coffin- lid, which is constructed of pin-beck marble, is terminated at the upper end by a lion's head, and at the lower by the head of a lamb : from these heads issue the moldings, which are worked upon the ridges at the angles ; and from the upper ridge towards its centre there spring two recurved foliations of Early English Gothic character, which impart to the general design somewhat T.rmp. n^nry III. lucised CofEn-lid, Temple Church. ' See Brandon's Analysis of Gothic Ar- chitecture, vol. ii. : The Churches of /he Archdeaconry of Norlhamplon, vol. i. |). (i i : Specimens of Ancient Church Plate, &c. : and Archceoloyia Cambrensis, vo " See Richardson'^ Temple Co^ffiiis IN ENGLAND AND WALES. OK of the appearance of a cross. ^ In the north aisle of the choir of Norwich Cathedral, in the pavement, lies another richly molded purbeck coffin-lid, bearing a Latin cross within an engrailed bor- der, the coping of which has four sloping surfaces : and at Welwick, in Yorkshire, is a plain coffin-lid of the same character.^ Purbeck Marble Coffln^lid, Temple Church, Londoi From a numerous coUection of rubbings and sketches, I have selected the other coffin-slabs here figured, as specimens well 1 See Richardson's Temple Effigies. "- See Poulson's Ilolderness, vol. ii. p. 5] o. 26 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS calculated to exemplify several of the most pleasing varieties of monumental memorials o^ ^his class, in which the cross is the XlVthCentui-y. Stone Cofl5n-lid, Bredon. Worcesterbldi'e. XIViU Centui-y, temp. Richard 11. Stone Coffin-lid. LitUe Welnetham, Suffolk, only symbol introduced into the decoration, and is unaccom- Xinth Century. Stone Coffin-lid, and section of the Lid and CofBn, Laugbtpn-en-le-Morlhen, Torlssliu-e. To face p. 27 IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 2: panied by any legend or inscription. These examples are from Laughten-en-le-Mortlien in Yorkshire, Bredon in Worcestershire, Little Welnetham and Brandon in Suffolk, Dorchester in Oxford- shire, Barnwood in Gloucestersliire, Elford in Staffordshire, Thorn- ton Abbey in Lincolnshire, Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire, XlVth Century. Stone Coffin-lid, Brajidon, Suffolk. XlVth Century. Stone Coffin-lid. Dorchester Abbey, Oxon. and Rhuddlan in Denbighshire. ^ The coffin-lid at Laughten-en- le-Morthen requires no comments upon the graceful richness of its sculptured decorations : it will be observed, that with the sketch of the coffin-lid is given a section of the stone coffin itself. The slabs at Little Welnetham and Bredon, both apparently executed in the reign of Richard IL, are of more simple cha- ' For a notice of Thornton Abbov, with illustrations, see Archwol. Jour. ii. ?tc>l 28 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS racter: the design of the latter is of even unusual simplicity; yet both are no less elegant in themselves, than appropriate to the purpose of Christian monumental memorial. The use of a group of circular figures to form the cross-head, is shewn in the Incised Coffin-lltl, Bai-nwood. Gloucestiirshire Stone CofBn-Ud, Elford, Staffordshire. Dorchester Abbey slab : here are four circles so arranged with a lozenge-shaped figure, that the points of the lozenge form tlie four extremities of the cross-head. In some specimens the four circles are themselves set towards the cardinal points, and thus 2)roduce the requisite cruciform figure :^ the edges of this slab 1 For anotlier, and tliat ;i very beautiful eireles, sec tlie Fragment figured at example of a cross-head formed l)y four ]). G. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 29 are boldly molded. I may here in- troduce the figure of a fragment of a very beautiful slab at Cilcain, in Flint- shire, which has been most liberally placed at my disposal from the pages of the ARCH.EOLOGIA Cambrensis. The cross-head in this example is composed of four segments of circles, so placed as to produce a quatrefoil ; and this qua- trefoil is made to interlace with four other interrupted circles, which them- selves form both a cross and a cross- ragment of Slab, Cilcaia cCB ia Tncised Coffin-lid, Thornton Abtey, Lincolnshire. Incised Coffin-slab, SouthweU Minstxr: 30 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS sal tire.' The co{)ed slab at Elford was discovered in the present year (a.d. 1848), beneath the floor of the church, in the course of the restoration of that fine edifice and its noble monuments : it bears a cross of very elegant design, which is sculptured in low relief upon the stone. The decorations of the slabs at Southwell Minster, Thornton Abbey, Rhuddlan, and Barnwood, are incised, in place of being worked in relief, as in the specimens hitherto noticed. On the Thornton Abbey slab is a double-headed cross ; and on the slab at Barnwood the cross is enclosed within a plain circle, described in connexion with the upper part of the stem. The base of the cross on the slab at Southwell is formed by one of the same devices, which are combined to constitute the circular cross-head ; and on either side of the stem of this cross are similar ornaments, which, when thus placed, bear a close resemblance to the singular devices already noticed upon the slabs at Wat- lington and Sandringham, Again, in the beautiful slab at Rhud- dlan, above the steps at the base of the cross, is an ornament resembling the pattern of the cross-head : here the head of the cross is produced in apparent relief within a circular sunken ' See Archaoloffia Cambrensis, vol. i. p. 443. In several of the examples of monumental slabs, of which figures are in- troduced in the subsequent pages of this volume, the cross-head will be found to be formed from various combinations of cir- cles. The mediaeval artists appear to have entertained a very general desire to in- troduce the cross-saltire, either directly or indirectly, into their monumental compo- sitions. This form of the cross, and par- ticularly in combination with the cross more properly so called, was doubtless derived from the primitive Christian symbol — The cross-saltire is displayed in a very striking manner in a fragment of a coffin- lid at Penrith, in which the cross itself is formed of four conjoined circles, all con- tained within a fifth circle. And in the fragment from St. Dyonis, York, the for- mation of a cross-head by four circles is very beautifully exemplified : see p. 6. I ^f may mention another good slab at South Mailing, in Sussex, which bears a cross formed of four circles. Prajmtnt of Slab PennOi IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 31 panel, while the stem and base are incised. In addition to this series of monumental stones, I cannot omit here to refer to some other fine and interesting specimens, which will be found at Hexham, in Northumber- land ; at Patrington and Hedon, Yorkshire ; at Fleet, in Lincolnshire ; at Chelmorton, Ashbourne, and Har- tington, in Derbyshire ; Hanbury, in Staffordshire ; at Orwell, in Cam- bridgeshire ; Cliffe, in Kent ; at Lewes, Tangmere, and Worth, in Sussex ; at Lympley-Stoke, Wilts ; Leckhampton, in Gloucestershire ; in the ruins of Tintern, Furness, and Jervalx Abbeys ; and, amongst many others in Wales, at Llanthony, Brecon, Llanvaes, Ewenith, and Mar- gam.^ A cruciform aspect is found in some few examples to have been imparted to the lids of stone coffins, by so cutting the face of the slabs as to produce somewhat of a resem- blance to the roof of a church which has transepts : the churchyards of XIV th Century. Cct&n-slab. Rhuddlan, Denbighshire. ' The Hexham slab is engraved in the ArchcBological Journal, voJ. iii. p. 164 : it is of the 14th century, and is entirely covered with incised foliage issuing from a central stalk or stem, which at its base is divided into four branches ; and these branches spring from the mouths of two grotesque faces. For a cut of the Clift'e slab, which is of the 13th century, see Journal of the ArchcBological Association, vol. iii. p. 254. Several of the Tintern slabs are given in outline in the Rev. E. J. Carter's Remarks on Christian Grave- stones. Figures of six specimens of the Hanbury slabs will be found in the Ar- chcBological Jotirnal, vol. iv. p. 154 ; and for figures of some of the Welsh slabs, see ArchcBologia Cambrensis. The series of monumental slabs at Hartington is very numerous ; and these, as in the case of the Bakewell slabs, have been applied to the repairs of the church. See also Annales Furnienses, Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, and the various topographical works. CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS Haukswell and Fingall, in Yorkshire, contain memorials of this description. Another, and that a well-known speci- men, stands to the west of the beauti- ful Early English Gothic chapel which forms a south transeptal aisle to the church at Bredon, in Worcestershire.' Coffin-lids and monumental slabs bearing crosses only, as well as others having more diversified ornaments and devices, yet abound throughout the country ; and tlie series of known and recorded specimens is continually being augmented by fresh excavations and researches. A collection of rubbings of these, at once the memorials of past generations and of early art, and also, in so many instances, worthy examples for present and future imitation, — or a collection of accurate sketches from the originals, with measurements, — might easily be formed ; and they would be a truly valuable acquisition to the de- partment of national antiquities in the British Museum. ^ In the use of early sepulchral slabs not designed to the lids of stone coffins, the usual practice appears to have so far to imitate the actual coffin-lid, that each slab should IK Collin lid. Haukswell. form been, com- ' See Whittaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 320 : also see Brandon's /^aris/i Churches, p. 10!) : and ArchcBol.Jour. vol. ii. p. 91. ^ I would venture to suggest that the various periodical publications devoted to archa-'ological intelligence, would be fit depositories for accurate lists of early monuments ; and such lists might each comprise some district — a deanery, for example — within the range of individual observation. I may add, that any search for early monumental stones must remain incomplete, unless, in many cases, both sides of old slabs are examined ; for, with- out doubt, very many of the old stones in our churches, which now present a plain surface to the view, if reversed, would dis- close some sculptured or incised memo- rial, thus unexpectedly preserved. There is also, it may be confidently assumed, a vast number of monuments covered over by the modern pews. Two small Monumental Slabs. Church of Kt. Peter at Gowts. Lincoln To face p. 33. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 33 memorate a single individual only. Occasionally, however, this general rule was set aside, and the same slab was employed as the memorial of two or more persons. Thus, at Dunster in Somerset- shire, two crosses are placed side by side on one slab, evidently with the view to indicate that it was designed to preserve the memory of two persons. Slabs bearing two crosses are also preserved at Bibchester in Yorkshire, Goosnargh in Lancashire, at AyclifFe in the county of Durham, at East Shaftoe and at Newbigging in Northumberland, in the city of Lincoln, &c. Another slab at Lincoln proclaims itself the monument of three persons, by bear- ing on its surface the cross-symbol so many times repeated ; and again, at Gainford in Durham, there are three crosses upon the same slab, but of these the central cross is larger and more ela- borately ornamented than the other two. From the inscriptions which accompany the crosses in some other examples, it appears that a monumental slab bearing a single cross was occasionally laid down as the memorial of more than one indi- vidual. Thus, in the Church of All Saints in the city of York, the slab which commemo- rates Thomas de Yllyng- wyke, citizen of York, and Juliana his wife, is charged with one cross only. The lids of stone cof- fins, and the early monu- mental slabs upon which it was customary to place some variety of the cru- ciform symbol, may be considered generally to average in length about six feet. In some examples of slabs this average admeasurement is very considerably 34 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS exceeded ; and, on the other hand, there liave been observed some few specimens of monumental slabs of this class which are of diminutive size, while in all other re- spects they resemble similar monu- ments of ampler dimensions. These small slabs usually measure in length about two feet and four or six inches. The most remarkable specimen of them which has come under my no- tice is now affixed to the front of the almshouses at Tadcaster in York- shire. It is apparently a work of the time of King Richard I. (a.d, 1189- 1199), and its dimensions are two feet five inches and a half in length, by eleven inches and eight inches and a half in breadth at the head and feet respectively. Another ex- ample of about the same size is preserved at St. Michael's Church, Lichfield. It has the head of the cross sculptured in a sunken circu- lar panel, the stem and base being incised. And again, at Fletching in Sussex is a slab bearing a cross- botony in low relief, which, like the Tadcaster slab, is in length exactly two feet five inches and a half. The singular manner in which stone is chamfered is shewn by the section of it which accompanies the figure.^ Small Monumental Slab, Tadcaster, York. ' See the figures given in the opposite p;ige. These small slabs have been consi- dered to be the memorials of children. Some of the Bakcvvell slabs do not mea- sure more than three feet in length. This is the case also with several of the slabs at Ljmpley Stoke, and at other places. Other examples of small slabs will be described and figured in the subsequent pages of this volume. In some instances a very small cross has been observed, cut upon a slab of the customary size. A remarkable example of such a slab is preserved in the cloistei-s of Lincoln Cathedral. IN ENGLAND AND AVALES. 60 A brief Inscription was at an early period added to the cross-symbol uj^on the lids of stone coffins and other sepulchral slabs. And again, in many other examples of the same class of SmaU Coffin-slab iwitii section), Fletchm§, Susses. SmaU Slab, St. Michaels Church, Lichfield . monuments, the cross (sometimes with, sometimes without a le- gend) was accompanied by some emblem of tJw rank or vocatioi/ of the deceased : as, a pastoral staff, to indicate a bishop or abbot ; a chalice, paten, and book, a priest ; a sword, a knight or man-at- arms ; a bow and bugle-horn, a woodsman ; a square, an architect or mason ; a pair of shears, a wool-merchant ; an axe, a carpenter, &c. Shields of arms also, and other heraldic insignia, were in like manner occasionally introduced. From these personal and professional symbols upon early monu- mental stones, the various punning devices or rebusses of names, so generally adopted at a somewhat later period, may be evidently 36 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS may derived ; and, in like manner, the earlier monumental symbols be themselves deduced from a simi- lar practice, adopted in their monu- ments by the Christians of the first ages of the Church.^ At Bowes in Yorkshire is a se- pulchral slab, which is supposed to mark the grave of some member of the De Bowes family. The re- bus of this surname, two bows, is sculptured on the slab on one side of the stem of the cross, a sword being on the other side, while' a busle-horn is so slung as to form the base of the composition. In this example the pointed oval, formed by the two bows, may have been purposely designed to refer to the Christian symbol, the Vesica.^ The rebus of a name occurs again, and here also in connexion with per- sonal or official symbols, upon a monumental slab now affixed to the wall in the interior of the south aisle of Middleham Church, York- shire. This is the memorial of Robert Thornton, once Abbot of Jervalx, as appears from the border- legend : + ORATE . PRO . AIA . DOMINI . ROBERTI . THORNETON . ABBAT . HVIJ , DOM . JOREVALLIS . VICESIMI . SECNDI. Within this legend are placed the mitre and pastoral staff of the abbot, the sacred monogram, the initial letters R. T., together with a tun or cask, to form the desired rebus in connexion with Slab. Bowes, Turkshire. ' Set' Dr. Maithmd's most interesting and valuable work, /"/(c Churchintlie Catacombs. " Scpnichral Monuments, \o\. i. ; sec also The Archccoloyical Alburn, p 172. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 37 the branches of a thorn, wliich form a kind of diaper covering the field of the slab.^ Inscriptions, when first introduced into the composition of Cuffin-Ud. Bircham Tofts, Norfolk. on-iCoffinha, EnviU. , staiTjrdshire monuments, were concise and brief. The letters were, in the first instance, usually placed on either side of the stem of the cross ; but ' This curious slab is figured in the names which terminate in that syllable. Rev. W. Mitchel's work on the History is of very common occurrence. In the and Antiquities of Middleham, published monumental effigy of Humphrey Newton in 1847 by the Camden Society. The at Wilmslow, Cheshire, the head is sup- cask or tun^ to form the symbol of the ported by three small casks or tuns, syllable " ton," in the numerous series of 38 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS subsequently the words of the legend were so arranged as to form a border to the entire composition ; or sometimes an additional line was worked vipon the ridge, or down the centre of the slab. The cofhn-lid dug up at Bircham Tofts in Norfolk is a good specimen of an early inscribed slab of the simplest character.^ At Enville in Staffordshire, upon a coffin-lid, the words ROGERVs . DE . MORF are inscribed immediately adjoining the stem of a double-headed cross. ^ The brief in- scription is placed above the cross, at the head of the stone, in another cof- fin-lid at Willoughby in Lincolnshire. Asrain at Weston near Bath is another Stone Coffin-lid, Weston, near Bath. Fragment of Stone Coffin-lid, Priory of St. Bartholomew. inscribed slab, upon wliich the legend is seen to be cut towards the edge of the stone, but it is not continued to form a border to the ' See tlie Gentleman's Afnr/. tbrtheyoiir 1827, p. .'593, where two other early in- scribed slabs, discovered in t]io ruins of Ellerton Priory in Yorksliire, are de- scribed and hgured. 2 iivcAdd. MSS. British JVIuseum, G7'29 ; and (J!cntlemnn\s Magazine for the year 1783. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 39 entire composition. It will be also observed, that here the inscrip- tion stands upon the npper surface of the stone. This is another specimen of the monumental slabs of the Early English Gothic period. The next example to which I refer is a fragment found A.D. 1843 on the site of the Priory of St. Bartholomew in London, which has a border-legend properly so called. This legend is placed in the hollow chamfer which is worked about the edges of the slab.^ This position for the border-legend was commonly adopted in monumental slabs of the Gothic era. In the case of Brasses, if they were affixed to slabs which were molded about the edges, the fillets of metal bearing the border-legends were usually inserted in hollows prepared for their reception in the midst of the group of moldings, and being thus set sloping, they produced an excellent effect. When the slabs were finished without moldings, the border-legend was cut upon their upper surface, the letters being generally enclosed within two lines. The emblems of the four Evangelists were also commonly placed within quatrefoils at the angles, and in this position served to connect the four parts of the inscription. 2 This same arrangement is very common in Brasses. In the earliest examples, each letter was formed of a separate piece of metal, and inserted in a distinct cavity sunk in the slab. At first the angles were quite plain, and the separate letters were unaccompanied by border-lines ; as is exemplified in fragments of early slabs in Merton College Chapel, Oxford, and in the church at Saffron Walden in Essex, and also in the slab at Buslingthorpe in Lincolnshire, which will be more particularly described in the next Section.^ Subsequently, the single letters of brass were placed between very narrow fillets of the same metal ; and about ^ It has been suggested that the com- stops, placed one above another, occur plete legend, of which a part is preserved very commonly between each word. At upon this fragment, was as follows : — the beginning of the fifteenth century + HEW :de:hen[don: gist: icy: *^^«^ ^*«P« '^^'^ superseded by leaves, DEV : DE : SON : J alme : eit : merci. ^S"''^^' ^"'^ ^^"°"« '^^'^''^^^ ' ^"* ^^"""^^y afterwards the general practice was to Hugh, Prior of St. Bartholomew's, died omit any object between the words of a A.D. 1295. — See Gent. Mag. vol. xix. n.s. sentence. In the sixteenth century, at p. 521. Ormesby in Norfolk, the border-legend * Border-legends usually commence with to the brass of Sir Robert de Clcre has a a small cross. In the early inscriptions, shield of arms between each word. a stop, and sometimes two or even three ^ See infra. Section II. 40 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS the middle of the fourteenth century the inscriptions began to be |,ic mceti^acprta. oBkr ijnbm toice? ^idjolao €atta€t itnje ATj. 1425. 