here the colouring of raised cross slabs also. In the famous history of Matthew Paris", written and illuminated by himself, c. A.D. 1260, at f. 213, is a representation of the entombment of an archbishop; the lid, which is just being placed upon the coffin, has a cross and several of the round ornaments mentioned at p. 44 in relief; these are painted yellow, the stone itself being tinged green.

In the very valuable collection of drawings of French monuments, called the Gagnières collection, preserved at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, there are drawings of two slabs, both from the Abbaye de St. Pere de Chartres1. One has on the upper part of the stone a few lozenges coloured yellow, and in black letter characters (certainly not coeval with the stone) the inscription, abbas fulchenus. The lower part of the stone is divided into three compartments; the centre one, much wider than the others, is divided into small lozenges alternately yellow and white (or the colour of the stone, i. e. lozengy or and "stone colour.") On each of the side compartments, upon a plain uncoloured ground, is a crozier in bas relief, coloured yellow, of the same shape as that on the slab of Radulfus of Chichester, Plate XXXVIII. They are laid upon the stone just as the two croziers are on the very interesting fragment of a raised cross slab at Margam, Glamorganshire, engraved in the Archæol. Cambrensis, vol. iv. p. 38.

The other slab has an inscription in Lombardic character round the margin; within this an ornamental border of a running pattern, of similar character to that on the slab at Ewenny, Plate xxxix. All the slab within this border is divided into small lozenges, in which are, in alternate rows, roses, an ill-defined ornament, and lilies. Upon this diapered ground is a crozier, coloured yellow, of similar

Matthæi Parisiensis Historia, 14. c. vii. Plut. xi. F. Brit. Mus.

h In the volume containing Beauvais, Chartres, and Vendome.

shape to that of Bishop Radulfus, Plate XXXVIII., with the crook terminating in a serpent's head.

In a second class the whole of the device, which in the first class is merely outlined, is cut away to a depth of about of an inch, the matrix being filled up with plaster, pitch, or other composition, as in the examples from Bakewell, Plates XXXII., XLI., XLII,, XLV,, XLVI., XLVIII., LI., &c. : the examples from Bakewell and Attenborough, Plate v., which are of the first class, would be reduced to this second class by cutting away the outlined device. Sometimes perhaps stone of other colours or coloured compositions may have been used for filling up the sunk portions of the design; we find such a mode of treatment in slabs with incised figures. It is easy to imagine the beautiful effect which might thus be produced.

Hitherto all the examples of this second class have been considered to be the matrices of brasses, but a careful examination of the examples of this class, will shew that this cannot be the case. In the matrices of brass crosses we never find portions of the stone left within the outline of the design, as in Plate xx., and Lichfield, Plate xxv., and Lolworth, Plate xxx. Although the smaller pieces of stone left to form the design, have in many cases been so injured that the design can hardly be made out, yet it is sufficiently clear that the design would have been perfect when filled in with composition, without any of the additional lines which would have been given on brass. In some of the examples too, portions of the design are left in outline merely, which would not have been the case had they ever been filled in with brass; as in the example from Peterborough cathedral, and from Lolworth. Moreover a careful examination of many of the stones has brought to light no trace of brass or of the rivets with which it would have been fastened.

We conclude therefore that these designs have merely been filled in with plaster, pitch, or other composition; i.e. that they are not the matrices of brass crosses, but simply incised cross slabs.

Some incised stones have two crosses, as that from St. Peter's at Gowts, Lincoln, Plate xII., from Monkton Farley, Wilts., Plate xxv., &c., and were probably placed over a man and his wife, or perhaps sometimes over two children. Some have been found with three crosses, as at St. Peter's at Gowts, Lincoln, Plate XIII., which may probably be placed over three children. On this subject

see also the notes to the St. Peter's at Gowts slab at p. 65.

