2°« S. IX. May 12. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



371 



There is another branch of the subject on 

 which I should feel greatly obliged if some of 

 your readers would investigate, that has not, I 

 think, been distinctly alluded to in your pages. 

 There still remain a few, and a very few, churches 

 where the arrangement of the chancel for the 

 celebration of the sacrament is according to the 

 views of the Puritans in the early times of the 

 Reformation. 



Brandon, in his Glossary of Terms used in Archi- 

 tecture, says : — 



" During the period of the triumph of the Puritans 

 under Cromwell, the Communion Table was placed in the 

 middle of the chancel, with seats all round it for the 

 communicants ; at the Restoration it seems to have been 

 almost universally replaced in its original position, but 

 in a few rare instances the Puritan arrangement was 

 suffered to remain, as at Deerhurst, Gloucestershire ; 

 Langley Chapel, near Acton-Burnel, Shropshire; Shil- 

 lingford, Bucks, &c. 



" In Jersey this puritanical position of the table is still 

 very common." 



I have been told that Winchcombe and Hayles, 

 both in Gloucestershire, may be added to the 

 above list, and perhaps some of your correspon- 

 dents may know of others, and may be also able 

 to inform me of the present state of the foregoing, 

 and what dates there may be on them or can be 

 assigned ; the date may perhaps show that Bran- 

 don attributes more to Cromwell than facts will 

 warrant. I am also desirous of information re- 

 specting the style and date of old wooden pulpits. 

 I fear these remains of the period of the Reforma- 

 tion are fast disappearing, under the present de- 

 sire for Gothic restoration. 



Several of your correspondents mention the use 

 of linen hangings on the altar-rail in various 

 churches. This practice is no doubt a remnant of 

 the endeavours of the early reformers to make the 

 sacrament resemble the Lord's Supper as closely 

 as possible. A. D. 



DR. THOMAS COMBER. 

 (2 od S. ix. 307.) 



I trust I shall not seem wanting in piety to the 

 memory of the writer of the Memoirs of Dean 

 Comher (quoted by the editor, u. s.), if I state 

 my conviction, that the " family tradition " there 

 alluded to is worth no more than hundreds of 

 similar traditions, by which as many families are 

 referred to imaginary ancestors, who " came over 

 with the Conqueror." The Dean himself was 

 fond of genealogy ; and in a pedigree in his auto- 

 graph, of which a copy is now lying before me, 

 the earliest recorded ancestor is ; — " Ricardus de 

 Combre, Generosus in Rotulis Turris Londinensis, 

 temp. Ilenrici Sexti. (I have long wished to verify 

 (bis reference; how can I do so?) Mr. M. A. 

 Lower is doubtless correct in stating that the 

 name Comber, as well as Camber and Kcinpstcr, 



is " synonymous with Coomber, a wool-comber." 

 (English Surnames, 3rd ed. vol. i. p. 110.) The 

 " family tradition " farther asserts that this Nor- 

 man De Combre, on coming to England, married 

 llda, the sister of Edgar, son of King Harold. 

 And the assumed fact that this " British Prin- 

 cess" was patriotic enough to remain with her 

 countrymen within the walls of York, while her 

 husband was amongst the besiegers of that city, 

 in a.d. 1070, forms the subject of an historical 

 drama, entitled Waltheof; or, the Siege of York 

 (York, 1832), " by a Descendant of one of the 

 Dramatis Persona? " (viz. by the author of the 

 Memoirs of Dean Comber). I may add, that the 

 baptismal name llda is borne by one of the ladies 

 of the family in the present generation. Query : 

 had Harold a daughter of this name ? The Rev. 

 W. L. Bowles says, in the " Illustrations from 

 Speed," appended to The Grave of the Last Saxon, 

 that " a daughter, whose name is not known " 

 (and whom in the poem he calls Adda), " left 

 England with her brothers, and sought refuge 

 with them in Denmark. Speed quotes Saxo 

 Grammaticus, who says, ' She afterwards married 

 Waldemar, King of Russia.' " 



I may be allowed to rectify one or two inac- 

 curacies in the Editorial Reply. The Dean of 

 Durham, though related to, was not descended 

 from the Combers of Shermanbury. William, the 

 purchaser of that manor in 1542, was the elder 

 brother of John Comber, of Barkham, co. Sussex ; 

 which John was the gi-eat-great-grandfather of the 

 Dean. The John Comber of Shermanbury, to 

 whom the grant of arms was made, was the son 

 of the above-named William ; and was not, there- 

 fore, in strictness of speech, " one of the Dean's 

 ancestors." The blazon of the arms given in the 

 Memoirs aforesaid, and thence transferred to 

 " N. & Q." by the Editor, is unaccountably er- 

 roneous. From a copy of the original grant 

 (made by Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, under date 

 16 June, 1571), I transcribe the following, viz. : — 



" Golde, a Fesse Daunce Gules, between three Starres 

 Sables ; and to his Creaste, upon his Heaulme, on a 

 Wreathe Golde and Sables, a Lynxe's Heade, Coupe, 

 Golde Pellate, manteled Gules, doubled Argent." 



And these are the arms borne by the Dean, and 

 by all branches of the family at the present day. 

 The Shermanbury branch is extinct, in the direct 

 male line. Ache. 



HERALDIC ENGRAVING. 

 (2 nd S. ix. 110.203. 333.) 



Taille douce certainly means nothing more than 

 engraving, and is no more concerned with heraldic 

 dots and lines than with any other things capable 

 of delineation on metal for stamping. 



Pierre Richelet, in his famous Dictionnaire de 

 la Langue Francoisc, Anciennc et Moderne, Am- 



