228 On the Seals of the Bishops of Salisbury. 
It may be noted also that (11*) Walter de la Wyle (1263) stands 
on a base on which is figured a Church. This, doubtless, refers to 
the completion of the Cathedral during the time that he was canon, 
it having been consecrated by his predecessor, Giles de Bridport, in 
1257. The counterseal for the same reason represents the Virgin 
with the child in her arms, seated upon a Church. The attitude is 
very like that of the fourteenth century seal of the chapter of 
Lichfield, which Dr. Cox rightly describes as “ unusual but engaging.” 
(Catalogue of the Muniments of Lichfield, &c., p. xiv., 1881-6). 
The counterseals of this period are, as is generally the case, 
although smaller, more beautiful than the seals themselves. They 
frequently represent the Blessed Virgin, usually without crown or 
sceptre, and with some kind of graceful head-dress, with the child 
Jesus in her arms, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing, sometimes 
in a whole-length, but more often in a half-length figure. Below, 
under an arch, or canopy, is the half-length figure of a Bishop in an 
attitude of prayer. The legend is generally dve Maria gratia (or 
gracia) plena (sit? in one case) dominus teewm. Sometimes it is a 
hexameter line, which may or may not refer to the Bishop whose 
seal it is, ¢.g., No. 6* (Bishop Herbert Poor) has 
Nate regas mecum cuius signum rego tecum. 
The Blessed Virgin has a head-dress, from which seems to rise a 
crown, and her right hand holds a sceptre ending in a fleur-de-lys. 
There is no figure of a Bishop below.—No. 8* (De Bingham) has 
the legend, 
Salve s(an)c(t)a parens enixa puerp(er)a regem 
“ Hail, Holy Mother, whose pangs have born thy King.” 
The exceptions to this general representation are four, attached 
to Nos. 4, 5, 7, and 15, and which are all of interest :— 
(4) Bishop Joceline’s a small gem representing a shepherd (?) leaning 
on his staff between a tree and a sheep and the legend + munio 
sigilium;—(5) Bishop Hubert Walter’s, whose counterseal is very 
like his seal, only on a smaller scale ;—(7*) Ri. Poor’s, which has 
a beautiful group of the Annunciation, both figures standing. On 
his counterseal as Bishop of Durham (1228) we see the B.V.M. 
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