323 



figure. Above this it is cut short ofiF, and no further portions remain. It is 

 supposed to have been pulled down and destroyed at the Reformation, and the 

 figure placed in its present position in 1820, during the alterations made in the 

 Church at that time. 



These Jesse Trees are by no means common. They were originally made to 

 form a reredos of an altar, as was probably the case here, but are more usually 

 represented in windows. Such an altar existed formerly at St. Cuthbert's Wells ; 

 another is now remaining at Christ Church, Hampshire. There is a fine Jesse 

 Window in the chapel of Winchester College, of modern glass, copied from the 

 old, and a very celebrated one in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire ; and also in 

 St. George's, Hanover Square. There are several instances on the Continent.* 



The monuments, now in this Church, when surrounded by all the knightly 

 elements of grandeur, coats of arms, display of heraldry in coloured glass and on 

 shields, the banners and other military accoutrements, must have produced a rich 

 and solemn effect, that can only be supplied by the imagination, for they are gone 

 altogether. 



Many other memorials exist on the walls of the Priory Church to the 

 Gunters, Milbournes, and others, which are worthy of being carefully preserved. 

 The present floor of the Church is much above its original level, and it is probable 

 that other slabs may exist beneath it. 



Such memorials of the inevitable departure from this life, which awaits us all, 



give the old warning, so familiar as to become commonplace, ever seen, but 



seldom heeded. Churchyard thus quaintly begins the moral lesson he draws from 



their consideration— 



() Lord (quoth I) we all must dye. 



No lawe, nor learning's lore, 



No judgment deepe, nor knowledge hye. 



No riches lesse, or more ; 



No office, place, nor calling great. 



No worldly pomp at all, 



Can keep us from the mortall threat 



Of death, when God doth call. 



And he goes on to draw the moral at considerable length, which each one of us 

 may draw equally well, and perchance with greater profit, for himself. 



' There is a fine Jesse Window in St. Mary's Church, Shrewsbury. (Edit.) 



