probably intended for the heart or intestines, though it is difficult to imagine that the custom of embalming and consequent disemboweling, though undoubtedly not unusual, was yet so very common as would appear from this. The first and third (counting from the left) are the most common shapes; the second is very rare, the fourth and fifth are also rare, their outline exactly resembles that of a corpse prepared for interment, after the fashion before mentioned; an example like the sixth occurs in an illumination in the Harl. MS. 603, Plate XXVIII. 1, fol. 28, (of late eleventh century date.) Sometimes, especially in late examples, the coffin is a regular oblong chest.

There are several lids of the same shape as the example from Oakley, Plate XLII.: it is therefore very likely that the coffins had the same shape externally, and perhaps also internally.

The sides of the coffin were sometimes ornamented, and it appears that the coffin was then placed above ground, as in the fine example from Coningsborough, Plate XXXVII., whose front is covered with bas-reliefs. In Gough, vol. i. p. liii., is a representation of one which was dug up at the east end of Lincoln cathedral, and is now in the possession of E. J. Willson, Esq., of Lincoln; it is ornamented with interlacing circles something like those on the Llantwit stone, Plate LXVII., and is of Norman date'. Another famous one of Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, A.D. 1240, exists at Llanwrst church, Wales. Another at Cashel, Ireland, is engraved in Plate LXXIV. Another exists at Barnack, Northants. Representations of them are very common in illuminated MSS., for instance there are specimens in the Matthew Paris before mentioned, Bibl. Reg. 14, c. vii., at pp. 112, 198, 213, &c. At Silchester is a

A drawing of this coffin which Mr. Willson kindly sent for this work, unfortunately was received too late to be used.

coffin which has each end ornamented with a cross, represented in the margin. In the grounds of J. Staniforth, Esq., near Sheffield, is a curious stone coffin which has been formed out of the lower part of the shaft of a Saxon standard cross, the remaining sides of which are decorated with elegant scroll-work, similar to that on the edge of the cross at Ireton", Cumberland, and the east side of that at Eyam, Derbyshire.

Head of stone coffin, Sulchester.

Generally, however, the coffin was plain, and it was just so much sunk into the earth, that the lid formed part of the pavement of the church, or lay at the surface of the churchyard, and served for both coffin-lid and monument".

This lid was of a single stone, and appears to have been fastened upon the coffin sometimes with mortar or cement, sometimes merely by its own weight.

*

Stone lids were also placed over wooden coffins; several stone lids were found in A.D. 1847, in Horningsea churchyard, Cambridgeshire. Beneath that on Plate LII. was a stone coffin; beneath the others, on Plates LIII. and LXV., bones and fragments of the wood coffins.

Engraved in Lysons' Cumberland.

Among the capitula made in the reign of King Ethelred, A.D. 994, is one which shews that the graves were not always made level with the floor of the church: the whole of it is worth transcribing. Cap. ix. : "It hath been an antient custom in this country to bring the dead often within the churches, and thus to make cemeteries of those places which have been consecrated to the worship of God. Now we desire that from henceforward no man be buried in the church, unless he be of the sacerdotal order, or (at least) a holy layman; so that it be known that by the sanctity of his life he deserved to have his body

buried there. We do not however wish that bodies which have been formerly buried in the church, should be cast forth; but where mounds appear, let them be either buried deeper in the ground, or else let a way be made over them, and let them be brought to a level with the pavement of the church, so that no mounds appear there. But if in any place there should be so many graves that this cannot easily be done, then let those places be used as cemeteries, and let the altar be removed; and there let churches be built where men may offer unto God purely and reverently."― Spelman's Concilia, p. 266.

Wooden coped lids were also sometimes used; on Plate LII.* is a representation of one in Winterborne church, Bucks, (engraved in Gough, vol. i. p. cvii.,) and it would appear that this wooden lid formed the monument. Wooden monuments, we know, were not unusual, for many very fine wooden recumbent effigies remain, as at Little Horkesley, Essex; Hildersham, Camb., &c. Also in Nicholls's History of the Franciscans at Leicester, is the representation of a monkish funeral, where the body is being conveyed to the grave in a wooden chest or coffin which has a coped lid°.

