INTRODUCTION.

ORIGINALITY of design may be justly claimed for the Author of "The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain;" for, blending at once the character of the Artist and the Antiquary, he has aimed at showing the progress of sculptural science in the memorials extant for the illustrious dead, regarding them, not simply as monumental records, but also as the most efficient means of bringing before our view the characters of English History, in their "habits as they lived."

A severe course of study, in those only schools for correct drawing, the Antique Greek sculptures and the living model, a firm and delicate hand, a most discriminating taste, and an undeviating principle of truth in all he drew, peculiarly fitted him for the undertaking. He seized and transferred to his paper every good point in the original subjects before him. He exaggerated nothing; he let no beauty escape him. The proof of these assertions will be found in the Plates of this work; and there needs little apology in having said thus much in praise of its Author, on its being now presented to the public in a complete form. He has been some years beyond the shafts of envy or malevolence, and his own frank but modestly-expressed prediction will be accomplished, that sooner or later "his labours will find their value^a." Grateful, indeed, would it have been to those who now survive him, if he had himself lived fully to reap the applause due to his labours, and if the pen which has ventured to complete the letter-press of the Monumental Effigies had been spared the task. That task has, however, been executed with a feeling of zeal inspired by the subject, and of reverence for the talents and worth of the departed Author. A tribute imperfect, inadequate, but sincere, "Hunc saltern accumulem donis et fungar inani Munere "-

Note a. "I do not conceive I have done more than any one else might, with patience and attention; yet still I cannot he deceived as to what must be the product. I am well convinced that, some time or other, my labours will find their value. "Original Letter, in Memoirs and Correspondence of Charles Alfred Stothard, F.S.A. by Mrs. Charles Stothard (age 29) (now Mrs. Bray), Author of Letters during a Tour through Normandy, &c. Longman and Co. 1823, p. 97.

Mr. Charles Stothard had proceeded as far as the Ninth Number of his Work, when his honourable career was arrested by the mysterious decree of Providence. His widow, now the wife of the Rev. Edward Atkyns Bray, has, with the praiseworthy approbation of her husband, neglected, since that event, no effort to do justice to Mr. Stothard's memory, and spared no expense within her means to give completion to his great undertaking.

Mr. Charles Stothard left behind him some materials towards the Introduction to his work, which are interspersed in the Memoir of his Life, before cited. These will be duly respected here.

The following sketch of a prefatory Essay was found among his papers: "It is one of the most striking features of the human mind, that it invariably embodies and gives form to description, more or less strong and perfect, as the mind is gifted and cultivated; and it is from this property in man that the study of antiquity, as connected with and illustrative of history, is the source of some of the greatest intellectual pleasures we are capable of enjoying. By these means we live in other ages than our own, and become nearly as well acquainted with them. In some measure we arrest the fleeting steps of Time, and again review those things his arm has passed over, and subdued, but not destroyed. The researches of the Antiquary are worthless if they do not impart to us this power, or give us other advantages; it is not to admire any thing for its age or rust that constitutes the interest of the object, but as it is conducive to our knowledge, the enlargement of human intellect, and general improvement.

"Among the various antiquities which England possesses, there are none so immediately illustrative of our history as its national monuments, which abound in our cathedrals and churches. Considered with an attention to all they are capable of embracing, there is no subject can furnish more various-or original information. Scattered in ail directions, and very remote fr om each other, they have hitherto possessed but a negative value; it is therefore both useful and interesting, by means of the pencil, to bring them together in the form of a collection; and in some degree, it is to be hoped, such an attempt may give a check to, and serve to counteract, the unfeeling ignorance so prevalent in the taste displayed for beautifying and whitewashing these vestiges; a custom which has already destroyed so much, and still continues to make the most dreadful ravages among these records of past ages. The destruction by time and accident bears, in comparison with this, but small proportion, although it adds to the claim these subjects have upon our attention, to save them from total oblivion.

