ROBERT FITZHARDING (vol. iii. 105).—An exhaustive account of this Bristol celebrity will be found in Seyer's "Memoirs of Bristol," vol. i. ch. IV. The inscription on the old college gateway, Bristol, is as follows: "Rex Henricus Secundus et Dominus Robertus filius Hardinge filii Regis Daciæ hujus monasterii primi fundatores extiterunt ; but inasmuch as this portion of the archway is a perpendicular restoration of the old work, and the letters of the inscription show it to be of the close of the 15th century, its historical value is very small. There is, however, good reason to believe that Kobert Fitzharding was the son, or more probably the grandson, of one of those Vikings, or sea-kings, who after sweeping the seas with their piratical galleys, were accustomed to winter in some friendly port to refit their ships and dispose of their plunder. That Bristol was a town of considerable importance at that period, and friendly to the Danes, is more than probable, from the fact that six or more silver pennies of different coinages struck during his reign by King Canute, at Bristol, are still in existence. At Bristol, Harding, the wealthy Viking settled. We find him Præpositor or chief magistrate, A.D. 1050, and still holding the office under William the Conqueror in 1066; but Robert Fitzharding was not born until 1085, and is said to have been the eldest son of eight children; so that this Harding must have been Robert's grandfather, who was succeeded in the chief magistracy by Robert's father, which the latter held from 1080 to his death 1115. There are no traces of deeds of ancestral estates inherited by Robert; all the immense territorial possessions he acquired were purchased by himself out of the moneys left him by his father. The manors of Billeswick and Bedminster he bought of Robert, Consul of Gloucester; that of Bray of William de Baiosa, that of Portbury of De Moreville, that of Were of De Borton. Robert's father owned and built the Great Stone House, in Baldwin Street, Bristol, which stood at the confluence of the rivers Avon and Frome. In those days of humble structure, this stately building seems to have been the pride of the Western land. The Abbey of St. Augustine (now Bristol Cathedral) was founded by Robert Fitzharding, A.D. 1142. And "on the 11th of April, being Easter day, in the xiii year of the reign of King Stephen, A.D. 1148, the Bishops of Worcester, Landaff, Exeter, and St. Asaph consecrated the church and buildings which the said Robert had built neere to the town of Bristoll, dedicatinge them to God and to St. Augustine the English Apostle, then newly by the said Robert built upon his manor of Bileswick, at the place once called St. Augustine's Green." This is strong confirmatory proof, that this is the very spot in the diocese of Worcester where St. Augustine held his celebrated meeting with the British monks. Robert Fitzharding in his old age assumed the cowl in the monastery he had thus founded (leaving his title to Maurice, his eldest son). He gave to the canons the manors of Berkeley Herness, Almondsbury Horfield, Ashelworth, and Cromhall, with all the appurtenances thereto belonging in woods, meadows, pastures, and all other things, "when he became and was a canon. He by deeds laid down upon the altar, further endowed the monastery with the manors of Cerney, and Blackensford, divers lands at Erlingham, the manors of Leigh, near Bedminster; St. Catherine's Portbury; Fifehead in Dorset, and Billeswick-juxta-Bristol, in which the monastery is situated. He further gave the churches and advowsons of Tickenham, Portbury, Berkeley, Wotton, Bolnhall, Beverston, together with all other his churches and advowsons in the hundred of Berkeley, with their chapels in the county of Gloucester, and with divers houses in Bristol. Lord of Berkeley, descended from the kings of Denmark; and Eva his wife, by whom he had five sons and two daughters; Maurice his eldest son was the first of this family that took the name of Berkeley. This Robert Fitzharding laid the foundation of this church, and monastery of St. Augustine in the year A.D. 1140, the fifth of King Stephen; dedicated and endowed it A.D. 1148. He died in the year 1170 in the 17th of King Henry the Second." From the costume of the figures, we gather that this is the tomb of Maurice, third Baron of Berkeley, and Isabel de Clare, his wife; it is most assuredly not that of Robert Fitzharding. Barrett (pp. 305) says, "The tomb of the founder and of Eva, his wife, is described as the only gravestone that had any figure cut on a brass plate in the whole church; it lay originally at the choir entrance, between the abbots and priors' stall," i.e., just within the second bay east of the transept, between the columns of the choir. J. F. NICHOLLS. City Library, Bristol. Proceedings of Societies. SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY.