104 



Great Bedwyn. 



order, formed a large design of sixteen tiles, 22 inches square, re- 

 presenting within an ornamented circle a quatrefoil with cusps 

 branched out into flowers and leaves, filling up the centre. This 

 pattern, which as far as has been discovered, is unique, is, with 

 several others from Bedwyn, represented in Shaw's very beautiful 

 " Specimens of Tile Pavements. " About twelve other specimens 

 found at Great Bedwyn and generally in the west of England, 

 were figured by the Rev. The Lord Alwyne Compton, Rector of 

 Castle Ashby, and printed by him on loose sheets of paper com- 

 prising many patterns and some borders, for the purpose of assisting 

 Ecclesiologists in arranging designs for pavements, and of shewing 

 at once their effect. 



Of the remaining tiles at Bedwyn which have not been engraved, 

 there were several bearing the royal insignia of lions and fleurs de 

 lis variously combined, and, in one instance, were two lioncels 

 rampant indorsed, with a sceptre terminated with a fleur de lis, 

 running up between them. There were also many copies of a tile 

 representing a castle, which may have been intended for the Arms, 

 either of Eleanor of Castile, or of the Borough of Great Bedwyn. 

 The fret of Hugh de Audley was often repeated, but the De Clare 

 coat, so commonly found in large Churches with which that power- 

 ful family had any connection, did not occur here : Gilbert de Clare 

 however, the last male of the family, died in 1313, that is, not 

 long after the rebuilding of the whole portion of the Church, east 

 of the nave, 



J. W. 



H. Bull, Printer, Saint John Street, Devizes. 