4th Henry VI. Cross txi Margaret Or iver, Beddington Churcb. Sxirrey. light of the enliro composition in the original, 3 feet 5 inches. This Brass now lies on the pavement of the South Chapel. engraved vpo7i and not hettveen fillets of the latten metal, and the evangelistic emblems appear at the angles.^ In cross-brasses the ' Despoiled slabs, which shew the ma- tn'ces from whence the single letters of brass luive been lost, with their border- fillets, and the stops usually placed be- tween each word, are of very common occurrence ; but these early metallic let- IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 41 legend is sometimes placed above the cross, but its general position is below the foot of the cross, and immediately adjoining it. Fine examples of this arrangement occur at Higham Ferrers in Nor- thamptonshire, A.D. 1400; at Broadwater in Sussex, a.d. 1445; at Cassington in Oxfordshire, c. a.d. 1415; and at Beddington in Surrey, a.d. 1425 ; and again, at Grainthorpe in Lincolnshire is another very elegant brass of the same class, but in this instance both the stem of the cross and the inscription are lost.^ Leaving the border-legends of Brasses for illustration and fur- ther description hereafter,^ I now return to those monumental slabs which bear crosses and border-legends incised upon the stone itself. The incised slab of Bishop Peter Quivil, in the Lady Chapel of Exeter Cathedral, is a fine and also a curious specimen of such a monument. The inscription is petra . tegit . petrm . NIHIL . OFFiciAT . siBi . TETRM. The design of the cross is very singular. Bishop Quivil died a.d. 1291.^ Thornton Abbey in Lincolnshire furnishes a good example of a slab of the same class, ters themselves and their accessories are rarely to be found now. The two letters M.N. in brass, and two stops, may be seen on a fragment of a monumental slab in the ante-chapel at Merton College ; some stops remain on a noble slab at Watling- ton in Norfolk ; and this is also the case upon slabs at Pyrton and Ewelme in Oxfordshire. At Wooton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire, upon a despoiled slab, with the matrices of a kneeling effigy and a canopy, are also the traces of a border- legend, and a legend ujson a scroll held by the figure, both of which were formed by detached Lombardic letters For further remarks upon sepulchral inscriptions, see my Monumental Brasses and Slabs, p. 141. ' The inscription at the foot of the Higham Ferrers Cross commemorates both Thomas Chichele, and Agnes his wife. For a figure and further notice of the Broadwater Cross, see Monumental Brasses and Slabs, p. 118. The four other cross- brasses mentioned in the text are figured in my other work. The Monumental Brasses of Enfflan(l,hom which the engravings are here introduced. In the Higham Ferrers Cross, the emblem of St. Mark, which is lost in the original, has been restored. The date of the Grainthorpe Cross is about A.D. 1400. It will be observed that the base of this cross is fixed upon a rock. Several other Brasses of this same kind yet remain, but these are for the most part small, or partially mutilated ; and be- sides these, slabs from which the Brasses have been lost declare that the larger and more elaborate monuments of this class once existed in considerable numbers throughout the country. ^ See infra, Section III. ^ The cross incised upon this slab bears a close resemblance to the matrix of a brass. There are, however, no traces of the hollowed spaces having ever been filled with metal. The circle at the in- tersection of the cross may once have been occupied with some ornament or emblem, but now the space enclosed by the incised line is plain, and level with the rest of the slab. This is an example of the omission of a fourth floriated arm to the cross, above the stem — an omission very rare until a later period. f^^^^^M >;©t®^^^©^ JBiaiai' f 1 n |ifl)mau]MiDiMTv#l^ilhuo-€ Mm-M ^jjiif^f |{0i tiwsi qiioB anhuafn JiJinftiir. Dnu"^ ^m €-jPl 1 i-.a- A.i-'. UOO. 2nd Henry I\'. Cross to the Jlemoi-y of Tuomas CuichisX/E and Agues his Wife, Hijbam Ferrers Church, NorJaamptonshire. 'J he emblem of St. Mark, which is lost in the original, is here restored. Height of the entire composition in the oiigifaal, 6 feet 2 inches. This Brass now lies en the par-ementot ihe North Chap.il. c. AD. 1400, Snd Eenry IV. Head and Base of a Cross, Grainttiorpe Churoh, Lincolnshire. and on^ of the flnials are lost from the original, the height of which, when sntin. The remains of this Brass now lie on the pavement of the Cliancnl. 44 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS of later date. In this monument the upper and two transverse ex- tremities arc richly floriated, the stem is diapered with quatrefoils, and the three steps of the base shew traces of corresponding elabo- rate enrichment. At the intersection of the cross is placed the sacred monogram, here expressed by the letters iiiu within a circle, and upon the cross itself are incised the words, mercy . MERCY — LADY^ . HELPE. About the cdgcs of the slab, whicli is of large dimensions, measuring 6 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 4 inches, is IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 45 "■^'K^RiaKRoma placed the border-legend : it is engraved without lines or angle- emblems, in very bold letters, and runs thus : — HIC . lACET . ROBERTUS . GUDYK . QUI . OBIIT . PRl" . DIE . MENS . OCTOB . A*' . DNI . M . CCCC" . LXIIJ . ET . JOHA , UXOR . EI . QU". AIABS . PPICIET . DS . AME.^ Upon a slab found in digging at the Friery, Lichfield, the border- legend is arranged after the same manner, and in this instance it is placed between lines ; and this legend, which constitutes the sole accompaniment to the cross in this monument, is very curi- ous, as shewing the kind of bar- gains which were made between the monks and the merchant- princes of those days ; whereby, in the present instance, the de- ceased merchant, Richard, is appointed to be merchant to St. Michael, in consideration of his having bestowed upon the fathers of the Friery various worldly gear and chattels. The inscription, which is preserved complete in Shawe's History of Staffordshire, is as follows : — Incised Slab, Lichtieid. RICARDVS . MERCATOR . VICTVS . MORTE . NOVERCA . QVI . CESSAT . MERCARI . PaVSAT . IN . HAC . lERARCA . EXTVLIS . EPHEBVS . PAVCIS . VIVENDO . DIEBVS . ECCLESIAM . REBVS . SIC . ET . VARUS . SPECIEBVS . VIVAT . ET . IN . CELIS . NVNC . MERCATOR . MICAELIS . ' This slab, though designed to commemorate two individuals, hears one cross onlv. 46 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS This slab appears to have been executed towards the close of the fourteenth cen- tury. The taste for rhyming Latin, strangely prevalent in the monumental inscrip- tions of the middle ages, is exemplified in this epitaph of the merchant Richard. So strong, indeed, was the passion for this species of composition, that the se7ise appears to have been reck- oned altogether subordinate to the rhyme ; and, in some examples, we have evident proof that no little pains and trouble were bestowed upon producing this much- desired similarity of sound, while the meaning of the legends was so far disre- garded, that it now requires no little ingenuity to disco- ver it. Inscriptions of this kind were introduced into the composition of the finest monuments ; and they thus produce a striking contrast between the literature of the period, and the pure taste then exhibited in mo- numental art. I may here describe the celebrated slab of black marble, the memorial of Monumental Slab of Gundrada. Countess de 'Warenne, Lewes. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 47 the Princess Gundrada, wife of William, first Earl de Warenne, and fifth daughter of the Conqueror, which is now preserved in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Southover at Lewes. " The stone, which has lost a small portion of its lower end, mea- sures five feet five inches long, two feet broad at the head, and twenty inches at the foot." It bears an inscription so arranged as to form a border to the entire composition, and also to divide the upper face of the slab into two compartments. These compart- ments are entirely filled with rich and delicate ornaments of ara- besque design, the workmanship of which is most masterly. " In consequence of the fracture, the inscription is imperfect. Happily, however, enough of it remains to render the sense complete." It is as follows : — STIRPS . GVNDRADA . DVCV . DEC . EVI . NOBILE . GERMEN. INTVLIT . ECCLESIIS . ANGLORV . BALSAMA . MORV . MARTIR .... .... VIT . MISERIS . FVIT . EX . PIETATE . MARIA . PARS . OBIIT . MARTHE . SVPEST . PARS . MAGNA . MARIE . O . PIE . PANCRATI . TESTIS . PIETATIS . ET . EQVI . TE . FACIT , HEREDE . TV . CLEMENS . SUSCIPE . MATRE . SEXTA . KALENDARV . IVNII . LVX . OBVIA . CARNIS . IFREGIT . ALABASTRV .... Which may be thus rendered : " Gundrada, the descendant of dukes, the ornament of her age, a noble branch, brought into the churches of England the noble balm of her virtues. O martyr .... to the poor she was (a Martha) : for her piety a Mary. Her Martha's part is dead : her Mary's better part survives. O holy Pancras, witness of (her) piety and justice, receive mercifully a mother who makes thee her heir. The sixth of the calends of June, a hostile day, shivered the alabaster of her flesh." .... " Here the epitaph breaks off abruptly ; but there can be no doubt that, when perfect, it contained some allusion to the soul, as the precious ointment contained in the alabaster box of her body, and corresponding with the halsama morum before introduced. With the exception of the fracture at the lower end, this monument 48 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS is in excellent preservation ; and, nnless it be wantonly injured, it will last for centuries, to attest the skill, tlie good taste, and the gratitude of the monks of Lewes." ^ This slab may be assigned to about the year 1250, during the reign of Henry III. ; and it would appear to have been first laid down in the chapter-house of the Conventual Church at Lewes, at the time when the renuiins of the Earl and Countess De Warenne were removed (as it is evident that they were removed) to that spot from their original resting- place in the ancient Priory. The Princess Gundrada died at Castle Acre in Norfolk, May 27th, 1085. Inscription and Coffin-lid, Lf:;we3. There is also preserved at Lewes another memorial too curious ' See tlie Winchester Volume of the Archccdlor/icalJ ssociatioti, ]). 312, and the Journal of that Society, vol. i. p. 340' ; Archceoloffiii, vol. xxxii j). 308 ; Watson's li'mlory of the Earls of Warenne ; and Gough's Monuments, vol. i. pp. I and 9. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 49 to be passed over without notice. This is an inscription cut upon fifteen stones, which were built into the wall about the sweep of the chancel-arch of the old church of St. John-sub-Castro, and now are inserted in an appropriate part of the new edifice by which that ancient church has been superseded. These stones still form an arch, and a coffin-lid bearinj^ a cross with a double head has been built into the wall immediately below them.^ *' The inscription, which occupies two semicircular lines, reads as follows : — CLAVDITVR : HIC : MILES : DANORVM : REGIA : PROLES : MANGNVS : NOM : EI : MANGNE : NOTA : PGENIEI : DEPONENS : MANGNVM : SE : MORIBVS : INDVIT : AGNVM : PPETE : p : VITA : PARWLVS : ancorita : " Here lies a soldier, the descendant of Danish kings, whose name, Mangnus, bespeaks his distinguished ancestry. Relinquish- ing his greatness, he assumed the manners of a lamb, exchanging a life of activity for that of a lowly hermit." Some few of the letters in the original are of later date than the others ; these were probably inserted when the stones of the inscription underwent a previous removal, some time before the year 1635. The inscription itself appears to be no earlier than the close of the thirteenth century ; but it is not so easy to attri- bute it to the individual whom it was designed to commemorate.^ Inscriptions of various kinds will be found upon several of the other slabs, which I now proceed to describe, as affording charac- teristic illustrations of the system of placing upon coffin-slabs official and personal emblems of the deceased. Among the few vestiges of the Abbey of Sulby in Northamptonshire yet remain- ing, is an interesting and beautiful coffin-slab of the Early English Gothic period, which, by the pastoral-staff" sculptured with the cross upon its surface, indicates that it once covered the remains of some now unknown abbot of that relig^ious house. ^ Another slab 1 This coffin-lid has no actual associa- crosses of similar design, tion with the inscription to the Danish ^ See Winchester Vol. of the Archceol. prince. It was found with no fewer than Association, p. 308. seven others, all charged with monumental ^ See cut at p. 50. 50 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS of the same period, but having its devices incised in place of being sculptured in relief, is now built into the wall of the Friery at Bangor. The beautiful cross is here accompanied by a pastoral- stafF and a book, and also with two brief legends, one of which is executed in relief.^ Near the western entrance of Llandaff Cathedral, in the pavement of the nave, lies a third monu- mental slab, upon which is de- lineated a pastoral-staff, with a legend bearing the name of MAGISTER . lOHANNES . LLOYD . And again, the same device oc- curs upon two slabs, now pre- served, with many other inte- resting monuments, at Margam in Glamorganshire. One of these memorials, which is of large dimensions, and still very perfect, bears an abbot's staff of great elegance, with the fol- lowing inscription : — iilonumental BUib. Sijlby Abbey, NoiibamptODshire. CONSTANS . ET . VERTVS . lACET . HIC . RVEVALLIS . OPERTVS . ABBAS . ROBERTVS MOS . DEVS . ESTO . MISERTVS. AMEN. The base of the otlier slab is broken away, and the remaining por- tions of the two inscriptions which were originally cut upon the stone are but partially legible. The heads of two pastoral-staves, however, are yet distinct and perfect; and so also is the "beautiful circular ornament, which was doubtless intended for the head of a cross-fleury, although the cruciform appearance is lost," from This fine sliil) is now much mutilated. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 51 the design being arranged in sLv floriated figures in place of eight or foiir.i The two pastoral-staves are placed one on either side of the stem of the cross. I know but one other instance of the same coffin-slab bearing two staves, and this other is in the crypt of Rochester Cathedral. Here the volutes of the staves meet in the middle, and curling outwards from each other toward the sides of the slab, they impart a cruciform aspect to the entire composition. ^ At Thornton Abbey is a slab from which a pastoral-staff in brass has been torn away, with border-fillets for the legend, and plates ' This arrangement is very unusual. Tliere is a fine specimen of it upon a slab in the church of St. Magnus, Orkney. See Archaologia Cambrensis, vol. iii. p. 3.9. " See Gentleman's Ma(j. for 18.37, part ii. p. 24fS. This slab was found a.d. 1833 beneath the chapel of St. William. At the smaller end, part of the stone has been cut away, apparently in order to adapt it to the form of a pillar. See cut at p. 5'2. 52 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS for the evangelistic emblems at the angles. In this example the staft' was set bend-wise upon the stone. Another matrix of a lost Coped CofEn-lid. Rochester Catiiedral. Despoiled Slab, 'I'homton Abbey. brass, at Ainderby in Yorkshire, shews the outlines of a pastoral- staff resting upon the monumental cross, after the manner of the sculptured slab at Sulby Abbey, while above the cross was a fillet bearing a short legend. At Jervalx Abbey in Yorkshire, a nume- rous series of monumental stones and slabs arc yet preserved. Of these one slab bears a cross, having upon its stem, as if resting on it, the figure of a chalice, while on either side are represented a pastoral-staff and a mitre, and the whole is surrounded by a bor- IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 53 der-legend.^ The crosier of an archbishop appears in one of Dug- dale's plates of the brasses of Old St. Paul's, in his history of that Monumr^ntal Slab, Ecclestoae Prioi- Tork. cathedral. It was placed upright in the centre of the slab, and was accompanied by a border-legend ; and Gough has figured another specimen of a pastoral-staif, carved in relief upon a tomb in the ruins of Bayham Abbey .'^ The pastoral-staff, the emblem of episcopal or abbatical rank, upon some few monumental stones is represented as grasped in the hand of the deceased prelate. At Ecclestone Priory in Yorkshire ' See Whittaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. ^ See Gough 's Sepulchral Monuments, p. 427. vol. ii. introduction, p. cxv. 54 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS is a curious specimen of this device. The hand is here depicted as issuing from the dexter side of the slab. In the centre rises a cross, the head of which resembles the same symbol as upon the Margam slab, in the pecu- liarity of its being formed of six foliated bars.^ Gough has figured a slab from Wel- beck Abbey, Notts, upon which is sculptured a hand holding a crosier ;2 and again, upon the fragment of another slab at Romsey Abbey, Hants, Fragment of Stone Coffin-)i l, Rorasey Abbey. a hand is carved, and part of a sleeve, the hand supporting a pastoral-stafF.3 In the two specimens last named, the cross, as distinct from the emblem of the pastoral office, is omitted, and the staff occupies its place in the centre of the stone. This is also the case in the slab of Abbot Sutton at Dorchester in Despoiled Slab of Abbot Sutton, Dorchester Abbey Ch.urch. ' See cut at p. 53. One of the Bakewell slabs bears a cross, which has for its head a device of six points within a circle. * See Sepulchral Monuments, vol. i. ; and Thoroton's Notts, vol. iii, p. 2.32. ^ See Winch, Vol of Arch. Assoc, p. 420. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 55 Oxfordshire. The staff, with the hand which held it, with a border- legend, were in this monument all executed in brass ; but the plates have been long torn from the stone, leaving the character of the A. ila .t ;,■ Abbey. Stone Coffin-lid, St. Pierre, near Chepstow. original composition to be inferred from the despoiled indent upon its surface.^ Another slab, having a highly enriched cross, and also a hand holding a pastoral-staff, is figured by Carter from ' See Addington's Dorchester Church, angles of this slab within the border-le- p. 14 ; also Gough's Monuments, where gend, indicate that the stone once was this slab is twice figured. The four small consecrated as an altar, or credence-stone, crosses which appear towards the four They have no reference to the monu- 56 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS Romsey Abbey. The hand here appears to issue from the midst of the foliage, which is clustered upon the edges of the stone. ^ Again, at Flaxley Abbey in Gloucestershire, the lid of a stone- coffin is charged with the same device, a hand holding a pastoral- staff'.^ In the singular stone coffin-lid now preserved in the church of St. Pierre in Monmouthshire, the hand is again introduced, in this instance connected with the arm, and proceeding from the sinister side of the stone ; but here it is the customary monumental cross which is grasped by the hand. The square panel, slightly sunk below the surface at the upper part of this slab, was pro- bably designed to receive a piece of marble of corresponding size, on which a head might have been sculptured, or which possibly might have been inscribed with a brief legend.^ At Barnard Castle in the county of Durham, now affixed to the exterior of the east wall of the chancel of the church is a very fine slab, which is charged with a monumental cross and a hand, and also with a chalice and an open book ; but here, in place of grasping the stem of the cross, the hand is represented as resting upon it, and it ex- presses the action of benediction. The accompanying sketch will best convey an idea of the elaborate richness and beauty of the interlacing design of the cross-head.* Another fine fragment, at St. Andrew's, Newcastle, exhibits, with a cross, a paten, and a hand extended over a chalice, in the same gesture of benediction.^ The usual emblem placed upon a monumental stone to denote that it was laid down to commemorate a deceased ecclesiastic of mental capacity of the slab. Similar ^ See cut at p, 55; see also Add. MSS. small consecration crosses may not un- Brit. Museum, 6720 •,ArchceoLJoiirnal,\ol. frequently be observed upon monumental v. j). 7C; and Gent. Mag. vol. xxxv, p. 72. slabs. Good examples occur upon an ■* See Surtees' Durham, vol. iv. p. 82. incised slab at Tempsford in Bedford- '" See ArchcBol. Journal, vol. v. p. 253. shire ; in the south aisle of the choir of The pastoral-statf held by a hand appears Ely cathedral, upon a slab despoiled of to have been a common device on the con- its brasses ; and upon the slab now bear- tinent, upon the monumental slabs of dig- ing the brasses of Lady Marnay and her nified ecclesiastics. It appears on a tomb two husbands, at Little Horkesley in of a bishop who died a. d. 1138 at Antwerp. Essex. Again, several other examples are men- ' See Carter's Ancient Architecture, tioned by Gough as existing in France, plate lix. See Sepulchral IMonuments, vol. ii. introd. * See cut at p. 55 ; see also Specimens p. cxiv. There is another good slab of an of Ancient Church Plate, &c. al)l)()t or prior at Blanchland in Durham. Slllth Century Monuraental Slab, Galnford, Durham. Xlllth Century. Monumental Slab, Barnard Castle. To face p. 56 IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 57 rank inferior to a bishop or abbot, is the sacramental chalice. Occasionally, either the paten or the consecrated wafer accom- panies the chalice. In other examples, again, with the chalice appears a book. The chalice is but rarely seen upon the same Incised. Black Marble Slab, Blanchland, Durham. slab with a pastoral-stafF. I have mentioned one example at Jer- valx Abbey. At Blanchland in Durham is another fine example, a slab of black marble nearly seven feet in length. The staff is here placed on the dexter side of the cross-stem ; and on the other side, at the head of the slab, appear the chalice and wafer. 