so brittle a substance as enamel. The subject is one which seems not undeserving of attention in connexion with the history and practice of artistic processes in our country, both on account of the few evidences that exist to shew that enamelling was practised in England, with any perfection, and also because enamel is usually applied to copper, brass being commonly considered incapable of sustaining the requisite degree of heat. The curious observer will therefore do well to ascertain, when any brass bearing traces of enamelled work comes under his notice, whether the metal employed in such cases be copper, or the usual hard kind of brass anciently termed latten, a mixed yellow metal of exceedingly hard quality, and which appears to be identical in composition with that now used for making cocks for casks or cisterns, technically called cock-brass.
A few observations on incised stone slabs must be appended to these remarks on brasses; they are works of an analogous kind, the material employed alone excepted, and were probably executed by the same artists. Where a saving of expense was an object, the slab would often be preferred, but as it was far less durable than the brass, the incised slab, when used as part of the pavement, in the course of a few years was wholly defaced, and the number of existing specimens is small. Some indeed, which were elevated upon altar-tombs, still exist in a fair state of preservation, being frequently formed of alabaster, which was found in abundance in Derbyshire. Memorials of this kind are therefore most frequently to be found in the adjoining counties of Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire. In the remote village church of Avenbury, Herefordshire, a remarkable incised slab has been preserved, which represents a knight in the mailed armour of the close of the thirteenth century, and cross-legged; a memorial equally curious, and of the same period, exists at Bitton, near Bath, the cross-legged figure of Sir John de Bytton; the head and hands are executed in low relief, the remainder of the figure being represented by incised lines. An early incised slab in Wells cathedral deserves notice; it is the memorial of one of the bishops of Wells, a member of the same family de Bytton. Examples of later date are to be seen at Mavesyn Ridware, Blithfield, and Penkridge, in Staffordshire; Grafton, in Northamptonshire; Newbold on Avon, Whichford, and Ipsley, in Warwickshire; Pitchford, Beckbury, and Edgmond, in Shropshire; Brading, in the Isle of Wight; and a very elaborate
