Archaeological Journal/Volume 2/Proceedings of the Central Committee (Part 3)
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE.
June 23.
Mr. Jonathan Gooding, of Southwold, Suffolk, communicated a sketch of the basin of an ancient font, formerly in the church of Reydon, near Southwold. It is of octagonal form, at each angle there is a little column, and the sides are perfectly plain. The pedestal had been destroyed; the upper portion, as Mr. Gooding stated, had long been used as a trough for feeding bullocks on the premises of a farmer at Reydon. It was recently purchased by a clergyman in the neighbourhood, in the hope that it might be restored to the church to which it had originally belonged, anciently known as St. Margaret's of Rissemere, the mother-church of Southwold. Several similar cases of desecration were mentioned by Mr. Shirley, the Rev. Arthur Hussey, and Mr. Way; especially the existence of three ancient fonts in the garden of the Shakespeare Arms Inn, at Stratford-on- Avon. The Committee agreed fully with Mr. Gooding that it is very desirable to preserve objects of this nature, and if possible to replace them in the churches whence they may have been heedlessly removed.
Dr. Bromet exhibited a drawing by Mr. G. J. L. Noble, and tracings taken by himself from some portions of the distemper painting recently discovered in Croydon church, accompanied by the following observations. "On the south wall, and opposite to the north door of Croydon church, is a colossal figure of St. Christopher, of which the general design is so grand and elegant, that I regret much to report that its ornamental details are not easily discernible, and especially that nothing more of the Christ than the feet is now visible; the legs of St. Christopher also are hidden by some panelling. The drapery of this figure is a purplish-coloured tunic and a green cloak, and the folds of both are artistically disposed. In his hands he bears a knotted staff, which, though green, is not in that sprouting state occasionally seen; and instead of the flying birds commonly met with, here has been apparently a choir of seraphs, of which two playing upon brazen pipes, and one upon a double drum or timbrel, may still, by close inspection, be made out. On each side of the saint's head is an inscribed scroll, one from the mouth of Christ probably, and the other from the saint; but these mottoes are now illegible, except one or two words which are not referable to any of the known distichs alluding to St. Christopher. Further down, as if at a door, is a comparatively small figure of the hermit friend of St. Christopher, with a large flaxen beard, and in a yellow dress, holding forth his beacon lantern, which it is worthy of remark is here painted like an heraldic shield, quarterly argent and gules, the arms probably of the donor of the painting. I believe that the horn or glass of mediæval lanterns was sometimes coloured in this manner.
"On the left of the saint, though not relating to any legend concerning him that I can find, is a semicircularly-arched and portcullised embattled gateway, over which, at a quadrangular window in a lofty tower, seemingly of brick with stone dressings, are the figures of a king and queen. The king has a flowing grey beard, and is habited in a purplish tunic with an ermine collar, and a red cloak. The queen is much younger, with auburn hair, and is in a purplish robe lined with red. Their crowns are of Edwardian character, having on the circles three elevated trefoils with intervening short broad rays, but to what English monarch and his wife to appropriate these figures I am at a loss. The vicar, Mr. Lindsay, thinks they were meant for Edward III. and his queen, but on this point I must differ with him, and would rather take them for some royal personages of holy writ, or perhaps of St. Christopher's time; first, because of the apparent disparity of their ages, (Edward and his wife having both been married when very young,) and secondly, because I cannot find any elderly English monarch with a young wife who existed at that period, the fifteenth century, during which Croydon church may be presumed, from its architectural features, to have been built; unless, as Mr. Lindsay says, the portion of wall on which they are painted be older than the other parts of the church."
The Rev. Hugh Jones, D.D., rector of Beaumaris, informed the Committee that having recently visited Llugwy, where the largest of the cromlechs existing in Anglesea is to be seen, he was informed that certain persons had been digging around it in expectation of finding money, and had brought to light only a number of bones, some of which he had preserved, in order to learn whether they are the remains of men or of animals.
Inscription in the church of Llanvair-Waterdine.
Mr. Holmes sent for examination fac-similes of two singular inscriptions taken from portions of a screen, formerly in the church of Llanvair-Waterdine, Shropshire, near Knighton, on the confines of Radnorshire. They were communicated by the Rev. William I. Rees, rector of Casgob, in the latter county. The characters are carved in relief on two rails of a piece of panelled screen- work, which had been concealed by a pew. The upper- most inscription consists of two lines, measuring in length about 2 ft. 3 in., and the width of the rail is about 3 in.; it is chamfered off on either side in a hollow moulding. The words, as it appears, are divided from each other by incised lines. Sir Samuel Meyrick exhibited casts from these inscriptions to the Society of Antiquaries, Jan. 26, 1843; suggesting that the characters may be regarded as musical notes, and that the perpendicular lines answer to the bars in music; the whole forming, probably, the strain of a chant. The church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the first word of the lower inscription appears to be Maria.
