Random Remarks Of A Rough Ashler.

sionally be found after a good dinner ) might do far more mischief than the example of one hundred good and true men would lead to benefit . —ED . F . M . and M . M . l

Curious Sepulchral Monuments In Warwickshire, Of The 13th And 14th Centuries.

CURIOUS SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS IN WARWICKSHIRE , OF THE 13 TH AND 14 TH CENTURIES .

By ME . BLOXAM . The most ancient of the sepulchral monuments in this county is undoubtedly that huge and unlettered monolith at Long Compton , called the King Stone , standing near the circle called the Rollright Stones , which , together with a cromlech in its vicinity , stand in the neighbouring county of Oxford . This is is the maenhir of the earliest

type of sepulchral monuments of the ancient British period , and in accordance with that memorial noticed in Holy Writ as placed over the grave of Rachel . We have no Roman , no inscribed British-Roman , and no Anglo-Saxon monument at present -visible in this county . The earliest monumental records we have in our

churches are of the early | part of the thirteenth century . Of this period is the sculptured and recumbent , though much mutilated , effigy of a knight , formerly in the Abbey Church , Merivale , and IIOAV preserved in the chapel of the gatehouse to that monastery . This is an effigy of much

interest ; it now consists , however , of little more than the torso or trunk , the head and lower portions of the legs having * been destroyed . The armour consists of the hawberk or tunic of mail , with chauses or close-fitting pantaloons of the same ; the hands are protectee ! by mufflersthe

, fingers not being divided ; the right arm and hand are lying on the breast ; the left hand appears beneath the shield hanging down on the left side . Over the haAvberk is worn the long sleeveless surcoat of linen , belted round the waist Avith a narrow strap and buckle . Another strap or guige ,

some-Avhat broader than the former , to which the shield is attached , crosses diagonally over the right shoulder to the left side . The shield on the left side is unusually long—not less than 3 ft . 9 in . in length—extending from the shoulder to the knee ; it is not flat on the face , but curved , or convex

without and concave Avithin . In outline it is heater-shaped . The position of the sword is somewhat singular , being on the right side , and fastened to a belt crossing the body diagonally from the right hip to just below the left hip . This effigy bears a resemblance to two ofapparentl

, y , the most ancient of the sepulchral effigies in the Temple Church , London , Avhich likeAvise exhibit the long shield , as in this , and- much the same arrangement of the drapery of the surcoat . I think this effigy is commemorative of the fourth William , Earl of Ferrers , born about the

year 1193 , and who died A . D . 1254 , and was buried in the Abbey Church at Merivale . This effigy , considered by itself , I should take to have been , executed some thirty years earlier than the time of his death , but there is no one else to whom I can assign it .

In the little village church of Avon Dassett , in this county , a feAV . miles east of Kineton , is the recumbent effigy , perhaps unique of its kind , of a former incumbent of that church , who appears to have died before he had attained Pz * iest's Orders , he being represented in the full vestments of a

Deacon . In the tAvelffch and thirteenth centuries , and also in the early part of the fourteenth , it was by no means unusual for ecclesiastics of the inferior grades , such as deacons , sub-deacons , aud even acolytes to become incumbents . We may find innumerable instances of this in almost any

county history , in the , lists of the incumbents of the several parishes , and their different grades in and toAvards the priesthood . This Avas felt to be an abuse , ancl in the second general council of Lyons , held A . D . 1274 , the thirteenth constitution obliges the curatesor incumbentsto residence and to

, , take priest ' s orders in the first year of their promotion . In the Council of Buda , held A . D . 1274 , the 20 th canon imports , that all those who have benefices with the cure of souls shall be ordained

priests . The slab out of which this effigy is sculptured is of dark-coloured forest marble , the effigy being represented lying beneath a horizontal canopy composed of a semicircular arch Avith the representations of buildings above , and this is supported by shafts Avith plain bell-shaped caps , runnina * down the sides of the tomb .

The emgy , which is sculptured in relief , represents the person commemorated in the full vestments of a deacon . He wears the ancient cassock or ordinary habit , over Avhich appears the alb , and over-that the Dalmatic ; ou the right side underneath the Dalmatic , ancl over the alb , are the

two extremities of the stole . The sleeves of the cassock ancl alb are close fitting ; those of the Dalmatic are Avide . About the neck appears the amice , and the croAvn of the head is tonsured . The right hand , held downwards , is grasping a scroll , one of the few instances in which sepulchral

effigies are thus represented . The left hand is upheld on the breast and hanging down from the Avrist appears the maniple . But this effigy does not constitute the Avhole of this monument , for it lies under a sepulchral arch Avithin the north wall of the chancelof later date

, by a century than the effigy , being of the fourteenth century . The arch is ogee-shaped , but not crocketted ; it is , however , cinque-foiled within , and is ornamented with the ball flower in a IIOIIOAV

moulding . It appears to me that in the fourteenth century , when the chancel was rebuilt , this sepulchral arch Avas constructed to contain the effigy of a former age .