ANCIENT MEMORIAL BRASSES OF DORSET. 217 



Quoting Mr. Mill Stephenson's article before men- 

 tioned : 



Obverse " The lettering of this inscription is in slight 

 relief, the background having been cut away in parallel 

 lines. Between each word is a six-pointed star. The numeral 

 2 in the date 1562 takes the form of the letter Z." 



Reverse. "The lower portion of the figure of an abbot or 

 prior, of English workmanship and of date circa 1500, but 

 of which no similar example is known. It may possibly 

 represent a Dominican prior wearing his habit, scapular, and 

 cloak, all of which appear on the fragment. On his right 

 shoulder rested his crosier, the lower portion of the staff 

 with its pointed end being clearly shown. Also the end of 

 the girdle which encircled his habit and which is ornamented 

 with metal studs and terminates in an openwork tag also of 

 metal. His feet are encased in broad-toed shoes or sandals, 

 which have once been inlaid with colour. An alabaster 

 figure found in Barling Magna Church, Essex, and exhibited 

 at the exhibition of English mediaeval alabaster work held at 

 Burlington House in June, 1910, may be compared with our 

 fragment. It is thus described in the catalogue : "No. 

 84, headless figure of St. Dominic in brown habit with green 

 girdle, scapular, and black cloak with white tippet, holding 

 up a large red book in his left hand and a staff in his right. 

 From his girdle hangs on the right side a pair of paternosters 

 with red beads, gold gauds, and gilt tassel. Lower part of 

 figure lost." This palimpsest furnishes another example 

 of an ecclesiastic of doubtful description, another being the 

 very curious figure on the reverse of the Savill brass at 

 Islington reproduced in the Society's Portfolio, Vol. III., 

 plate 15." 



I can corroborate these remarks as to the suggestiveness 

 of this old alabaster figure, for we inspected this figure 

 together at Burlington House, but I should have regarded 

 our Dorset palimpsest as of perhaps earlier date. A 

 description by Mr. Mill Stephenson of his palimpsest 

 discoveries of ecclesiastics at Islington may be found in The 



