MONUMENTAL EFFIGIES 



real crusader, the only representative in the 

 county of the romantic expeditions to Pales- 

 tine. Not to signalize a holy voyage, but in 

 compliance with a conventionality of English 

 sculptors then just coming into fashion, and 

 which endured for rather more than a hundred 

 years — he is shown in his freestone effigy with 

 his legs crossed. De Vere is represented in a 

 complete suit of mail — a true hring-gar — con- 

 sisting of a hood continuous with the hauberk, 

 and confined round the forehead by a band, 

 and having a flapped opening fastened up with 

 a thong over the left ear, to enable the head 

 to be passed through the constricted neck of 

 the hauberk into its hood, after the usual 

 early manner. The hauberk is long, reach- 

 ing to the knees, the mail chausses being 

 steadied by straps below them. Over all is a 

 long surcote confined round the waist by a 

 cingulum in connection with which at the back 

 is the transverse sword-belt checked at intervals 

 for the buckle tongue, as with some examples 

 in the Temple church, in the effigy of De 

 L'Isle at Stowe-nine-Churches, and in that 

 of De Goldingham at Rushton. The attach- 

 ment of the sword-belt to the cingulum pre- 

 vented the former from slipping over the hips. 

 De Vere wears a shield suspended on the left 

 arm after the English fashion ; the feet resting 

 on an animal are armed with prick spurs, and 

 the head is supported by a single pillow. A 

 noticeable feature is the long surcote in whose 

 voluminous folds men dismounted on the 

 field were frequently apt to get their legs 

 entangled, and thus fell an easy prey to the 

 enemy. The effigy lies upon a plain tomb 

 under a low richly-moulded coeval arch. 



Sir Robert de Vere was the second son of 

 Sir Henry, constable of Gisors, a nephew of 

 Aubrey, first Earl of Oxford. Matthew Paris 

 says that his posthumous fame was very great, 

 that his exploits became the themes for min- 

 strels and were quoted as signal examples of 

 martial bravery. 



Abbot John de Caleto. Died 1262. 

 Peterborough Cathedral. 



The fourth abbatical effigy in respect of 

 age is that which is now disposed the first to 

 the west in the south aisle of the choir, under 

 a low Norman arch which it does not fit. It 

 is carved in bold relief upon a coffin-shaped 

 slab of polished Purbeck marble. The abbot 

 is represented bare-headed, with the tonsure, 

 and with the face closely shaven. He is 

 vested in the alb, with a richly ornamented 

 parure or app.irel at the feet, a stole, a tunic 

 or dalmatic, and a heater-shaped chasuble. 

 This latter vestment is embroidered with 

 foliage on the front, and has an orphrey 



straight down it, with a small square rationale. 

 The amice, like a hood, partially covers the 

 head which rests upon sculptured foliage, and 

 is supported on either side by the mutilated 

 remains of angels who grasp the abbot by the 

 ears 1 The right hand and upper part of the 

 pastoral staff are gone ; the left holds the 

 clasped book of the Gospels. The feet press 

 upon a very vigorous winged dragon who 

 receives the ferule of the pastoral staff in its 

 mouth ; the tail terminates in foliage. 



Abbot de Caleto conducted the Benedictine 

 house at Peterborough from 1249 ^° 1262. 



Sir David de Esseby. Died before 1268. 

 Castle Ashby. 



In chronological sequence now follows the 

 cross-legged effigy of the distinguished warrior 

 Sir David de Esseby. He is represented in a 

 full suit of mail, beautifully sculptured, link 

 by link,"^ and differing only from that worn 

 by De Vere in having the hood distinct from 

 the hauberk, a convenient improvement that 

 had lately been introduced. The shape of 

 the head implies a cerveliere or skull-cap of iron 

 or padded material under the hood. The 

 surcoat, which retains slight traces of red 

 colour, is somewhat scanty and short in the 

 skirts, as it was frequently worn at this period. 

 The figure, which no doubt dates from soon 

 after the battle of Evesham in 1265, has 

 much interest as giving an accurate picture of 

 the military dress of that fateful era. It is 

 in wonderful preservation, polished through- 

 out, and is sculptured on a slab of Purbeck, 

 narrowing rapidly to the feet, and taking the 

 form of a stone coffin of the time, and of 

 which it probably once formed the lid. 



1 During the last years of the thirteenth century, 

 as the demand for military effigies rapidly in- 

 creased, it became apparent that life-size statues 

 with the mail laboriously carved link by link in 

 Purbeck, Sussex or Forest marble, firestone, and 

 various so-called ' freestones,' must give way to the 

 easier process of working out the details of the 

 armour and other decorative parts on a gesso sur- 

 face, by the use either of tools or stamps, and 

 finishing with gilding or colour. With the ex- 

 pansion of this particular art there was less likeli- 

 hood of portraits being produced, because such 

 advanced technical work can only have been 

 carried on — as with the Purbeck effigies — in good 

 artistic ateliers with full appliances, and necessarily 

 without much reference to individual portraiture, 

 armorial bearings or small personal details being 

 added to conventional statues according to special 

 directions. The minute information necessar)- for 

 the appreciation of points such as these can only 

 be laboriously acquired by measuring and drawing 

 to scale and comparing monumental effigies in 

 divers parts of the country. 



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