TAUNTON PllIüRY. 81 



Peter from 1471 to 1484, and was originally attached to a 

 document not improbably addressed to Taunton Piioiy er 

 its Prior. [_See the engraving^ On tlie purport of the 

 missive it would of course be vain to speculate. 



For anotlier object of interest connected with the House 

 I have to thank my old friend Henry Norris, Esq., late of 

 South Petherton, who most kindly presented it to me. It 

 is a brass ornament which formed the termination of a 

 leatbem girdle, and is a work of the fifteenth Century. 

 On one side are the words ft)C mcrcg, and on the other 

 laD^ !)Clp0. It was found on the site of the Priory in the 

 year 1812, and was sold at the time of its discovery to his 

 learned father. \_See the figures^ About the same time 

 and in the same locality was found the haft of a knife in 

 morse-ivory, which was similarly offered for sale and is at 

 present also in my possession. It is of the latter part of the 

 fifteenth Century, and consists of a group of three figures, 

 probably intended for Faith, Hope, and Justice, which are 

 surmounted by a couchant Hon. Faith is represented with 

 a stafF, Hope with an anchor and a bird, and Justice with a 

 sword and a pair of scales. \^See the ßgures.'] During the 

 last ten years a few coins have been offered to me for sale, 

 with the special recommendation of having been discovered 

 on the same site, or in the immediate neighbourhood, com- 

 prising pennies of Henry IL, Edward III., and Eichard 

 IL, and a groat and Shilling of Henry VIII. These, how- 

 ever, as it was well known that I was interested in the 

 locality, and as the circumstances of the alleged discoveries 

 were not free from suspicion, I receive with considerable 

 hesitation, and tender a word of caution to those of my 

 readors to whom similar objects may hereafter be ex- 

 hibited. 



Up to this pcriod we have seen the noble House which 

 VOL. IX., 1859, PART n. h 



