48 
On a Palimpsest Brass tw Norbury Church, 
Derbyshive; with some remarks on the 
Monumental Grasses of Derbyshire. 
By W. H. St. Jonn Hops, B.A. 
ay Da” the class of memorial known as ‘‘ Monumental 
() Brasses,” the County of Derby possesses about 
24} fifty specimens, of which thirty-three only have 
figures of the deceased. The occurrence of so 
comparatively few examples is to be accounted for, to a great 
extent, by the abundance of stone and alabaster for the manu- 
facture of sculptured effigies and incised slabs, of which the 
county has a large number of fine instances. That this is a 
probable reason may be seen by a comparison with the county of 
Norfolk. There stone is scarce, and consequently effigies in that 
material are the exception and not the rule—while the monu- 
mental brasses exceed five hundred in number. 
Brasses may conveniently be divided into (1) those of Eccle- 
siastics, (2) Military brasses, (3) those of Civilians. 
Of the first division Derbyshire has but four examples, viz. :— 
ASHOVER, Philip Eyre, Rector (c. 1510) ;* DronrieLp, Thomas 
Gomfrey, Rector (1399), and his brother Richard, Rector of 
Tatenhall—both on same slab; TIDESWELL, Robert Pursglove, 
Prior of Gisborough and Suffragan Bishop of Hull (1579). [This 
effigy is a well-known and oft-quoted example of a Bishop vested 
in the “ Ornaments of the Minister” of the famous “ Ornaments 
* The dates given are those of the probable date of the brass. 
ie 
