elbow- and knee-plates are large and fan-shaped. The sword is long, and girt in front of the body, and is balanced by a misericord. On the feet, which rest on a mount, are sollerets, to which rowelled spurs are attached. At the four corners of the stone are heater-shaped shields bearing the Carew arms: or, three lions passant guardant sable, armed and langued gules. The inscription, in black letter, is: "Armiger insignis jacet hic Carew Nicholaus; Cu sexageno nono dñi mei nato Cujus solamen ale cito det Deus. Amen." The next monument is a brass in memory of Thomas Carew, Esq., who died March 28, 1576. He wears a close fitting morion on the head with a visor up, shewing the face. The body is cased in plate, except where the large breeches appear,-those absurd appendages of Elizabeth's reign. An enormous two-handed sword hangs in a loose belt across the body. Four heater-shaped shields, with the Carew arms, are at the four corners of the stone to which the figure is fixed. The inscription, in Roman letters, is: "Hic jacet corpus Thomæ Carewe Armigeri qui obiit 28 die Martii Near this brass is another, of the wife of the above, in the starched ruff and hoop of the same reign. She is represented standing with her hands joined in prayer. She died Nov. 19, 1589. Over her head is a shield bearing the arms of Carew impaling those of Huddy: argent, a fess indented pale vert and sable consed of the second in chief a mullet. At her feet is this inscription: "Hic jacet Maria Carew uxor Thomæ Carew de Haccombe Ar et filia Willmi xixo die Novembris anno Domini 1589." Close by is another brass, in memory of Elizabeth Carew, who died on Ascension Day 1611. It is similar to the preceding, being a standing figure in a ruff and hooped dress; the hands joined in prayer. Over her head is a shield bearing the arms of Carew and Hill of Thelston: argent a chevron between three water bougets sable, baron and femme. At her feet is this inscription: "Here lyeth Elizabeth Carewe, the wife of John Carewe of Haccombe, Esq., and daughter of Robert Hill of Shelstead, Esq., who died on Ascension Day ao Dñi 1611." The last brass in this church is one dated 1656, to the memory of Thomas Carew and Ann his wife, who are represented kneeling before a prie Dieu ornamented with a skull he in the half-armour of the time, having behind him five sons also kneeling; one, like his father, in halfarmour; the others wearing civil dresses. His wife is on the other side of the prie Dieu, and has one daughter kneeling behind her holding between her hands a skull. The whole plate is profusely adorned with angels, skulls, scythes, and hour-glasses. Above is a detached oval plate having on it the arms of Carew impaling Clifford : chequy or and azure, a fess gules charged with a crescent supported by two antelopes gules armed and engrailed argent; beneath is a ribbon on which was a motto, now illegible. The whole is surmounted by an esquire's helmet having on it the well-known crest of the Carew family,-the top of a man-of-war or, issuant therefrom a demi-lion sable.1 There are also two shields bearing the arms of Clifford and Carew. The inscription is: "Here lyeth the bodies of Thomas Carew, Esquier, & Anne his wife, who deceased the 6th & 8th day of December A.D. 1656. "Two bodies lye beneath this stone, Whom love & marriage long made one. The soul conjoined them by a force One flame of love their lives did burne, Even to ashes in their urne. They die, but not depart, who meet In wedding & in winding sheet: Therefore unto one marble trust As rootes in earth embrace to rise Most lovely flowers in Paradise." Under an arch at the eastern end of the north aisle is an altar-tomb, on which is the following inscription: "Hic jacet in cripta avorum sepultus Henricus Carew, baronettus, Qui obiit xxxi die Octobris Anno Dñi MDCCCXXX Etatis suæ LI." Mr. Crabbe having thus described the various monuments, remarked that there was good reason to believe that there were others formerly This curious crest is supposed to have been granted to "Sir Thomas Carew, who, with Sir Gilbert Talbot of Treheneld, in the absence of the Earl of Dorset, Admiral of England, was appointed on the 18th of February, 1415, leaders of men-at-arms and archers going to sea, with all the powers of admirals, previous to the battle of Agincourt, which was fought on the 25th day of October in the same year, 1415." (See Sir H. Nicolas's History of the British Navy, vol. ii, p. 407.) placed in the church, since Leland, in his Itinerary, says that there are "divers fair tombes of the Lercedeknes at Haccombe." It was remarkable that of the families, owners of Haccombe, Lercedekne is represented by one monument only. Mr. Crabbe concluded his paper by remarking that, "in this little church are the monuments of those who lived and acted in the most stirring times of our English annals,-from the crusading period to the Wars of the Roses, through the adventurous reign of Elizabeth to the more recent time of the struggle between the first Charles and his subjects. The contemplation of these times past leads us to the present, and the numerous advantages we now possess,-not the least, perhaps, being the great interest taken in matters archæological, which leads to their consideration and discussion; thus bringing together, from distant places, those interested in such matters, and enabling us to derive, from the assembled talent of an Association like the present, much information on many subjects which individuals singly can never hope to attain." Mr. Crabbe then conducted the party over the church; and