"The present work was undertaken from a conviction that nothing effectual towards this last-mentioned purpose had been accomplished, as well as to afford an interesting illustration of history, the progress of art and sculpture, with the changes in costume of different periods in this country. "Of the progress of sculpture I shall presently speak at large; and of costume I may here observe, that we have many proofs that the various dresses which present themselves to us on our Monumental Effigies, were not at all introduced by any inventive or whimsical fancies in the sculptor. Several agree with our MS. illuminations of their various periods; and we never observe any thing, however singular, but we are sure to detect it repeated in the same age on some other subject. It may be also remarked, that, with very few exceptions, these effigies present the only existing portraits we possess, of our Kings, our Princes, and the Heroes of ages famed for chivalry and arms. Thus considered, they must be extremely valuable, and furnish us not only with well-defined ideas of celebrated personages, but make us acquainted with the customs and habits of the time. To history they give a body and a substance, by placing before us those things which language is deficient in describing.

In pursuance of this intention, Mr. Stothard made a drawing of the lid of the stone-coffin of Queen Matilda, at Caen, an etching from which is here inserted. We have in this drawing a careful facsimile of an inscription in the Roman character, as employed in the Gothic age. The chief variations are to be found in the form of the C, E, H, G, Q, and Z; and of the three first letters, the pure Roman form is used as well as the other. It may, indeed, be suspected that the alteration began with the Romans of the Lower Empire themselves. The upright strokes of letters in this inscription are sometimes blended together, so as to make one upright stroke serve for two letters, as the last stroke of an N for the first of a D; in one instance, a single letter is made to end and begin a word, as QUAMULTIS for QUAM MULTIS; small letters are put within larger, &c.; practices not unknown, we believe, to the Romans, in their inscriptions, when they wished to contract them within a limited space. A curious example of this kind, in the inscription on the tomb of the Anglo-Saxon Princess Editha, at Magdeburg, was communicated in 1830 by the Rev. Edward Kerrich, F.S.A. to the Gentleman's Magazine^a. The round uncial character, so called either from its size or its initial station in MSS. came into use on tombs in the thirteenth century, and was superseded by the black-letter towards the close of the fourteenth.

Note a. Gents. Mag. vol. C. i. 195. She was the daughter of King Edmund.

The military costume, from the military character of the Middle Ages, necessarily forms a most prominent feature in the Monumental Effigies of Great Britain. The rent of the tenant in capite was military service; and every great landholder, therefore, became a knight. The mail and the plate, in modern days, have been stripped from under the surcoat, or "cote armure," of our Gentry, but they still retain the distinctive emblazonments with which the surcoat was wrought, as the badge of their noble descent, and thus have perpetuated the pride of chivalry; not, indeed, speaking in a limited sense, reprehensible, for, when associated, as it always assumed to be, with religion, it leads to actions "Sans peur et sans reproclie [Without fear and without reproach]."

Ancient armour may be classed under three distinct periods. In the first, the outward defence of the body was chiefly composed of mail, (to apply that as a general term for armour formed of minute pieces, and not strictly with a view to its derivation); that mail was either of small plates of metal, like fish scales, of square or lozenge-shaped plates, or mascles, or of rings, which, perhaps, were not at first interlinked and rivetted together, but sewn down upon quilted cloth. Examples of all these will be seen by reference to the prints of the Bayeux Tapesty, published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, after Mr. Charles Stothard's original drawings.

With this defensive clothing for the body was worn a conical steel cap with a nasal, and a long kite-shaped shield. Pot-shaped helmets, flat at the top, and spherical chapelles-de-fer, were also among the early defences for the head. These were sometimes worn under the hood of the hauberk; which will account for the forms that the chain-mail armour in some instances assumes, on figures represented in our effigies and seals.

In the second period, the mail was externally strengthened about the arms and legs with plates of iron. A helmet covering the head and face was introduced, or a moveable ventaille, or baviere, was added, for the same purpose, to the scull-cap.

Towards the latter end of the fifteenth century, the surcoat appears to have been often laid aside for the purpose of exhibiting the effulgence of the polished steel. The armour then was elaborately fluted and channelled; and lastly engraved with various ornaments, legends, and devices. A kind of armour of German manufacture was, we believe, at this period much esteemed, which went under the general name of "Almayne Rivett^a."

Note a. The term, therefore, we think has been used in too limited a sense, in describing the armour of Sir John Pechy, or Peche. A passage in Halls Chronicle shows that it was applicable to the whole suit of armour. "The King (Henry VIII.) was received into a bote covered with arras, and so was set on londe. He was appareilled in Almayne Ryvet, crested, and his vanbrace of the same, and on his head a chapeau montabyn, with a rich coronal; ye folde of the chapeau was lined with crymsen saten, and on it a rich brooch, with the image of Sainct George. Over his he had a garment of white cloth of gold, with a red crosse, and so he was received with procession."—Halls Chronicle, re-print, p. 538.

