The crown of thorns has here the three nails (one for each arm, and a single nail for the two feet of the crucifix) inserted in it, the points con- verging towards the centre; by its side appears a heart, transfixed in like manner by three swords. The cock, the symbol of Peter's denial, is introduced standing on a tripod pot, probably representing the vessel of vinegar mingled with gall. According to a strange local tradition, as Mr. Du Noyer observed, it was supposed that the bird was one that had been killed, and was actually being boiled in the high priest's kitchen; but in order to mark the crowing of a cock at that particular time as a miracle, it was restored to life, and issued from the caldron as here shown to fulfil the prophecy. Amongst a series of these emblems on a sepulchral slab, dated 1592, found at Christ Church, Cork, in 1831, the heart occurs pierced with seven swords, explained as signifying the seven wounds of our Lord.[1] With this were the tripod pot and other emblems, and amongst them the uncommon symbol of a rose.[2]
By Mr. Le Keux.—A view of part of St. Ethelbert's Tower, at St. Augustine's, Canterbury, a remarkable fragment of Norman work, with numerous so-called Roman wall-tiles amongst the masonry. The drawing was executed by Mr. Deeble, in 1814, and the greater part of the tower fell two years subsequently. It appears in perfect state in the bird's-eye view taken, about 1655, by Thomas Johnson, and engraved by King for Dugdale's Monasticon.[3]
By Mr. C. Desborough Bedford.—Two MSS., one being an Antiphoner of the XIVth century, with illuminated initials; the other a collection of sermons and theological treatises by St. Ambrose, St. Bernard, St. Anselm, and other writers, bound up together, the writing being of various periods, about the XIVth and XVth centuries. It appears to have belonged to a monastery of friars at Tougres, in Belgium. Also several decorative pavement tiles of the XIVth century, found under Haberdashers' Hall during works now in progress. On one is the coat of Fitzwalter (?) a fess between two chevrons.
By Mr. W. J. Bernhard Smith.—A small model of a helmet with a visor, of the time of James 1., it is of steel with brass studs, and ornamented with gilding and with patterns formed by the punch and graver. An English dagger, date about t. Henry VII, found, as it is believed, in the Thames, near the Houses of Parliament, with the arming-sword exhibited at a former meeting. (Journal, vol. x. p. 368.) Also an English poniard, with a triangular-grooved blade. Three Venetian poniards with triangular or prismatic blades, variously mounted; the blade of one of them has slight cavities on its surface, possibly to hold poison (?), and another has a blade graduated, and the divisions numbered. Some have conjectured that the bravo might have received remuneration according to the depth of the wounds inflicted ; but it seems more probable that such graduated poniards were used in trials of strength by Italian fencers, indicating the force of the stroke by the depth to which the blade penetrated in some hard object. A Spanish dagger with flamboyant blade, fabricated at Toledo.
- ↑ The brass of Robert Beauner, at St. Albans, date about 1470, represents him holding a heart pierced with six wounds.
- ↑ Gent. Mag., vol. ci., part i., p. 599.
- ↑ Monast. Ang., vol. i., p. 23, orig. edit.; copied in Caley's edition, vol. i., p. 120. See also Battely's Appendix to Sommer's Canterbury, p. 161.
