August 2, 1897.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



185 



struck some half-dozen years after. It is chiefly interesting 

 for two reasons : it gives us the type of Britannia since 

 then so familiar, and the lady who sat for Britannia was 

 no other than the notorious Mrs. Stuart, afterwards Duchess 

 of Richmond. Pepys, in his diary (26th February, 1667), 

 mentions his having seen " the King's new medale, where 

 in little there is ]\Irs. Steward's face as well done as ever I 

 saw anything in my whole life, I think : and a pretty thing 

 it is that he should choose her face to represent Britannia 



by." 



We must pass over the medals struck in the earlier years 

 of the reign of Charles II., such as the "golden medal " 

 of 1662, with portraits of Charles and Catharine ; .lohn 

 Eoettier's medal commemorating the sea-fight off Lowestoft 

 mentioned on the preceding page ; the medals of the plague 

 and fire of 1666; of the Peace of Breda in 1667; of the battle 

 of Solebay in 1672. There are several medals relating to 

 the Popish Plot of 1678, and to the murder of Sir Edmund 

 Berry Godfrey, who was a zealous opponent of the 

 schemes of the Papists. Godfrey, according to the 

 deposition of one of his murderers, was strangled near 

 Somerset House, carried in a sedan chair to Soho Square, 

 and thence on horseback to Primrose Hill. Here they 

 ran his own sword through his body, to suggest suicide, 

 and left him lying in a ditch. No. 3 is a specimen 

 the obverse of which shows a bust of Godfrey, with 

 two hands strangling him with his own cravat. Legend : 

 MORIENDO RESTITVIT REM E. GODFREY. On the reverse 

 are the Pope's and devil's heads joined together, with 



the legend : ECCLESIA PERVERSA TENET FACIEM DIABOLI 



— a favourite design and legend on satirical medals in Pro- 

 testant countries. The defeat of another plot (the Rye 

 House Plot) is commemorated on a medal by George 

 Bower (No. 5) ; the monster represents the committee of 

 malcontents, the seventh head being that of the devil ; the 

 seated figure is meant for the King as Hercules; the wolves 

 which hang from the gibbet on the reverse are Algernon 

 Sidney, Earl of Essex, and Lord W. RusseU. The date 

 is 1683. Bower was one of the Engravers to the Mint 

 from the Restoration to 1600. 



In the reign of James II. the rebellion of the 

 Duke of Monmouth and the battle of Sedge- 

 moor are, of course, celebrated by a number of 

 medals. But the most interesting pieces are 

 those illustrating the trial of the seven bishops 

 for opposing James's Declaration of In- 

 dulgence in 1688. Bancroft, Archbishop of 

 Canterbury, figures on the obverse of the 

 specimen here illustrated (No. G) ; on the 

 reverse (not illustrated ) are the portraits of 

 the Bishops of St. Asaph, Bath and Wells, 

 Ely, Chichester, Peterborough, and Bristol, 

 arranged round that of Compton, Bishop of - , 



London, who had been degraded for showing ^ - 



his opposition to the King in other ways. It 

 is a curious fact that this and other medals 

 relating to the same subject were made 

 by the oificial Engraver to the Mint. How this could have 

 been permitted during the reign of James it is hard to see ; 

 and I would suggest that these medals were made after 

 the flight of the King on the 20th December, 1688. The 

 flight of the young Prince James is satirized on a medal 

 (No. 4) struck in Holland ; the Jesuit Father Petre, the 

 King's confessor, is mounted on a lobster, ■ and holds in 

 his arms the infant Prince. On the Prince's head is a 

 windmill (it will be remembered that the Prince was 



* The founder of the Jesuit Order dropped Ms Bible into the sea, 

 and it was restore 1 to him by a lobster ! 



thought by some to be a supposititious child, and the son 

 of a miller). On the reverse is a satirical coat of arms, 

 with a lobster for badge, and the motto, HONI SOIT QUI 

 NON Y PENSE. 



A large series of medals illustrate the history of the 

 Stuarts in exile. The " touch piece " figured here (No. 9) 

 is one given by Henry IX., as he called himself (Prince 

 Henry, Cardinal York, brother of the Younger Pretender). 

 The old ceremony of touching for the " king's evil " in- 

 cluded the decoration of the patient with a gold piece, 

 originally an " angel '' — afterwards, when that coin went out 

 of circulation, a piece of similar design. On this specimen 

 are the initials of the donor's titles, including that of 

 Bishop of Tuscany, an empty honour conferred upon him 

 by the Pope. The harmless custom of touching is, I 

 believe, still practised by the descendants of the Stuarts ; 

 but so far as the constitutional sovereigns of this country 

 are concerned, it was discontinued by George I., who was 

 content to leave this prerogative to the dispossessed house. 

 Dr. Johnson, it will be remembered, was touched by Queen 

 Anne ; and the piece which he received on that occasion 

 is in the National Collection. 



With the accession of William and Mary the number 

 of commemorative medals begins to increase very largely. 

 In spite of the historic importance of the events com- 

 memorated, it is difficult for anyone with any artistic 

 feeling to take an interest in the medals of this time — 

 unless, perhaps, the official medals of the present day 

 serve as a foil. In the reign of William and Mary we 

 may mention a medal of the battle of the Boyne, by R. 

 Arondeaux (No. 7) ; the King is represented fording the 

 river at the head of his cavalry. The same medallist 

 represented the battle of La Hogue, in which the English 

 and Dutch fleets defeated the French in 1692 (No. 8). 

 The English and Dutch admirals, Russell and Almonde, 

 ride over the sea, one with a trident and broom (to sweep 

 the seas !), the other with sword ; in the distance a naval 

 action is going on off Barfleur, and Louis XIII. escapes 

 on a sea shell drawn by frogs. It must be confessed that 





Fia. 1. — Darison's Nile Medal. 



the humour of the great majority of the medals of this 

 time is somewhat forced. 



Of the many medals of the next reign relating to the 

 Continental wars, we must mention only a Dutch medal ot 

 the battle of Blenheim, with the busts of Prince Eugene 

 and Marlborough on the obverse ; on the reverse (No. 10) 

 Marshal Tallard surrendering his sword, while his army 

 is being driven into the Danube. Of civil affairs, the most 

 interesting one that concerns us is, perhaps, the impeach- 

 ment of Dr. Henry Sacheverell. The present medal 

 (No. 16), which is cast and chased, represents Sacheverell 

 as a supporter of the Papacy. Sacheverell advocated 



