and Heraldic Stone at Warminster" 



141 



Inn, Warminster, Wiltshire — not a very old building — to make 

 room for the Athenaeum which now occupies the same site. It was 

 in two pieces, built into the walls as old material in two different 

 places, the carved side being turned inwards. The two pieces were 

 fitted together and built into the wall of the court-yard of the 

 Athenaeum, Warminster, for preservation. The line of fracture may 

 easily be traced at the beginning of the third and central compart- 

 ment. 



Attention was re-called to this stone by the meeting of the Wilt- 

 shire Archaeological Society at Warminster, in August, 1877, but 

 the heraldic bearings have not yet been satisfactorily identified. It 

 appears to be good work of the fourteenth century. The length is 

 6ft. 4in. ; the height, 2ft. My own attention was first drawn to 

 it during the said meeting, by C. H. Talbot, Esq., of Lacock Abbey, 

 Wilts, and I have also consulted respecting it the Rev. Canon 

 Jackson, F.S.A., who very kindly sent me his notes made upon in- 

 spection of the stone; and I have referred to John de Havilland, 

 Esq., F.S.A., York Herald, who, upon receipt of a photograph I 

 had had taken, expressed an opinion that the heraldry was the work 

 of a good herald, and gave me some valuable hints towards the 

 identification of the coats. The great difficulty is the absence of 

 tinctures. 



The details of the compartments, beginning at the left of the 

 spectator, are as follows : — 



No. 1. A tilting helmet, with drapery behind terminating in a 

 tassel, surmounted by a chapeau or cap of estate, and thereon a lion 

 statant gardant. The cross indicated in front is not merely 

 devotional, but constructional. Beneath is a small shield hung 

 obliquely, obliterated. 



For the form of the tilting helmet and appendages compare the 

 illustration from the brass of Sir John Harsyck, Southacre Church, 

 Norfolk, A.D. 1384, given in Boutelfs Heraldry, plate i., facing 

 p. 16 (third edition). Compare also a beautiful coloured drawing of 

 the effigy of Giinther, of Schwarzburg, King of the Romans, 1349, 

 in Frankfort Cathedral, given in Hefner's Costume du Moyen Ago 

 Chretien, vol. ii., plate xxvii., p. 37. A reduced engraving of this 



l2 