On the subject of plate and mail armour, Mr. Stothard himself makes the following remarks, in a letter addressed to that eminent antiquary, the late Rev. Thomas Kerrich: "It is, I believe, a most difficult thing to say when plate-armour was first introduced, because no representations, however well executed, can tell us of what was worn out of sight, and inventories of armour, as well as notices of writers on the subject, are not common; the only things by which we can gain information. Daniel, in his 'Military Discipline of France' cites a poet who describes a combat between William de Barres and Richard Coeur de Lion (then Earl of Poitou), in which he says, that they met so fiercely that their lances pierced through each other's coat of mail and gambeson, but were resisted by a plate of wrought-iron worn beneath. This is a very solitary piece of information; and the poet cited (whose name, I believe, is not mentioned) might not have been contemporary with the event described, and of course gave the custom of his own time. It however strikes me, that plate was at all times partially used. We find in the reign of Henry the Third pieces of plate on the elbows and knees. I have a drawing from a figure about the time of Edward the First, in mail, with gauntlets of plate; and I strongly suspect that a steel cap was worn under the mail oftener than we imagine. How can we otherwise account for the form in the mail chaperon of William Longespee? Would not the top of the head be round instead of flat, if something were not interposed to give it this form? And how ill calculated to receive a blow, supposing nothing but the mail and linen coif interposed. See the effigy in No. 8. of my work, from Hitchendon church^a: where a piece of mail appears cut out, does it not seem that there is a cap beneath the mail?

Note a. The effigy of Richard Wellesburne de Montfort.

"But, to dwell longer on this head, plate-armour appears, from our paintings in MSS. and monuments, not to have gained any ground till the fifth or sixth of Edward the Third. John of Eltham and the Knight at Ifield, with Sir John Dabernoun, are the first specimens. Yet to show how careful we should be on this point, we find, in an account taken 1313, the sixth of Edward II. of the armour which belonged to Piers Gaveston, the following items: 'A pair of plates (these covered the body, and most probably were the back and breast plate), rivetted and garnished with silver, with four chains of silver, (see for chains the effigy of the Blanchfront,) covered with red velvet, besanted with gold. Two pair of jambers (armour for the legs) of iron, old and new; two coats of velvet to cover the plates.' All the monumental figures I ever saw, of the time of Edward the Second, have been in mail, as far as I could judge; so that you see I am in some difficulty. I am not surprised that mail was not so much worn after the introduction of plate; considering how the body then became loaded, it was necessary to get rid of something. On the Knight at Ifield, and Sir John Dabernoun^a, we may see first the thick quilted gambeson, over which is the haubergeon of mail, having above that what I take to be the If there was any plate on the body, it was hidden by the surcoat, which went over all; but there is reason to suspect there was: for, in the profile of the Ash Church Effigy, we see between the lacings of the surcoat that the body is covered with narrow plates. After the introduction of plate-armour the gambeson first disappears; which was followed by the aqueton. The aqueton is seen without the gambeson in Sir Oliver Ingham: it is blue, with gold studs or points.

Note a. See the figures referred to by Mr. Stothard in these observations, delineated in the work.

"Before the general introduction of plate-armour, men seem to have been pretty well loaded; but, as most excesses cure themselves, it became necessary to get rid of something. The hauberk was succeeded by the haubergeon, which was shorter: see the Knight at Tewkesbury. Before the end of the fourteenth century, 1 believe, the mail chausses, or stockings, disappeared from our own monuments. This is difficult to ascertain, because the joints (the only places where the chausses might be seen) were always defended by pieces of mail, called, in some instances, gaussets (gussets).

"It does not seem as if the Black Prince had a steel bark preu, yet I apprehend the lower division of his body is in plate. Perhaps he wears the piece of armour called the pance^a. I am inclined to think so from John Lord Montacute's effigy, where there is a contrivance to give more action, and defend the joints of the body-armour; which would be unnecessary if either the upper or lower portions were not of plate, or something similar. You perhaps know that there was a substitute for plate, much in fashion at this period, called cmr or leather boiled and moulded into any form; hard enough, when dry, to resist a sword.