-At the meeting or this Society, held on Tuesday, April 1st (Dr. Birch, F.S.A., F.R.S.L., President, in the Chair), the following candidates were elected members :-Rev. William Bramley Moore, M.A.; Rev. Henry Geo. Tomkins. On the recommendation of the Council, and at the request of Mr. Bonomi (acting on their behalf), the surviving members of the Anglo-Biblical Institute, the Chronological Institute, the Palestine Archæological Association, and the Syro-Egyptian Society, together with their respective libraries and effects, were unanimously incorporated with this Society. The following papers were then read : : I. On the Religious Belief of the Assyrians, Part III. By Henry Fox Talbot, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S.-In this paper the learned philologist continued to point out the great similarity which exists between the Biblical and Assyrian styles of writing and expression, illustrating these under the sections of Self-mutilation, Prostration before Superiors, Talismanic Charms, Magical Numbers, Phylacteries, the use of the Mamit, Demoniacal Possession, the Sacred Number Seven (illustrated by the Song of the Seven Spirits, translated from cuneiform texts), &c.; some further observations on the use of the Mamit as a charm, which was to be wrapped in a cloth around the temples of a dying man to expel evil spirits; and some exegetical remarks concluded this very valuable and interesting paper. 2. On the Identification of Nimrod from the Assyrian Inscriptions. By Rev. A. H. Sayce, M.A.-In this paper the learned author stated that all the evidence which is at present available would identify the hero Nimrod with the deity Merodach on these grounds: first the relation of Assur and Babylon to Nimrod in the Bible, and to Merodach in the inscriptions, being the same; 2nd, Merodach being regarded as a hunter, accompanied with divine dogs; and 3rd, Nimrod being identical with the Accadian form of the name Merodach, who is called also in the cuneiform inscriptions "the hero," or "mighty man." 3. On an Ancient Triple Synchronism-Egyptian, Phœnico-Assyrian, and Greek. By Rev. Basil H. Cooper.-Taking for his starting-point a hieroglyphical tablet which was found a few years ago on the site of Havaris, the Lower Egyptian stronghold of the Hykshos or Shepherd Kings, dated in the 400th year of an era counted from the accession of a king named Sethos or Zethos, whom Mr. Cooper identified with the founder of Manetho's Seventeenth Dynasty, which is stated to have been Phoenician. By the combined testimony of Conon and Manetho, he proved that this Phoenician dynasty made Egyptian Thebes its capital, and held it for forty-three years. Thence it is said to have overrun Asia, and to have planted Thebes in Greece. This latter fact was the historical germ of the myths of Cadmus on the one hand, and of Amphion and Zethos on the other, the divine twins whom Homer makes the founders of Boeotian Thebes. Cadmus is simply the Phoenician word for "the East," just as in the name of his sister Europa we have the Phoenician word Erep "the West," so ingeniously turned into Greek that in that language it denotes literally "the East-facing (land)." The Homeric legend or aine is of a more mythological cast. Amphion," the Beneficent One," is one of the most sacred names of Osiris, and the lyre with which it is invariably written, reminds us at once of the lyre to whose music the wall of the Cadmeia spontaneously arose. Osiris, as Diodorus tells us, was in the Egyptian tradition the founder of the Nilotic metropolis of the Greek City. The twin brother of Osiris was the good Zethos, after whom the Phoenician Pharaoh, as well as several subsequent native ones, e.g., the greater father of Rameses the Great, or Sesostris, were named, and in whose temple at Havaris the 400-year Stela was found. The fact that the Phoenician Pharaoh Sethos was really lord of the East, was proved by the occurrence of his name in Ctesias's list of the kings of Assyria, with a reign of just the same length as is assigned to the Hykshos Sethos, and beginning in the same year. Accordingly his name in cuneiform is met with on a fragmentary royal cylinder in the British Museum, and his hieroglyphical legend enclosed in a Pharaonic ring is engraven on the breast of a lion in grey granite, which was found at Bagdad, and is now in a private collection at Paris. SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE FINE ARTS.