In some incised slabs, as is the case also in raised cross slabs, and in monumental brasses, a representation of the deceased is introduced, besides the cross; thus in Plate XXXI., from Monkton Farley, Wilts., the head of the cross is enlarged into a quatrefoil in which appears a welldrawn half length of Hugh Fitz Warren. In several stones in the chapel-yard of Lympley Stoke, Wilts., Plate xxx1., a head is introduced over the cross. In the example given from Cliff church, Kent, Plate XXXI., the cross has disappeared; and the stone forms a connecting link between the incised cross slab with a head introduced, and the ordinary slab with incised effigy.

There is a very curious example too at Christchurch, near Caerleon, Monmouthshire, Plate LXVI., whose design appears to have been borrowed from a common one in monumental brasses, where two full length figures are introduced with a tall floriated cross between them.

It is perhaps singular that we do not find the crucifix commonly introduced upon these monuments. There is an instance of a crucifix introduced upon a mural monument in bas relief of the fourteenth century, at Bredon, Worces

tershire, Plate LXX., another on a raised cross slab at Hales Owen, engraved in the Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet, vol. x. A very fine example of this from Sweden is given, Plate xXXII., from a drawing in the possession of the Antiquarian Society, Copenhagen: it is engraved in the Archæologia Æliana, vol. ii.

Some incised stones have some other design upon them, instead of a cross. Thus at Hinton, Kent, Plate XXIX., is a stone having a heart with within it, and an inscription round the border of the slab. At Bristol is one having a cook's knife and dredging box, engraved in Gough, vol. i. p. cix.', the trade symbols of William Coke, quondam serviens Willmi Cannyngis mercatoris ville Bristol, whose brass (date 1474) exists in the same church. Sometimes a very small cross, like those with which inscriptions commence, is placed at the right hand top corner of the slab, as in one at Little Baddow, Essex, and at Mont Orgeuil castle, Jersey; or such a cross is placed in the middle of the slab, (where the heart is placed in the Hinton slab, Plate XXIX.,) as in one at Gosforth, Northumberland, engraved in the Archæol. Æliana, vol. ii. p. 243.

Sometimes a kind of cross is formed by drawing lines from end to end and across the stone, as at Woodperry, Plate L. A similar slab, with double instead of treble lines, is at Marks Tey, Essex. . At Gosforth, Northumberland, is a coffin-shaped stone with single lines drawn diagonally from corner to corner, forming a St. Andrew's cross.

These may perhaps be intended to represent the pall or bier cloth, upon which was commonly worked a cross, sometimes with one cross bar, sometimes with two, sometimes with more. The bier cloths were of coloured stuffs, and perhaps these stones may have been coloured in imitation of them. Thus in the famous MS. of the Romaunt

i Gough's Sepulchral Monuments.

d'Alexandre, A.D. 1344, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, occur bier cloths with several red and blue stripes, at ff. 80, 97, 194. In the Douce MS., No. 77, in the same library, at p. 1, is a blue cloth semée with gold trefoils and with a one bar cross of gold. In a MS. book of "Heures,' of the fifteenth century, among the Douce MSS., is a red bier cloth with a gold cross of one transverse bar.

Very frequently too the slab has merely an inscription round the border without any symbol, as at Sundridge, Kent, &c. This appears to have been specially the case about the middle of the fourteenth century; the inscription is generally in Lombardic character.

Very frequently we find a flat coffin-shaped stone with no trace of design or inscription, as at Brasted, Kent, &c. Sometimes these stones have the head shaped like the stone at Oakley, Plate XLII., as at Falkbourn, Essex.

The ancient Christian modes of interment were in a cist or stone coffin, in one of lead, or of wood, or in the earth without any coffin.

Some of the above incised cross slabs doubtless formed the lids of stone coffins; but the greater number appear to have been used as monuments and coverings for the graves when the other modes of interment were adopted.

In a MS. in the British Museum (Nero, D. I.) is a representation of a corpse lying in a grave without any coffin, upon which two men are placing a straight-sided slab, which has upon it an incised cross, in design like those in the slab at St. Benedict's, Lincoln, Plate XIII.

The subject of cists and stone coffins will be discussed hereafter.

Some of these may be the reverse ted was examined, and was found to have sides of slabs which have been turned its right side upwards. over, but not all. This example at Bras

C