MONUMENTAL EFFIGIES 



hood has the flapped opening over the left 

 ear found in connection with the con- 

 tinuous hauberk, and is confined round the 

 temples by a wide outer fillet as well as 

 with a narrow band interlaced with the 

 mail. The surcote is long and full, the 

 knees encased in poleyns, and the mail sleeves 

 of the hauberk tightened at the wrist with a 

 strap. The feet shod with prick spurs rest 

 against a lion, and the head upon a single 

 pillow supported at the ends in an uncommon 

 manner by branches with ivy and conven- 

 tional leaves. The gigue and sword-belt are 

 barred or checked as in the De L'Isle effigy, 

 after an early method of ornamenting the 

 tongue-holes of the buckles. It is difficult to 

 say whether this remarkable figure is a mere 

 effigy from a sculptor's stock. It is just possi- 

 ble that it is the result of a special order and 

 an attempted portrait.' 



A De Ros, about 1300. Braunston. 



The cross-legged effigy of a De Ros in 

 hard red sandstone exhibits the military 

 equipment of a knight in the last quarter of 

 the thirteenth century, and varying but 



slightly from the examples already noticed. 

 Thus the hood is bound round the brow by 

 a studded fillet, the knees cased in poleyns of 

 plate or cuir-houilli and the lengthysurcote more 

 freely treated. The attachment of the ends 

 of the sword-belt to the scabbard is an early 

 but not complete instance of a picturesque 

 method which prevailed with many varieties 

 until far into the following century, being 

 finally superseded by the long series of 

 locketted scabbards. The rowelled spurs are 

 early examples, and similarly indicate the ad- 

 vance in the details of military harness. The 

 head, sheltered by a canopy — which has pre- 

 vented the sculptor from representing the 

 mail beyond the convenient reach of his tools 

 — rests upon two pillows, flanked by censing 

 angels, and the feet upon two beasts trampling 

 upon a hooded ecclesiastic. Below the right 

 elbow is shown an animal curled up, some- 

 thing like a squirrel. Between the feet is 

 sculptured a large rosette consisting of a centre 

 and three concentric sets of leaves, and below 

 the right foot is another rosette formed of a 

 centre and twelve single leaves. These are 

 evidently allusive to the name of Ros. It 



* With regard to portraiture in the recumbent 

 effigies, which give so human an interest to cathe- 

 drals and churches throughout the country, the 

 conditions under which they were executed during 

 the Middle Ages were generally quite unfavourable 

 to likenesses being effected ; indeed, it was only 

 under very exceptional circumstances that this end 

 was sought for or attained. In Northamptonshire, 

 for example, absolute and early evidence is fur- 

 nished on this point by the Purbeck marble effigy 

 of Sir David de Esseby at Castle Ashby, who died 

 before 1268. This figure bears so striking a re- 

 semblance to the figure of William Longspee the 

 younger in Salisbury Cathedral, that the one might 

 almost be mistaken for the other. Both must be 

 the work of the same school, perhaps of the same 

 sculptor at Purbeck, but both cannot be portraits. 

 They represent, as closely as the intractable ma- 

 terial would admit, knights of the period, quel- 

 conques, and must have formed part of a certain 

 number of effigies kept in stock. 



Again, taking other early examples, and from a 

 famous series, the effigies in the Temple church, 

 one would like to think that those dignified 

 figures, which suffered such disastrous treatment 

 fifty years ago, are accurate presentments of the 

 Marshals and others ; but almost a counterpart of 

 one of them, also lying on his sword, and with 

 the rare attribute of closed eyes, is to be found in 

 the effigy of Sir Gerard de L'Isle (died about 1287) 

 at Stowe-nine-Churches. 



It may be here recalled that portraiture was 

 sometimes carried out in early times, in exceptional 

 cases, with great success. The four royal effigies, 

 which after many vicissitudes are still preserved at 

 Fontevrault, should be mentioned as highly im- 



portant examples, although neither sculptured in 

 England nor in the English fashion. Of these the 

 figures of Henry II. (died 1189) and Richard I. 

 (died 1 199) lie upon draped biers after the French 

 fashion, with closed eyes as if laid out in death. 

 They are shown habited in regal vestments, and 

 were originally carefully painted and decorated, 

 the shaven faces of the two kings being stippled to 

 the life. The countenances much resemble each 

 other, and to the extent that might be expected 

 between father and son. On the other hand, and 

 arguing from the kings to the queens, there seems 

 no reason why the effigies of Eleanor of Guienne, 

 queen of Henry II. (died I 204), and Isabella of 

 Angouleme, second wife of John (died 1 246), 

 should not be sufficiently faithful likenesses also ; 

 indeed, the countenances of the effigies of these 

 exalted ladies are so unlike that no other con- 

 clusion could be rightly arrived at. And similarly 

 of Berengeria of Navarre, queen of Richard I. 

 (died about 1230), whose interesting effigy at 

 Mans fully bears out the accounts of her beauty 

 which history has transmitted. On the other 

 hand, again, the coarse figure which lay over the 

 Lion Heart of Richard I. in Rouen Cathedral is 

 little more than a conventional effigy. The Pur- 

 beck marble statue of King John at Worcester 

 (died 1216), ignorantly gilded from head to foot 

 in modern times by a governmental ' department,' 

 is a further example, and highly valuable as the 

 earliest portrait effigy of a king in England, for 

 the figures of Henrj- I. and his queen on either 

 side of the western doorway of Rochester Cathe- 

 dral have nearly perished. 



A noteworthy example of portraiture is shown 

 by the latten effigy of Henry III. in the Abbey 



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