300 



Edingdon Monastery. 



paw. 4. Or, a crescent Gules. Smith, of Scotland and Stoke jj 

 Park. Sinister. Gules a leg couped at the thigh, in armour, be- 1 

 tween two broken spears proper. Gilbert. 



In a vault in the Church is a brass coffin-plate with this inscrip- 

 tion, " The most Illustrious Lady Lavinia Dutchess of Bolton, 

 Dowager of the Most High Puissant and Noble Prince Charles 

 Powlett, late Duke of Bolton, Marquis of Winchester, Earl of 1 

 Wiltshire, &c. Died 24th January, 1760. Aged 49 years." The 1 

 arms of the lady (impaled with the Duke's), are, Gules three bezants 

 a fess in chief Or, Beswycke, quartering, on a bend engrailed three 1 

 wheatsheaves. 



This lady was the " Polly Peachum " of the " Beggar's Opera," | 

 mentioned above, p. 292. 



The chancel floor is 3 feet higher than that of the transept. J 

 Under the arch which divides them is an incongruous carved oak 1 

 screen, beautified with the Royal arms, the Commandments and 1 

 Creed, and the date 1788. A rood-loft above this. The steps leading 

 to this, now closed up, are in the corner of the North transept. 



South Transept. 



Against the south wall is a large altar- tomb, with an effigy of an 

 ecclesiastic under a canopy ornamented with tracery, mouldings, 

 shields, devices, &c, all coloured. All attempts to identify it satis- 

 factorily have hitherto failed. In a note on "Leland's Tour in 

 Wilts" (Wilts ArchcBol. Mag., i., 188), the present writer, being at 

 that time under the impression that the two letters on a principal 

 monogram were T. B., suggested, from reasons there given, that 

 they denoted Thomas Bulkington, a benefactor to the house. But 

 upon a later and closer inspection the first letter proved to be, not 

 T, but I. With I. B., however, we are not much nearer discovery 

 than before. That the figure represents some ecclesiastic of im- 

 portance connected with the Monastery seems most likely, yet 

 neither among the known names of the superiors, nor of the brethren 

 occasionally mentioned in documents relating to Edingdon, is there 

 a single one whose surname fits exactly the rebus over the cornice of 

 the tomb, which is a branch or sprig issuing from a ton. This would 



