16G ANTIQUITIES. 



Ivingho:' In 26 Hen. VIII. we find it as " the Priory of St. 

 Margaret within the Deanery of Mursleyf'' and in 28 Hen. VIII. 

 as "///e Priory of Mursley, or of St. Margaret?'' In 1740 there 

 remained in the glass of a window in the Conventual buildings 

 a dragopi pierced in the back with a sword, and in his mouth a 

 Crucifix ; a fragment, most likely, of a painting of the Patron 

 Saint. The names of ten ladies who held the office of Prioress, 

 are given in the Monasticon Anglicanum, of whom the last, 

 Margaret Hardwyc, lived at the time of the dissolution of the 

 Monastery in 1539. The House had then five nuns, three of 

 whom desired ** capacities," i. e,, permission to betake them- 

 selves to some other mode of life. Its annual income was £19 

 18s 9d, and it had no debts. 



These particulars are derived from the last edition of the 

 Monasticon, ^ where, however, no mention is made of a corporate 

 or other Seal. The Seal discovered at Langton Matravers has 

 the legend, SIGILLU : PRIORISSE : DE : lUYNGHO; 

 and the bust and head of St. Margaret, crowned. The stem of 

 the brass matrix is sexagon, above which is a trefoiled head with 

 three small circular perforations ; and at the top of this was 

 another hole for suspension, which has been flattened by a heav^ 

 blow. It may be assigned to the latter partof the fourteenth 

 century. 



Fig. 3. This massive Gold Ring was found, as the Rev. N. 

 Bond, its present possessor, informs me, at East Holme, about 

 five-and-twenty years ago, by a man digging in a garden, who 

 turned it up with a spade-full of earth. The place adjoins an old 

 Monkish fish-pond, surrounding an island, and was probably 

 part of the garden or pleasure-grounds of the Cell or Priory of 

 East Holme, which existed as early as 1291, and belonged to 

 the alien Cluniac Priory of Montacute, in Somersetshire. 



From the religious subjects with which this ring is ornamented, 

 we may reasonably conjecture that it once encircled the fore- 

 finger of a Prior of this Cell, — that the lion rampant, langued, 

 armed, and crowned, engraved upon it as a seal, was his armo- 

 rial bearing, — and that his name was indicated by the initials, 



1 Vol. iv., pp. 268 - 272. 