Note a. Pance, ventre. Panchiere; partie de l'armour, destinee a couvrir le ventre.—Glossaire de la Langue Romane. For the term bark preu, we should perhaps read borde preui.e. a strong piece of armour, composed of bars or laminae of iron. The appearance of Montacute's armour about the waist will explain Mr. Stothard's meaning.

"I know nothing more difficult than to distinguish the plates under the surcoat; we must seek information on this point from other sources. The singular appearance on monuments of the earliest sort of mail, I think to be owing to its having been sewed on cloth in particular directions, or else a different mode of representing a complete body. If you take a steel purse, and pull it crossways, the rings will range in the same order, and have the same appearance. There is little doubt of their having been rings, and not circular pieces of plate^a."

Note a. Memoir, p. 268.

Nicetas thus describes the attire of the Prince of Antioch, a French lord, at a tournament held in honour of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus: "He was mounted on a beautiful horse, whiter than snow, clothed in a coat-of-arms open on both sides, and which fell to his heels — αμπισκομενος κιτωνα διασκιστον ποδηνεκη." For an illustration, see the effigies of Geoffrey Magnaville and of the nameless Templar.

The warriors represented in the Bayeux Tapestry wear no surcoats over their coats of mail; but, after the first crusade, they are common on our historical sculptural memorials. Joinville, in his Life of St. Louis, says: "I remember once the good Lord King (father to the King now on the throne) speaking of the pomp of dress, and the embroidered coats-of-arms, that are now daily common in the armies, I said to the present King, that, when I was in the Holy Land with his father, and in his army, I never saw one single embroidered coat, or ornamented saddle, in possession of the King his father, or any other lord. He answered that he had done wrong in embroidering his arms, and that he had some coats that had cost him eight hundred livres parisis^a." At length, the surcoat became an additional defence for the body, and was thickly gamboised, or quilted.

Note a. Johnes's translation of Joinville's Memoirs, 4to, 180/, p. 94. f Ibid. p. 146.

The same author, in the interesting personal narrative of his adventures in the Holy Land, cites a striking instance of the efficacy of a quilted defence for the body: "I luckily found near me a gaubison of coarse cloth, belonging to a Saracen, and turning the slit part inward, I made a sort of shield, which was of much service to me; for I was only wounded by their shots in five places, whereas my horse was hurt in fifteen^a.

Note a. MS. of the year 1301, cited by Du Cange.

Those whose property did not qualify them to become knights, and wear the distinction of the knightly order, the hauberk of mail, were to supply themselves with a quilted gambeson, or wambais, as a defence:

"Quicumque vero 20 librarum vel amplius habebit de mobilibus, tenebitur habere loricam, vel loricale et capellum ferreum et lanceam. Qui vero minus de 20 libris habebit de mobilibus, tenebitur habere et capellum ferreum et lanceam." [But whosoever shall have 20 pounds or more of movables, must have a belt, or a breastplate and an iron hat and a lance. But he who will have less than 20 pounds of movables, he must have both an iron hat and a lance]

In the inventory of the wearing-apparel of King Louis Hutin, made 1318, he gives us the following items:

"Une cotte gamboisee de cendal blanc (white sarsenet). Deux tunicles et un gamboison des armes de France. Une couverture de gamboisons brodees des armes du roi. Trois paires de couvertures gamboisiees des armes du roi, et unes Indes jazequenees. Un cuisiax gamboisez (a pair of gamboised cuisses). Unes couvertures gamboisees de France et de Navarre."

Mr. Stothard, in reference to the gamboising on monuments, in a letter to the Rev. T. Kerrich, savs: "You recollect the armour on your Paris figures, formed of ribs running longitudinally. I have not only discovered what it is intended to represent, but also lately found (in further proof that my conjecture was right) a knight whose long surcoat, with sleeves in separate pieces, is composed of it; but what puts the matter beyond doubt is the surcoat of Edward the Black Prince, hanging over his tomb. I have lately examined and drawn it. The whole is ribbed in a similar manner; but we soon account for that, having one specimen of the thing before us, when a hundred of the best representations in stone would not have done it. The surcoat of the Black Prince is stuffed with cotton to nearly three quarters of an inch in thickness; and, in order to keep the cotton in its place, longitudinal and narrow divisions were made all over it—in short it is quilted; the divisions being the places where the cotton is sewed down—what, I believe, was called by the French gamboising^a."