In Sussex, where iron foundries existed from an early period, cast iron coffin-slabs occur. There is an example at Burwash, Sussex, with a small cross and inscription, ORATE PRO ANNIMA JOHNE COLINS." A kindred example of later date exists at Crowhurst, Surrey, which bears a figure in shroud, (Anne Forster,) kneeling children, shields, and inscription, date A.D. 1591. An example with inscription only exists at Cowden, Kent.

There is another curious variety at Chelsfield, Kent; under a monumental arch is inserted a coffin-lid of later date than the arch, and of the same shape as that of William Rufus, Plate XXXVII., and upon one of the sloping sides are brass figures of the crucifix, St. Mary and St. John, and on the base an inscription in brass to Robert de Brun, priest A.D. 1417.

No raised cross slabs remain of so great antiquity as some of the incised cross slabs which have been noticed, though, if we may include the two cist-lids from Swinton in our list of coffin-lids, we arrive probably at a period as early as the fifth century. One of these has indeed all the character of an ordinary plain coped coffin-lid, the ridge, which is boldly rounded, is 6 inches higher than the edge, the

• Bloxam's Monumental Architecture.

D

stone quite plain, and does not taper from head to foot. Next perhaps in point of date come the curious semicircular or arched stones, one of which, from Repton, Derbyshire, is figured in Plate XXXIII. It appears probable that these were sometimes placed over the grave, perhaps over the cist. It is certain, however, that this was not always the case, for in Penrith churchyard four of them enclose the grave, two on each side, while at the head and foot are tall pillars bearing crosses and other ornaments in relief. (Engraved in the Archæologia, vol. ii.)

Two examples from Bedale, Yorkshire, which have some features in common with the Repton stone, are given in Plate XXXIII.; these are perhaps of the eighth or ninth century or even earlier. Another of similar character to the last was discovered at the church of St. Dionys, York; here too the section of the stone is arched rather than coped; at the junction of the arch with the sides and along the ridge runs a kind of cable moulding; one side has animals in low relief which appear to have some symbolical meaning, the other side is covered with strange dragon-lik e monsters, with wings, tails, &c., going off into the intricate interlaced work, so commonly found in the illuminations of early Anglo-Saxon MSS. Its date may be the seventh or eighth century.

The curious stone from Heysham, Northumberland, exhibited in the frontispiece, is probably of near the same date; an account of this will be found in the notes, p. 74. At Bakewell was found a small acutely coped stone, the ends being sloped as well as the sides, like that of William Rufus, Plate xxXVII.; along the ridge and down the angles is the same cable moulding as in the last example; one side has triple triangles &c. of knot-work, the other is divided down the middle by a broad panel formed by a fillet interlaced in a lozenge pattern, the remainder of the

side being filled with animals; one end has defaced knotwork, the other a device of two griffins back to back with a pillar or tree between them. This interesting stone is small, 3 ft. 4 in. in extreme length, and tapers slightly from head to foot. At Dewsbury and Laughton le Morthen, Yorkshire, are stones of similar character.

Another arched stone probably of rather later date than the above, covered with sculptures of very conventional foliage and branches, exists at Brechin, co. Angus, Scotland, and is engraved in the thirteenth plate of Mr. Chambers's fine work on the "Sculptured Monuments of Angus."

After this perhaps in date comes the flat slab with a cross upon it, found in Dover market-place, Plate xxxv. But for the inscription upon this stone we might think it of much later date, so different is it in character from the preceding and the few succeeding ones; but the inscription, in Runic character, leaves little doubt that it is earlier than the Norman Conquest.

Next perhaps we may place the stones from Cambridge castle, Plates xxxiv. and xxxv., which, like the last, have the cross for the chief feature in their design, the spaces of the stone being filled up with knot-work; of about the same date is the small stone from Barningham, Yorks., Plate xxxv., which is covered with knot-work, without any These are all of ante-Norman date.

cross.

Fragments of two other coped stones, probably of the latter part of the eleventh or of the twelfth century, were also discovered at Bakewell; one has a series of chevrons, moulded like the ordinary Norman chevron moulding, running down each side from head to foot, the other has a roll on the ridge, and each side cut so as to resemble three overlapping rows of tiles. The roof shape was probably given to these stones in order to throw off the wet, and to