154 Devon Notes and Queries, instructing a demi-child erased^ in chief a hand couped in base eM- growing plant. The next delineation is that of John Felt ham, a native antiquary, who illustrates it as portraying a pregnant woman kneeling before an idol with a plant below, and an obstetric hand above, and links this with the second version of the tradition. Dr. Oliver [Ecclesiastical Antiquities^ Vol. ii, p. 72] tells us that it appears to represent a mer- maid standing before a young female, above them an enormous human hand, and below a flower. Farquharson [History of Honitouy p. 2] omits a personal description, but after reciting the first version of the fable notes that animated by the description (m., Feltham's), which regards the figures as a pregnant woman and an idol, the device is credited by some to delineate it. Elsewhere, in recount- ing the " honey " derivation, he relevantly points out that a honeysuckle is also depicted thereby, aiming at a connection between them. R. N. Worth [Hist. Devon^ p. 80] avows that the seal presents a mystery upon which no two writers concur, and he states that the engraver of the modem seal interpreted it thus, a female pregnant figure to knees — whether kneeling is not clear — before a demi-figure erased with long hair, but apparently a male, above a huge hand, fingers as in benediction. In the British Museum is an impression described thus in the catalogue : — On the left hand side, the upper part of a human body, the trunk erased, over it a hand of blessing, below it a flowering branch, and on the right hand side a man draped in profile to the left, praying. The most singular construction is that in Kelly's Devonshire Directory, the seal containing, we are told, a representa- tion of our Lord's baptism. Another explanation is that as the chapel was privately dedicated to St. Margaret, by the Countess Isabella de Fortibus (who succeeded to the Manor of Honiton in 1262), the right hand figure is probably intended for her and the other for the Saint, the hand is not explained, but the flower is defined as a honeysuckle. There are certain points it is essential should be deter- mined : — These are (i) Are the figures on the right akin or independent? (2) Is the figure on the right male or female ? If the latter (3) is she represented pregnant ? As regards the first, the figure on the right is unquestion- ably addressing the other, who, manifestly, is responding,
