T I 2 MISCELLANEA. 



which they were secured to the stone, which is the more remark, 

 able because in ahnost every empty matrix the rivets remain 

 firmly embedded in their leaden holdings. There is an instance 

 in St. Lawrence's, Reading, where an early ledger stone of a large 

 brass has been denuded of its plates and chiseled level again for 

 the reception of a later brass, but in this case the heads of the 

 earlier rivets are still firm in their beds and glistening all over the 

 stone. Is it possible that these matrices have been filled with 

 laminse of white marble or some such material and the device 

 incised thereon? I do not know of an example, but I cannot 

 account for the absence of the usually tenacious rivets. 



Whatever the material may have been, the lines of demarcation 

 are sufficiendy clear to determine its date, and so happily its 

 identity. This is done simply by analogy. Every period has had 

 its prevailing fashion not only in dress, but in the fine arts ; and 

 this is verified by the uniformity both in sentiment and detail 

 which may be observed in works known to be coeval. 



And first of all, this memorial is not one of an ecclesiastic, as 

 Ashmole supposed, but of a warrior in his military costume. The 

 habit does ■ not reach the feet, but stops short a little below the 

 knee ; the right elbow projects in the contour in a tight fitting 

 suit of some kind, which is never observed in the case of a priest 

 vested either in cope or chasuble ; then there is the top and base 

 point of a shield suspended on the left arm. This is conclusive 

 with regard to the profession of the deceased. 



And now for the date. If we except the ayletts or small 

 shields appearing above the shoulders on the brass of Sir Robert 

 de Setvans, in the church of Chartham, in Kent, dated 1306, 

 then the outline of the effigy will be found precisely similar— the 

 head uncovered, the hair cruUed or trussed at the sides after the 

 true Edwardian fashion, the right elbow projecting at the waist 

 line ; the curved shield enclosing the left elbow, and showing its 

 demi outline at the top, side, and base point ; the long skirts of 

 the surcoat covering his suit of mail, reaching below the knees ; 

 the animal at the feet with its tail raised almost touching the 

 skirt — all these features are common to both memorials, and to 