58 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS A fragment of an incised slab yet remaining at the hospital of St. Mary, Newcastle, shews the figures of both chalice and paten, as if incorporated into the stem of the cross. It is probable, however, that it was intended to convey the idea that the chalice and paten were rest- ing upon the stem of the cross. The paten, which in this curious example is circular, is placed above the cha- lice, and by its side a smaller circle represents the host or consecrated wafer, ^ Upon another fragment at the same place, the chalice and wafer are both represented on the dexter side of the cross, and the paten is omitted. In the very interesting- fragment of another monumental Fragment of Incised Slab. Newcastle stone, lately discovered beneath the floor of the church at Sproatley in the East Riding of Yorkshire, St. Andrew's, Newcastle. Fragments of Monumental Slabs. St. Mary's, Newcastle. the chalice is so placed as to appear partly resting upon the stem of the cross, and above it is a hand holding a paten charged with ^ See ArchcEol. Journal, vdI. v. p. 2.53. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 59 a quatrefoil : on the other side is an inscription.^ The chalice and paten again occur, as accessories to a cross, upon a slab at Hun- manby in Yorkshire, and they are here both placed on the dexter side of the cross-stem.^ In the same county of York, at Marrick, Fragment of Stone Coffin-lid, Sproatley, York Incised Blab, Marrick. with a cross, there are incised upon a slab a chalice, a square paten charged with a quatrefoil, a book, and another object, apparently a pax : 3 and at Kirkby in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, beside the cross is represented a hand holding a paten, but the chalice is omitted. ' The design of the Sproatley slab has unfortunately been reversed. The bar- barous act of cutting away the sculptured designs from monumental stones appears in some districts to have been extensively practised, and at no distant period. 2 See the Churches of Scarboroityh and the Neighbourhood, p. 1 30. ^ See Wh\ttaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 221. 60 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS Tlie chalice and book are rarely found together, with a cross, upon the same slab. Perhaps the county of Durham contains the majority of the examples which have been observed. In the churchyard at Great Salkeld, in the adjoining county of Cumber- land, is a slab upon which these same devices appear. They are repeated upon another slab, which now lies in the pavement of the chancel at Chellaston in Derbyshire, and bears the date A.D. 1405 : also upon a slab, simi- larly placed, at Kirklington in Notting- hamshire : and a. Ii39. S4Ui Henry III. Stone Cofl5n-lid, St. Pierre, near Chepstow. ' See Frontispiece. I may here ob- serve, that it appears to have been a favourite idea to form the head of the cross ia such a manner as to admit within it some figure or device, after the manner exemplified by the Tickell slab. Of this cla.ss of monumental cross several fine ex- amples will l)e found described and figured in Sections II. and III. of this volume. - See Add. MSS. Brit. Museum, G1-20 ; ArchcBol. Journal, vol. v. p. 76 ; and Gen- tleman''s Afag. vol. xxxv. p. 72. Stone Coffin-lid of the Early English Gothic Period, at Tickhill in Yorkshire. See p. 6S. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 69 is produced after the same manner. There are swords upon monu- mental slabs, with crosses, at Parwich, Staveley, and Chelmorton, in Derbyshire. At Darley, in the same county, the sword is ac- companied by a bugle-horn ; ^ and the same devices are repeated at Slllth Century, Stone Coffin-lid, St. John's, Chester. c. A.D. 13:0. CofSn slab of Griffith ap Jorwonh, Bangor. Great Salkeld in Cumberland, with the addition of the sword-belt.^ The monumental slab of Griffith ap Jorworth, a benefactor to Bangor Friery, now built into the wall of the grammar-school at that city, is a memorial no less beautiful than interesting. It bears ' See Lyson's Derbyshire. ^ See Lyson's Cumberland. 70 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS a cross of most elegant design, whieli has on the dexter side of its stem a sword, and on the sinister side a Latin legend in two lines cut in relief in sunk labels. Below the legend is a small cruciform device within a circle, the mark probably of the sculptor who exe- Stono Coffin-lid, GilUng, YorkBhirc. Coffin Blab, Khuddlan, Denbighshire. cuted the monument. At Gilling in Yorkshire, and at Rhuddlan in Denbighshire, are two other slabs, upon which the same military device is apparent. Of these, the former monument is executed entirely in relief, and is remarkable for the elegance of its inter- laced cross-head. In the latter the sword and the stem of the cross arc incised, and the cross-head is produced in apparent relief, after IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 71 the manner already exemplified in several other specimens. At Thorinanby, also in Yorkshire, is a slab of great beauty, upon which both the cross and the sword are entirely expressed by in- cised lines. Another incised slab at Rhuddlan, now affixed to the Incised Slab , Tlionnauby, Yurkslure. Slab, Rhuddlan Prion,'- wall of the Priory, bears a sword with a cross raguly, and a legend. This interesting memorial has suffered much from both time and wanton injury, as may be inferred from the accomj^anying sketch. This same device, the sword, is found on some of the Bakewell slabs. It occurs again at Kirkby Stephen in Westmoreland ; at 72 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS Gainfoi'cl, and at many other places in the covmty of Durham ; at Garstang in Lancashire ; upon slabs yet preserved amidst the ruins of Kirkstall and Furness Abbeys ; and again at Bassenthwaite, Ir- thington, and Dereham, all in Cumberland, it may be seen, and in each instance it is accompanied with a legend.' I have already mentioned two slabs, upon each of which there appears a bugle-horn with the cross and sword ; also a third (at Bowes in Yorkshire), which has the further addition of two bow- staves. At Papplewick in Nottinghamshire, another slab, without doubt the memorial of some forester or forest-ranger of Sherwood, bears on either side of a richly floriated cross a hunter's horn slung from a bandrick, and a bow and arrow ; and again, upon one of the Bakewell fragments, a similar bugle-horn is depicted as suspended from a staff, which, in the complete composition, might have served as the stem of the monumental cross. A bugle-horn also appears upon another slab at Hutton in Cumberland ; but in this instance the sword is omitted, and a shield of arms supplies its place. In many examj)les the sword and shield are represented together : as at Greystoke, Melmerly, Ainstable, and Newton Rigney, all in Cumberland ; at Kirkby Stephen and Brougham in Westmoreland ; Garstang in Lancashire, &:c. The Garstang slab presents an elegant but somewhat singular design, and has the stem of the cross intervening between the sword and shield. 2 Upon the Melmerly slab the cross again stands between the sword and shield. The stem of the cross is floriated, having three large leaves issuing from it on either side ; and the shield, which is on the sinister side, is charged with a maunche. The sword is placed on the sinister side at Ainstaple, as it is at Gar- stang ; but here are four shields ; a helmet, crest, and mantling arc also introduced, and these with one of the shields form a regular FraAnieut of Incised Slab. Bakewell ' See Lyson's Cumberland , where iiljso are mentioned many other shil)s bearing swords. Gough, and the various topo- graphical works, furnish many other ex- amples ; and in tlie cliurchcs tlirougliout the kingdom ;i great many more will be found. " See cut at p. 73. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 73 achievement of arms. There are also upon this slab these remains of a border-legend : — "i* hic : iacet : iohannes : de : d....ntovn : DOMiNvs : DE : ...NSTAPLi. The armorial bearings are those of Incised Slab, Garstaug. iiii:SaDr^'k^i|^^ Incised Slab, Ainstaple. Denton, which coat appears on each of the four shields, and on two of them with other coats impaled. ^ The incised slab at Brougham, known there as the Crusader's Tomb, bears on its sur- face " a cross flory, with a smaller cross within it ; at the right side ' See Lyson's Cumberland, p. cxcv. 74 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS is a sword, at the left a circular shield," which is covered by wavy lines radiating from its centre. This is supposed to cover the remains of Udard de Broham, who, having taken the cross in the second crusade, died about a.d. 1185. In this same church has INCISED SLABS at Brougham ia Westmoreland ; at Newton Ri^ney in Cumberland, been discovered another incised slab, apparently about half a cen- tury later, which is charged with a cross, a sword, and the letter B, all somewhat rudely executed. ^ With these slabs may be asso- ' See ArchcBol. Journal^ vol. iv. p. hi), where will be found a most interesting paper upon " The Tombs of the De lirorn- ham Family,'''' accompanied with iUustra- tive engravings. The skeleton of Sir Udard de Bi'oham was discovered dur- ing the excavations rendered necessary for some repairs in the chancel, lying cross- legged^ about two feet below the surface. The circular shield is very rarely found. Stothard has a well-known plate of an effigy, in which the warrior is rcprescTited with a circuhir shield, a sword, and a species of hammer or martel de fer : see RLonumental Effigies, plate 19. The other slab at Brougham was discovered to be incised, upon reversing it : this was the case also with a third slal) in the same church. I may add, that Gough has given a figure of a slab from Chetwynd in Shropshire, upon which is a circular shield charged with a coat of arms : see Monuments, vol. i. ]). cviii. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 75 ciatecl a third, like them a memorial of an ancestor of the present Lord Brougham, which is preserved in the church at Newton Rigney. This slab, which is charged with a cross, a sword, and a shield of arms, is placed above the remains of one of the Vauxes, Lords of Catterlen. The uppermost part of the slab at Greystoke has been broken off ; enough, however, re- mains to shew that this is the mo- nument of a lord of the barony of Greystoke, whose shield, charged with his armorial insignia, — three cushions, — is so placed as to cover parts of the stem of the cross and of the blade of the sword ; that part of the inscription which is now le- gible contains the words — iohes . CODAM (quondam) . baro . de . gray- STOK.i Upon many of these slabs both sword and shield are placed on the same side of the cross, and gene- rally the shield has the appearance of hanging in front of the sword. There is a good example of this arrangement at Kirkby Stephen in Westmoreland : the shield is here charged with the armorial insignia of the Lowthers.2 Amongst many other monumental stones of great interest, lying in the burial-ground of Durham Cathedral, is one slab, upon which the knightly belt is shewn encircling the weapon of the deceased warrior. The shield is here omitted, and the sword and belt are placed on the sinister side of the cross, while on the opposite side is sculptured JvioniirDental blab, Ov Cmnberland. ' See Lyson'd CionLerland, p. cxcvi. ; also Gough's Monuments, vol. i. p. cix. ^ It will be observed that the cross does not stand in the centre of the slab in this example. See the cut at p. 7(J. 76 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS some other object, now too much defaced for its character to be Stone Coffin-lid, Durham Cathedral. Incised Slab, Kirkby Stephen. distinctly ascertained ; and the composition is completed by the fiffure of a cow restinc: at the foot of the cross. ^ ^ Possibly the device on the dexter side of the cross on this coffin-slab may have been designed to represent a cylindrical helmet, similar to that worn by Sir Geof- frey de Magneville, Earl of Essex, in the Temple Church. The cow at the foot of this cross has evident reference to the le- gend, which is said to have assigned its present locality to the noble cathedral of St. Cuthbert at Durham. This " curious tradition," says Mr. Dawson Turner (see Oriffinal Papers, published by the Nor- folk and Norwich Archaeological Society, vol. ii, p. 89), " is detailed at much length in Hutchinson's History/ of Durham ; and Davies, in his edition of the Ancient Rites and Monuments of the Cathedral, relates it with more terseness and naivete'" The substance of this tradition is, that when, in the tenth century, in consequence of an IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 77 It is by no means common to find the figure of any animal placed, as in the example from Diu'ham, at the base of slabs bear- ing monumental crosses ; while, on the other hand, at the feet of efligies recumbent upon tombs, such figures were almost invariably introduced. Gough has figured several specimens of the monu- mental cross supported by a lamb or sheep upon slabs, which appa- rently are thus declared to be the monuments of wool-merchants ; ^ also one slab, at Chetwynd in Shropshire, which represents the cross as resting upon a lion ; and one other, at Brent Pelham in Hertfordshire, which denotes the triumph of the Church by the cross being planted upon a dragon's head.^ In the brass of Nicholas Aumberdene, " Fishmonger of London,"^ the cross stands upon a dolphin ; ^ at Bray in Berkshire, the shaft of the fine bracket-brass of Sir John Foxley and his two wives rests upon a fox ; * at Wim- bish in Essex was a cross in brass, having at its base the figure of an elephant.^ A fragment of a despoiled slab at Saffron- Walden, in the same county, shews that it once bore a rich cross in brass resting on a lion. Similar crosses in brass have been lost from other slabs : at St. Alban's Abbey ; the chapel of Merton College, Oxford ; Ely Cathedral ; tlie churches of Pulham and Stradsett in Norfolk ; of Cherry Hinton in Cambridgeshire, &c. In some few instances the Agnus Dei appears at the foot of the cross upon monumental slabs. A remarkable example of this now lies in the incursion of the Danes, the monks of Lin- gies of these merchants ; as in the brass disfam fled from Chester (where they had of John Forty (a.d. 1458), at Northleach taken shelter from the former violence of in Gloucestershire, whose feet are repre- the same enemies), they carried with them sented as resting upon a sheep and a the relics of their patron saint, St. Cuth- wool-pack. The wool-pack was often used bert, in hope of finding for them some in this manner at the feet of effigies of more secure resting-place. They were deceased merchants. It occurs again at directed, says the legend, by a super- Northleach, also at Cirencester, at Chip- natural revelation, to go to Dunholme; ping Norton in Oxfordshire, at Linwood but where this Dunholme might be, they in Lincolnshire, in the church of All- were not told ; neither could they dis- Hallows-Barking in London, «&c. cover, until, as they wandered in search " See Sepulchral Monuments, vol. i. of it, they chanced to hear some woman p. cix. ; and vol. ii. introduction, p. cxv. tell to her companion that her cow was in ^ See Monumental Brasses and Slabs, Dunholme. Hence the association of th& p. 121. cow with Durham. ^ See Waller's Monumental Brasses. ' The sheep is found placed, to denote ^ See Section III. ; see also Waller's their profession, at the feet of many effi- Brasses. 78 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS pavement at the east end of Great Milton church in Oxfordshire. This slab, which in length measures 6 feet 9 inches, is composed of Purbeck marble, and bears a richly flo- riated cross of the first half of the thir- teenth century, resting upon the figure of the holy Lamb. The Lamb itself is look- ing upwards, and has its head encircled with a nimbus.^ Another fine example of a cross supported by the Agnus Dei is preserved at Tewkesbury Abbey ; ^ and in Merton College chapel is a well-known brass, consisting of a tall bracket with two effigies and a canopy, at the foot of which the Agnus Dei again appears.^ Before passing on to the considera- tion of other personal, professional, or official emblems upon monumental slabs, I must describe particularly one other knightly memorial, which is preserved in the chancel of the church at Haltwhistle in Northumberland. This singularly in- teresting and most expressive monument bears, on either side of a cross flory, the sword and shield of a knight, and a pil- grim's staff and scrip — devices designed, as it would seem, to denote that the in- dividual thus commemorated was a sol- dier who, in after-life, had gone on some religious pilgrimage, and who desired that the slab which should cover his remains, when the pilgrimage of human life should have been brought to its close, should commemorate his knightly rank by his good sword and his shield with its armorial blazonry ; and by the scrip and stone Colliu-hd Great MiJton. ' This fine slal) is figured by Gougli in his first volume, p. cix. ; also by the Ox- ford Architccturnl Society in their Guide to llic (Jhurchc.s in (he neigh bourhooil of O.rford, j). 308. ^ See Section III. ' See Afonumeitlal Brfis.ses of /u/g/and. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 79 staff should indicate those higher aspirations which had directed his steps, as life advanced, from the battle-field to some distant shrine. Long ago have this knight's " bones been dust, And his good sword rust : His soul is with the saints, we trust."' r XlVth CK-ntuvy. Monumental Slab, HaltwbisUe. InciH-rd Slab, EeysharQ. And once more, at Heysham in Lancashire, another slab, with the cross and sword, bears a time-worn device, which appears to have ' The sliield upon this slab is charged with the arms of Blenkinsop — a fesse be- tween three garbs : a garb is also embla- zoned upon the scrip. Upon the shield of a mutilated effigy of a knight in the same church, a similar blazon may be still dis- tinguished. For a very interesting notice of the Haltwhistle slab, by M. H. Bloxam, Esq., see Archceological Journal, vol. v. p. 15L 80 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS been designed to represent a harp, and thus to point out tlie last resting-place of some soldier-minstrel of the days of chivalry, i The sword, in monuments of this class, is sometimes accom- panied with some other weapon. Thus, upon a broken slab at Incised Slab of Adam bk Clithebow and Lady, Eibchester, LE^ncashire. Ribchester in Lancashire, there is, with a sword and shield, the figure of a lance. This curious stone, which is coffin-shaped, is divided by a perpendicular line into two equal compartments, each surrounded by a border-legend, and having its own separate de- ' Sec Whittaker's Kic/imondsliirc, vol.ii. p. 31 D. Two Monumental Slabs of the Eeu'ly English Gothic Period, Cambo, Northumberland. To face p. 81. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 81 vices ; and thus it forms two distinct yet united monuments. Some- what less than a fourth part of the entire slab has been broken away, and consequently the inscriptions are imperfect : there remains, how- ever, I think, sufficient reason for considering that a knight and his lady are thus commemorated. At the head of each compartment of the slab is an enriched cross-head, above a canopy with finial and crockets : these canopies rise from shafts terminating in pin- nacles, and beneath them appear the stems of the two crosses. Upon the remaining portion of the dexter compartment no per- sonal device is apparent ; but on the other compartment is a shield, suspended by its giuge from the cross-stem ; and between the shafts of the canopy and the border-legend, on either side, are a lance and a sword. The remains of the two legends are as follows : — HIC lACET DOMINVS ADA DE CLUDERHOW MILES CVIVS .... PPICIETVR DEVS AMEN. HIC lACET DE ADA CVIVS AIE PPICIETVR DEVS.^ Another fragment, recently found at Worksop in Nottinghamshire, has, with the cross, a sword and a dagger. A short and broad dagger, or misericorde, appears, without the sword, carved in relief at the head of another slab, above the cross, at Woodhorn in Nor- thumberland. Again, amongst the slabs now lying in the ancient chapel of the castle at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, upon one the stem of the cross is incised between the figures of a sword and of another weapon, which appears to be the head of a bill or halbert.^ And once more, at Rhuddlan, another slab bears the figures of a sword and a battle-axe : this is a specimen of the monumental stones of diminutive size ; it measures in length no more than twenty-seven inches and a half.