92 THE CHURCH OF NORBURY. 



of the monasteries, and the sale of their memorials, was in full 

 swing at the time of Sir Anthony's death. 



The best thanks of all Derbyshire antiquaries, and of eccle- 

 siologists at large, are due to Sir Ernest Clarke, through whose 

 protests it came about that the proper fixing of the loose parts 

 of this brass was undertaken by the Society of Antiquaries in 

 1895. Rubbings of the reverse sides of the different brasses 

 are now kept in the vestry. 



Sir Anthony Fitzherbert was considered the greatest lawyer 

 of his day, and was pre-eminently distinguished for his upright- 

 ness. He published various standard legal works. Sir Anthony 

 has also long been credited with the authorship of notable 

 books on husbandry and surveying, but Sir Ernest Clarke has 

 now proved, beyond any possible gainsaying, that the author 

 was his elder brother John. 



A floorstone, formerly in the north-east chapel, but now in 

 front of the priest's door, is inscribed to the memory of the 

 last of the Fitzherberts buried at Norbury : — " Here lyeth the 

 body of Ann Fitzherbert, wife of William Fitzherbert, Esq., 

 and eldest daughter of Sir Basill Brook, of Madely, in the 

 county of Salop. She had seven sons and four daughters, and 

 deceased the 9th of July, 1653." 



Striking as are the monuments of Norbury church, it is yet 

 more remarkable for its wealth of old glass. 



In Warrington's great folio work on painted glass, published 

 in 1848, Norbury is cited first among the few parochial churches 

 which afford " remarkably good examples " of the lighter styles 

 of coloured glass of the fourteenth century.* Mr. Winston also 

 formed a high estimate of the exceptional interest of the glass 

 in this church, though he was in error in fixing the date of 

 the chancel glass in the first half of the fourteenth century, t 



Though its beauty and age have sometimes been exaggerated, 

 I am fully prepared, after far greater experience, to repeat 

 what was written more than a quarter of a century ago, namely, 

 " there certainly are not six parish churches in the kingdom 



* The History of Stained Glass, p. 39. 



t Winston's Hints on Glass Painting, 2nd edit. (1S67), plate xx. 