-The first morning meeting of the session of this Society was held on Thursday, April 3, at Lambeth Palace. The council and members, together with their friends, assembled in the library of the palace, when S. W. Kershaw, Esq., the librarian, delivered a very interesting address on the formation of the library and of its contents generally, upon the conclusion of which, after a vote of thanks had been unanimously accorded to the archbishop for granting permission to the members to view the palace, and to Mr. Kershaw for his very able address, the company visited the guard room, chapel, Lollard's Tower, and other parts of the building, Mr. Kershaw acting as cicerone. A report of the proceedings will be found on p. 172, ante. Notices of Books. The Shilling Peerage, Shilling Baronetage, Shilling Knightage, Shilling House of Commons, for 1873. By Edward Walford, M.A. London: Robert Hardwicke. THESE are very useful little books, and for purposes of reference are all that business men require. The book relating to the Peerage gives a very good account of the constitution of the Upper House, the second of the three bodies which together compose the British Legislature; and those on Knightage and Baronetage contain excellent essays on the different degrees of those orders. Of the latter order the Editor informs us that, as a body, it forms, perhaps, the most numerous and wealthy section of the British aristocracy. It counts among its numbers 6 Dukes, 16 Marquises, 61 Earls, 17 Viscounts, 60 Barons, and about 400 others, who are engaged in the Naval, Military, and Civil Services of the Crown. We doubt if the Editor is correct in stating that "the eldest sons of baronets (jure sanguinis) are knights (Equites Aurati); and by the patents creating the baronetage, they are privileged to demand and receive of the reigning sovereign inauguration as knights, on attaining the age of twenty-one years, provided they desire the same." If a law did exist to that effect, it must have become obsolete long baronets would forego the privilege they would be entitled to claim since. Were such a law or practice in force, few eldest sons of under it. Answers to Correspondents. A. B. (Richmond).-Thomson, the author of "The Seasons," was a native of Roxburghshire. M. A. X.-Baynard's Castle stood near the City end of Blackfriars Bridge. It was destroyed in the great fire of London. T. H.-The office of Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, was established by James I., upon his return to Scotland, after long captivity in England. Z.-St. Chrysostom was born at Antioch, A.D. 392. (ed. 1730), for the passage to which you refer. 7. S.-See Dugdale's "History of Warwickshire," vol. ii. p. 962 J. R. (Bath). The gold quarter-guinea was coined by George I. F. H. L.-The lines you quote occur in Douglas Jerrold's “Men of Character." 7. O.-You will find all the information you require in Herdman's "Treatises on Curvilinear Perspective of Nature." X.-We would advise you to write to the Secretary of the Numis matic Society, Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. F. Barnes.-The collection of pictures made by the first Earl of Oxford were sold by his grandson, the third, to the Empress of Russia. T. F.-You will find an interesting account of Professor Bush and his opinions in Griswold's "Prose Writers of America." H. J. S. (Ryde)-The comedy you allude to was written by Thomas D'Urfey, in 1691. Alfred H. R.-There is a very good series of Exercises in Latin Elegiac Verse, with references to Latin Poets, published by Longman, which we would recommend. T. Brooksbank.-The Order was instituted by James I., in 1611. R. Phipps.-The arms of the Earl of Shannon may be given as an example. They are-Per bend, crenellée, arg. and gu. T. L-Henry III., during the latter part of his reign, was styled "Rex Angliæ, Dominus, Hibernæ et Dux Aquitaniæ.' Heraldicus.-The bordure wavy is the distinguishing mark. S. S. H.-The motto, "Jehovah Jireh," is used by Sir Archibald Grant, of Monmusk, Aberdeenshire, and is the only instance in of a Hebrew motto in Scottish heraldry. F. J. (Dover).