^ At Cambo in Northumberland are several other slabs bearing: crosses and swords, which I must add to the series of examples already noticed. These fine and interesting specimens are all of the Early English Gothic period. The cross-heads in all are formed of four circles, and all are remarkable for their elegance. ' See Whittaker's Richmondshire,\\. 4(57. forms me that he lias seen this same device ^ My friend Dr. Charleton, to whom I upon several other specimens, am indebted for a sketch of this slab, in- ^ See cuts at pp. 82, 83. 82 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS From the stem of the cross on one slab there issues some foliage, which appears arranged with the view to supply on the dexter side the omission of any symbol, corresponding with the sword on the sinister side : five circular figures or bezants are carved on the Monumental Slab. Woodhom, Nor.humberland. IncisKd Slab, Castle Chapel , Newcastle. sinister side of the cross-stem on another of these slabs, apparently with the same object. (See cut at p. 8.3.) The sword itself is sometimes placed upon the centre of the slab, and thus it serves to represent the monumental cross. In the chapel of the castle at Newcastle are preserved the remains of a IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 83 stone coffin-lid of very early date, upon which is incised a sword in this position. The inscription, which is also incised upon this memorial, I am unable to decipher ; the annexed figure gives an exact fac-simile of it. In some other examples the sword forms the cross-stem, and there is introduced some cruciform device tiraa.ll Incised Slab, Ehuddlan. I^JoQumental Slab, Cambo, Northum beiiaud. above the hilt of the weapon. A slab at Gorforth in Northum- berland exemplifies this arrangement. ^ From the other devices with which upon some monumental slabs it is associated, the figure of a sword appears to indicate the artificer who forged the weapon, rather than the soldier by whom it was worn and wielded ; or possibly, as in the instance of the 1 See cuts at p. 84. Upon Norwegian placed in the centre of the stone, and tlius monumental slabs the sword is commonly forms the cross. 84 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS smith renowned in story, Henry of Perth, the individual whose grave is covered by a slab charged with a cross, a sword, a hammer, and a pair of pincers, may have been both a skilful armourer and a bold chamj)ion, and also, as we would hope, a faithful Christian. A large incised slab now lying in the chancel of the church at I'VaJmeuts of Incistd Coffiu lid. Caitle Chapel, Newcastle. Incised Sl.ib. riorfoj-tli. N ortb umberlaad. Aycliffe in the county of Durham, furnishes a fine example of this combination of symbols ; and it also introduces to our notice, on either side of the stem of a second cross, two other emblems — a key and a pair of shears. A slab thus divided, and bearing two crosses, (and, indeed, a slab bearing two crosses without any divi- IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 85 sion,) must be regarded as the monument of two individuals ; and these two individuals would, probably (as in the case of the slab at Ribchester ^), in general be husband and wife. I am disposed, however, to believe that this association, though most natural, may by no means be laid down as an invariable rule ; and this very slab at Aycliffe I consider to be an excep- tion from it. But before I proceed with any further statement of my own opi- nion, I must advert to the supposition that the shears and the key are both dis- tinctive emblems of the female sex, as denoting a sedulous and careful matron ; and accordingly the Aycliffe slab has been pronounced the memorial of an armourer and his wife. This idea was sug- gested by Edward Charl- ton, Esq., M.D. of New- castle-upon-Tyne, (a gen- tleman who has devoted much attention to the sub- ject of monumental slabs, particularly those in the counties of Durham and Northumberland,) in a paper read at a meeting of the Archaeological Institute, held in London, November 3rd, 1848; and this paper has since been printed, with twelve excellent illustrations, in the Archjpological Journal, vol. v. p. 253. " It has long appeared to me somewhat singular,"- says Dr. Charleton, " that while the emblems of the > See pp. 80, 81. 3 See Archceol. Journal, vol. v. p. 254. Double IcciseJ Slab, Ayc'iffe. 86 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS trade or profession of the deceased were pretty frequently dis- covered upon these grave-stones, no symbol had yet been deter- mined upon as the distinctive emblem of the female sex. When we remember how jealously the sexes were separated in churches during service, and how frequently altar-tombs have been raised to females of high rank, it seems strange that the wives and daughters of the tradesman or of the knight should not be dis- tinguished by any sign whatsoever. Before this time I had been well aware of the general opinion of the common people in the North, that the shears on a grave-stone indicated that the deceased was a female. Such was also the opinion held by the late historian of Newcastle, the Rev. John Hodgson. By most of the writers in the Archgeological Journal, the shears have been considered to in- dicate the profession of a clothier. This trade must indeed have been a flourishing one in olden times, for I find the emblem of the shears on thirty-five grave-stones out of a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty, of which I have rubbings or drawings. In fact, clothiers must have been as numerous as soldiers, even in those days when the profession of arms was so universally fol- lowed. " I was thus led to examine the emblems with which the shears were generally found to be associated. It is not often that any other symbols occur upon the same stone ; the shears appear getie- rally, but not always, on the right hand of the cross. The emblem most frequently found with the shears is undoubtedly the key, and in two instances double keys are placed below the shears. Now, I do not know how far I shall be justified in assuming the key or keys to be likewise an emblem of the female. One of the grave- stones at Bakewell church, figured in the Archaeological Journal, vol. iv. p. 49, is an example of the shears and key combined. Supposing these were merely symbols of trade, we must, in this instance," as in the case of another slab at Bamburgh in Northum- berland, " believe the deceased to have followed the two not very congruous employments of a locksmith and a woolstapler." Having stated that he had never found the shears associated with any em- blem unsuited to the female character upon any stone charged with one cross only, and thus appearing to commemorate but a single IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 87 individual, Dr. Charlton proceeds to say: — "Further researches elicited still more convincing proof. In different localities in Nor- thumberland and Durham I have met with large monumental slabs bearing two crosses, and even more. It would naturally occur to all that these double crosses represented a husband and wife. And this is still further borne out by the symbols attached to each cross. At Newbigging-on-the-Sea in Northumberland there is a ridged slab, five feet long by twenty inches broad at the head, and tapering to twelve inches at the foot. The left-hand cross is slightly crocketed in the stem, but is otherwise of poor design, and has no symbols attached to it. The right-hand cross is of still meaner design, and has associated with it the symbol of the shears. The fine slab at East Shaftoe, figured first in the Transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Newcastle, is another of these double grave-stones. Here we find the shears accompanying the left-hand cross, and the sword and shield, with three crosses moline, asso- ciated with the plainer cross on the right hand.^ I do not see what other explanation can be given of these emblems, than that they denote a knight and his lady." Dr. Charlton next describes the Ayclifie slab ;2 and he then proceeds, — " Lastly, I have in my col- lection a rubbing from a stone recently in a church in the neigh- bourhood of Darlington, but now in private hands. Upon this mutilated grave-stone are two finely worked crosses, the right ex- hibiting the sword, the left the shears and two keys, or at least a portion of two keys, while between there is a smaller and a plainer cross, near to which is a shield" and an open book, " now defaced. All these four slabs seem to me to speak strongly for the truth of the supposition I have advanced, that the shears are the appropriate emblem of the female, and the key in all probability is a symbol of the same import." Though most unwilling to differ from such an authority, I can- not regard these devices as the distinctive attributes of females. One of them, indeed, the shears, may upon many monumental slabs denote a female ; but if so, I believe it to be because in every such case the female thus distinguished was the wife or daughter of a wool-merchant or mercer (inercerarius), and she accordingly ' See cut at j^. Gfi. ' See cut at p. 85. 88 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS adopted the emblem of her husband's or father's worldly calling. Thus, the slab at Newbigging, which is charged with two crosses, one of them accompanied by the shears, and the other with- out any symbol, (admitting it to be the monument of a mar- ried pair), might denote that the wife was daughter of a wool-merchant ; or, changing the appropriation of the two crosses, the cross with the shears may indicate a wool- merchant, and the cross with- out any device this merchant's wife.i And so also with the East Shaftoe double slab : the plain cross with the sword and shield, which occupy the sin- ister side of the composition, is without doubt the memo- rial of a man-at-arms, or knight ; and the more grace- ful cross with the shears no less certainly refers to the soldier's lady — the daughter, as I consider, of some wool- merchant. The distinction between the emblem of a female, and such an emblem as a female might assume, would not be recognised by ordinary and casual observers ;2 and consequently, the evident association Double Mornimental Slab, East Shaftc ' The cross on either side of a double slab may be attributed, with equal prol)a- bility of correctness, to the husband, un- less there be some device of a character not to be mistaken which decides this point: precisely as in monumental effigies, there can be assigned no rule whatever for determining the position of the male figure, whether it should be placed on the right side of the female, or on the left. 2 I may refer to the fact of the insignia of the Garter appearing upon some few monumental effigies of noble ladies, wliose husbands were knights of that most illus- IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 89 of the shears with the memorial of a female upon the East Shaftoe slab, and upon several others also, will sufficiently account for a popular opinion, that this device upon a grave-stone " indicated that the deceased was a female ;" and this popular opinion might, in its turn, have induced the Northumbrian historian to adopt a similar view. Again, when considered as the emblem of wool- staplers, mercers, or clothiers, and their families, the number of slabs which bear the shears will not appear to be excessive ; par- ticularly if we call to remembrance that the members of this wealthy and peace-loving class of the community were ever dis- tinguished as benefactors to the churches and religious establish- ments, and that special care would accordingly be taken to preserve their memory by some sepulchral monument. "^ I must confess that I cannot, under any circumstances, recog- nise in the key a symbol of a female ; and in all probability it would never have been so regarded, had it not been occasionally found in connection with another device, which was already attri- buted to the gentler sex. I am inclined to consider that these devices upon monumental slabs may, in some cases, have reference to the official station of the persons commemorated, as well as to their profession or worldly calling : ^ thus regarded, the key may denote a borough or town magistrate ; and a slab with a key and a pair of shears would be the memorial of a wool-stapler or clothier, who had served the office of chief magistrate amongst his fellow- citizens, or who perhaps had deceased while holding that office.^ The key has been thought to indicate a smith or locksmith ; but .it appears upon some slabs in association with other emblems, which render such an opinion untenable ; unless, indeed, a stone bearing trious order, as a remarkable illustration ^ ^hat a key was regarded as the sym- of the distinction between a symbol of a bol of local authority, is significantly de- female, and a device which might be as- dared by the mayor offering the keys of sumed by a female. the town over which he presides, to the ' The majority of mediffival monuments sovereign on the occasion of a royal visit may be most certainly attributed to foun- — a custom conthiued from the "olden ders and benefactors. time" to our own days. A well-known * Upon this principle the bow and ar- instance of the use ofthekey as an official row and the bugle-horn might bespeak the symbol is its being worn by the lord cham- monument of a forest-ranger or keeper, and bcrlain of the royal household, not merely of a woodsman. 90 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS a single cross with two dissimilar devices be attributed to two in- dividuals. It certainly is quite possible that two devices may have been originally intended to convey such an idea, since we know from inscriptions that two individuals were frequently commemo- rated b}^ one slab bearing a single cross without any other device ;! still, where the two devices which, without any in- scription, accompany a single cross, can be consistently attributed to the same person, this appropriation of them ap- pears to be preferable : and the key, if held to be a symbol of the magisterial office, may, in all the examples hitherto noticed, be associated with the other device which accompanies it. The Aycliife double slab I believe to com- memorate tivo brothers, — the one an armourer, and the other a wool-mer- chant, "who had passed the chair" of civic magistracy. 2 This slab appears to have been consecrated as an altar or credence stone ; and it is somewhat remarkable that the two monumental crosses should have been included in the number of the usual five crosses which denote such consecration. Upon one of the slabs at Bakewell in Derbyshire, the four com- partments into which the face of the stone is divided by the four Cofim-slab, Bakewell. Derbyshire. 1 The slab at Southwell Minster, which I have already described, shews that two ditt'erent symbols were sometimes placed with a single cross upon a slab to denote two individuals. * In many examples of monumental effigies there appear two male figures in the same composition. The fine brass of a Priest and a Frankelein at Shottesbrokc in Berkshire is a good specimen of this class of monument, and probably com- memorates two brotliers. (See Waller's Brasses, and Section III.) I may men- tion another brass of the same character at Furneux Pelham, Herts ; and again there are figures of two ecclesiastics in the bracket brass at Merton College, Ox- ford, engraved in my Monumental Brasses of England. Two brothers may have been commemorated by one double slab, as well as by a brass having two figures under one canopy. Monumental Slab of tlie Early EngliBh Gothic Perioa. Newbi^ging, Northumberland. To face p. 91. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 91 arms of the cross are severally charged with a pair of shears, a key, a circle enclosing a cinquefoil, and a star of five points.' A key and pair of shears appear toge- ther upon a fragment of a slab at Bamburgh in Northumberland : they are incised upon the stone Shears and Keys, Monumental Slab, Newbigging. on each side of the cross-stem. At Newbigging, also in the county of Northumberland, are two fine slabs of the Early English Gothic period, upon which these same mcsed sub, aat^sh. ad devices are sculptured in relief, with rich and highly characteristic crosses. On one of these slabs the shears and key are placed after the same manner as at Bam- burgh ; but with the shears on the other slab are two keys, and these symbols are all placed on the dexter side of the cross. From this last slab I have been content to figure the keys and shears only. 2 In the church of St. Mary at Gateshead, Durham, is a ' See also ArchcBol. Jour. vol. iv. p. 49. - The Newbigging slabs are both of large dimensions, measuring upwards of six feet in length. The slab having the two keys is very elaborately ornamented : it is figured in Dr. Charlton's paper in the 92 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS curious slab, which has a key on the sinister side of the cross, and on the dexter side a fish.^ The ancient symbol of the Christian faith may have been designed to be here represented ; or, which is more probable, the fish may simply intimate the trade of the de- ceased, while the key would signify his having held some local office of trust or authority .^ Another fragment in the Bakewell series has the key alone. Upon this slab the stem of the cross appears interrupted by a kind of boss ; and a similar boss may be observed upon another fragment in the same col- Fragment of Incised Slab, BakrWrU. lection. The key is also the only symbol which accompanies the cross upon another slab, now preserved at Margam in Glamorganshire. The key occurs again, at Wing in Buck- inghamshire, on the brass of Thomas Cotes, ^OJtCJ at 00COtt %tlU ; and in this instance with the key is a staff.^ Incised Slab, Greystoke. ArchcBol Journal, vol. v. p. 252. There is also on the same p.'ige a figure of the Bamburgh slab. The fine collection of slabs at Newbigging were discovered dur- ing the recent restoration of the church. ' See also Archceol.Jotir. vol. v. p. 262. ' The fish, as a symbol expressive of the name of Christ, was a favourite device with the early Christians: accordingly, upon their monuments sometimes the IX0T2 was expressed at length ; or, at other times, the fish itself was figured, as recommended by Clement of Alexandria. See Maitland's Church in the Catacombs, p. 213. The word IX0T2, in Greek sig- nifying a fish, is composed of the initial letters of the words IHSOTS . XPI2T02 . 0EOT . TI02 . 2nTHP . that is, Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Saviour. 3 This is a monument of the 16th century. The incised slab at Greystoke, figured above, is noticed in p. 93. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 93 Shears, as has been already stated, are commonly found depicted upon monumental slabs, particularly in the northern counties. At Newbigging is a fragment of a slab bearing, with a cross, a pair of shears, without any other symbol or device. At Greystoke in CAD. 1300. Slab, Dearhan: Monumental Slab. Newbigging, Cumberland another good example has recently been discovered. At Dearham, in the same county, the shears are introduced upon a slab which is richly ornamented with flowing foliage, and bears a cross of very elegant design ; and with the shears is a small square figure, now much worn, but apparently designed to represent a 94 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS book.i Upon one of the Bakewell slabs is a more distinct repre- sentation of a book with the shears.^ Again, upon another slab at Newbigging is an equally distinct representation of a book, while on the other side of the cross-stem is a sword. The cross-head in this example affords a striking illustra- tion of the use of a series of circles for the formation of that figure.^ The only explanation of this singular combination of symbols which I can offer is, that each of these stones was intended to comme- morate two persons. Upon another slab at Bakewell the shears appear alone with the cross. In this example the shears differ in form from the specimens which I have previously figured ; but they closely resemble the same device upon the Bam- burgh slab,"* At Catworth in Hunting- donshire is another good example of the shears upon a monumental slab. Other similar slabs exist at Cambo in Northum- berland, at Kirkby-in- Ashfield and at Blidworth in Northamptonshire, at Gates- head in Durham, &c. : also upon another of the remarkable slabs of very small size, of which I have already described several specimens, is the same device. The shears are here placed on the dexter side of the stem of the cross, while the corresponding space on the opposite side is occupied by two large leaves, which spring from the cross-stem itself. This slab measures in length but twenty-seven inches, by about ten inches Xlllth Centui-y. Fragment of Slab, Bakewell. ' See also Lysons' Cumberland^ and Armstrong's Paper on Monuments. The Catworth slab is also figured in Mr. Armstrong's paper. - See ArchcBol. Journal, vol. iv. j). 52. 3 See cut at p. 93 * Shears of different forms may have signified different branches of the wool- trade, and indeed distinct trades, in a manner well understood at the time : the form of the shears would also differ some- what at different periods. The shears, with certain other implements, appear upon some of the slabs in the catacombs at Rome, and there they undoubtedly de- note the occupation of a wool-comber. See Church in the Catacombs, p. 223. