pursuit of a thief. The two deeply carved vine leaves of the finials are still perfect, and might suggest a scene connected with drunkenness.

The twelfth, which as far as one can judge illustrated a very similar subject, has also been dreadfully defaced.

The next stall, now assigned to the archdeacon of Lancaster, has also had its carving very much mutilated, but we can decipher that a wearied pilgrim having asked of the goodwife a drink from her pitcher, has either dropped and broken it, or in endeavouring to snatch a kiss as well has made her break the vessel. He is now running off, while she is left with her hands raised in despair. water is cleverly represented running out of the broken pitcher. It is, however, sad that the hands of the lady and the head of the pilgrim have been broken. Two very freely executed columbines are carved on the finials.

The

The next stall depicts a winged lion with twisted tail of clumsy proportions. The marks of the "prentice hand "

are again noticeable.

side.

Two raspberry leaves are on each

A most singular subject is given on the under master's stall, and one which shows the extraordinary flights of fancy indulged in by the medieval artist. A mermaid emerging from a shell is thrusting a spear down the throat of a terrible horned dragon. The agony of the beast is well represented in the convolutions of its tail. Three buds of a sunflower are displayed on either side. I find the subject of children emerging from shells and fighting beasts is a common one, and represents purity conquering sin.

The second minor canon (once myself) is the owner of a most curious stall, showing that the game of backgammon was popular in England three and a half centuries ago, for here are represented board and counters at the moment when an important throw is being made, though raised arm

and dice box are wanting. A manchet bread and traces of a glass bespeak an Inn scene, which is borne out by the mutilated kneeling figure in the right hand corner drawing a jug from a standing pot. The reclining figure in the opposite corner is either playing a dulcimer or employed in making some kind of pastry with a peculiar frame. I am told crumpets are made in a similar frame. A manchet bread is beside her. The finials are two beautiful Tudor

roses.

Another scene from the "Reinike Fuchs" must next be described it is the execution of the fox by the owls and the rooks. Reynard is mounted on the dog, whose left ear he holds in his paw; the noose is round his neck, to the other end of which is suspended a dead rabbit, the sign of his guilt, and everything shows that his last moment has

come.

The carving of the trees is very beautiful, as is also the treatment of the two water lilies on the roundels.

The two next stalls represent, I think, a rebus on the word Hunting-don, the name of the first warden of the Collegiate Church, for the former shows the stag in the full chase, a hound is jumping at its throat, and its protruding tongue manifests its exhaustion. The position of the feet alone and its tail show that a second dog was in the foreground of the picture. In the second scene the hart is being broken up; its throat is cut, and the venerer, kneeling on the sward, is in the act of disembowelling it, signifying that the hunting is done. Raspberries and sun flowers are the accompaniments of these two misereres.

The twelfth stall, which is sadly mutilated, has been described above.

A contest between a fighting cock and a cockatrice covers the next boss. It is to be regretted that the head of the cockatrice and the cock's beak and wattles have been broken off. A coniferous flower completes the group.

A peculiar beast, something like a unicorn, with a saw for its headpiece, is badly carved by the apprentice on the last stall but one. The back of a heraldic rose is cleverly treated in the finials.

It took me a long time to decipher the meaning of the final subject which completes the series of these most remarkable miserere carvings. The depiction, however, I assume to be "the hares' or the rabbits' revenge." A hunter, as shown by his horn, is bound hand and foot to a long spit, which two leverets, though now mutilated, were once turning at either end. Behind him are four pots or pans suspended over a huge fire. Two traces of tripods to hold these pots may still be seen, while in another pan the head of the dog may be observed peeping forth. Hard by, sitting up on its haunches, is a hare, with its right paw in a suspended salt box, actively engaged in seasoning the canine broth. The holes of the warren are in the background. A side view of a Tudor rose is again the subject of the finials. A trace of the hunter's cross-bow may be observed in the foreground. This group is perhaps the most daring flight of the first artist's imagination. May it also represent the end of hunting or Hunting-done? another rebus, and a worthy termination to the series.

WHO WAS MISTRESS JOYCE LEWES,

IN

OF MANCHESTER?

BY WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

N the "Acts and Monuments" of John Foxe there is an account of the "apprehension and death of Mistress Joyce Lewes, the wife of Thomas Lewes, of Manchester, most constantly suffering for God's word at Lichfield” (Foxe, ed. by Townsend and Cattley, viii., p. 401). This is under the date of 1557, and we are told that Joyce Lewes, "a gentlewoman born, was delicately brought up in the pleasures of the world, having delight in gay apparel, and such like foolishness, with which follies the most part of the gentlefolks of England were then and are yet infected." She was twice married, her first husband being "one called Appleby," and her second Thomas Lewes, of Manchester. She and her husband were apparently resident at or near Lichfield; and we are told that early in the reign of Queen Mary she went to mass, but her scruples were raised by the preaching of Lawrence Saunders, and further increased by conferences with Mr. John Glover, whose house was hard by her own. It may be remarked that his brother, Robert Glover, of Coventry, in 1555, whose house was the resort of Latimer, was executed at Lichfield under the same episcopate. Compelled to attend church by her husband, she showed her contempt by turning her back to the holy water, &c. She was accused of despising the sacramentals, and an episcopal

K

citation was issued, but her husband, when the sumner delivered it, forced the man to eat it "by setting a dagger to his heart; and when he had eaten it he caused him to drink to it, and so sent him away." The anger of Mr. Lewes changed to fear when he realised what he had done, and, having made his submission, the bishop allowed the lady a month in which to change her opinions. But her conferences with Glover only increased her steadfast determination to hold the faith. Her husband, who was so rough in his treatment of the sumner, had now changed his tune, and when urged to make an effort to save her, "or if the worst should come, to be content to forfeit so much money rather than to cast his own wife into the fire," he replied that he would not lose or forfeit anything for her sake. Joyce Lewes was taken before the Bishop of Lichfield; the see was then held by Ralph Bayne, S.T.P., a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge, and a noted persecutor. She was committed to a prison so insanitary that her maid swooned on being taken into it. Further examinations finally resulted in her condemnation, and she remained a year in prison “because she was committed to the sheriff that was of late chosen, who could not be compelled to put her to death in his time as he affirmed for which things after her death he was sore troubled and in danger of his life." She refused to confess to the priests, and passed her last night in "prayer, reading and talking with them that were purposely come unto her to comfort her with the word of God." A temptation of hers is recorded, but it had passed before eight o'clock when the sheriff came to announce that she had but another hour to live. The sad procession went through the town, Mistress Lewes being led by two of her friends, Michael Reniger and Augustine Bernher. She was faint from her long imprisonment, and a messenger was sent to the house of the sheriff for a drink. She took the cup in her hands, saying, "I