-Napoleon I. was conveyed to England on board the Bellerophon, in June, and to St. Helena in the Northumberland, in July, 1815. W. Jenner. The charges in the first quarter were granted, in 1513, by Henry VIII. to the Earl of Surrey at the battle of Flodden; the lion pierced with an arrow being a direct allusion to the story pierced with an arrow. which asserts that the body of James IV. of Scotland was found T.L. (Broomlands).-The father of the first baronet was Serjeant Hoskins, the well-known lawyer and statesman, whose courage, speeches, and patriotism in the House of Commons in the reign of James I. caused him to be confined for a time in the Tower. NOTICES. Correspondents who reply to queries would oblige by referring to the volume and page where such queries are to be found. To omit this gives us unnecessary trouble. A few of our correspondents are slow to comprehend that it is desirable to give not only the reference to the query itself, but that such reference should also include all previous replies. Thus a reply given to a query propounded at page 48, Vol. iii., to which a previous reply had been given at page 20, and another at page 32, requires to be set down (Vol. iii. 48, 20, 32). capable persons accomplished in literature or skilled in archæology. We shall be glad to receive contributions from competent and and generally from any intelligent reader who may be in possession of facts, historical or otherwise, likely to be of general interest. To all communications should be affixed the name and address of the sender; not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. Communications for the Editor should be addressed to the Publishing Office, 11, Ave Maria-lane, E.C. LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1873. CONTENTS.-No. 59. THE CASTLES, HALLS, AND MANOR HOUSES OF ENGLAND:-Charle- FACTS AND JOTTINGS:-Tumuli on the Yorkshire Wolds, 190-North- NOTICES OF Books, 191. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS, 192. THE CASTLES, HALLS, AND MANOR HOUSES OF ENGLAND. CHARLECOTE, WARWICKSHIRE. Falstaff. You have here a goodly dwelling, and a rich. Shallow. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, Sir John:-marry, good air. Second part of Henry IV., act v. scene 3. Or the many interesting spots associated with the name of Shakespeare, few perhaps have preserved their original features more unchanged than the famous seat of the Lucys -the venerable hall of Charlecote. The village from which the mansion derives its name is situated on the eastern bank of the Avon-Shakespeare's native river-about four miles north-east from the town of Stratford, and six miles south of Warwick. The hall was erected in the time of Queen Elizabeth, by Sir Thomas Lucy, the alleged prosecutor of Shakespeare for stealing the deer, whom the immortal bard has figured to us in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," and in the play from which the above quotation is taken, as Justice Shallow. The mansion may be taken as a fair specimen of the residence of a wealthy country gentleman of the days of "good Queen Bess;" and although some alterations have from time to time been effected in the building, its principal front still preserves its antique grandeur; and no one can stroll through the beautiful English scenery with which it is surrounded without recalling to mind its classic interest. The old manor house stands in a park of considerable extent, luxuriously planted with trees of noble growth, amid which are the graceful windings of the silvery Avon; whilst the gentle undulations of the ground, covered with a smooth velvet-like turf, are enlivened with herds of fallow deer. One side of the house looks down upon the river and towards Stratford; and the opposite front opens into the old court, now a garden. Immediately south of the house, and within the demesne, the river Hele, which rises at Edgehill, flows tranquilly on its way, beneath a beautiful Rialto bridge, to unite its waters with the neighbouring stream, as has been referred to by Jago, a local poet, in the following lines : "Charlecote's fair domain, Where Avon's sportive stream delighted strays Thro' the gay, smiling meads, and to his bed Hele's gentle current woos, by Lucy's hand In every graceful ornament attired, And worthier such to share his liquid realms." The gateway is built in imitation of the ancient barbican, and is shown in our illustration (see p. 186). The mansion, which is constructed of brick with stone dressings, consists of a spacious centre, with two