A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



All the wooden effigies in the county are 

 carved in oak, and there is no pretence for 

 the idea that any of them are in chestnut. 



Having arrived at the borders of the third 

 quarter of the fourteenth century, by slow 

 and well-defined changes in military costume, 

 the alabaster period is entered upon, but as 

 regards this county not until thirty years after 

 this tractable material first came into use. A 

 type of military habit is now presented which 

 is more fully exemplified than any other in 

 the whole range of English monumental art. 

 The recumbent bronze statue of the Black 

 Prince at Canterbury — ' An image in relieved 

 work of laton gilt placed in memory of us — 

 ' tout armez de fier de guerre ' — is indeed a 

 notable type of the camail and jupon period, 

 and the pure alabaster figure of Sir John de 

 Hertcshull is no less important in its way, and 

 a very early example of the style of armour 

 which, arrived at step by step, again passed 

 away by equally slow degrees.' 



John de Hastings at Abergavenny (died 1 3 1 3), 

 and Aylmer de Valence in Westminster Abbey 

 (died 1323), none of whom went to a crusade, 

 as well as countless similar figures of the same 

 period, and later, which were made under the 

 same conditions, and dating, indeed, throughout 

 the first half of the fourteenth century, are not 

 only entirely in accord with the system of medieval 

 sculpture, but constitute the irrefragable evidence 

 of historical monuments as regards the subject. 



And although art of this kind naturally deterio- 

 rated with the gradual change from mail to plate 

 defences, there was always propriety of treatment 

 of the subject. The truthful though wholesale 

 manufacturers of the bascinet-and-camail and later 

 effigies in 'monumental alabaster,' soon recognized 

 the fitness of not crossing ' in effigy ' the legs of 

 men encased in rigid tubes of steel, and who could 

 not have so placed them with any degree of 

 comfort, if at all, in real life. 



Of the fifteen cross-legged effigies in Northamp- 

 tonshire, only one, that of Sir Robert de Vere 

 (died 1250), represents a man who is known to 

 have taken part in a Crusade, namely, in the 

 Seventh of 1 248. Of the rest, one is of Sir David 

 De Esseby who died before 1268, while six repre- 

 sent men who deceased between 1280 and 1296, 

 and who may or may not have gone to Palestine ; 

 but of such expeditions there appears no record, 

 although other military services are carefully 

 chronicled. The remaining seven cross-legged 

 effigies in the county are the memorials of persons 

 who died between 1305 and 1350, and who took 

 part in no crusade, the latter date being in fact 

 eighty years after the last of those military expe- 

 ditions. No doubt an analysis of the cross-legged 

 effigies and brasses in any county in England 

 would yield precisely the same results. 



1 It is apparent from examples which will be 

 duly notified that blocks of clunch, magnesian 

 limestone, alabaster and other proper material were 



Sir John de Herteshull. Dead 1365. 

 Ashton. 



The effigy lies in the south-east corner of 

 the south aisle upon a tomb of hard red sand- 

 stone, of rude and no doubt local workman- 

 ship, with the front divided into seven panelled 

 compartments, with flat single cusped ogee 

 arches. The figure is sculptured out of a 

 block of pure alabaster 7 feet long, 2 feet 

 wide, and about 18 inches thick. De Hertes- 

 hull appears armed in a tall conical bascinet, 

 with a camail of mail fastened by laces run- 

 ning through vervelles. The shoulders are 

 protected by articulations of plate, and the 

 arms by brassarts, articulated coudi^res and 

 vambraces. The curtailed cyclas has developed 

 into a jupon under which is worn the hauberk 

 of which the lower part appears below the 

 jupon's cointised edge. Under the jupon a 

 circular breastplate or plastron de fer is sug- 

 gested by the swelling outline of the chest. 

 Round the hips is buckled a very elegant 



constantly sent from their beds in Bedfordshire, 

 Hertfordshire, Derbyshire and other parts during 

 the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 

 to be sculptured into effigies in London and other 

 artistic centres. Their high character marks them 

 out from the rude memorials presumably made by 

 the village mason at local stone quarries. It will 

 be remembered that Cennino Cennini, who com- 

 pleted his valuable work on painting in 1437, in 

 his usual simple piety invokes the Virgin Mary, 

 and then gives directions how to take casts from the 

 life. This is valuable evidence, as showing what 

 assistance the sculptors may have had in special 

 cases in the early part of the fifteenth century 

 towards obtaining faithful likenesses. 



Shortly after the end of the first quarter of the 

 fourteenth century the uses and value of Derby- 

 shire alabaster were recognized. The earliest 

 artistic exponent of this material is perhaps the 

 beautiful figure of John of Eltham in the Abbey 

 (died 1334). But the effigy of Edward II., set 

 up in Gloucester Cathedral by Edward III., must 

 have been made about the same time, as well as 

 that of the king's second son, William of Hatfield 

 in York Minster, who, having been born in the 

 winter of 1335, and living only a few weeks, is 

 commemorated by a statue of a boy of about 

 twelve years old. Thus appreciated in the highest 

 quarters, alabaster opens a long artistic vista, and 

 its importance is emphasized by the fact that we 

 know precisely the sources of this admirable ma- 

 terial which surrendered so readily to the chisel, 

 and was worked principally on its own ground. 

 The results were sent everywhere, actually under 

 safe-conducts to Nantes, in 1408 — the monument 

 of the irascible John Duke of Brittany, made by 

 Thomas Colyn and two others, at the request of 

 Joan of Navarre, as a memorial of her first 

 husband. 



Even without looking at the effigies, a clear 

 judgement can be formed as to the amount of 



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