140 MEDIAEVAL FLOOR TILES. 



of a quartet forming a quatrefoil mortuary or memorial 

 inscription dated 1456, which reads thus : 



/DMseremint inei misereinini met saltern \?os ainici 

 quia manus IDomint tetigit. -J.tb.S. H.S>. /l&cccclvi. 

 /iDarcius bic Xucas 3oba[nes Htque /l&atbeus], 



This is simply a quotation from the Book of Job, chapter 19, 

 verse 21. " Pity me, pity me, O ye my friends, for the hand of 

 the Lord hath touched me." Then follows the Sacred 

 Monogram and the date A.D. 1456, the inscription ending with 

 that prayer to the four evangelists which has come down to us in 

 the form 



' ' Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 

 " Bless the bed that I lie on." 



In the Sarum Use the above chapter of the Book of Job was 

 read as the eighth lesson of the second nocturn in the " Vigils of 

 the Dead." A fellow tile to this one was discovered in Radipole 

 Church, which belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of Cerne, 

 and I trace our possession of at least two examples of this tile at 

 St. George's to the fact that our prebendal Rector two years later 

 than the date of the tile was the future Cardinal Morton, himself 

 a monk at Cerne. 



Another tile represents the cross keys and sword, the arms of 

 the great Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter's, Gloucester. The 

 peculiar shape of the keys shows that the arms of the see of 

 Exeter are not intended, and many similar tiles have been found 

 in Malvern and Gloucester and the neighbourhood. Our speci- 

 men is one of a quartet, and contains part of an inscription which 

 would when complete contain about thirty-five letters. It may 

 have been that popular mediaeval charm against fire, ending with 

 the words " Deo et Patrie" which, dating from the martyrdom of 

 St. Agatha A.D. 253, was as late as the year 1402 inscribed on the 

 fire bell at Kenilworth, given by Thomas de Kyderminster. 



Perhaps the most interesting tile to us St. Georgians is the 

 fine example bearing the dragon and eagle. So far as I can 



