By the Right Rev the Bishop of Salisbury. 237 



is nowhere visible. Neville was a young man and of noble birth, 

 and possibly he did not at first feel strongly about his own office. 

 He was chosen by the Pope in opposition to the Chapter. The 

 leg-end is also the first that has a surname — JbtgtillttU XiotJCVtt 



ItebtlU tret gra Saraftmeitsitg tpt. Mt. Hope notices that 



in his collection William of Wykeham (1367) is the first Bishop who 

 has a surname on a seal, and the next Thomas Fitzalan, of Arundel, 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, 1396. But cle Grandisono runs across the 

 Exeter seal of 1327, above the shield of arms, and several Scotch 

 Bishops have surnames at a much earlier date. 1 With us the custom 

 began late, and did not take root at once. Beauchamp has a sur- 

 name, but not Ayscough or Wydville. 



(27*) The seal of William Ayscough (1437—50) chaplain and 

 confessor of Henry VI., who was murdered at Edington in Jack 

 Cade's rebellion, is one of those which represent the religious con- 

 ceptions of the period in a remarkable form. Above is the Eternal 

 Father, lifting both hands in blessing. On a central throne are the 

 Blessed Virgin, crowned, with her hands in prayer, and our Lord 

 blessing with his right hand and his left holding a cross, which 

 rests apparently on a ball. Between their heads hovers the dove. 

 To right and left are saints appearing behind the thin pillars of 

 niches ; below is the Bishop. On the dexter side the arms of France 

 and England quarterly, and on the sinister side those of Ayscough, 

 or Ascough, a fess between three asses passant. 



(28) The seal of Richard Beauchamp (1450 — 82) represents the 

 Blessed Virgin, crowned and sceptred, holding the infant Saviour, 

 who is also crowned ; to the right is St. Catharine with the wheel, 

 to the left perhaps St. Catherine of Sienna, crowned, holding a lily. 

 Below is the Bishop. The dexter shield bears his own arms, as over 

 the door of his chapel, now removed to the north chapel (a fess be- 

 tween six martlets), but with a bordure with fleur-de-lys. The 

 sinister (as I learn from a learned correspondent, Mr. A. T. Everitt, 



1 Mr. A T. Everitt writes from High Street, Portsmouth :— " Robert Wishart, 

 Bishop of Glasgow, 1272 -1316, and William Fraser, Bishop of S. Andrew's, 

 1279—97, along with the two succeeding Bishops of St. Andrew's, have their 

 surnames on their seals." 



