226 ANCIENT MEMORIAL BRASSES OF DORSET. 



5^ in. wide ; below all, a rectangular inscribed plate, 2oJ in. 

 by 4! in. 



Description. Sir John Tregonwell, clad in complete armour 

 of the period, is shown kneeling on a cushion, with hands raised 

 in prayer. He has a faldstool, or kneeling desk, before him, 

 over which is a fringed cloth embroidered, or otherwise wrought, 

 with his paternal coat, and resting upon it an open book ; on 

 the ground before the desk rests the knight's helmet, affront6, 

 his gauntlets lying beside it. Over all he wears a tabard, 

 charged with his arms. 



His sword, unusually, is dependent from his right side, and 

 shown crossed behind him, almost reaching his feet, on which 

 are broad-toed sollerets ; his dagger is placed on his left hip ; 

 the cuissards are plain, the spurs, screwed into heel, show 

 through slits in the greaves. 



One chain is shown around his neck ; his hands, clasped 

 before, probably hide a pendant badge ; he wears a ruff and a 

 long-pointed beard ; 1 his hair is very short (cf. Sir Gyles 

 Strangwayes, Melbury, having double pointed beard and two 

 chains). 



Tabards first appear on brasses of the fifteenth century. They 

 became comparatively common, and were occasionally worn by 

 ladies, and usually charged with thrice-repeated armorial bear- 

 ings, once on breast and skirt, and twice on the sleeves. 

 Examples of late sixteenth century are rare, and Sir John 

 Tregonwell's is the latest extant. Of the few, Dorset possesses 

 two other examples Christopher Martyn, 1524, Piddletown, and 

 Sir Gyles Strangwayes, 1562, Melbury Sampford. 



Heraldry. On tabard, Tregonwell, thrice repeated : Argent, 

 three ogresses in /ess cotised sable, between three Cornish choughs 

 proper. On shield above, Tregonwell, also showing crest, a 

 Cornish chough's head and neck holding in his beak a chaplet ermine 

 and sable. 



1 Sometimes called the pique devant, or pick-a-devant beard, as shown on 

 Eepton's plate of Sir Edward Coke, 



