Nofes, ArclifBologieal and Historical. 315 



been removed during the great restoration of 1863-79, placed in the 

 triforium for safety, and forgotten. There it was accidentally dis- 

 covered a few months ago, and with the concurrence of the Dean it was 

 replaced above the little tablet to the memory of Mary Barnston, on the 

 dwarf wall to the east of Bishop Giles de Bridport's monument in the south- 

 choir aisle. 



The Barnston tablet is a typical piece of early Jacobean work, of stone 



elaborately carved and painted. It bears the following quaint inscription : — 



Mariffi Barnston 



good fuit propter 



situm maritus 



amans dolens 



debens hoc posuit 



in memoriam 



obiit 6 Julii 



1625 



Below, apparently cut later, are the lines — 



Altera ps obijt 30""° Maij 



1645 



Abijt, no obijt & reverti 



debet 



In each corner of the tablet, the dimensions of which are 3ft. by 2ft. 7in., 



a tiny coat of arms is painted— in the first and fourth corners, Azure, afess 



daitcetty ermine, between 3 crosses crosslet fitchy or* (Barnston) ; and in 



the second and third corners, Gules, a cross patonce, hetiveen 4 trefoils 



slipped or (Manning). Above the tablet was carved a crest ; but of this 



portion of the original design little more than the wreath now remains. It 



was roughly knocked away to allow for the placing of the hatchment, which 



rests on the tablet and reaches to the top of the dwarf wall mentioned 



above. There a stout nail, seemingly contemporary with the hatchment 



driven into the masonry, catches a large staple fastened to the frame, and 



holds it in its place. 



The hatchment is rectangular, and not of the modern lozenge shape. It 

 consists of two substantial boards, each Qgin. wide by 2ft. lin. high, within 

 a very heavily moulded frame, all of oak painted black. The frame is 

 4in. wide by i\m. deep, and measures 2ft. 9in. by 2ft. 3in. The blackness 

 of the moulding is relieved by two lines of gold. 



The field of the hatchment is almost entirely occupied by a large shield 

 of very plain and severe form, charged with Barnston quartering Manning 

 (the arms which appear in the corners of the tablet) differenced by a crescent 

 argent. There is no other device of any kind, except the date 1645 above 

 the shield, and xvi° Maij in the spaces at the base of it, in golden 

 characters. 



The tinctures of the arms, especially the blue, have faded somewhat in 

 two hundred aud fifty years, but they are still quite jdainly visible. 



The domestic idyll which these things peqietuate is easy to read. When 



• PapwortU and Morant give the tiuclure of tlio crosses ciosslet as argent. 