projecting wings, and the four principal angles of the house are flanked each by a lofty octagonal turret, with a cupola and gilt vane. ornamented. Over the door appears the arms of Queen The entrance porch is of stone, elaborately Elizabeth, and on the summit of the whole, at the angles, are the royal supporters, in a sitting posture, each supporting an upright banner in its claws. The great hall-always the principal feature in these fine old manor houses-retains much of its original appearance: its oaken ceiling is arched and lofty, the chimney of ample dimensions, and the windows contain the armorial bearings of the Lucys and others, richly emblazoned in painted glass; whilst around the walls are hung numerous portraits and other paintings connected with the history of the family. On the spacious mantelpiece are the initials of Sir Thomas Lucy, T. L. in large, old fashioned letters, raised and gilt, together with the date of the building of the hall, 1558. There is also a cast of the bust of Sir Thomas, taken from his monument in Charlecote church, and among the portraits above mentioned, one of himself sitting at a table with his lady; a large family piece contains a portrait of Sir Thomas-grandson of old Sir Thomas Lucy-his lady, and six children, painted by Cornelius Jansen, while on a visit here. The two youngest boys have also portraits as grown men in the hall-Sir Fulke and Sir Richard Lucy. Besides the above pictures, there is a curious old view of the house and gardens as they appeared in Shakespeare's time, and also portraits of Captain Thomas Lucy and his lady, by Lely. This lady, who was left a widow, afterwards became Duchess of Northumberland. The scene of Shakespeare's deer-stealing exploit is stated to have been the old park of Fulbrook Castle-now demolished-on the road leading to Warwick; but it was in this hall that he was brought up for examination. The house has been much enlarged and embellished during the present century, two noble rooms facing the river, a dining and drawing-room, having been built, and the whole furnished with great taste. Besides the pictures in the hall, others are scattered through the various rooms. Among the portraits in the library may be mentioned Lord Herbert of Cherbury, by Isaac Oliver; Charles I. and Charles II., Archbishop Laud, and Lord Strafford, by Henry Stone; Henry VIII.; Rich, Earl of Holland; the Marquis of Mantua, by Raphael; another portrait of Thomas Lucy, in his youth; the Lord Keeper Coventry; and Isabelle, wife of the Emperor Charles V. There are also in this room some fine ebony chairs inlaid with ivory, two cabinets and a couch of the same, said to have been brought from Kenilworth, and to have been a present of Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Leicester. In the drawingroom there are several splendid pictures, among which we may enumerate "Tenier's Wedding," painted by himself, and purchased by the late Mr. Lucy for 1000l.; "Cassandra delivered from Captivity," painted by Guercino; a landscape, by Cuyp; "St. Cecilia," by Domenichino; Madonna and Child," by Vandyck; and a portrait of Henry II. of France. The pictures that decorate the walls of the dining-room comprise a Woman Spinning, said to be by Raphael; Horses, by Wouvermans; An Arrest, by Peter Valentine; and others of lesser note. Prior to the Norman invasion, the lordship of Charlecote -or Cerlecote, as it appears from the Domesday Book the name was then written was possessed by one Saxi, and it was subsequently held by the Earl of Mellent. It would seem to have derived its appellation from some ancient Saxon possessor, Ceorle being a name not unfrequently met with in very early times. From the Earl of Mellent, Charlecote, with the rest of his lands, passed to his brother, Henry de Newburg, Earl of Warwick, and were inherited by Henry's son Roger, Earl of Warwick, a partisan of the Empress Maud, and a munificent benefactor to the church, evidence bearing upon his alleged deer-stealing exploits, who enfeoffed Thurstane de Montfort with large pos- and more especially the lampooning to which Sir Thomas sessions in the county of Warwick, of which Charlecote Lucy is said to have been subjected, for the chastisement formed a minor portion. The estate of Charlecote was inflicted upon the youthful poet does not seem to us to subsequently given by Henry de Montfort to Walter, the rest upon any very satisfactory basis. The first mention of son of Thurstane de Charlecote, and the grant was