By the Bight Rev. the Bishop of Salisbury. 231 



(16) The seal of Nicholas Longespee has two shields of arms, 

 one defaced ; but upon the sinister side are his own arms, six lioncels 

 rampant in pile, as on the famous tomb of his father in our Cathe- 

 dral. A long sword with point upwards stands between this shield 

 and the pastoral stuff, as a rebus upon his surname. He is described 

 as "annosus," and must have been at least ninety-five years old at 

 his death in 1297, if he visited his father in his last sickness as a 

 priest, in 1226, according to the story which is found in Cassan and 

 elsewhere. 



(17) The figure of Simon de Gandavo stands in a beautiful 

 crocketted niche, at the back of which are the sides of a gable end 

 of a Church. This seal has no arms. 



(18) That of Roger de Mortival has a crescent and star at the 

 beginning and end of the legend, and six cinquefoils pierced, three 

 on each side of the field of the seal, which represent his own device. 

 His arms are said by Riland Bedford on the authority of Nichols' 

 Leicestershire, to be Ar. a cinquefoil sable, pierced of the field. 



(19*) The seals of Robert Wyvill, the recoverer of Sherborne 

 Castle, who sat for perhaps the longest period of any of our Bishops 

 (1330-1375), i.e., forty-five years, represent three stages of his 

 promotion. The first is his seal as official of the Church, that is, 

 I suppose, as appointed to administer its affairs, sede vacante. This 

 is a round seal with the legend :- — 



S' ROBI WYVILL PRESB^ERI ET OPIC BEATE MARIE SARUM. 



In the centre, which is made up of elaborate tracery, is a shield with 

 the arms of Wyvill, as upon his well-known brass, in the north 

 chapel of the Cathedral, viz., a cross fretty between four mullets of 

 | six points. The appointment of such an official is directed by an 

 ordinance of Abp. Boniface, dated 1262, contained in our statutes. 

 The canons who may be present when the vacancy is known to have 

 occurred are to nominate three or four of the canons of the Church 

 of Sarum, out of whom the Archbishop or his officer (if he is absent) 

 is to choose one. (See Dayman and Jones, Statutes of Sarum, p. 19, 

 1883). If this explanation of the legend is correct, we shall have to 

 suppose either that Robert Wyvill held a canonry here, which is 