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 95 in breadth; and was discovered very recently, with some other monumental stones, at Rokeby in Yorkshire. ^ At Horton in Northumberland is a fragment of a slab, which, when complete, was also apparently of small di- mensions. Upon this are a cir- cular cross-head and a pair of shears, the latter being so ar- Frajment of Slab, Horton, iNOrthumberland. ranged as to take the place of the shaft of the cross. In this same church of Horton is ano- ther monumental stone bearing the inscription, ^CatC ♦ pCO ♦ ani'nia ♦ ^nne ♦ Barbotol, and having a small pair of shears placed in the middle of the sentence. ^ And again, this emblem appears connected with an inscription upon " a very elegant stone bmall Slab, Rokeby. ^ It has been suggested that, supposing this diminutive slab to be the monument of a young child, the shears may denote the craft of the parent, and the two leaves may signify the age of the infant — that is, two seaso7is of spring, or two years : Oi'?j Trep (pvWoiv "yevfj], TOiride ual avSpwv. Three leaves, closely resembling these in form and character, appear above the head of the cross upon one of the slabs at Furness Abbey. 2 See ArchcBol. Journal, vol. v. p. 254, where are figures of the slabs at Horton and Hexham. 96 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS slab recently disinterred at Hexham" in Northumberland. " This grave-stone had evidently been buried in the earth very soon after it had been placed in the churchyard, for the letters and moldings are as fresh as though only cut within the past year." This slab is flat, and tapers slightly from the head to the foot ; the inscription is cut in two lines upon its upper surface, and about the sides is worked a grovip of moldings. A small pair of shears are incised in im- mediate connection with the last word of the inscription, which " is plainly as fol- lows : — l^it : jflcct : 9l9citiltici : Wxov : (p)ljilippi : Sl^ecccracii : ' Here lies Matilda, wife of Philip the merchant.' Does mercerarius here mean a mercer, clothier, or wool- stapler ? If so, this stone would rather tend to support the notion of the shears being the wool-stap- ler's mark ; but, on the other hand, if they denote a female, the wife of the mer- cer would be as much entitled to them as any other woman." ^ The shears I conceive to have been placed upon this stone, because it was designed to com- memorate the loife of a wool-staj)ler or mercer ; and it is my firm persuasion that the same device would appear upon the monument of this Philip himself, and that it would have been placed upon it in consequence of his having been a mercerarivs. In place of the shears, scissors have been occasionally observed upon monumental stones. Thus, in the church of St. John in the city of Chester lies a slab which bears a cross placed between the figures of scissors and of a glove elevated upon a slender rod ; and thus, with all simplicity, yet clearly and expressively, is denoted both the religious faith and the worldly calling of some glover — a citizen, ' I again quote from Dr. Cliarlton's ])aj)er in tlic Arcbicological Journal. Incised Slab, St. John's, Chester. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. perhaps (again to refer to Sir Walter Scott's celebrated tale), in his day not inferior in wealth and importance to the father of the Fair Catherine of Perth, but whose name now has long passed away and been forgotten. i Not so, however, it is with another Urass, Fletchin^;. brother of the same goodly craft, who rests at Fletching in Sussex, and whose memorial is there preserved in the pavement of the church. This memorial is a plain slab, bearing, engraven on two small plates of brass, a pair of gloves and the brief legend, — mt . I'acet . ^ztiH ♦ 3Denot . (Biouti . CIIIU0 . aie . ppicictuj . 3Deii0 . ^ntciu ' A brass at Northleach in Gloucester- from the slab"of John Atkyn, glover, a.d. shire bears the figure of a tailor, having at 1449, a shield bearing a pair of gloves has his feet a pair of scissors. In the chancel been removed. See Gough''s Monuments, of the church of St. Peter at St. Alban's, vol. ii. introduction, p. cccxxxv. 98 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS The emblems of woodcraft, the bow and arrow, appear upon one of tlie Bakewell slabs. In this example the stem of the cross supplies the place of the bow-string, and the arrow is represented as placed upon the string, i A slab at Thornton Abbey in Lincolnshire has incised upon stone Coffin lid, Thornton Abbey, Lincolnshire it, with the cross, a figure which appears intended to represent a square — the mark, I presume, of a mason. At Blidworth in Nor- thamptonshire is another slab, bearing a similar figure of a square, and also an axe. A symbol somewhat resembling this square, and placed, like it, in connection with the cross-stem, appears upon ' On the slab of a forester at Papple- lying parallel with the stem of the cross, uick, which I have before noticed, the The anow does not appear upon the slab bow :iiul arrow are jjoth represented as at Bowes. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 99 two slabs at Woodhorn in Northumberland, and at Lanchester in the county of Durham ; but this symbol has one of its sides con- Incised rtlab.Chelmortoo Derby sbire. tinned almost to the full length of the shaft of the cross, and to this the shorter and projecting side is not at right angles.^ At ' See ArchcBol. Journal, vol. v. p. 257, where Dr. Charlton mentions a third ex- ample of this symbol, from some church in the county of Durham, but the exact locality he has not been able to ascertain. '• What the instrument of trade here figured may be, I cannot determine," says Dr. Charlton : " in the last instance men- tioned, there is a sword on the other side of the cross." I must also confess to being unable to assign a signification to this symbol, particularly when accom- panied by a sword. In the latter case, however, it would ajjpear that the two symbols denoted two different persons. 100 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS Chelmorton in Derbyshire the carpenter's broad axe appears upon a slab without any other symbol save the usual cross. Another slab, at Brecknock Priory in Wales, bears the same device of an axe or hatchet, and has above the cross-head the name of the indi- vidual commemorated, — 31 ''^'l^ %t\Xi^S$* A smith's hammer and pincers are incised upon a slab in the south aisle of the church at Chesterfield in Derbyshire. Again, a fourth grave-stone from the church of St. Dyonis in the city Incised Slab. St Dyonis, York. of York bears, incised upon its surface, on either side of the cus- tomary cross, the figures of a bell and a brazier or small furnace ; from which devices we may appa- rently infer that the person thus commemorated had followed the occupation of a bell-founder. I conclude my examples of this curious class of monumental Xlllth Ceobiry. Stone Coflin-lid, GuildliaU Chapel. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 101 stones, with the lid of a stone coffin, which, with the coffin itself, was discovered by some workmen when digging, a.d. 1822, near the north-west angle of the Guildliall chapel in the city of London. Upon this coffin-lid is sculptured in relief a floriated cross between two long trumpets, which are represented by incised lines. The composition is completed by a border-legend, cut in the hollow chamfer about the sides of the slab, from which it appears that in this coffin were interred the remains of Godfrey the trumpeter. The inscription is expressed in these words : »j< godefrey : le : TROVMPOVR : GIST : CI : DEV : del : alme : eit : merci.^ It is unnecessary to figure or to describe many specimens of monumental slabs which bear shields of arms and crosses, unaccom- panied by any other device, since these monuments can differ from one another only in the designs of their cross-heads, and in the number, position, and charges of the shields.^ In some examples a single shield appears on one side of the cross-shaft ; as upon slabs at Claxby in Lincolnshire, and at Tankersley in Yorkshire. Or a single shield is represented as if it were suspended from the trans- verse arms of the cross by a guige or shield-belt : there are two specimens of this arrangement on slabs which rest upon altar-tombs in the church of Salford in Bedfordshire. ^ Again, occasionally a single shield is placed at the foot of the cross.'* Two shields com- ^ The trumpets upon this slab will be dividual merchant. Thus, on his brass at seen to bear a close resemblance to those Nortlileach (to which reference has been with which the shield of Sir Roger de already made), John Forty has the sheep Trumpington, in his well-known brass, is and the wool-pack, as the emblems of his charged. This slab is described in the mercantile guild, and also his mark, which Gentleman's Magazine (vol. xcii. part ii. is his own personal device. Again, on page 1 ) ; but the trumpets are there mis- another brass at Cirencester, the mer- taken for candlesticks bearing lighted can- chant 's-mark is placed upon the wool- dies, and the monument is attributed to an pack, — the two figures thus combining to ecclesiastic. See cut at p. 100. denote the individual and his occupation. It will be observed that those devices The ecclesiastical, military, and civil em- which denote mercantile or mechanical blems have also a similar professional and pureuits bear only a general reference to official signification. some trade or occupation. They are really - Amongst the preceding figures of slabs the emblems of the various crafts or com- v>nll be found several specimens which are panics, of which the deceased persons had decorated with armorial insignia, severally been members. These devices ^ See Fisher's Bedfordshire Illustrations- have no actual personal signification ; and " See Gentleman''s Magazine for the in this respect it is that they differ from year 1825, p. 497. This single shield is mercharWs-marks, which denote some in- sometimes reversed upon the slab. There 102 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS nionly accompany a monumental cross upon a slab, as in the brass of Roger Cheyne, Esq., at Cassington in Oxfordshire. ^ In Wales grave-stones bearing shields of arms continued in general use until quite a late period. A good example, apparently of not earlier date than the middle of the sixteenth century, is now built into the south wall of the chancel at Llanvihangel Cwn Du in Brecknock- shire. This slab, like so many mediaeval relics, is now somewhat mutilated : enough, however, remains to display a circular panel containing a cruciform device of great ele- gance, together with two shields of arms, one placed on each side of the shaft of the cross, after the manner of the Cassington cross. The lost portion of the stone doubt- less contained the remainder of the shaft, witli its appropriate base. When three shields are inti-oduced upon the same slab, one of them is generally placed on each side of the cross, and the third at its foot ; as in the example from Kirk Dighton in York- shire, which is figured by Gough.^ Four shields are so arranged that two may appear on each side of the cross. In some examples both shields on each side are below the transverse arm of the cross ; in others one shield is above and one is below each transverse arm.^ Six shields may be seen on some few slabs, as on a stone at Breck- nock Priory, which bears the late date a.d. 1569; and upon other slabs even this number is sometimes exceeded. In some few ex- amples, in addition to the shields cliarged with armorial bearings, there is placed at the intersection of the four limbs of the cross another shield with some religious symbols. At the east end of the north aisle of the church at Aldborough in Yorkshire lies a Fragmeut of Hlab, Llanviii angel. is a fine example of this arrangement on a slab at Aldborough in Yorkshire, which also bears, between the foot of the cross and the inverted shield, an inscri^jtion to William Aldburgh, Esq., with the date A.D. 1445. ' This engraving has been introduced here from my work on Jlonumental Brasses. - See Sepulchral Monuments, vol. ii. introduction, p. cxv. ^ See Sepulchral Monuments, vol. ii. introduction, p. ccxlvii. At Watlingtou in Norfolk is a fine example of a cross with four shields upon a slab. E) n MMam^ araraEffttctDot^amai: o. A.E. 1415. 2nd Henry V. Brass to Boqkr Chetne, Esq., Cassington Church., Oxfordshire Height of the original. 6 feet 7 inchra. This Brass now lies on the pavement of the chapel. 104 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS large dark grey slab, from which has been torn away a brass having originally a shield thus placed. The other four shields were pro- bably represented as if suspended from the branches which issue Despoiled Slab, Aldborou^b, Yorkshire. from the shaft of the cross. The emblems of the Evangelists were also placed upon this slab, but not in their usual position at the angles of the border-legend, as will be seen from the accompanying figure.' ' The evangelistic emblems appear, incised upon tlie face of the stone, at Brent IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 105 In the nave of the church at Burwash in Sussex, there lies a monumental slab of very singular cha- racter, apparently of the latter part of the fourteenth century, which I may describe in this place. The material of which this memorial is constructed is cast-iron. It is a large slab, or rather plate, measuring in length five feet five inches and a half, by eighteen inches and three quarters at the head, and eighteen inches and a quarter at the foot ; and it bears in relief a small cross with a legend at its base, in these words, ORATE . p(ro) . ANNEMA . JHONE . coLiNs. So far as I am aware, ]|! ; this is the only monument of this kind known to be in existence. ^ ' In the character of their design, and also in the style and amount of their s decoration, the monumental crosses which were sculptured or incised upon 1; slabs and other stones of memorial ap- pear to have been suljject to no general j;|| I rule, except such as kept them in strict conformity with the architectural cha- racteristics of the period. In all other j respects, both tlie design and the de- • '^iA coration of the crosses were evidently regulated by the cost of each monu- ! ment, by the wishes of the individuals -^ — ^ — -^— — - — =^1 by whom it was provided, and by the taste and skill of the artists who were employed in its production. Pelham in Hertfordshire. In some few brasses also, the emblems are placed on the slabs without any border- legend. There is a good early example at Lambourne in Berkshire, and another of later date at Little Waldino-field in Suffolk. • It appears that a family named Col- lins carried on the iron trade in a parish adjoining Burwash, in the sixteenth cen- tury ; and their predecessors were ])robal)ly iron-masters, and had some connection with Burwash itself, at the date of the monu- 106 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS It is therefore unnecessary to enter into any disquisition upon the forms of these crosses, or upon other similar matters of detail con- nected with them.i Jt will be found that a general resemblance in the form and also in the decoration of the cross upon monu- mental stones prevails in certain districts ; and in many cases pecu- liarities both in design and execution will indicate the works of the same artist. Such a repetition, however, of the same design as renders two examples perfectly similar is of very rare occurrence, even in the same neighbourhood. Variety in their designs for monumental crosses appears indeed to have been regarded by the mediaeval artists, as a no less important element than beauty and appropriateness ; and, accordingly, each one of the numerous series of crossed grave-stones which yet remain, is almost invariably at once an illustration of the versatile talent of these artists, and an example of the elegant correctness of their taste. There remain to be noticed at the conclusion of this Section several varieties of sepulchral slabs, from which the cross and the effigy are both absent. Of these memorials the simplest, and also the most common, are slabs which bear an Inscription only. Coped coffin-stones are sometimes found to bear a short legend, without any device. This legend is, in such examples, usually cut in a line which extends along one side of the stone ; or it occupies two lines, one being on either side. In the chapel of Jesus Col- lege, Cambridge, lies an interesting specimen of an inscribed coffin- ment. The Rev. C. li. Manning, in his I must not omit to mention that, upon List of Brasses, mentions an iron monu- some monumental stones of full size, the mental plate at Crowhurst in Surrey, the crosses are found to be very small. At date of which is a.d. 15.01. Upon tliis Sandringham in Norfolk is an early coffin- plate there is a representation of a shrouded lid, which is coped, and quite plain, with figure. the exception of a small circular cross cut ' In crosses of the Early English Gothic in low relief near the smaller end of the period, the shaft very commonly rises from stone. Again, in the cloisters of Lincoln a base formed by a trefoil, and the several Cathedral, a large flat slab bears an in- meml)ers of the cross-head are handed to- cised border-legend, and a very small cross gether. Both these peculiarities are well botone'e within a quatrefoil. And in the exemplified in the fine slab at Barnard same cathedral, another incLsed slab, which Castle, figured at p. .5(5. In some other commemorates with a border- legend Ro- cxamples of the same period, the cross- bert West, a vicar choral, who died a.d. shaft terminates at its ba.se in a flcur-de- m.ccccc.xliiii., has a small cross beneath lys or a bunch of foliage. ;i double scroll with a second legend. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. ' 107 lid of this class : it is but slightly coped, and bears the inscription following, in two lines : — >J< MORIBVS : ORNATA : lACET >J< HIC : BONA : BERTA : ROSATA.^ Inscriptions limited to a single line, or to two lines, are also found on many flat slabs. Upon other slabs the inscription extends to several lines, and these sometimes cover the greater part of the face of the stone. In some other examples, the inscription appears placed as a border to the slab ; and being thus arranged, it was either incised in the slab itself, or it was executed in single Lombardic letters of brass, and these were inserted in cavities suidv in the face of the slab for their reception. After the middle of the thirteenth century, when it was proposed to lay down a monumental stone with an inscription unaccompanied by any device or etiigy, the prevailing custom in the eastern and in some of the southern coun- ties appears to have been, to engrave the legend upon a fillet or small plate of brass, and to fix this plate upon the centre of the slab. In other parts of the kingdom border-legends continued in use ; or the inscriptions were arranged in a series of lines, and these were cut upon the face of the stone.^ Or again, monumental inscriptions sometimes appear as if they were written on scrolls. To an inscription sometimes a Shield of Arms was added; or several shields were associated with the legend to form the desired ' See Gough's Monuments, vol. ii. in- were thus arranged, after tlio manner of trodiiction, p. ccxlvi. pi. xvi. In the same more ancient inscriptions, upon the other plate which contains a figure of the coffin- side of the same stones. lid of Bertha Kosata is engraved a similar ■ There are, of course, numerous exam jiles stone from the site of Belvoir Priory, which of monumental inscriptions, which can be bears in one line the legend, — subjected to no general rule as to their — arrangement. Thus, at Deoi)ham Church ►+< ROBERT .DE.TODEM.LK.FLUEVK. • xt r- ii t. i ii ■^ in Norfolk, a very remarkable monu- Gough has also given many other curious ment occurs in the north aisle; the foot examples of inscriptions. of it is partly buried in the east wall; it - The latest border-legends which I have is of Furbeck marble; and the upper part, seen, appear upon many of the slabs which instead of being coped, is raised in grada- now form a part of the pavement in the tions, probably with a view to gain more noble western portico to Peterborough room for an inscription which covers the Cathedral. These legends are chiefly of wlu)le surface." See Brandon's Parish the eighteenth century, and they probably Churches, p. 44. 108 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS monument. 1 Where one shield only was introduced, it is com- monly found to have been placed below the inscription, and in immediate connection with it : when placed above, a space was left between the shield and the inscription. An achievement of arms, having the shield represented as suspended diagonally from the helmet, was sometimes used in place of a shield alone. At Lower Gravenhurst in Bedfordshire was a brass of this description, of which the legend now alone remains : this inscription is highly interesting, since it commemorates a great benefactor to the Church. 2 A single shield sometimes appears upon a slab, en- circled by a scroll bearing the legend, or placed within a border- legend. At Powderham in Devonshire is a slab, from which a shield with an encircling scroll, and also border-fillets for the in- scription, with the emblems at the angles, all in brass, have been lost. In other examples, a border-legend encloses two or more shields, with other inscriptions on scrolls or fillets. Two shields were placed, sometimes one at either end of the legend, but more generally one above and one below it. In like manner were four shields usually arranged ; as is well exemplified by a slab of early date at South Minims in Hertfordshire, which bears in Norman- French the legend,— l^enji jfzoVD^lv u;i0t icp HDi'cu He 0alme fit incp.