The Lord Stanley, of Alderley, communicated for the inspection of the Committee some Roman coins, found near Holyhead, Anglesea. They consisted of a small gold medallion of Constantine the Great, struck at Treves. Obverse, CONSTANTINVS MAX. AVG. Reverse, within a chaplet of leaves, VOTIS XXX. In the exergue, TSE (Treveris signata.) Weight, 83 gr. This piece was found in 1825, on the Holyhead mountain.
There were also small brass coins of Valerian, Gallienus, Claudius Gothicus, and Posthumus the elder, being a portion of a large number of coins discovered in 1843, under a large stone in a field at Tref Arthur, near Holyhead.
The Rev. John Williams, of Nerquis, near Mold, reported, that in re- moving the materials of the old church of Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, in Denbighshire, preparatory to the erection of a new fabric, a large quantity of gold and silver coins had recently been found, some of which were supposed to be of the reign of Edward III. Nearly one hundred pieces were discovered, chiefly of silver, and they remain in the possession of the incumbent, the Rev. D. Davis. Mr. Williams sent impressions taken in sealing-wax from two of the gold coins, an angel and a noble of Edward IV.
The original foundation of the church where this discovery was made is ascribed, as Mr. Williams observed, to Garmon, or Germanus, one of the anti-Pelagian champions, in the fifth century. It stood in the district which formed, it is conjectured, part of the possessions of Cadell Deyrnllug, prince of the Vale Royal, and part of Powys, who was assisted by Germanus in obtaining the throne. It is possible that the site of the church had been granted by him to Germanus in consideration of this service. At a later period the church recently demolished had been erected upon the site of the more ancient fabric, and its date, it is supposed, may be ascertained by the discovery of coins which has there occurred.
Dr. Bromet, who, on his departure with the view of attending the congress of the French Society for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, held at Lille during the second week of this month, had been deputed by the Central Committee to submit to the meeting some enquiries regarding mailed armour, as used in Europe during the middle ages, the peculiar conventional modes of representing mail, and other details of a similar nature, reported, in a letter to the Secretary, the proceedings which occurred at that interesting assembly. The received opinion on the Continent appeared to be, that the common ring-mail, as it is termed, in describing the armour of our earlier effigies, apparently composed of rings set edge-wise in parallel rows, is merely a conventional mode of representing interlaced mail, identical in construction with the chain mail haubertes occasionally seen in armouries or museums. The President, M. de Caumont, announced his intention of causing the queries submitted by the Central Committee to be inserted in the programme of the next General Meeting of the French Society; and the presentation of the first volume of the Archæological Journal, made on the part of the Committee by Dr. Bromet, was acknowledged by a special vote of thanks, with the presentation in return of the last volume of the Bulletin Monumental, published under the direction of the Society.
St. George.—Brinsop Church.
The Rev. Richard Lane Freer forwarded a note on the sculptures in Brinsop church, Herefordshire. The church is dedicated to St. George; and the accompanying representation of the patron saint, from a drawing by Mr. Gill of Hereford, is now built into the north wall within the church, opposite the south door. It has been the tympanum of a doorway, perhaps of the principal entrance. The face of the figure is mutilated as well as the right arm. This relievo is 3 feet 6 inches high, and 4 feet wide. Above are the sculptural decorations of the arch of a door; and the way in which the subjects are mixed together would lead to the supposition that the present arrangement has been made by chance. They are for the most part carved on separate stones, sometimes two on one, so that if they were at any time thrown together, they may have been built into their present position without regard to the original design. In this arch there are two of the zodiacal signs, Taurus and Pisces; Sagittarius occurs in a rude circular arch above the north doorway. Mr. Freer considers these and other sculptured decorations of the building to have belonged to an edifice of earlier date than the present one; and though perhaps part of the old walls may remain, it appears probable that the early church had been either destroyed, or so neglected, that it became necessary to erect a new one, when these antiquities were placed in the walls for preservation. The holy-water stoup in the wall on the right side of the south door, within the church, is of the fourteenth century, but an armed figure in stained glass in the east window, said to be Bishop Cantilupe, would direct us to the thirteenth century, as the period of the erection of the present building.
