148 



The Gravestone of Ilbert de Chaz, 



stood, that two stones, and apparently two only, viz., the original 

 slab and the small piece, added at the head, had been brought from 

 Monkton Farleigh, and placed on a large stone, which proved to be 

 an old stone coffin, cut down, and that, in order apparently to make 

 it fit the latter, the small added stone had been reduced, so that the 

 first letter h of the second inscription is missing. When the added 

 stone was detached, in moving the monument, the original moulding 

 was found remaining, at the head of the slab, and uninscribed as 

 at first worked. 



Mr. Wilkinson also failed to detect an error in the " History of 

 Lacock " which tells against his own views. The author (Mr. John 

 Grough Nichols) says : — 1 



"The name of the party is in the smaller inscription spelt chat, though in 

 the larger the final letter is clearly different, and may be safely read as z, which 

 orthography is supported by the charters of Monkton Parley, printed in Dugdale's 

 Monasticon." 



This statement, regarding the smaller inscription, is erroneous. 

 No doubt it is so shown in the lithograph that accompanies the 

 text, but anyone who examines the stone may see that the letter in 

 dispute is, in the smaller inscription, distinctly and intentionally 

 different from the letter t. In the larger inscription, also, it is 

 distinctly different from the letter t ; but, in fact, it is the smaller 

 inscription that furnishes the strongest evidence that it was in- 

 tended for some other letter. This is also distinctly shown in the 

 lithograph in the Magazine. I should suppose that Mr. Wilkinson 

 must have refreshed his memory by referring to the lithograph in 

 the History of Lacock, which is much less accurate than the other, 

 and which shows the beginning of the smaller inscription as if it 

 returned round the head of the stone, without any explanation that 

 it is so arranged simply in order to get it into the plate, and even 

 represents the missing letter h as remaining. 



Mr. Nichols gives an extract from a confirmation charter of 

 Humfrey and Margaret de Bohun, to Farleigh Priory, in which 

 these words occur : — 



" Prsaterea concedimus eis et confirmamus Broctonam quam Ilbertus d* Chas 

 eis dedit, &c." 



1 Bowles and Nichols, History of Lacock Abbey, p, 354. 