^ When five shields were placed upon a slab, three were generally set above, and two below the inscription. In the latter half of the fifteenth century, and in the century succeeding, achievements of arms were often engraved upon a square plate of brass, or were incised within a square figure upon the stone, and used in place of a shield ; or such an achievement was introduced with several shields.'* Occasionally some armorial bearing appears upon a monumental slab, unaccompanied by any legend or other device. In other cases, a shield of arms, with some personal or other device, are found * These armorial insignia and tlevices ))ols, at the angles of a border-legend; as were either engraven upon plates of brass, in a Ijrass at Broughton in Oxfordshire, or incised in the slabs themselves. figured in my Monumental Brasses of ^ See Fisher's Bedfordshire Collections. England. Shields of arms were also in- * See cut at p. 109. troduccd into the composition of canopies ; * Shields of arms were occasionally in- and indeed they appear in almost every troduced, in place of the evangelistic syin- possible position in niedia'val nionnnients. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 109 together. Thus, at Bexley in Kent is a brass displaying a shield encircled by the belt or collar, from which a hunter's horn is sus- Brass to Henri Fbowyk, South MimiTQS. pended.^ Or again, certain ornamental accessories were added to the shield of arms, as at Felbrigg in Norfolk. In the accompany- ing figure of this simple yet truly elegant brass, the charge, which ' The horn may, in this instance (as in the case of the other examples of the in- troduction of the same device into the composition of monumental memorials, which are before noticed), be designed to indicate that the individual commemo- rated was a hunter ; or the horn may here denote that the deceased had held lands by " cornage tenure." This last significa- tion was doubtless intended to be conveyed by the figure of a similar honi placed be- tween the effigies in brass of two priests, Thomas and Richard Gomfrey, a.d. 1399, at Dronfield in Derbyshire. 110 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS is lost in the original, is restored from another shield of the same family, also in Felbrigg Church.^ Besides the armorial bearings of Brass. Felori^^. various families, merchant's-marks, and the heraldic cognisances of the great mercantile companies and guilds, are of frequent occur- rence upon monumental slabs. In the case of officers of the royal household also, the royal arms appear to have been placed upon the slab with the arms of the individual to be commemorated. Again, certain emblems of a religious character were occasionally placed upon heraldic shields, and introduced upon monumental slabs, as in the brass of John de Campeden, at St. Cross near Winchester. The inscription which records the name and decease of a priest was, in some few instances, associated on his monument with a representation of the sacramental Chalice, and with this figure only. A good example of this species of memorial is preserved in the church of St. Michael at York. The inscription here bears ' The original slab Ijears an inscription heraldic devices and insignia which ajipear to George Felbrigg, Esq., a.d. 1411, with upon monuments, in addition to such as the shield. have been already noticed, will he described Bannei-s of arms, and tiie various other in Section III. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. Ill the name of William Langton, once rector of tliat church, who died A. D. 1463.^ Other examples of the chalice upon the monu- 0i3iz 310 am igagiflriMIi fairafm gunnJia cecforifi iflm A.D. 1463. 3rd Edward IV. ChaJice to WiLi liM Lanoton, Hector. St. Michael's Church, Tork. mental slabs of ecclesiastics, accompanied by inscriptions only, occur in the church of St. Peter in the city of Norwich, and in the churches at South Bnr- lingham, Catfield, Scottow, Taverham, North Walsham, Old Buckenhara, Colney, Heden- ham, Salthouse, Colby, and Surlingham, all in Norfolk ; also at Leeds, at Shorne in Kent, Howell in Bedfordshire, &c. In many of these specimens, as in the brass at Catfield, the wafer inscribed with the monogram i h c appears placed in the chalice. At Fakenham in Nor- folk, figures of the chalice and wafer are en- graved upon a plate of brass in the form of a heart; and this heart is encircled by two scrolls, which are adapted to its own form, and bear a legend to the memory of Henry Newman, rector.^ Chalice upon a Monumental Slab. Catfield. ' I have here introduced the engraving of this brass from my Monumental, Brasses of England. '^ See Cotman's Norfolk Brasses ; see also my Monumrntal Brasses and Slabs, p. 122, where the Burlingham chalice is 112 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS Upon some other slabs there appears, as a monumental device, a figure of the human Heart. In a few instances this may denote that the heart only of the deceased was interred in tlie place in which this memorial was laid down. This has been ascertained to have been the case in the church of St. Mary the Virgin in Wig- genhale, in the county of Norfolk, where is a brass comprising a Bras?^ to Sta Kobrrt K li.E. St. Mary s Wigi^pnhrilp, Nc heart, with four scrolls bearing a commemorative legend. Upon a slab in the pavement of the presbytery in Chichester Cathedral, a heart is represented as held by two hands within a trefoil, and the whole is charged upon a shield : the trefoil bore a legend, of which may yet be distinguished the words, — ici . gist . le . cover . figured. The chalice at Catfield is accom- the sixteenth century. The chalice at Colby panied upon the slab with an inscription to Richard Floo, rector. The chalice at St. Michael's, York, is the earliest example of this class of memorials which I have noticed : they were L'cnerallv executed in is accompanied by scrolls bearing legends, and is altogether a very curious specimen : that at liCeds is of large dimensions and unusual form. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. ii; MAVD . DE It would appear from this inscription, that the heart only of the deceased Maud had been buried beneath her in- cised slab. This same fact may be also inferred from the brass of Dame Anne Muston, at Salt- wood in Kent. In this ex- ample the heart is represented as held by an angel issuing from clouds ; and the compo- sition is completed by a shield of arms. Where there are no circumstances which lead to the opinion, that the figure of a heart was used to indicate the interment of a heart only, it has been considered that this device was intended to convey an intimation of the fulfilment of some vow ; but it appears more probable that it should simply denote the firm reli- gious faith of the deceased. At Martham in Norfolk is a heart, with an inscription on an oblong plate to Robert Alen, with the date a.d. 1487, and on the heart itself are the words, — post . TENEBRAS . SPERO . LVCEM . LAVS . DEO . MEG. A heart bears the monogram ihc. at Higham Ferrers. Scrolls, usually three in number, and bearing a legend, sometimes issue from the heart. The passage from the book of Job, chap, xix., verses 25, 26, — " I know that my Redeemer livetli," &c., is frequently found ; the words " Credo quod," or the word " Credo" only, being on the heart, and the remainder of the passage on the scrolls.' Some- Slab, Chichester Cathedral. ' A good example of a heart with three scrolls thus inscribed occurs at Margate in Kent. It is the memorial of Thomas Smyth, priest, and hears the date a.d. 1 433. This brass is figured in the Oxford Archi- tectural Society's Manual, p. cxiv. An- other good example is preserved in the church at Kirby Beedon in Norfolk. At Randworth in the same county, in place of the scrolls are three small oblong plates bearing the same legend ; but here the heart itself, with a fourth plate bearing an inscription and also a shield of arms, are gone. Again, at Trunch, also in Norfolk, a lieart is surmounted l)y two scrolls and a shield. 114 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS times the scroll which accompanies the figure of the heart bears the words, — " Cor munditm crea in me, DeusT Again, on other slabs the heart appears held by two hands. ^ In brasses at Loddon in Norfolk, Ehnstead in Essex, and Caversfield in Buckingham- Mural Arcli and Slab, Bredon. shire, these hands are depicted as issuing from clouds. At Bredon in Worcestershire, the hands which hokl the heart are represented, sculptured in low relief, as rising above an heraldic shield; and ^ At Southacre in Norfolk is a slab, from wliich tlic brass has been torn away, and all lost except a few fragments, which arc kept in the parish chest. These fragments, to- gether with the indents on the face of the slab, shew the original composition to have consisted of a heart held by two hands, two achievements of arms, and several scrolls. Two of the remaining fragments are en- graved on both sides; and on the reverse of one the engraving is apparently Fle- mish. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 115 thus, with the shield, they form a pointed oval or vesica. This curious monument is preserved within a plain mural arch in the south aisle. It is very probable that, in this instance also, the heart only of the deceased was buried where the monument yet remains. A heart was also placed occasionally above monumental effigies ; as at Fawsley in Northamptonshire, above the head of an armed figure, where the heart is accompanied by three scrolls bearing the legend, " Credo quod," &c. ; and again, at All Hallows Barking, Part of Brass to John and Joanna Bacon, All Hallows Barking, Londou. in London, above the figures of John Bacon, wool-merchant, and Joanna his wife ; in which example the heart is inscribed with the word 9^CCCp, and encircling it is a scroll, which proceeds from the mouths of the figures, and bears two short precatory sentences. The date of this brass is a.d. 1437.^ A Rose is sometimes found to have been represented upon monumental slabs as a religious emblem ; but the sentiment which was thus figuratively conveyed is obscure and uncertain. Gough mentions a slab in St. Peter's Church at St. Alban's, which has, beneath the effigy of a priest, a large rose in brass, and he gives ' AtHitchin inHeitfordshire, above the mental Brasses and Slabs, ii. \0'6. Hearts figure of an ecclesiastic named Hart is a carried in the hands by monumental effi- wounded and bleeding heart. See Tl/onw- gies will be noticed in Sections II. and III. IIG CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS. an actual imj)ression of this rose from the original plate itself: upon this rose a legend is engraved in both Latin and English. The same Latin inscription appears upon a similar rose at Pight- lesthorne in Buckinghamshire, whither it has been removed from Eddlesborough in the same county. ^ A rose also formed the finial to the canopy in the brass of Abbot Kirton (a.d. 1460) in West- minster Abbey. In the centre of this rose was engraved the sacred monogram iiic, and upon each of the five leaves of the flower was placed one of the letters of the word maria. The flower was en- circled by a radiated nimbus within a scroll, bearing the legend: SIS . ROSA . FLOS . FLORVM . MORBIS . MEDECINA . REORVM.^ Figures of angels and saints, and all other compositions of a like nature, together with the groups occasionally found repre- sented upon monuments, I shall leave for future consideration, in the Third Section of this volume. There doubtless exist many other monumental devices and designs, for which it might be ex- pected that a place would have been appropriated in this present section. While I would plead as an apology for the omission of all such examples, that this "sketch" does not pretend to compre- hend everi/ variety of sepulchral memorial, I venture to express a hope that no important class of Christian monument in our country will be found to have been neglected altogether, and left without either notice or illustration.^ ' See Sepulchral Monuments, vol. ii. in- SOmftllHf ijalr 5: all tijat I' fjaljf i\\ gooJj troduction, p. cccxxxv., where a third rose iutfut, tl)at noU) ijallf C: tljat 5 nrbfv of the same kind is mentioned as being at gabf nov Imt, ti)at noU) alir C: U)at 5 Prittlewell in Essex, and the matrix of a lirpt till I- UlfUt, tl)nt lost B. " The con- fourth upon a despoiled slab in St. Allian's nection between the rose and its inscrip- Abbey. The Latin inscription is as fol- tion is not very clear." See Oxford Ma- lows : ©tre, quoD e.rptn3i Ijabui, qtioll nual of Monumental Brasses,mivoA\ici\ox\, Donabi fjabro, quoti nrgabi punior, quoD p. 1. srrbabt pcvlllbt. And the English trans- ^ See Ibid. p. 1. ; and (Jough's Monu- lation, when divested of its contractions, ments, vol. ii. p. 210. runs thus: Ho all tljat fbfV I sp^nt, tl)at ^ See Appendix. END OF SECTION I. SECTION II. OF SEMI-EFFIGIAL MONUMENTS. A, D. 1261. 45th Of Henry III. Kertiains of Semi efSgial Slab to Bishop EinELMAB db Vai.f.noe, Winchester Cathedral. Mural Arch aind Monumental Slab, Howell, Lincoloshire. SECTION 11. SEMI-EFFIGIAL MONUMENTS. Memorials of this kind, in which parts only of the human figure are represented, as the head or bust, or perhaps the feet, derive their origin apparently from the endeavour to combine a monu- mental effigy with a monumental cross upon the same coffin-lid or sepulchral slab. Their first appearance may be assigned to the thirteenth century,- — a period considerably later than the introduc- tion of full-length effigies ; and though they cannot be said to have ever become generally prevalent, examples (chiefly of the thir- teenth and fourteenth centuries) yet remain in sufficient numbers to claim our attentive regard, even were they in themselves less curious and remarkable. ^ ' It has been considered that these par- tial effigies are of earlier date than com- plete figures ; and, in fact, that from them complete figures were derived. A careful observation of the monuments themselves shews this opinion to be altogether erro- neous. The greater portion of the monuments of this class which are known to be in existence, are in the churches of York- shire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Notting- hamshire, and Rutland, and also in some parts of Wales. They appear, however, to have been in occasional use throughout the kingdom during the latter part of the thirteenth and throughout the fourteenth century ; and in some few instances exam- ples of a later date have been observed. 120 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS These semi-effigial monuments will be found to admit of a two- fold classification. They may be divided into two classes ; in one of which the ])artial effigies are in some way associated with the figure of a cross ; while in the examples of the other class, there is no such association, nor does the cross-symbol at all appear in them. Or again, they may be considered to form three general varieties ; each distinguished by its own peculiar mode of repre- senting the partial effigies. In one of these varieties the parts of tlie figure which are represented are sunk below the surface of the stone, and made to appear as if they were disclosed to the view through apertures, formed for that purpose by the removal of por- tions of the coffin-lid : in the second variety the partial develop- ment of the effigy is produced by entirely cutting away the adjoin- ing parts of the stone : and in the third, the head, bust, or half- figure has the appearance of being placed upon the surface of the slab. These varieties of representation are, in the incised speci- mens, for the most part merely indicated in outline. In some examples the supposed apertures in the coffin-lid are so adjusted as to form the head and base of the customary monu- mental cross. At Gilling in Yorkshire a monumental slab of this character is placed within a mural arch on the north side of the chancel, and commemorates doubtless the founder of that part of the edifice, if not of the entire church. The composition in this example exhibits the head and uplifted hands of the deceased knight, as shewn through a quatrefoil opening, and his feet through a demi-quatrefoil opening : these openings are finished with raised moldings, and, with a shaft which connects them, they form a cross ; and the composition is enriched with bunches of foliage, which also add to its cruciform appearance. On the dexter side of the slab is the crest of the knight ; and on the sinister side are his sword, sword-belt, and shield, which last is charged with his armorial in- signia — those apparently of Elton, within a bordure engrailed.' Another slab of this description was recently discovered, with its face downwards, beneath the pavement, during the restoration of the church at East Tisted in Hampshire. The head of a lady is ' See the cut ;it page 1"21. See also where tliis monument is figured anil tlie Archa;<)l()(jicul Journal, vol. v. p. 6'.'), described. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. \2\ here represented within a floriated quatrefoil ; but the feet, wliich once rested upon the dog sculptured at the base of the composition, are now broken or worn away. On either side of the cross is a lily issuing from its stem.^ A third specimen of similar character Founder's Slab. Gillin^, Torkshii'i^ lies in the churchyard of Silchester in the same county. This slab, though much worn and defaced, shews the head of a lady M'ithin a depressed quatrefoil panel, and also the stem of the cross.^ With these sculptured slabs may be associated the brass of Britellus ^ See Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxx. - See the ArchJ< ioiian . de . bladigdone . et . MAUD . s ^ The slab to wliich I shall next refer was discovered, many years since, in digging a grave at Brampton in Derbyshire, and is now ' See the cut at i)agc 125. In the stored, I'lom tlie small fragments which engraving the cross-head is partially re- remain. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 125 affixed to one of the walls of the church of that place. It differs from the Gilling and East Tisted monuments in the form of the opening through which the feet of the effigy are shewn ; and it resembles the Buxtead and Chinnor brasses in having an inscrip- db u.A.D. 1325. Braes of John and Maod de BLAUioDONe, East Wiokham, Kent. tion. Of this inscription the centre-line appears to have been designed to supply the place of the stem of the cross. It will be observed that one of the foils of the quatrefoil panel, within which the bust of matilda le caus is sculptured, intervenes be- 126 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS tween the usual initial cross of a border-legend and the commence- ment of the legend itself.' In many other examples the stem of the cross is omitted alto- gether; and the surface of the slab between the openings for the head and feet of the semi-effigy, whether coped or flat, is quite plain. At Moor -Monk ton in Yorkshire, (and SmaU Monumental Slab, Moor-Monkton, Torkshire. Slab to Matilda le Cads, Brajnpton, Derbyshire. now affixed to the wall of the tower of the church,) is a curious slab of this kind, of very diminutive size. Again, in other memorials of this class, the head or bust appears within a quatrefoil, but the feet are not represented. In such compositions the quatrefoil panel may be considered itself to con- vey the idea of the cruciform symbol. " One of the most singular, and perhaps the earliest of these specimens, is a gravestone pre- ' See Lysons' Derbyshire, p. ccxxiii. ; and Bateman's Derbynhire Antiquities, p. 195. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 127 served in the church of Llantwit, represented in the annexed figure. This is a coped stone, having along the centre or ridge a row of fifteen lozenge- shaped compartments, ter- minating above in a " sunken quatrefoil, within which ap- pears a head only. On the Ihiu;;'^' vat Slab to William le Aumbeuwori Utterby, Liacolnshire. Xllltii Century. Coffin-slab. Llctnt^t. dexter side of the slab is a series of twenty -one inter- laced rings, and above them a ribbon-knot ; on the sini- ster side is a foliated orna- ment of arabesque character ; and on the edge of the stone is cut the following inscription : ne . petra . calcetvr . qvi . svb . lACET . ISTA . TVETVR.i At Nonuanby in Lincolnshire, in the floor of the nave of the church, lies another slab bearing a head ' See ArchiBologia Cambrensis, vol. ii. p. 319 ; also Archceologia, vol. vi. p. 24. 128 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS within a quatrefoil, and without any other device or ornament: and in the same county, at Utterby, upon another slab of similar character, the quatrefoil is sufficiently elongated to display the half-figure of an ecclesiastic, and the composition is completed by a border-legend in these words: *i< hic . iacet . willimvs . de . AVMBERWORTH . QVONDAM . VICARIVS . DE . UTTERBY . CVI . aTe . ppcietvr . DEVS . AMEN. Again, in Exeter Cathedral, upon the slab which covers a plain high tomb in the choir, is the matrix of a small brass, which was evidently a mitred head within a quatrefoil.