Font discovered near the mouth of the Orwell.
July 7.
Captain Stanley R.N. forwarded, by Mr. Way, a drawing of a font discovered in the sea, near the mouth of the Orwell; and a sketch of the gate-way of Erwarton Hall, Suffolk, about to be demolished.
Mr. Ferrey read a letter from the Rev. R. G. Boodle, vicar of Compton Dando, respecting a Roman altar discovered in that parish. Mr. Boodle supposes it to have been dedicated to Peace; one of the figures on it being that of Hercules Pacificator; and the other Apollo. The Wans-dike runs through the parish, and part of it is very distinct about a quarter of a mile from the church.
seal of the Priory of Montacute.
July 7.
Mr. Hodgkinson, of East Acton, exhibited a lease under the common seal of the priory of Montacute in Somersetshire, dated 16th January, 1507. The name of the prior in this deed is John Water, erroneously called Watts by Collinson. Hist. of Somerset, vol. iii. p. 213. The seal of this priory is rare, and has not been hitherto engraved; it is described in the last edition of Dugdale's Monasticon, from a very imperfect impression, appended to the deed of surrender, among the Augmentation records. The priory of Montacute was founded by William Earl Moreton, temp. Hen. I., and granted by him to the monks of Cluny, to whom it continued a cell until made denizen in the 8th of Henry IV.
The Rev. Arthur Hussey of Rottingdean, communicated a note on some earthworks at Clifton, in which traces of masonry are discernible. "Upon the cliff on the southern side of the Avon, just below the hot well, is an ancient camp, inclosing a considerable space, and defended on the most accessible side by a triple intrenchment, of which the inner one certainly was formed of masonry, and its remains even now are unusually high. The mortar appears to have been used hot, in a very liquid state, and, in the several spots which I examined, contains no particles of pounded brick. On the eastern (or south-eastern) side, which was not difficult to approach, the fortification seems to have been slight, but I had opportunity only for a cursory inspection. My reason for wishing to bring this matter before the Committee is the idea, that masonry is scarce in specimens of the military works of the ancient occupants of this country, save in those of the Romans and Normans, to neither of whom, I presume, can this example be referred. The road from the proposed suspension bridge over the Avon, if ever executed, will be carried directly through these remains."
Mr. King (Rouge Dragon) exhibited a facsimile taken by the Hon. and Rev. A. Napier, rector of Swyncombe in Oxfordshire, from a sepulchral brass in the church of Ewelme in that county. The inscription, which is not given by Skelton, runs as follows:—
"Here lyeth buryed Thom's Broke Esquyer late S'iaunt at Armes to our Sou'raigne lord King Henry the viii & Anne his wyf which Thom's decessed the xxii day of Septembre the yere of our lord MVcXVIII and the seid Anne decessed the day of the yer of or lord MVc on whose soules Jhu habe mercy.
The arms over the male figure (in armour) are, quarterly, 1st and 4th, a bull; over all a pale. 2nd and 3rd, a chevron between three eagles displayed (the chevron appears to be charged). Those under him, are the same, impaling Bulstrode with a quartering, a chevron between three eagles' heads erased. The arms over the figure of the lady are, quarterly, 1st and 4th, a stag's head caboshed, between the antlers a cross patteé, and pierced through the nose by an arrow; for Bulstrode: 2nd and 3rd, a chevron between three eagles' heads erased.
The arms under her are those which appear in the shield above her husband. Mr. King stated that "the arms or a bull passant gules, over all a pale ermine, are ascribed in an alphabet of arms in the College of Arms (of the time of Car. II.) to 'Broke, Serjeant at Arms to King Henry 8,' so that no difficulty exists in this case; but as we do not appear to have any pedigree of this gentleman, I am unable to say what coat he quarters. The arms of the lady are those of the family of Bulstrode of Upton, co, Bucks, where they had been seated from the time of Edward II., and were resident there in the time of Charles I. An Anne appears in the pedigree as one of the daughters of Richard Bulstrode, of Hugeley in the parish of Upton, which Richard married in 34 Hen. VI., but no husband is given to her, and there was issue from other branches of the family. The coat of Bulstrode is, sable a stag's head caboshed argent, attired or, between the attire a cross patteé fitchy or, and through the nostrils an arrow or, feathered argent. I have not been able to ascertain to what family the quartering (chevron entre three eagles' heads) belongs."