Note a. Memoir, p. 267. An example of the gamboised surcoat, clearly defined, will be seen in the effigy of Shurland.

On the use of coats-of-arms by the infidels, the authority of Joinville is very decisive. Speaking of the youthful captives made in war, purchased of contending states in the East, and composing the Sultan's body-guard, he says: "These youths bore the arms of the Sultan, and were calied his Bahairiz. When their beards were grown, the Sultan made them knights; and their emblazonments were, like his, of pure gold, save that, to distinguish them, they added bars of Vermillion, with roses, birds, griffins, or any other difference, as they pleased. They were called the Band of the Hauleca; which signifies the Archers of the King's Guard^a."

Note a. Johnes's translation of Joinville's Memoirs, p. 156.

Thus it also appears probable that the metallic colours of heraldry had their rise in the actual use of the precious metals by the infidels, in the gorgeous distinctions assumed by them for their armour^a.

Note a. How many distinctive bearings were suggested by garments, arms, or implements, which must have been familiar to the warriors of the crusades: manches, vair, flanches, minever, swords, arbalists, bows, lances, arrows, pheons (barbed heads for missiles), battering-rams, water-budgets, &c.

During the late long-continued war in which this country was engaged, every military man will recollect that many points of foreign military costume were adopted by the officers of the British army. It does not, therefore, appear wonderful that the first crusaders should have imitated the splendid arms in which their enemies were attired, or, to extend the remark, that theywere induced to adopt their light and elegant pointed style of building, in the room of the heavy features to which they themselves had debased the Roman architecture.

In continuation, we now add some of Mr. Stothard's own remarks, on these and correlative points

"Of the surcoat.—John is the first of the Kings of England, we observe, to wear the surcoat over the hauberk. An old French writer tells us Charlemagne had always, in winter, a new surcoat, with sleeves lined with fur, to guard his body and heart from cold.

"The Crest, or Cap of Estate.—On the seals of Edward the Third, made after he had assumed the lilies of France, by quartering them with the leopards of England, we observe for the first time the cap of estate surmounted with the lion, A. D. 1388.

"We do not find by our monuments, or other memorials, that crests were borne in such variety as at present; with but few exceptions, they were originally the heads of beasts or birds, or bunches of feathers. The reared arm bearing the cross, the demi-lion, and many others of the same character, which now abound, are most probably the conceits of the age of Henry the Eighth, when quaint fancies were sought after.

"From the tomb of Richard the Second, and other evidences, it appears he not only impaled the arms of England with those of Edward the Confessor, but also used them on an escutcheon alone, Edward the Confessor having been adopted by Richard as his patron saint. An example of this, and perhaps the best, is to be found over the entrance to Westminster Hall. Edward the Third adopted St. George as his patron saint; and we find on the tomb of that King the arms of England and the cross of St. George alternately enamelled on escutcheons: and it is not improbable that the cross of St. George has been the English badge ever since Edward's time^a.* This appears still more likely, when it is considered that Edward the Third founded the Order of the Garter.

Note a. This is a judicious observation of Mr. Stothard; for we find by Matthew Paris that, in the year 1188, the French crusaders were distinguished by red crosses, the English by white, the Flemings by green. We may therefore infer that the red cross was not then one of our national ensigns. "Crucem animosius susceperunt. Provisum est etiam inter eos, ut omnes de regno, Francorum cruces rubeas, de terris regis Anglorum albas, de terra comitis Flandrensis virides haberent cruces." [They took up the cross with courage. It is also provided among them, as all of the kingdom, French red crosses, white the lands of the king of the English, from the land of the Count of Flanders they would have green crosses] Matt. Paris, Hist. Angl. edit. Watts, p. 146.

"Knights being represented cross-legged was certainly allusive to Templars, or Knights of the Holy Voyage; as after Edward the Thirds reign (in which the order was dissolved) we find no monuments in that fashion.

