y 
139 
On two Sepulehral Slabs at PWope 
Church. 
By Rev. J. CHARLEs Cox. 
@HEN the sad and absolutely unnecessary work of the 
“| demolition of Hope Chancel was in progress during 
July, 1881, two fairly perfect incised slabs of a 
sepulchral character were uncovered in the foundations. They 
were found in the north and south walls respectively, close to the 
junction of the chancel with the nave, and are good specimens 
uf their class. The stones were promptly photographed by Mr. 
J. D. Leader, F.S.A., through whose kindness we are able to 
give the accompanying drawings. Hitherto there has not been 
a single ancient church or chapel of the Peak district in 
any way overhauled, which has not yielded more or less abun- 
dant specimens of incised gravestones. Our church-building 
ancestors of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries seem to 
have had no scruples in appropriating these unlettered memo- 
_rials of the departed, whenever they were in want of a fair-sized 
slab for a jamb, a lintel, or especially a foundation stone ; but 
they are more frequently found in a mutilated condition. 
Both examples are of that later kind of incised stones, in which 
the head of the cross is of a floriated device within a circle, the 
cross being thrown into relief by cutting away the remaining part 
of the stone to the depth of about a quarter of an inch; the 
stem of the cross and the other details being simply produced by 
ordinary incised lines. The smaller slab of the two has a bugle 
horn and belt on the right side of the stem of the cross, with 
