By the Rev. E. H. Goddard. 



31 



which the flanges of the handle are no longer plain, but have de- 

 veloped into six projecting ornamental griffins. The head is still 

 semi-globular, but is ornamented with four cherub heads in relief. 

 (The open arches are, perhaps, later additions.) 



The older pair at Malmesbury, dating probably from 1645, are 

 of the same general type, but the flanges have disappeared alto- 

 gether, leaving a swelling seal-shaped foot, and the bowl of the 

 head is divided into the four compartments containing the royal 

 badges, which appear in more elaborate form on almost all maces 

 from this time onwards. The cross, too, now alternates with the 

 fleur-de-lys in the cresting of the head. 



In the Commonwealth period a great step forward was taken in 

 the much larger and more ornate type of mace which then came 

 into fashion. Of these many examples exist, all closely resembling 

 each other; few of them, however, are handsomer or in better 

 preservation than the pair dating from 1652, of which Marlborough 

 is justly proud. In these maces the head has become much enlarged, 

 and its decoration has finally assumed the form which, with some 

 modification, it generally retains after this period; caryatides in 

 relief separating the compartments of the bowl containing the St. 

 Greorge's cross and Irish harp alternating with the town arms. The 

 cresting, too, is more elaborate, and the cap or summit of the head 

 is more prominent than it was in the earlier examples ; while the 

 whole is surmounted by four open arches meeting in a terminal 

 ornament in the centre. The bosses of the stem are much enlarged 

 and chased, and the stem itself, hitherto left plain, is now for the 

 first time adorned with an engraved decoration of oak-leaves, acorns, 

 and spiral ribbon, which almost all the later maces copy. 



In the Eestoration maces — and they are numerous — the size is 

 still further increased, and the open arches on the head surmounted 

 by the orb and cross take the form of the royal crown — a type which, 

 with few modifications and exceptions, has continued in fashion ever 

 since. Of these large ornate maces Devizes possesses two good ex- 

 amples, probably of about 1660. 



The great mace of Wilton, too, is a handsome specimen, dated 

 1685, of the same type — but in the twenty-five years which separate 