"At the earlier period, when the mail covered the head, it appears not to have been detached from, but to have been one piece with, that which covered the body; but in the early part of the reign of Henry the Third, to which period our earliest effigies belong, we see the mail on the top of the head, and laced or tied above the left ear. Of this description are the effigies of many of the knights in the Temple church [Map], William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury, the Knight in Malvern abbey church, Robert Courthose, &c. An early specimen differs considerably from these, as the mail appears to go over the surcoat, not to have any kind of lacing or fastening much above the ears, nor to be attached to the shirt of mail, as in the former — only, like them, characterized by this flatness.

"The last alteration we find, is the mail as before, but of one entire piece, sometimes with and sometimes without a fillet; but resembling the hood, a part of the civil dress, to be drawn over the head, and thrown back upon the shoulders, at pleasure.

"The basinet was worn in the fourteenth century, and part of the thirteenth, sometimes with or without a vizor, but always finished with other appendages, as vervilles^a. The camail, and what was called by the French a hourson, to which may be added a strap, was to attach the whole, by means of a buckle, to the haubergeon, or plates.

Note a. Memoir, p. 335.

"The camail was originally a covering of mail for the head, and was called capmail, the basinet being worn over it; but about 1330 its form was materially altered: it no longer extended as a covering for the head; vervilles or staples, were introduced on the basinet, and the camail fastened outside, by means of these and a lace. We have some few instances, about the period that this change took place, where the ends of the mail, at its junction with the basinet, are left folding over the lacing, and depending on each side in an ornamental form. The camail was often called the barbiere, or the gorgerette, after the changes took place; but as there is more consistency in Froissart, in his descriptions of armour, I have preferred that name by which he invariably distinguishes this appendage to the basinet. The lacing of the helmet to the cervelliere appears to have been first disused in all those monuments of the time of Henry the Fourth, and was never afterwards resumed^a.

Note a. Ibid. p. 332.

Speaking of the fanciful diaper-work introduced in the first and fourth quarters of the shield of De Vere Earl of Oxford, the [See Image below], and thus [See Image below] on the second and third, Mr. Stothard, with his usual discrimination, says he does not see that any herald is justified in calling the fleu-de-lys ornament a quarter of France^a.

Note a. Ibid. p. 332.

"The chaplet, in the time of Henry the Fourth, appears to have been worn round the helmet as a defence, being composed of twisted linen, or a fillet of cloth stuffed with somewhat most capable of resisting the blow of a sword. For a specimen of the latter, we must look to Bohun, in Gloucester cathedral."

We shall venture to add a few remarks in continuation of Mr. Stothard's.

The chaplet, and the heraldic wreath placed under the crest, are perhaps nearly the same thing; only that, when the helmet was taken off the wreath was removed to the basinet. The probable origin of the heraldic wreath was the twisted turban of the infidels, called by Joinville a twisted towel, the folds of which he mentions as forming a good defence against the cut of sword or sabre. The pot-helmet of the effigy of a Crusader in the Temple church, seems to be furnished with a plain padded fillet. As the military costume advanced in luxurious splendour, this wreath, chaplet, or circlet, was adorned with rich chasing of goldsmiths' work, precious stones, &c. See a beautiful example in the details of the monument of Sir Edmund de Thorpe.

The knightly wreath, and its protuberant size, is noted by Chaucer. He says it was as thick as the arm:

"A wreth of gold arm gret, of huge weight.

Upon his hed set, ful of stones bright.

Of fine rubys and clere diamants."- The Knight's Tale, 1. 2146.

Froissart relates to us, with his usual interesting circumstantiality, the manner in which Edward the Third presented a chaplet of pearls to the gallant French knight, Sir Eustace de Ribeaumont:

"When supper was over, and the tables removed, the King remained in the hall among the English and French knights bareheaded, except a chaplet of fine pearls which was round his head.

When he came to Sir Eustace de Ribeaumont, he assumed a cheerful look, and said with a smile, 'Sir Eustace, you are the most valiant knight in Christendom, that I ever saw attack his enemy or defend himself I never yet found any one in battle who, body to body, had given me so much to do as you have done this day. I adjudge to you the prize of valour above all the knights of my court, as what is justly due to you. The King then took off the chaplet, which was very rich and handsome, and placing it on the head of Sir Eustace, said, 'Sir Eustace, I present you with this chaplet, as being the best combatant this day, either within or without doors; and I beg of you to wear it this year, for love of me. I know that you are lively and amorous, and love the company of ladies and damsels; therefore say, wherever you go, that I gave it you^a'".

