i»S 



#n a OTootrcn iEffign an& Eomt) of a Secular 

 Canon in % e^uxtf) of mi Saints, Eerog, 



By W. H. St. John Hope, M.A. 



N a county abounding in so many varieties of stone 

 as does Derbyshire, it is a singular circumstance 

 that a tomb and effigy should be constructed of oak, 

 and especially when it is borne i-n mind that the favourite 

 material for effigies, tombs, and slabs in medieval and even later 

 days, viz., alabaster, was obtained both in the county and just 

 beyond it. 



About the year 1710, Bassano, a heraldic painter, visited the 

 churches in Derbyshire for the purpose of recording the heraldry 

 and inscriptions of the monuments. 



Among those at All Saints, Derby, he noted the following : — 



In the East end of the North He is a Tombe all of wood, ye side of 

 tomb erected about 4 foot high, and upon it is the full proportion of a man 

 in some sort of Priest's orders, In Rich Canonicall Robes, supposed to be 

 the Abbot of Derley, a dog at his feet, Colloured, and looking mournfully 

 up at his master ; upon the side of this tombe, cut on the wood, are the 

 effigies of 13 monks in their habits in praying postures, and under this, 

 cut on wood, lyeth a man on his left side wrapped up in his winding sheet, 

 with a Cross Patee on his left brest.* 



In 1723 the old church was, with the exception of its fine 

 tower, demolished, and the present building erected, from the 

 designs of James Gibbs. 



Not only was the whole of the old work swept away, but nearly 

 the whole of the monuments, including the wooden tomb descri- 

 bed by Bassano, met the same fate. 



* MS. College of Arms. 



