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A Paper on Monumental Brasses 



Brasses; which, despite of the spoliation of fanaticism in one age, 

 and of ignorance and we may say dishonesty in another, still 

 abound in many parts of our country. A list of more than 2000 

 has been published as existing still in England ; of which more 

 than sixty are in our own county of Wilts, some in our own imme- 

 diate neighbourhood, viz., Bromham, Draycot, Laycock, Dauntsey, 

 8fC. In all ages and countries it was and is the custom to raise 

 memorials of the dead. The pillar over Rachel's grave set up by 

 Jacob at Bethlehem ; the Cromlechs in our own country of the 

 most extreme antiquity ; the many Barrows on our downs round 

 about Stonehenge and Avebury (which some suppose were themselves 

 sepulchral monuments), all owed their origin to the desire of the 

 survivors to keep in memory those departed, and to mark the spot 

 where their dust was laid. 



Afterwards when Christianity had become the religion of our 

 land, the dead were laid in the sacred enclosures round the churches 

 then in the churches themselves, where monuments were placed of 

 various sorts and designs. There was placed the stone coffin which 

 contained the body, and on the lid were carved various devices ; 

 the Christian Symbols, and the Warrior's Sword, and the Bishop's 

 Pastoral Staff, and sometimes the figure of the deceased cut in 

 stone, recumbent, as large as life. These monuments we see still 

 in our oldest monastic churches and Cathedrals, and some remains 

 of them even in our village churches, going back to the time of the 

 Saxon Kings and the succeeding Normans. To these succeeded 

 brass memorials, which were found more durable and more con- 

 venient. Figures sculptured in relief on the floors of churches 

 would often be found in the way as filling up the space which was 

 wanted for living worshippers ; and thus we may imagine flat slabs 

 and plates of brass or latten, came to be used. They offered no 

 obstruction in the churches, and being engraved and often painted, 

 would serve to enrich and beautify the buildings in which they 

 were placed. The durability also of brass plates made them more 

 suitable as memorials than sculptured effigies. Thus we still find 

 brasses of the 13th or 14th centuries almost as perfect (except their 

 colouring) as when first laid down ; while many stone figures are 