Note a. Johnes's Froissart, vol. II. p. 248, 8vo. edit.

These coronets, circlets, or garlands, were at first, perhaps, like the collar of SS. at a later period, a general distinction for gentle rank or honourable achievement. A ram and a ring were constituted the prize for the victor at an ancient wrestling-match. The ring spoken of was, we imagine, a circlet for the head, not for the finger.

"Much worship were it, sothly,

Brothir, unto us all.

Might I the Ram, and als the Ring,

Bringin home to the hall."

Chaucer, The Coke's Tale of Gamelyn.

Chaplets, or garlands, were used at funerals to decorate the corpse or bier of deceased virgins, or suspended in the church where they had attended divine worship. Within our recollection, some, curiously formed of paper, were hanging in Farningham church, in Kent. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for June 1747, says, that "in 1733, as the parish-clerk of Bromley, in Kent, was digging a grave in the churchyard, close to the east end of the chancel wall, he dug up a funeral garland, or crown, artificially wrought in filagree-work with gold and silver wire, in resemblance of myrtle. Its leaves were fastened to hoops of larger wire of iron, which were something corroded with rust; but both the gold and silver wire remained very little different from its original splendour. The inside was also lined with cloth of silver^a."- The priest at Ophelia's funeral says, she is allowed "her virgin crants^b," or garlands.

Note a. See Dunkin's Outlines of the History of Bromley, in Kent

Note b. Hamlet, Act V. Scene i.

If we refer to the beautifully illuminated Persian MSS. in the British Museum, we shall be induced to believe the wimple was adopted from the ladies of the East. The coincidence of chain-mail armour in these MSS. with that of our old crusaders, is also very remarkable.

Before the introduction of the fret, the hair of females was plaited. See the figure in Scarcliffe church. In the twelfth century, the hair of both males and females were thus disposed in long tresses:

"Then was there flowing hair (fluxus crinium), and extravagant dress; and then was invented the fashion of shoes with curved points. Then the model for young men was to rival women in delicacy of person, to mince their gait, and to walk, with loose gesture, half naked^a.

Note a. Sharpe's translation of William of Malmesbury, p. 336. This passage refers to the reign of William Rulus.

A striking example of this "fluxus crinium," is presented by the figure of Henry the First's Queen (cotemporary with that King's reign), which forms a pilaster to the west door of Rochester cathedral. The figure of the King himself forms another. The Queen's hair depends over either shoulder in long plaits, below her knees. The kings and queens in the curious ancient chess-men of the twelfth century, lately exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries, wear the hair hanging over the shoulders in several long distinct plaits. The west front of the cathedral of St. Denis exhibits a series of the early Kings and Queens of France, with their hair thus disposed. Mrs. Bray has, in her large collection of Mr. C. Stothard's original drawings, his beautiful views of these figures. Ancient as they are, Montfaucon makes them much more so, and calls them, we believe, "Les Rois Merovingiens."

The cote-hardie, like the juste-au-corps, was, we think, a close-bodied vest. Perhaps it derived its name from leaving the neck and bosom bare. Mr. Stothard says, "it was a summer-dress with ladies towards the end of the fourteenth century, and tells the following anecdote in relation to it: 'A certain nobleman had two daughters, but one was fairer then the other. A gallant knight, who had heard the fame of her beauty, asked and obtained her father's leave to woo her. The day was fixed; the knight arrived. When the damsels appeared, the plain sister came dressed in the order of the season; but the fair one, wishing to outvie her, and to show her charms to the best advantage, wore the cote-hardie, which made her so cold, and her nose looked so red and blue, that the knight could not fancy her beauty; so he wooed and wedded the other maid.'

"In the thirty-seventh year of Edward the Third, the wives and daughters of esquires, not possessing the yearly amount of two hundred pounds, are forbidden to wear any purfilling or facings on their garments, or to use any esclaires crinales, or trefles. The wives and daughters of knights, not possessing property to the value of two hundred marks a year, were restricted from using linings of ermine, or latices esclaires, or any kind of precious stones, unless it be upon their heads."

Of the crescent horned head-dress, with its pendant drapery, constructed, no doubt, upon wires, the figure of Beatrice Countess of Arundel, presents an extravagant instance. The same appendage, arranged in better taste, appears on the female in the plate lettered Sir Robert Grushill and his Lady: and it will be observed worn under the hoods of the female mourners round Beauchamp Earl of Warwick's tomb." The mantle appears to have been given only to married women, in the monuments of the time of Henry the Fourth^a."