con- them appears to have been made by Rowe, who tells the firmed by Richard I., who "added divers immunities and story in the following manner:-"An extravagance that he privileges," all of which were ratified by King John in 1203. was guilty of forced him both out of his country and that way În Dugdale's "Antiquities" we read, "Tis not unlikely that of living which he had taken up; and, though it seemed at first the said Thurstane de Cherlecote was a younger son unto to be a blemish upon his good manners and a misfortune to the before-specified Thurstane de Montfort; for, that he him, yet it afterwards happily proved the occasion of exerting was paternally a Montfort, the MS. History of Wroxhall im- one of the greatest geniuses that ever was known in dramatic porteth, and that the same Thurstane was his father, not poetry. He had, by a misfortune common enough to young only the likelihood in point of time, but his Christian name fellows, fallen into ill company, and, amongst them, some doth very much argue." Walter de Charlecote left at his that made a frequent practice of deer-stealing, engaged him decease a son, William, who changed his name to Lucy, more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir about the close of the twelfth century-a change Sir Wil- Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford. For this he liam Dugdale accounts for by the supposition that his was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, somewhat mother was an heiress of some branch of the Norman too severely; and, in order to revenge that ill-usage, he made family which bore that designation. This gallant knight a ballad upon him. And though this, probably the first took up arms with the barons against King John, when all essay of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so his lands were seized by the Crown; but returning to his very bitter, that it redoubled the prosecution against him to allegiance, he had a full restoration in the first year of the that degree, that he was obliged to leave his business and ensuing reign. From him derived in direct succession a long family in Warwickshire for some time, and shelter himself line of worthy knights, each of whom was greatly distin- in London." In the papers of the Rev. William Fulman, guished in the military proceedings of that period, whilst which were bequeathed in 1688 to the Rev. Richard Davies, the family bore eminent sway in that part of the country of Sandford, Oxfordshire, and at his death, in 1707, dethrough many generations. During the Wars of the Roses, posited in the library of Corpus Christi College, there are the Lucys arrayed themselves under the banner of the among the notes added by Davies the following pieces of House of York, and at the battle of Stoke, Edmund Lucy information on this subject :-" He was much given to all commanded a division of the Royal Army. His great- unluckiness, in stealing venison and rabbits; particularly grandson, Sir Thomas Lucy, in the first year of Queen from Sir Lucy, who had often whipped him, and sometimes Elizabeth's reign, rebuilt the manor house of Charlecote as imprisoned him, and at last made him fly his native country, it now stands. He was an active justice of the peace, was to his great advancement." In Mr. Davies's account we knighted in the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth, and sat have no mention of the ballad, through which, according to for some time in Parliament as one of the representatives of Rowe, the young poet revenged his " ill-usage." Cabell, his native county. His alleged persecution of Shakespeare another editor of Shakespeare's works, thus alludes to this has, however, gained for him more notoriety than any of question:-"The writer of his Life,' the first modern the honours he enjoyed. The family bore for their arms (Rowe), speaks of a lost ballad,' which added fuel, he says, three luces (pike fish) hauriant d'argent, in the person of to the knight's before-conceived anger, and 'redoubled the William, who, as above stated, assumed the name of Lucy; persecution;' and calls the ballad the first essay of Shakeso that Shakespeare is sufficiently warranted in satirically speare's poetry:' one stanza of it, which has the appearance causing Justice Shallow to affirm that his is "an old of being genuine, was put into the editor's hands many years coat. "All his ancestors that come after him," says ago by an ingenious gentleman (grandson of its preserver), Slender, another member of this ancient family, " may with this account of the way in which it descended to him: give the dozen white luces in their coat."