^ And at Tuxford in Nottinghamshire, within a quatrefoil is the half-figure of a priest ; and below this, on the face of the slab, are represented a chalice and paten. Occasionally the same slab was used to commemorate two individuals, when two heads were represented, each within a distinct quatrefoil. At Kedleston in Derbyshire is a good example of such a slab, — the memorial of a knight and his lady, whose armour and head-gear appear to assign their monument to about a.d. 1300.'^ A similar specimen will be found at Mansfield Wodehouse in Not- tinghamshire. ^ In place of a quatrefoil, or of a cusped circle, in some of these monumental stones a plain circle is seen to enclose the sculptured head, and thus the figure of the cross is entirely lost. There are two such slabs in the ancient church of Stow in Lincolnshire ; one lying in the chancel, and the other in the nave : the former is flat, and retains traces of an Englisli border-legend. Indent of a lost Brass, Exeter CatbedraL ' This monument isgcneriilly attributeel to Bishop Chichester, wlio died a.d. 1155: sliould this be correct, the l)niss was pro- bably placed on the slab at the time of the erection of the eastern part of the pre- sent choir, in which the tomb now stands ; that is, in the first quarter of the four- teenth century. ^ This slab, which is of very large di- mensions, now lies below the present pave- ment of the chancel ; but circular holes have been cut in the upjier stone, througli which the cusped circles with their en- closed heads may be seen. It would be a far lietter arrangement apparently, were the ancient slab raised to the jiresent level of the pavement. See the cut at page 12.') ; also Lysons' Derbyshire, p. ccxxiv. ; and Hateman's Derbyshire Antiquities, p. 213. ' See Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, vol. ii. p. 300. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 129 a part of which has the letters reversed ; the latter is coped, and has no inscription. The cross in some of these monuments is represented npon the face of the slab, below the semi-effigies. At Lyddington in Rut- Monumental Slab, Kedleston, Derbyshire Coped Coffin lid , Sto^T, Lincolnshire. land is an admirable example of this arrangement. The cross is here simple, but highly effective ; and the partial effigy appears within a trefoil opening in the slab.^ In the chancel at Aston Ingham in Herefordshire is another time-worn specimen of this ' See cut at p. 130. This slab in the yard, there being small holes cut on either original is slightly coped, and not flat, as side of the sunk space about the semi-effigy, it appears in the engraving. It was evi- for the escape of rain : it now forms a part dently designed to be placed in the church- of the coping of the churchyard wall. 130 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS class. The head, that of a civilian, in this example is represented as if resting upon a cushion, under a cinquefoil canopy, or within an opening of that form ; and the cross is floriated, and further enriched with carved bosses and other ornaments.^ At Washing- Coffin-blalj, Lyddington, Rutland. Colhu ^a,li Aaton Ingham, Herefordshire. horough, near tlie city of Lincoln, in the chancel of the church there lies another slab, which shews a greater development of the effigy above the cross than appears in the slabs at Lyddington and ^ There is also anotlier eurious semi- a female are represented, the intervening cftigial slab in the same church at Aston space being plain. See Gough's Monu- Ingham, upon which the bust and feet of ments, vol. ii. introduction, p. ex. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 131 Aston Ingliani. The cross itself in this example is remarkable from its having no shaft or base, notwithstanding that the slab is of large dimensions, and that a considerable space intervenes be- tween the cross-head and the feet of the effigy, which appear toward the lower extremity of the stone. The semi-effigy is much 3emi-efl5gial Slab, Washmgboroujh. Liucolnshire. worn and mutilated ; and indeed all the upper part of the slab has sufFei'ed greatly as well from wanton injury as from the effects of time : enough, however, remains to enable us to distinguish the head-gear of a female, and the sleeve-lappets worn in the four- teenth century, which are here represented as falling below the 132 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS half-figure upon the surface of the slab. It is also evident that the open space about the figure was enclosed within a cusped border, and that there were figures to support the cushion beneath the head. The section which accompanies the figure of this slab shews how the stone has been cut away above the effigy to admit the modern altar-railing. In the same county of Lincoln, in the churches at Kingerby and Norton Disney, are two slabs of the same general character with the monuments which I have last described, but much more elaborate in their details. The cross in both of these examples, as in the Washingborough slab, is placed between the upper part of an effigy and the feet. In both, the effigies are disclosed to the view from the waist upwards, with the arms, which are uplifted, and have the hands clasped in prayer. Above the head of either figure is placed an ogee canopy, with crockets and finial. These canopies below terminate in rich bosses, and are cusped within about the heads. The heads of the two crosses are engrailed, and their transverse arms terminate in fleurs-de-lys ; and at their bases, which are formed of steps above cusped trefoil openings, appear the feet of the effigies resting, in each monument, upon the figure of a dog. The composition is completed by four shields of arms ; of which two are placed at the head of each slab, one being on either side of the finial ; and the other two are immediately below the transverse arms of either cross. In the Kingerby slab the effigy is that of a civilian, having flowing hair and a beard, and habited in costume closely resem- bling that worn by Wisselus de Smalenburgh, as represented upon his fine slab at Boston, except that here the lappets of the upper sleeves are long, and are made to fall in front of the fore-arms.^ The shields upon this slab severally bear, — three lions (or leopards), passant, in ^^ale, for Disney ; barruly of fourteen pieces, three chaplets of roses, two and one, for Greystock ; a chevron between three martlets ; and a bend charged with three mullets, pierced. It would appear from the coat borne upon the shield, which is ^ See Section III. The same costume Newark : see Monumental Brasses and is depicted upon the splendid brasses at Slabs, p. 15. The dimensions of the King's Lynn to Robert Braunche and Kingerby slab are — length, (5 ft. 9 in. ; Adam de Walsokne; and again, upon the breadtli at the head, 2 ft. 6 in., and at equally fine brass of Alan Fleming at the feet, 2 ft. 1 in. Monumental Slab to one of the Disney Family, Kingerby, Lincolnstdre. To face p. 132. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 133 placed in the dexter chief of this monument, that the individual thus commemorated was a member of the Dlsney family. An inscription, placed about the edges of the other slab, declares it to be the memorial of a lady who had married into this same family of Disney. This inscription is as follows : ici . gist . ioan . qve . FUST . la . FEMME . MOVN . SIRE . GILLAM . DISNI . ET . FILLE . MOVN . sire . NICOLAS . DE . LANCFORT . DEV . EIT . MERCI . DE . SA . ALME . AMEN. The semi-effigy upon this slab is that of a female, attired in a close-fitting tunic, having its sleeves fastened from the elbow to the wrist with close-set rows of buttons. The two shields on the dexter side bear Disney, as before ; and upon those on the sinister side of the monument appear the insignia of Langford, — paly of six, over all a bend.^ In some of the very singular slabs which represent the upper part of the coffin-lid as entirely cut away, and its place occupied by a semi-effigy, a cross appears below the figure. There is a good example of such a monument at Billesford in Leicestershire, ^ in which the cross is sculptured upon the ridge of the coping. In another example, at Appleby in Westmoreland,^ the cross is placed upon the flat surface of the stone, which is cut in the form of a half hexagon. 3 The monumental cross is introduced in the same position upon slabs which exhibit a head or partial effigy sculptured in relief upon their surface. At Bitton in Gloucestershire is a very in- teresting specimen of such a slab.'* It bears a cross, and above it a head only, with a border-legend in these words : emmote . de . HASTINGS . gist . ICI . DEV . DE . SA . ALME . EIT . MERCI.^ TwO busts, those of a man and woman, are placed upon a slab at Sil- chester in Hampshire,* above a cross. The cross itself is placed within a quatrefoil, about which is described a circle resting upon a tall stem.^ In Pembrokeshire, in the church at Penally, upon a high tomb lies a slab " having on it two heads a little raised, and a cross below, much defaced, with a marginal inscription to william . • See Gough's Monuments, vol. i. p. cix. p. 90. ^ See cuts at p. 134. '' See cuts at p. 135. ^ See Gough's Monuments, vol. ii. in- ^ This slab is figured in Specimens of troduction, p. ex. The Billesford slab is Ancient Church Plate, &.c. figured in Nichols' Leicestershire, vol. i. ^ See the ArchcEolo(/icul A lljiim, p. 1/1. 134 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS DE . RAYNOOIl . ET . ISEMAY . SA . FEMME. Alicl ill Ncwpoi't cliurcll, Pembroke, is a gravestone raised a little from the floor, having a head embossed on it, much defaced, with a cross fleury the whole length of the stone." ^ Upon the pavement of the north aisle of Wonuvornlal ai;ib, -BiUesiord, LtjiciLsttfrtiliire Monumental Slab, Appleoy, Westmoreland. LlandafF Cathedral is another monumental stone, which bears an elegant cross iiory below two heads : the slab has also a border- legend. And again, at Bredon in Worcestershire, amongst the numerous monuments of great interest with which the church ' See Arc/ic/;o/of/ia Camhrennis, vol. ii. p. 321. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 135 abounds, is a very remarkable slab, recently discovered, which has been now placed on the southern side of the chancel. Towards the upper part of the slab appear, carved in bold relief, the busts of a civilian and his wife beneath a rich double canopy ; and im- mediately below these busts are the transverse arms of a crucifix, stone Coffin-lid, Bitton, Gloucestershire Monumental Slab. Silchester Chiorchyard, Hampshire which is of slender proportions, and raguly or ragged throughout ; the base of the crucifix is cut to a ridge above the flat face of the stone ; and this singular composition is completed by the small figures of two doves, which appear to rise from above the head of the Saviour. The whole is elaborately sculptured, and was appa- 136 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS rently executed about the middle of the fourteenth century. ^ In incised slabs of this class the cross is also placed in some examples below the partial effigy ; as in the slabs at Lympley Stoke in Wiltshire, upon two of which is engraven a head only, resting upon a cushion, and a cross ; while upon a third specimen, the bust and arms of the figure are represented. ^ I am not able to refer to any brass yet in ex- istence which will exemplify this same arrangement in its compo- sition. It is evident, however, from several despoiled slabs, that brasses of this character were oc- casionally in use. In the north aisle of the choir of Ely Cathe- dral is a slab, said to be the gravestone of Prior John Crau- den, who died a.d. 1341, which shews that it once bore above a cross with the initials i.e. the semi-effigy of that munificent and distinguished ecclesiastic. There also remain the matrices of a single canopy, and the fil- lets of metal, upon which a bor- der-legend was inscribed. Again, at Dorchester in Oxfordshire, a slab in the Abbey church shews the sunken spaces, from which have been torn away two half-figures and two crosses, all in brass.^ Despoiled Slab of Prior John Crahuen. Ely Cathedral ' See Archceol. Journal, vol. ii. p. .')1, where a figure of this monument will lie found. * See Archceol. Journal, vol. iv. p. 261. ^ See Gough's Monuments, introduction, p. cxvi. The latest example of which I am awiire of a semi-effigi;il slab having a cross beneath the partial effigy, is at Llan- vihangel in Glamorganshire. The date of this monument, which commemorates Griffithc Grante, is a.d. 151^1. See Ar- chwologia Cambrensis, vol. ii. p. 318. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. U7 In some few in- stances in brasses, the partial effigy is found to have been placed upo?i the monumental cross, at the intersec- tion of its arms, in- stead of above it. In the chapel of Morton <2yP College, Oxford, is a portion of a slab which still retains part of such a brass, while of some other parts it can shew but the matrices. This is the memorial of Ri- chard de Hakebourne, Fellow, who died about A.D. 1310.1 A de- spoiled slab, now lying in the pavement of St. Alban's Abbey, shews that it once was inlaid with a brass very near- ly resembling the one which I have last de- scribed. ^ • Again, in Salisbury Cathedral is the matrix of a third brass of the same kind. I now refer to the slab ' This brass is incorrectly- attributed to Richard de Hart in my Monumental Brasses and Slabs, p. 1L5. It is also figured by Gough, vol. ii. in- troduction, p. cxvii. ' This slab is twice figured by Carter in his Architecture. -Remains of Brass to Richard de HAKEBoaRNE. Chapel of Merton College, Oxford. 138 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS which covers the remains of Bishop Bingham, wlio died a.d. 1247, and was buried in his cathe- dral church. This slab lies upon a raised tomb beneath a rich architectural canopy, and it retains the outlines of its lost brass, from which it appears that the half-figure of the deceased prelate had been represented as resting upon a floriated cross. It is somewhat remarkable that the whole pastoral-staff was intro- duced into this composition with the semi-effigy, and con- sequently the staff itself was placed beside the stem of the cross. ^ The practice of placing half-figures above crosses, and upon them, in monumental brasses, led to the occasional use of a bracket to support the semi- effigy. This bracket was substituted for the cross- head at the head of a shaft, and the composition was usu- Dcspoued siab of bishop binoham, 11 1 11 Salisbury Cathedral. ally completed by a canopy, rising either from the bracket itself, or from independent shafts of ' See Gough's Monuments, vol. i. p. 44. The crockets upon the arch over this tomb are singularly appropriate as well as beau- tiful, being formed of recumbent figures of angels, watching, as it were, over the re- pose of the departed j)relate. Bishops York (a.d. 125G) at Salisbury Cathedral, and Cantilupe (a.d. 1282) at Hereford Cathedral, were also commemorated by half-length figures in brass beneath archi- tectural canopies : these brasses are now both lost. I may here notice another example, in which, with a half- figure, a part of the habit is given entire, after the manner of Bishop Bingham's pastoral staff. This slab is at West Wickham in Kent, and it bears the half-figure of a priest, from whose left arm the maniple is suspended, and hangs down below the figure. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 139 c.iD. 1310. Remaina of a Bracket Brass, Great Brington, Korthaniptoush re. its own. At Great Brington in Northamptonshire there remains the half-figure of a priest upon a bracket ; but all other parts of the original brass are lost ; and so much worn is the surface of the slab, that it is now impossible to trace the outlines of the compo- sition when complete. This is a valuable specimen of the eccle- siastical effigies of the first half of the fourteenth century. In Staf- fordshire, at Clifton Campville, another slab retains precisely the same portion of the brass to a fe- male ; but, in this instance, the outlines of a rich canopy, a bor- der-legend, and two shields of arms, together with the stem of the bracket, may be clearly dis- tinguished. A third example of a half-figure upon a bracket lies in the pavement of the chancel at Brandsburton in Yorkshire. The shaft here rests upon steps ; and it supports, beneath the fig- ure, a fillet bearing the legend : WILLVS . DARELL . lADIS . PSONE . d'lEGLISE . D . IIALSHAM . GIST . ICY . DIEV . DE . SALME . EIT . MCY. There also remains a part of the border-legend, with the date a.d. 1364.1 I proceed now to describe some Semi-effigial monuments in which Kemams of a Bracket Brass. .1 1 1 J A Clifton Campville, Staffordshire. the cross-symbol does not appear, 1 William Darell was also rector of semi-cffigy. See Poiilson's Holderness Brandsburton. The head is lost from his vol. i. p. 281. — The crockets of the 140 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS neither is there any substitute for which, from Stothard's admirable etching, is perhaps the best known, is the slab of Sir William de i ' Staunton, at Staunton in Notting- hamshire. The effigy is here re- I presented in a suit of chain mail, with a sleeveless surcoat over the hauberk : the arms as well as the uplifted hands appear, with the upper part of the figure, within an elongated cusped trefoil at the head of the slab ; and towards the other extremity, and also wdthin a trefoil, the feet are displayed rest- ing upon a dog. Upon the face of the slab between these two ap- parent openings are sculptured a helmet and shield, the latter bear- ing the arms of Staunton, ar- gent, two chevrons, sable, appa- rently within a hordure. The same charge Wiis evidently de- signed to be considered as dis- played upon the surcoat. " Round the edge of the stone runs the fol- lowing inscription in the black- letter character, being an early instance of its adoption:" ►J* ^[t iacet(lilliUcf tie »)taunton 9l^ilc0 jfiliu5S (BlfjiDDe catiem militia que olnit in itiu isl^aii^nno 2Dii .»..».cc;i;j;ti cm an ppiciemu it. Of these, the example Monumental Slab of SiK WiLLiiU de Sf AnNroN, Staunton, Notts. ciinopy, once forming part of the brass at Clifton Campville, appear from their matrices to have been very elegant, and to have closelv resembled tlie crockets of the canopy in the brass of Sir John d'Aubernoun the younger, at Stoke d'Au- bernoun. The Brington brass is also figured in tlic A E. 1316. Monumentai Slab to Sir JoUn Daubygnu, Norton Brize, Oxfordshire. To face p. 141, IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 141 2DCU0 »J< . This slab lies upon an altar-tomb.' At Norton Brize in Oxfordshire, within a chapel to the north of the chancel, lies another slab, which, though resembling it in many respects, is a much finer work of monumental art than the memorial of Sir William de Staunton. This is the monument of Sir John Dau- bygne, or D'Albini, parts of whose effigy are sculptured upon it within sunken panels towards the upper and lower extremities of the stone. The head of the knight is here represented as armed with a bascinet of steel, from which is suspended a camail to cover the shoulders ; the arms are in plate-armour, and the bare hands lie clasped upon the breast, resting on the emblazoned j upon ; the feet, which rest upon the figure of a lion, now much mutilated, are protected by sollerets ; the spurs are long, and have rouelles ; and the legs, armed in plate, or more probably in studded cuir-boulli, are crossed, and displayed rather more than half-way to the knee. As in the Staunton slab, a helmet and shield of arms occupy the space between the two parts of the effigy : the shield bears, upon four fusils conjoined in f esse, as many mullets inerced, for Daubigne ; from the helmet rises the crest — a mullet inerced, surrounded hy the leaves and berries of holly ; and on either side appears the mantling, semee of mullets. Four other smaller shields of arms are also sculp- tured upon the slab : these severally bear, — Daubigne, as before ; two chevrons, idthin a hordure engrailed ; four fusils conjoined in fe.se, ermine, in chief three mullets, both also other coats of Dau- bigne ; and lozengy, -within a hordure, for Brize or Brise. An inscription enclosed within lines forms a border to the whole, and Oxford Architectural Society's Cataloyue was the son of Sir Geoffrey de Staunton and Manual of Brasses, p. Ixiii. and Alice his wife. He was a knight of In the Gentleman's Magazine for a.d. active reputation, favoured by Edward I , 1810 (part ii. p. 321) is a description, ac- and employed in his service." From his companied by an engraving, of a slab from will, made a.d. 1312, it appears " that he which a fourth brass of a half-effigy upon was under a vow of pilgrimage to the Holy a bracket, with a border-legend, has been Land, for he left a bequest of five marks torn away. This slab is in Brixworth each to two footmen, who should go ' the chiu-ch, Northamptonshire, and bears the first passage ' in his name." Notwith- name of adam de tavntone, with the date standing this vow, the effigy of Sir William A.D. M.ccc.xxxiiii. de Staunton is not represented in the ' In the inscription the words GLFRiDDE. crossed-legged attitude. See Stothard's eadem . QVE are incorrectly written for Monumental Ejfiyies, ^i. H. GALiEiDi . eivsdem . Qvi. " Sir William 142 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS contains the following- legend in the black-letter character : »J< ^iC I jam : 3|ot)e0 : HDauliPtjae : qui : oln'it : in : ^n'ffilia : 3Iacopi : ^pocftoli : anno : 2Dnt : 91^ : C.C.C : iit3atira0:e0imo : 0e,rto : ctTi : ani'mc : ppicieruj : HDcusf >^J The next specimen to which I shall refer is the equally elegant and interesting slab, which was sculptured about the year 1240, and then placed above the stone-coffin containing the remains of Joanna, natural daughter of King John, and consort of the re- nowned Welsh prince, Llewelyn ap Jorwerth.