discussion was held with Mr. Planché and others descriptive of the several monuments. They then departed for Compton Castle, where Mr. Lawrence read a short paper embodying the remarks of Mr. Spence in relation to its history and peculiarity of structure. Mr. Gordon Hills minutely examined its several parts; and these communications, together with illustrations, ground-plan, etc., prepared by Mr. Hills, will appear in the next Journal. Tor Abbey and Castle formed the next objects of inquiry, under the conduct of Mr. Ashworth. Tor Abbey, in the deanery of Ipplepen, was a Norbertine abbey founded in the reign of Richard I (1196) by William Lord Briwere. The Norbertine order was one of the richest in England, and established by St. Norbert, archbishop of Magdeburgh, in 1121. The mother house was situated in the Valley of Premontre, in the diocese of Laon; and the order took its name of Præmonstratensians from the place in which the building was erected. Thirty-two houses were established as belonging to this order in the space of one century; and at the dissolution their estimated rental amounted to £4,807 : 14: 1. Tor Abbey was dedicated to the honour of the Holy Saviour, the Holy Trinity, and the Blessed Virgin, and was the most wealthy house of the order. The very few remains now to be seen of the conventual church and chapter house are yet sufficient to display the solidity and magnificence of the original fabric. In Leland's time1 there were three fair gatehouses with octagonal turrets, only one of which is now to be seen; and under its vaulting may be traced the arms of the abbey,-gules, a chevron between three croziers (which have been often absurdly reported as 999, 1862 1 Itiner. iii, 41. 24 and stated to be the date of its foundation); of Briwere, gules, two bends undy, or; of Mohun, or, a cross engrailed sable, and an eagle displayed; and of Speke. The ancient refectory in 1779 was converted into a chapel, and has a cradled roof. Some vaulting also extends through a considerable portion of the building. The late Dr. Oliver,1 from an attentive examination of the ground-plan, presumes the choir of the abbey church to have been seventy-two feet in length by thirty in breadth; the transept, ninety-six feet in width; and the entire length of the fabric, including the Lady's chapel, to have measured about two hundred feet. In various diggings remains of tessellated pavement, stone coffins, etc., have been found; and several of the benefactors to the abbey are recorded to have chosen it for their burialplace. William Briwere, the younger, died in 1232, and was there deposited. William de Bokeland and Peter Fitzmatthew have also been mentioned as here interred. The dissolved monastery was granted, by letters patent of Henry VIII, to John S. Leger, Esq., in 1543; and he, by deed, granted it to Sir Hugh Pollard, whose grandson, in 1580, granted it to Sir Edward Seymour, Knight, who, in 1598, sold it to Thos. Ridgway, Esq., ancestor of the Ridgways afterwards earls of Londonderry, with whom it remained until 1653 or 1654, when it was sold to John Stowell, Esq.; from whom, in 1662, it was purchased by Sir George Cary, in whose descendants the property still remains. Dr. Oliver has given a list of the abbots from 1196, the charter of foundation, the confirmatory charter of John; another of Beatrice de Valle, wife of William de Briwere; and others; together with a copy of the Valor Ecclesiasticus (Henry VIII), to which the reader is referred." The Association then proceeded to Torquay, where the party partook of refreshments. Some members paid a visit to Kent's Cavern; and the whole party returned to Exeter to the evening meeting in the Public Rooms, T. J. Pettigrew, F.R.S., F.S.A., V.P., occupying the chair. Mr. E. Levien, F.S.A., read a paper, "On Unpublished Devonshire MSS. in the British Museum" (see pp. 134-145 ante); and Mr. Peter Orlando Hutchinson delivered a lecture "On the Hill Fortresses, Tumuli, and some other Antiquities, of Eastern Devon" (see pp. 53-66 ante). The meeting then adjourned. 1 Monasticon Dioc. Exon., p. 170. (To be continued.) 2 Ib., pp. 172-191. THE JOURNAL OF THE British Archaeological Association. SEPTEMBER 1862. MEMOIR OF THOMAS CHARD, D.D., SUFFRAGAN BISHOP, AND LAST ABBOT OF FORD ABBEY, DORSETSHIRE; LATE IN THE COUNTY OF DEVON. BY JAMES H. PRING, M.D. THE age in which we live is sufficiently remote from that great, absorbing event in the religious history of our country, the Reformation, to enable us to look back on the period of its enactment undisturbed by those fierce passions which it called into existence, and which it has required all the influence of the softening hand of time, even from that period to the present, to assuage. Viewed, however, from the vista in which the lapse of upwards of three centuries has served to enshroud the monastic institutions of our land, and aided by the presence of the genial though distant beams of enlightening charity, it is surprising, amidst the enormities charged upon them at the time by their spoilers, how much there now appears to have been connected with these establishments that commends itself to our reverence, and has a lasting claim upon our gratitude. To say that they were human institutions, and, as such, that even the influence of religion did not avail to exempt them, especially in a rude and semibarbarous age, from the abuses and corruption inseparable from all schemes of human device, is what must readily be conceded; though it is now becoming generally admitted that the instances of profligacy were the exception 1862 25 |
