41 



rockeries and ferneries, or lying in neglected comers of pleasure 

 grounds, they have since suffered greatly by exposure ; and 

 more has been done during the last quarter of a century to 

 efface these memorials of an early age, than had been accom- 

 plished during the previous 500 years. 



On comparing the slabs found at Minchinhampton with the 

 engravings in a work by the Eev. Edward L. Cutts, — "A 

 Manual for the Study of the Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses of 

 the Middle Ages," — and with those in the kindred work by the 

 Rev. Chakles Botjtell, — "Christian Monuments in England 

 and Wales," — they appear to coincide with those assigned by 

 the authors of these two works to the twelfth and thirteenth 

 centuries. It is confessedly difficult to assign anything like an 

 exact date to these incised Coffin-lids or Grave-stones. On 

 this subject Mr. Ctjtts writes, — "While in all other parts of 

 " ecclesiastical architecture during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and 

 " fifteenth centuiies, we find three strongly marked styles, — the 

 " Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular, — we do not find 

 " any corresponding broad distinctions of style in these Grave- 

 *' stones. Ornamental work peculiar to these styles frequently 

 ** occurs upon them ; but almost as frequently there is so httle of 

 " pecuUar character in the design, that it requires considerable 

 "familiarity with the subject to be able to assign, within a 

 " hundred years, the probable date of a slab within this period." 

 As already mentioned, the walls into which the Minchinhampton 

 Slabs had been built were all of fourteenth century work. 



It may appear strange that the old builders should have shown 

 so little respect for these memorials of the departed, as to 

 use these slabs for building material; but it is very possible 

 that at the time of the erection of this fourteenth century work, 

 the church was enlarged, and it was needful to remove these 

 memorial slabs from the positions they occupied, and once 

 removed, it is not sui'prising that they should have been 

 appropriated to the buildings under course of erection. This 

 treatment of ancient Grave-stones was possibly not uncommon, 

 for instances of their being thus used have been met with 

 elsewhere. The Journal of the Archaeological Institute (Vol. 



