CHRONOLOGY OF GRAVE-STONES. SINCE this is the first attempt which has been made to arrange a collection of ancient grave-stones in chronological order, it may be satisfactory and useful to the student of antiquities to point out those peculiarities which indicate the date of a grave-stone. The shape or size of the stone is no safe guide to its date; it has been thought that the early ones were highly coped, the later ones less so, but this is not the case, for many early ones are quite flat, while late ones are highly coped. Also in both coffin-stones and incised stones, straight-sided and coffin-shaped ones are to be found of all dates. In this part of the work as in some others, we may generally consider the designs without reference to their being incised or in relief; for, except in one or two cases which are noticed, the way in which the design is worked, will afford no indication of the date of the monument. To determine the date then, we have to guide us only the form of the cross, and the ornamental accessories. Also we have a few stones whose date is actually or approximately known either from an inscription or other circumstances as these are extremely valuable for comparison with others it will be useful to give a list of them here. Date. : Locality. No. of Plate. I. I. II. II. Brougham, Westmoreland 1225 Llanvair, Cornwall, engraved in Specimens of Church 1230 1239 Plate and Sepulchral Slabs. St. Pierre, Glamorganshire c. 1250 St. John, Southover 1257 1295 c. 1390 c. 1320 1320 c. 1330 1394 1405 ...... Exeter cathedral Winchester cathedral St. Peter's at Gowts, Lincoln Griffith ap Jorwerth, wall of Grammar School, Bangor. 1463 ...... 1480 1489 1492 ...... 1547 Robert Gudyk, Thornton abbey, Lincolnshire Kirkwood, Yorkshire......... Lynby, Nottinghamshire Llanlivery, Cornwall 1566 Sligo abbey, Ireland The sepulchral brass crosses will also be found of use for comparison with the designs upon these slabs; engravings of many of these may be found in Mr. Boutell's "Memorials of Monumental Brasses," and "Monumental Brasses of England." The shape of the cross is not of so much service in ascertaining the date as might have been expected; this will easily be seen, for on the stone from Cambridge, Plate XXXV., of Saxon date, (c. A.D. 1000,) the cross has nearly the same shape as in those from Bungay and Bakewell, Plate x., which are probably of the thirteenth century. Again, Brougham, Plate VII., of date A.D. 1185, is very nearly like the common fifteenth century form seen in Plates XXIV., XXV., XXVI., &c.; even the very early stone, from Dover, Plate xxxv., might easily be mistaken for a much later design. There are however a few forms peculiar to certain periods: thus the form seen in Clonmacnoise, Plates 1. and II.; Glendalough, Plate 1.; Isle of Arran, Plate LXXV., &c., is not found on stones of later date than c. 1000; the round and pear-shaped forms in Bakewell and Attenborough, Plate v., are late Norman. The crosses with vine-leaves, like Plates XV., XVI., XVII., XVIII., &c., are of the fourteenth century. The crosses with lilies as terminations to the limbs are very common in the fifteenth century, though we do find them also of earlier date; indeed lilies were not uncommon ornaments from early Norman times down to the seventeenth century. The crosses formed by single broad lines like Lolworth, Plate XXVI., are probably late fifteenth century, though they do occur as a provincialism in the thirteenth century stones from Jersey, Plates VIII. and ix. The Calvary moulded like the base of a pier, belongs also generally to the fif teenth century. We are driven then in most cases to the accidental ornaments of the stone for indications of its date: and here some knowledge of ancient architecture, and of antiquities generally, becomes indispensably necessary to the student. Where the stone has an inscription, but without date, the shape of the letters will frequently enable us to approximate very nearly to the date. It is impossible to describe the many and minute peculiarities of shape which characterize different dates, all that can be done here is to give some very broad rules. Thus the runic character, as in Nos. 5, 95, &c., was not used after c. A.D. 1000. From that date till about A.D. 1350 a kind of Roman character called Lombardic was commonly used, as in Nos. 44, 53, &c. The latest instance we meet with of Lombardic (says Gough, vol. iii. p. ccxlvi.) is on the tomb of Robert de Bures, Acton, A.D. 1361. The character called black letter seems to have been introduced c. A.D. 1350, it is used on the tomb of Edward III., who died A.D. 1377; and from this period it was in common use until c. A.D. 1530. About this time a debased kind of Lombardic became very fashionable, and gradually changed until about the middle of the sixteenth century, when it became the common Roman character. Moreover from c. 1100 to c. A.D. 1360, the inscription, though often in Latin, was more frequently in NormanFrench, and generally in rhyme. From c. A.D. 1400 downwards, Latin became the common language for inscriptions, though English ones are not uncommon after c. A.D. 1500. A symbol, as a mitre, pastoral staff, chalice, shield, &c., introduced upon the stone, will often determine its date approximately. The early mitres were low and the sides straight: about the middle of the twelfth century we find them simple in detail, and the apex forming a right angle; afterwards the height increased, and in the fifteenth century the sides are lofty and often convex, and the details elaborate. A very early shape of the pastoral staff (c. A.D. 1066) is seen in the Welbeck stone, Plate xxxv.; another form is shewn in the stone of Ralph of Chichester, A.D. 1123, Plate XXXVIII.; this extended to the beginning of the thirteenth century. In this century too we frequently find the curve of the bead terminating in a trefoil, as in that from Sulby abbey, Plate XLIX., a ram's head, &c.; later forms are shewn in Tintern, Plate LXI., c. A.D. 1250; in the fourteenth century the forms are more elaborate, the curved head crocketed, and its section very generally hexagonal or octagonal. The example from Jervaulx, Plate LXV., c. A.D. 1436, exhibits the form of the fifteenth century. The early Norman shields were kite-shaped, as in that on the Coningsborough stone coffin, Plate XXXVII.; afterwards heater-shaped, viz., like the above, with a straight top; and sometimes were much longer in proportion than is there represented through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they became shorter, as in examples of Johan Fitzalain, Plates XIII. and XIX.; Orkney, Plate xxI.; Dunstable, Plate XXII.; Chester, Plate XXIII., &c. At the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries, the upper part of the sides is straight, and the shape almost square. About the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, very fanciful shapes were given to them, as Llanlivery, Plate xxx. Early chalices were very simple in shape, as in examples from Newcastle, Plate x1.; a later one is given on Plate XVI.; and on the stone from Holme Pierrepoint, A.D. 1394, Plate XXIII. Fifteenth and sixteenth century chalices generally had an octagonal base, as in example from Topcliffe, Plate XXVIII. Sometimes, though seldom, mouldings are introduced at the edges, &c., of the stone, as in a fine example in Norwich cathedral, and then the date can generally be approximately determined. The subject of mouldings could not be sufficiently condensed for insertion here; for information on the subject the reader is referred to Mr. Paley's work on Gothic Mouldings. Ornamental work introduced in the design generally carries its date. Knot-work, as in Plates XXXIII., XXXIV., XXXV., is generally of Saxon or very early Norman work; |