55 
160 to 164. Studs. 
171 to 183. Collection of watch keys, principally of the last 
century, 'presented by Mr. Hicks. 
Pilgrims’ Signs. 
Badges of lead or pewter, distributed to pilgrims as tokens of 
their having visited certain shrines of special repute, and worn like 
the escallop shell, attached to the cap or sleeve. A pilgrimage in 
the middle ages, even from one part of England to the other, was a 
performance attended with much personal labour, fatigue, and peril. 
The better sort went in cavalcade, so graphically described by 
Chaucer, but the poor trudged on foot, like the pilgrim in 4 4 Piers 
Ploughman’s Vision,” who says:— 
“ Ye may see by my signs, 
That sitten on myn hatte, 
That I have walked full wide 
In weet and in drye, 
And sought good scintes 
For my soules helthe.” 
These memorials, partly owing to the poverty of the material 
employed, have fallen into undeserved neglect; for, although they 
but faintly reflect the manners of an age which has passed away, 
they are yet both interesting and instructive. Genuine specimens 
of the ampullae, or pilgrim’s sign, are scarce. Relics of this 
description have been extensively forged during the last ; few years. 
220. This device, a crescent and a star, may possibly be sym¬ 
bolical of St. John the Baptist. The moon as well as the 
morning star, were emblems of this saint. As the moon, in 
the absence of the sun, reflects his light, and testifies of his 
existence, so it was said of John that 44 he was sent to bear 
witness of that light.” So likewise the Baptist was repre¬ 
sented as the morning star, the forerunner of the 44 Sun of 
Righteousness.” The same device occurs on coins of Henry 
the Third. It may possibly be connected with this county in 
the person of Richard de Wygornia, who was Sheriff for 
Wilts, in the time of Edward the First, and whose family 
seem to have borne this device; but in all probability these 
signs are of a later date. 
221. Ampulla, bearing the arms of Mortimer. 
222. Probably represents St. Michael the Archangel. 
223. Bust of a man within a frame or border, on which is in¬ 
scribed, Soli Deo honor et amor et glory. 
224. Head of St. Thomas of Canterbury. 
A Pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas a Becket was one of the 
most popular during the middle ages. Thus Chaucer describes— 
“ Well nine and twenty in a companye 
Of sundry folke”—“ and pilgrims were they all 
That toward Canterburie wolden ryde.” 
The custom had commenced even in the time of Giraldus Cam- 
