62 Notes on the Cor^wratioti Plate and Insignia of Wiltshire. 



[A few of these waits' chains still exist. Exeter has foui of James 

 the First's time ; Kings Lynn, five of Elizabethan date ; and the 

 chain worn by the Mayor of Beverley is also formed of them.] 



The Loving Cup. This is a handsome two-handled cup, 

 standing 18in. high, bearing the London hall-mark, the date letter 

 for 1796, and the maker's mark of Samuel Howland. It is of the 

 elegant " classical " style, which, just at the end of the last century 

 is seen in all the best productions of the time. The bowl has the 

 usual engraved garlands and festoons of flowers enclosing on one 

 side a shield of the city arms, and on the other the anus of the 

 donor, Quarterly/, first and fourth, Earle, Gules three escallops within 

 a bordure engrailed or ; second and third, Benson (of SaHsbury)* 

 argent three trefoils sable between two bendlets gules with crescent for 

 difference. Crest, a lion's head erased pierced with an arrow. Above 

 the arms is inscribed : — " The gift by will of fFill'"- Benson Earle 

 Esq., who died 2lst March, 1796." ' 



" In March, 1797, a large silver cup, value fifty guineas was presented to the 

 mayor and commonalty on the bequest of William Benson Earle, Esq., of the 

 Close." — {Old and J^ew Sarum, 554.) 



The Common Seal. 



No. 1. The oldest known seal'^ is probably contemporary with 

 the charter of 1227. It is circular, 2Jin. in diameter. It bears the 

 figure of the Vii-gin and Child standing behind the city wall between 

 two spires. The wall terminates at each end in a battlemented 

 tower, whereon stands a bird with a crescent over. Above the 

 Virgin's left shoulder is a blazing sun or star to balance the floriated 

 end of her sceptre. Under a niche in the base is the half-length 

 figure of the bishop as lord of the city. The legend is, in Lombardic 

 capitals : — 



' William Benson Earle, son of Harry Benson Earle, b. at Shaftesbury, July 

 7th, 1740; educated at Winchester and Merton, Oxon ; B.A., 1761; M.A., 

 1764 ; died, 21st March, 1796 ; buried at Newton Toney ; monument to him 

 by Flaxman in north transept of Cathedral. A man of wide attainments, F.R.S., 

 F.S.A., and a musician. A sketch of his life is given iu Hatcher & Benson's 

 Old and New Sarum, pp. 649—652. 



2 Old and New Sarum. PI. II., p. xvii. 