* Mr. Howitt, in Mr. Thomas Jones, who dwelt at Tarbick, a village in his "Visits to Remarkable Places," observes that both the Worcestershire, a few miles from Stratford-on-Avon, and portrait and bust of Sir Thomas Lucy in the hall above died in the year 1703, aged upwards of ninety, remembered alluded to, bear a striking resemblance to each other; and to have heard from several old people at Stratford the story that, although they do not give us any reason to suppose him of Shakespeare's robbing Sir Thomas Lucy's park; and such an imbecile as Shakspeare in his witty revenge has their account of it agreed with Mr. Rowe's, with this addition, represented Justice Shallow, they have an air of formal that the ballad written against Sir Thomas by Shakespeare conceit and self-sufficiency that accord wonderfully with our was stuck upon his park-gate, which exasperated the knight idea of the country knight, who would look on the assault to apply to a lawyer at Warwick to proceed against him. of his deer as a most heinous offence, and would be very Mr. Jones had put down in writing the first stanza of the likely to hold his dignity sorely insulted by the saucy son of ballad, which was all he remembered of it, and Mr. Thomas a Stratford woolcomber, who had dared to affix a scandalous Wilkes (my grandfather) transmitted it to my father by satire on his park gate, and to make him ridiculous to all memory, who also took it in writing."" This, then, is the the country. After all, what Sir Thomas did was just what entire evidence of the deer-stealing tradition. nine-tenths of the country gentlemen of that or this day would have done in like case. He appears to have dealt gently with the young man in the first instance; and it was not until the ugly verses, of It is on record that John Foxe, the martyrologist, was received by Sir Thomas Lucy at the time when he was obliged to fly for his life on account of his religion, in Mary's reign, and was deserted by every one besides. It is said that Sir Thomas took care to have a good equivalent for his protection, by making Foxe the tutor of his children, and that, when that end was served, he dismissed him with little ceremony, and no care for his future provision. lecote descended, in due course, to George Lucy, Esq., whe From the renowned Sir Thomas Lucy the lands of Charwas high sheriff of Warwickshire in 1769, and upon whose death in 1786 the male line expired. His extensive property devolved on the Rev. John Hammond, grandson of the Rev. John Hammond, and Alice, his wife, daughter of Sir Fulke Lucy. This gentleman assumed by sign manual in 1787 "All the time of her life, a true and faithful servant of her good God; never detected of any crime or vice; in religion, most sound; in love to her husband, most faithful and true; in friendship, most constant; to what in trust was committed to her, most secret; in wisdom, excelling; in governing her home, and bringing up of youth in the fear of God, that did converse with her, most rare and singular. A great maintainer of hospitality; greatly esteemed of her betters, misliked of none, unless of the envious. When all is spoken that can be said, a woman so furnished and garnished with virtue as not to be bettered, and hardly to be equalled by any. As she lived most virtuously, so she died most godly : "Set down by him that best did know What hath been written to be true.-THOMAS LUCY." aisle are the remains of what was once a magnificent brass; it is dated 1414, and commemorates Seman at Tong; the lower half remains, showing the figure of a burgess in a coat and pointed shoes, with anelace and knife at his girdle. At the entrance to the south transept is a fine brass, dated 1533, to Henry Hatche and Joan his wife. In the south aisle is a brass, bearing date 1535, to Richard Colwell and family; at the corners were four representations of his rebus, two of which remain, viz., a drawing of a well and the word Col. A brass at the west end of the north aisle has lost the inscription; a man in mayor's robes, together with his family, remain in brass; it is probably that of Nathaniel Besbeech, who was mayor in 1637. An inscription to Edward Thomasson and his two wives, dated 1494, remains in the south transept, near which was formerly the brass of a man in armour; his helmet was turned up in front, his sword was by his side, and he held a battle-axe over his shoulder. A brass of 1492 to John Wygmore, wife, and family, in the north aisle, had the man drawn “in his hair, a mail gorget, armour, sword across, rowels to his spurs, and greyhound at his feet; she has the lappet head-dress, a fur cape, and large mitten sleeves; the pendant part of her belt is very rich, ending in a tassel. Below six girls in flowing hair and standing cuffs.”