^ The monumental coffin of the deceased princess was originally placed in the church of the monastery of Llanvaes, which had been founded by Llewelyn. At the dissolution of the religious houses, this slab, with the stone- coffin which it covered, were removed ; and it was not until the commencement of the present century that their existence was ascertained, when the slab " was found, face downwards, in a ditch near Llanvaes, the stone-coffin itself being used as a watering trough." The slab is six feet long, and three inches in thickness: with the exception of a small strip, which has apparently been sawn off from one side, it is quite perfect, and (thanks to its re- versed position) the carving is still quite sharp and fresh. The lower part of the slab is entirely covered with foliated tracery, in the style so highly characteristic of the period : the branches all issue from a central stem, and are curiously interlaced, the stem itself being seized by the mouth of a winged dragon. Above, and rising from out of this tracery, is represented the head of the prin- cess supported upon a pillow, with her upraised hands, not clasped in accordance with the prevalent custom, but lying spread open upon her breast. The head-gear is a wimple surmounted by a bandeau of jewels; and over all is a coverchef or fiovving vail, which falls in ample folds upon the shoulders. The tunic is plain, and a circular morse fastens it at the throat. " It was this prin- cess who was engaged, according to tradition, in a romantic but 1 This fine slulj is also figured in Skel- in this line monument will be observed, ton's Oxfordshire, p. 7. The various as a valuable illustration of tlie armour pieces of armour, &c. here named will worn in the middle of the fourteenth cen- be found carefully described in the Glos- tury sary appended to my Monumental Brasses " The fine stone coffin of Llewelyn liim- and Slabs. The earl v form of the bascinet self I have before figured, at p. 1 7. Stone Coffin-lid of the Princess Joanna, Wife ofLlewellyn.Princo of Wales. Nov?" at Margam. To face p, 142. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 143 tragical intrigue with William de Braose" or de Brewys, a youth- ful knight of a powerful English family on the Border, and who, in the year 1229, "had been taken prisoner by Llewelyn at the siege of Montgomery. She appears, however, subsequently to have re- gained the affections of her husband, who erected over her remains the monastery of Llanvaes," The mo- nument of the Princess Joanna is now carefully preserved in the park at Baron Hill, near Beaumaris, the seat of Sir R. Bulkeley, where the slab again lies upon the stone-cof- fin J In the church of St. John in the city of Chester is anottier slab, which is partly flat, and covered with flowing foliasre, executed in low relief, and in part is cut away in order to disclose to the view a sculptured semi-effigy. The upper portion of the stone, including the figure, that of a female, is nuich worn and injured; but the lower part is more perfect, the tracery and the border-legend within which it is contained being still sharp and distinct, with the exception of a few letters only of the legend. This inscription runs thus : >J< hic . lACET . AGNES . VXOR . RICI . DE . RIDELEGH . QVE . OBIIT . DIE . SAB- BATI . PXI . AN . FM . PHI . ET . lACOB . A ccx — Here lies Agnes, ivife of Richard de Ridelegli, who died on the Sabbath-day next before the Feast of Philip and James the Apostles. ' See Archceologia Cambrensis, vol. ii. p. 31G ; see also the ArchcBol. Album, p. 171. Monumental Slab to Agnes de Rideleoh, St. John's Chuich, Chester. 144 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS At Hambletoii in Rutland a very interesting monumental stone was discovered hoicath a pew during the restoration of the church, stone Coffin-lid, Hambleton, Rutland A.D. 1847. At either end of this stone are sculptured the head and feet of the figure of a civilian : the cham- fer of the trefoil-arch, within which the head is placed, is slightly hollowed : the head itself is much mutilated, and so also are the feet, which are almost entirely broken away. This slab is coffin-shaped, and coped, having the coping worked to a plain ridge. Under a mural arch on the exterior of the south aisle of Great Casterton church in the same county of Rutland, lies a flat slab which shews the head, the upraised hands, and the feet of a monumental effigy through two rectangular openings cut towards the upper and lower extremities of the stone. Again, at Howell in Lincolnshire a low mural arch covers a very curious slab, having two trefoil-shaped perforations, through which appear the upper parts of two figures, those of a lady and of a child, both in the attitude of supplication. This slab, like the one at Great Casterton, has no inscription nor other device,^ The upper part of a figure is shewn w^ithin a kind of open panel, on a slab at Thurleston in Leicestershire ; and the feet also appear rest- ing upon an animal.^ A broken slab at Stonu Coffin-lid, Hambleton, Rutland. 1 Sec the cuts at J). ]ih, and at the be- '^ See GoughV Monuments, vol. ii. in- ginning of this Section. troduction, p. ex. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 145 Cilcain in the county of Flint bears the remains of the vippei- part of an effigy incised upon its surface : below, the stone is plain, with Mural Arch and Semi-effi^ial Slab, exterior of the Chviroh, Gri^at Casterton, Eutlaud. the exception of a border-legend comprising the words ►$< hic . lACET . MEREDITH . lORWERTH.i Again, at a later period, appa- rently about the middle of the fifteenth century, in the church of Elford in Staffordshire, the upper and lower parts of a monumental slab are removed, and in the openings thus produced are sculptured the corresponding portions of the effigy of some unknown civilian.^ At Buslingthorpe in Lincolnshire, upon a coffin-shaped slab, there is preserved a semi-effigy in brass, representing a knight in chain-mail, with a plain surcoat and ailettes, his hands uplifted and holding a heart, and his head resting upon two pillows : the gaunt- lets are formed of small overlapping pieces of plate or thick leather. There is no guige, or weapon ; but below the figure was a shield, which, with the single Lombardic letters of the border-legend, is now lost. The legend itself may still be read, as follows : >J< issy . GYT . SIRE . RICHARD . LE . FIS . SIRE . lOIIN . DE . BOSELYNGTHORPE . . . . ALME . . . DEVS . EYT . MERCY.^ In the Same county of Lincoln, at Croft, is another semi-effigy in brass of a knight armed with banded mail. The slab to which this brass is affixed is now too much worn and mutilated to supply materials for a satisfactory ^ See ArchcBologia Cambrensis, i. 444. - See cut at p. 146 ; also Illustrations of the Elford Monuments, by Edward Rich- ardson, Esq., sculptor. ^ See Monumental Brasses and Slabs, p. 113; see also Waller's Monumental Brasses, part x. I have introduced the shield in the accompanying figure at p. 14R, from a contemporary roll of arms: its blazon is, or, a chevron, sable. 146 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS engraving : I have therefore figured only the brass itself. The slab is rectangular in form, and it once had a border-legend of single Lombardic letters between narrow fillets ; and at the ano-les c. i E m;o MODumental Slab, Elford, Sta9brdBhire. CAD. 12S0 Slab and Brass of Sir Richard de Bosbltno.eorpe, BusliogtUorpe, Lincolnshire. there appear to have been circular plates, probably bearing the evangelistic emblems. The semi-efligy in its outline closely re- sembles the trefoil-shaped opening in the slab within which the upper part of the effigy of Sir William de Staunton is sculptured ; ^ ' See page 1 40. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 147 and beneath it are two cavities in the face of the slab, having the appearance of small shields reversed. The date of this monument is about A.D. 1280. In the churchyard of Brandon in Suffolk there lie side by side two time and weather worn monuments, in which, from the upper parts of two figures, the coffin-lids are repre- sented as entirely cut away. Below the half- effigies the stones are acutely ridged, and they shew indistinct traces of inscriptions in the Lombardic character. A third monu- Eemains of a Brass. Croft, Lincolnshire. S:qu^; CuiQu-lid, Brandon, Suffolk. mental stone (^f a similar character lies half buried in the same churchyard. Beneath a semicircular arch in the north wall of the chancel of Corwen church in Me- rionethshire, lies a coffin-shaped stone, mea- suring in length five feet six inches, and of unusually narrow^ pro- portions, the monument of Jorwerth Sulien, once vicar of Cor- wen. This very curious and rare specimen differs from all the other semi-effigial monuments which I have yet noticed, in having a representation of the vestments of the deceased ecclesiastic ex- pressed by lines incised upon that fiat portion of the stone which intervenes between the sculptured parts of the effigy, and is sur- rounded by the border-legend. Thus the figure has somewhat " the appearance of resting in a bed, with the coverlit half turned 148 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS ,"''-m^ down : it -will be seen, however, that the robes of the deceased are carried" regularly over "the figure to the feet, notwithstanding the narrow square fillet which interrupts and sepa- rates this part of the body, and which bears the inscription," >J< hic . iacet . iorwerth . svlien . vicarivs.de . coRVAEN . ORA . PRO . EO.^ The half- figure is carved in bold relief, and appears to rest within a deeply sunk panel, which forms a pointed arch above the head ; the hands are uplifted, and hold a clialice ; and the feet, whicli are also carved in relief, are displayed immediately below^ the le- gend, as the semi-effigy rises immediately above it. The costume is elaborately executed throughout, and the spandrels at the head of the stone are enriched with foliage. At Stoke in Lincolnsliire, upon another very remarkable slab of large dimensions, the effigies of a knight and his lady are represented, as if par- tially covered by drapery. The figures, as far as they are developed, are sculptured in full relief within a molded border, the superfluous parts of the stone being cut away. Traces of three fleurs- de-lys may be still distinguished upon the knight's mutilated shield. The armour and costume assign this singular composition to the reign of Edward I. (a.d. 1272-1307).2 The monumental slab of Bishop de Valence in Winchester Cathedral exemplifies another variety in the manner of represent- ing a part only of an effigy. This stone is coffin-shaped, but of unusual breadth : upon its surface is sculptured a pointed oval, extending from the head of the slab to its base : within this oval, and under a canopy, appears the upper part of the bishop's effigy in his episcopal habit, his uplifted hands holding a heart, and having his pastoral-staff resting upon his left arm. Below the figure, and charged with the arms of De Valence, is a shield which, with some rich foliage, fills up the lower portion of the oval. The Monument of JoawERTH SOLIEN, Corwen Churcti ' See Archwoloffia Cambrensis, vol. ii. p. 241, from whence the engraving of this slab has been transferred to this page. ^ See cut at p. 149. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 14U upper part of this monument unfortunately is broken off: enough, however, remains to shew the complete original design. Aymer or Ethelmar de Valence, the forty-first bishop of the see of Win- f M -*^.z;:S 'b^^^^ ... fi ! ,inii||M'i'','V', Ij Monumental Stone, Stoke, Lincolnshire. Chester, died at Paris a.d. 1261, the forty-sixth year of the reign of King Henry III, The heart only of the deceased prelate was sent home for burial in his cathedral church, where this slab was placed above it.i A pointed oval encloses a semi-effigy of a knight ' See cut opposite p. ]VJ: see also Ilollis's Munumental Effigies. The rcmaiuing 150 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS in mail armour, and a shield, in another monument at CoLerley in Gloucestershire: the hands of the figure are here represented as holding a second and smaller shield. ^ After the middle of the fourteenth century monumental brasses comprise a numerous series of semi-effigies. Of these memorials, in which the half-figures almost invariably rest upon fillets charged with inscriptions, it will be sufficient for me here to refer to some C.A.D. 1400 Semi-effigial Brass to John de EsrsuRr and Wife, Lambourue, E-^i-ks few of the best examples which yet remain. Lambourne in Berk- shire, Hellesdon in Norfolk, Graveney in Kent, and Rusper in Sussex, supply good specimens of semi-effigial brasses of civilians and ladies.2 At Chinnor in Oxfordshire are half-figures of a knight wearing a bascinet and camail, and his lady ; and also of an eccle- portions of the pastoral-staft' in this ex- Head of Postoral-StaO", Tumple Church, Loadoa. ample sliew that, ^vheii perfect, it closely resembled the staff held in the hands of the episcojjal effigy in the Temple Cliurch, London. ^ See Lysons' (iloiicesiershire Antiq. ^ See Alomimcntal Brasses and Slahs, p. 117. The semi-effigies at Lamhoiirne appear to have been placed within the four evangelistic emblems, which were en- graved on small plates, and i^hiced to- wards the four angles of the slab : of these emblems two only yet remain. This brass affords a striking example of a general similarity in the style of costume worn by the two sexes in the fourteenth century. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 151 siastic in academic habit. These brasses severally commemorate Sir Esmoun de Malyns and lady, c.a.d. 1380, and John Hotham, ^Wr Bratf.ipttt.^MCp.igift icfia (Simiir^a aim Qit igcrg)^. ^' i.D. 1405.— 6th Hecry TV. Brass to Ratif df, Gobham, Esquire, Cobham Chnrch.Kent rector, a.d. ISGl.i At Cobham in Kent, Rauf de Cobham, Esq., is represented as holding the plate which bears the inscription to ' See Monnmental Brasses of England. 152 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS his inemoiy : below this inscription is a shield of arms.^ A large slab at Debenham in Suffolk yet retains the brass semi-effigies of a knight in plate-armour and his lady ; but the inscription, the figures of several children in three groups, an achievement of arms, and four shields are lost.^ A similar brass of a knight with two ladies exists at Offord d'Arcy in Huntingdonshire : and again, at Battle Church in Sussex is the brass half-figure of Sir William Arnold, a.d. 1435. At Wimborne Minster, Dorset, is a small brass half-figure, crowned, to Saint Etheldred, king and martyr :^ the date of the brass is about a.d. 1440. Semi-effigial brasses to ecclesiastics yet remain in considerable numbers. At Chinnor in Oxfordshire is a fine example of a semi-efiigy in brass to an eccle- siastic in academic costume. Other examples are preserved in the chapels of Merton College, New College, and Magdalen College, Oxford ; at Pakefield in Suffolk, Cobham in Kent,"^ &c. There are fine specimens in eucharistic vestments at Kemsing, Hoo, and Farningham in Kent, severally the memorials of Thomas de Hop, c, A.D. 1320; of John Broun, c. a.d. 1120; and of William Gyl- borne, a.d. 1451 : also at Lewknor in Oxfordshire, to John Alder- burne, c. a.d. 1370: at Oakham in Surrey, to Walter Frilende, c. A.D. 1370:^ and otliers at Upton Lovell in Wiltshire, Ewelme in Oxfordshire, Wantage in Berkshire, Milbrook and Wilshamp- stead in Bedfordshire, &c. At Stamford in Berkshire, bearing- date A.D. 1398, is a very large semi-effigial brass of an ecclesiastic habited in the chasuble, the memorial of Roger Campedene, which has at the angles the evangelistic emblems, each upon a shield of large dimensions. The sleeves of the garment worn beneath the alb are, in this example, represented as terminating in mittens, which button over the backs of the hands. In the chapel of New College there remains a half-figure brass of a coped ecclesiastic ; and another example occurs at South- fleet in Kent. But the church of St. Margaret in the city ' Sec cut :it p. 151. xxxvii. ; and Monumental lirasseK of Enfi- ' These half-figures arc shewn in Cot- land. man's Brasses. •' See cuts at p. 153 ; also Mim.. Brussesof 'See Carter's Ancient Painting and England. The semi-eifigy of Thomas de Sculpture, p. 13. Hop at Kemsing exemplifies the practice ■* Sec O.rford Manual of Brasses, p. of encirclinfj the sleeves of the alb at the IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 153 of Rochester contains the most remarkable semi-effigial brass of an ecclesiastic habited in the cope : the same figure is engraved on l3iciacftM3i^aIlirru0Tnlnitie'qiLmi[llitctO2 iffiusf mt t factoi W aajitllr cimi^ ait fflnctm ^eiis ' 1 Fooc o.A.D. 1370.^4t±i Edwsird III. Brass to Waxter Frilende. Rector and Founder, Oakham Church, Surrey. both sides of this plate, with some slight difference in the costume. In the accompanying engraving the two sides of the original plate are both shewn.' Again, at Beddington in Surrey, the half-figures of thirteen children are placed below the full- length effigy of Philippa Carew, in her brass, which bears date a.d. 1414. In the north wall of the chancel at Narborough in Norfolk is a very small canopied recess, at some height above wrists with embroidered apparels. In brasses, other examples of this arrangement occur at Oulton in Suffolk, Brington in Northamptonshire, Merton College Chapel, Oxford, and Woodchurch and Horsemonden in Kent. The last four brasses are figured in this volume; the remaining one in ^^^ i37o.-43d Edward iii. my Monumental Brasses and Slabs, p. 95. Braaato John alberbdbne, ' See cut at p. 154. Lewknor Church, Oxfordshire. lo4< CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS the pavement, and immediately adjoining the north-eastern angle of the edifice, within which lies a semi-efiigy of a wimpled female. Co!i tjjoms In'ct toe lacct l^icocccljidiiCi 'Vxtairas aratas lime callc q? bratas ^ttlcfir m ranm (R inaifmt ifti 5 2f capiJh facmrrif ttmpott^ili ^irao tDiUraomiariL-l •1)010 Q^cjTio Oamiebxic mniK falinin wa'a err 3lnitliu-^*€'GtJi 6 ilm mlxtinn: 3tar ankrtxWn:pfa: ab boftc tpbca /p/o vomU^ myitis illilltbita ;i amiss A.D. 1465. — 5tb Edward IV. Palimpsest Brass to Thomas Cod, Vicar, St. Margaret's Church, Rocb'=st'=r holding in her uplifted hands a heart. An oak hoard forms the back of this singular monument. The half-figure is sculptured in full relief, and is remarkable for its diminutive size. It appears very probable that a heart only was here interred.^ At Bakewell in Derbyshire, and " originally placed against an arch on the south side of the nave, is the monument of Sir Godfrey Foljambe, who died A.D. 1376, and of Avena his lady, who died a.d. 1383: they are represented by half-length figures, smaller than life, carved in alto-relievo in alabaster." ^ The lady is habited in a kirtle with tight sleeves, a sideless cote-hardi, and a mantle, with the reticu- lated head-dress : the knight wears a bascinet and camail, and upon ' See cut at j), 155. .shire, page 188 ; and Lysons' Derbyshire, - See IJatenian's Antif/itides of Derby- page ccxxv. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 155 his jupon his arms are emblazoned. The heads both rest on double cushions ; an arrangement strangely inconsistent with the SmaU Mxij-al Semi-effigial Monument, north wall of chancfcl, Narborough, Norfolk. upright position of the figures. A single arched canopy, richly cusped and croketed, rises above the two semi-effigies; the span- drels are occupied by large shields of arms ; and the whole is covered by a square embattled head- canopy. The idea of exhibiting in a monument parts only of an effigy of the deceased, is also exemplified in Lichfield Cathedral after a very singular manner. In each of these memorials (they are three in number), the figure is designed to be regarded as placed behind a part of the wall, which itself forms the back of an arcade ; and the head and feet are shewn through two apparent apertures, one shaped like an heraldic shield set sideways, the other square, which 156 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS. are pierced in the alternate bays of the arcade, the intervening bay being left blank. This arrangement will be best explained by the accompanying sketches. "Of each individual statue" in these ^ ., £r ;, 11 II ^ ^1 J ^^^^^ ^1 P 2 - j»..-^ja^^»=^ ^ ^ _ V® Semi-effi^iai Monument, Lichfield Cathedral. '- Lichfield Cathedral monuments, says Sir Francis Palgrave, " no- thing more is preserved than a head and shoulders, and ankles and feet. These fragments, placed at the proper distances from each other, are built up in the wall ; and though the eye sees nothing but parts of a figure, yet the mind sees all the remainder, and sup- plies all that is wanting. You have the entire effigy before you."' After the example of the learned author of " The Merchant and the Friar," I would express my hope that, in like manner, I have introduced into this Section of my volume a sufficient number and variety of specimens, to give as good a notion of the Semi-effigial Monuments of the Middle Ages, even as though every individual relic of this class had here been made the subject of special notice and careful description and illustration. ' See Truths and Fictions of the Middle Ages : The Merchant and the Fri/ir, ji. 86. 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