144 PAPERS, ETC. 



granite found in the Tower of St. Mary's may have been 

 a gift from Sir Richard Warre to assist the church in 

 carrying out Sir Reginald's design ; and likewise makes it 

 more probable that the neighbourhood which afforded King 

 Henry such valuable adherents would probably come in 

 for more than ordinary marks of royal favour. 



The initials R. B. also occur on a shield* in a window of 

 the church, accompanied by a monogram, f such as, I am 

 told, a Freemason might probably adopt ; and that Sir 



Reginald Bray was a Freemason high in the craft is cer- 

 tain, as we have it recorded in an old book, entitled Con- 

 stitution of Freemasonry, that " King Henry VII, being 

 Grand Master, chose for one of his wardens of England 

 Sir R. Bray, the other being John Islip, Abbot of West- 

 minster, by whom the King summoned a lodge of masters 



* Dr. Cottle moved this shield to its preseut position in the north-west 

 window, from a window south of the Tower. 



t Merchants' Marks.— Tt has been surmised that this monogram may 

 possibly be a merchant's ruark,as such signs were frequently used by them, 

 consisting for the most part of a figure resembling a numerical 4, turned 

 backwards, which, it has been conjectured, represents the mast and yard of 

 a ship ; but then, says Parker, in his Glossar;/ of Heraldry — " If this con- 

 jecture be well founded, why did the early printers so often use this figure ?" 

 It is much more likely that the triangle symbolises the doctrine of the 

 Holy Trinity, as the cross does that of the Atonement ; and this probability 

 seems increased by the same authority on Merchants' Marks— that " this 

 term is too narrow in its import, as marks of the kind, so termed, were 

 used not only by merchants, but by ecclesiastics." It will be observed the 

 figure of the monogram in question is not a figure of 4 turned backwards, 

 but one turned upside down— if it has any resemblance to a figure of 4 at 

 all. As this mono^ram occurs in one of the Windows of the church, 

 it possibly may not apply to Bray; but the coincidence of the initials 

 seemed too striking to leave it unnoticed. 



