By C. II. Talbot, Esq. 327 



battlement; but are now broken off at that level, so that the original 

 finish cannot be ascertained. On the central panel of the front 

 oriel are the royal arms of Henry VIII., France and England 

 quarterly, encircled by the garter, surmounted by the crown, with a 

 crowned lion and griffin as supporters. On the left panel, above 

 some foliated ornament, are the letters E B, for Edward Baynton, 

 and beneath this the griffin crest of the Baynton family. This 

 carving is almost perfect. On the right -panel has been a beautiful 

 device, to a considerable extent open-work, and therefore much 

 mutilated. Here again are the letters E B, this time tied together 

 by a cord. The upper part of this device is lost. Letters thus 

 tied together are frequently the cypher of man and wife. In this 

 case, as there is no crest beneath, they may be for the wife Elizabeth 

 Baynton, and the cord may indicate that it was a cypher she acquired 

 by marriage. The lowest member of the mouldings, beneath the 

 oriel, is a richly carved band in which griffins with human heads 

 support wreaths containing crests, alternately the Baynton griffin's 

 head, and a horse's head, the crest of Roche of Bromham. 



In the spandrels of the arch beneath is carved the foliage of a 

 vine with bunches of grapes. In the right spandrel is the wife's 

 paternal shield, bearing quarterly, first and fourth, argent, a chevron 

 gules, between three pheons sable, Sulliard; and second and third, 

 a coat which I have not identified. In the left spandrel is this 

 shield, quarterly, first and fourth, Baynton, second, Delamere, third, 

 Roche, — impaling the Sulliard arms as in the shield last mentioned. 



Over the central oriel, on the battlement, is the griffin crest, and 

 in a similar position near the angle of the wall on each side the 

 horse's head, these latter being rather rudely cut. 



The inner or east side of the gate-house is plainer. In the central 

 panel of the oriel, of which the carving has been very much muti- 

 lated, appear again the crowned lion and griffin supporters, and the 

 remains of a crown or coronet over all. The shield is completely 

 broken away, but it does not seem to have been encircled by the 

 garter. The battlement on this side of the gate is evidently modern, 

 and has in general no mouldings, but, on the central stone which, 

 as it has a moulding, appears to be original, are the Prince of Wales' 