+ A brass to Alice Mashin and family, dated 1432, had the veil head-dress and long bag sleeves, ten boys had cropped hair, five girls were in bag sleeves and had the long horseshoe head-dress. Two other brasses had effigies, viz., Agnes Feversham, dated 1427, and William Rose, dated 1509; at the feet of the latter was a greyhound. There were eighteen other brasses, ranging from 1419 to 1582, without effigies, but most had shields on them, notices of which would occupy a considerable space; the persons commemorated were leading burgesses. Two fine tombs deserve mention: one of Decorated date, in the south wall of the Trinity Chapel, has been attributed to King Stephen, without reason; the other is Perpendicular, in the north wall of the chancel, the occupant of which is unknown: it was a man undoubtedly, as a very large male thigh-bone was found beneath it a few years ago. The latter tomb was probably used as the Easter supulchre. On the opposite side of the chancel are three sedilia and a trefoiled piscina with a locker over it. The sedilia have detached round pillars, supporting three pointed arches, each enclosing a cinquefoil, whilst between the arches are trefoils. The two tables already mentioned, viz., St. Margaret's and St. Christopher's, were perhaps connected with the shrines which appear to have stood at the ends of the transepts beneath the great windows. In the north transept a rectangular projection of stone may be seen outside, whilst within, a shallow recess about five feet wide was found a few years ago; the stone jambs which had supported an arch remained, and behind a monument which was then removed were found the remains of a canopy; some mutilated fresco painting was discovered within the recess. In the south transept, under the great Decorated window, a stopped-up niche was discovered with fragments of elaborately carved stonework, consisting of human heads, foliage, tracery, and the remains of a cinquefoiled arch; FAVER- these ornaments, at the Reformation, had been rudely broken off, and built up in the niche with the carvings hidden, and the back part reversed; remains of colouring, chiefly red, were at the back of the niche. At the west front of the church, on the south side, is a room which was once a chapel ; it has erroneously been called a Ladye Chapel. A chapel called by that name stood at the north-east corner of the churchyard in the 2nd Henry VIII., according to the town records, and it is mentioned in a will dated 1528. At the east end of the present chapel are the remains of a piscina; some of the carving, consisting of foliage, was found near it a few years ago. Before the Reformation it appears as if the prayer, and east wall was partly open to the church. This chapel was once Sir Thomas's son and successor, who appears to have only survived him five years, lies on his stately tomb by himself. His lady, in a black hood, is placed in a praying attitude in front of the tomb, thereby indicating that she was the sorrowful survivor, while, on the plinth is a whole proces sion of little images of sons and daughters, two and two; six sons on the panel before the mother, and eight daughters on that behind her. The tomb of the third Sir Thomas, grandson of the Sir Thomas, and his lady, is a very splendid one by Bernini, and was executed in Italy. The knight is represented in a recumbent position, leaning on his elbow, as if contemplating the effigy of his wife, whose figure and drapery are finely wrought. The scenery round the neighbourhood of Charlecote is perhaps the most interesting of any associated with the name of Shakespeare. The grand old Elizabethan house, for the most part, presents the same appearance now as it did in the poet's time, and the gentle Avon flows, as brightly as of old, through its sunny lawns and deeply wooded glades, where the poet loved to roam. Notes. ARCHEOLOGICAL NOTES ON (Continued from page 65.) W. D. WEEVER, in his "Funeral Monuments," records the fact open on the north side, where there were Sold by the churchwardens to repair a chandelier. |