Note a. Memoir, p. 332.

Of the usual Civil Costume of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, excellent examples will be found in the tombs of William of Hatfield, William of Windsor, Blanch dela Tour, and the mourners on the monument of Sir Roger de Kerdeston. One of these mourners, a female, and the figure of the Lady of Sir Miles Stapleton, have long pendant lappets to their sleeves. That of the Judge in Willoughby church [Map], Nottinghamshire, has a tunic to which very full sleeves are attached, and he is girt with a rich ceint, or girdle; an appendage of knights, civilians, and ecclesiastics (when unattired in the sacred vestments), in the fourteenth century.

"Change of clothing every day.

With golden girdles, great an small.'

Plowman's Tale.

There are numerous examples of the Regal Habits in the Monumental Effigies. In those of the royal effigies at Fontevraud we distinguish the tunic, the supertunic or dalmatic, the mantle, the crowns, the boots marked as sandals, the jewelled gloves, &c. We trace the variation in the fashion of these regalia until the time of Henry the Fourth.

The early Episcopal figure in the Temple church shows us the plain low mitre and pastoral staff used by Bishops of that period.

Charles Alfred Stothard (age 33). Engraved by Cooper from a Miniature printed by Alfred Chalon RA in the possession of Mr C Stothard.

The mitred Abbot of the Monks of Westminster^a is a fine example of the costume of his order. Had Mr. Stothard survived to complete his work, no doubt he would have added to it the habits of other ecclesiastical orders. It is, however, matter of satisfaction that he has left so little unnoticed by his pencil, which could illustrate the progress of our national costume, regal, ecclesiastical, civil, and military.

In closing these prefatory notes, which the antiquarian reader will no doubt amplify from his own store of knowledge, and by examination of the plates (which ever will be found a faithful volume speaking for themselves); it may be acceptable that some short account of the author's life should be added^a.

Note a. Pirrie, for pierrerie, jewelry,

CHARLES ALFRED STOTHARD was the eldest surviving son of Thomas Stothard, Esq. R.A.; he was born July 5th, 1787.

At an early age he exhibited a strong propensity for study, and a genius for drawing. The latter was more particularly developed in various clever miniature scenes which he executed for his schoolboy model of a stage. On leaving school he entered, by his own wish, as a student in the Royal Academy, where he soon attracted notice for the chaste feeling and accuracy with which he drew from the antique sculptures.

In 1802 he accompanied his father to Burleigh, the seat of the Marquis of Exeter, the grand staircase of which the latter was employed in decorating by his masterly pencil. Mr. Stothard senior, suggested to his son that he might fill up his time by making drawings of the monuments in the neighbouring churches, as useful authorities for designing costume. This circumstance gave the first bias of Mr. Charles Stothard's mind towards the subject which afterwards became his pursuit.

In 1808 he received his ticket as student in the Life Academy, and formed a resolution to become an historical painter. Circumstances which subsequently arose, however, changed this determination. Having formed an attachment for the young lady who afterwards became his wife, he feared that as an historical painter he might not acquire sufficient pecuniary independence to enable him prudently to become a married man. He resolved, therefore, to turn his attention exclusively to the illustration of our national antiquities, more particularly in a path which had hitherto been but imperfectly pursued — the delineation of the sculptured Effigies erected in our churches as memorials for the dead, in such manner as they might be referred to and depended on as accurate authorities, illustrating our national history and ancient costume.

In 1810 Mr. Charles Stothard painted a spirited picture, representing the murder of Richard the Second in Pontefract Castle, in which the characteristic dresses of the time were strictly adhered to. For the portrait of the King himself, he made studies Rom his effigy in Westminster Abbey. This picture was exhibited at Somerset Place in 1811.

In the same year he published his first Number of the Monumental Effigies of Great Britain, the objects of which were detailed in the following advertisement, which accompanied the publication:

"It is a circumstance much to be regretted, that so important and interesting a subject as the Monumental Effigies of our Kings, Princes, and Nobles, should have been treated with so much neglect, as among all the works published with the intention of giving representations of them, there is not one that can be relied on. Without possessing that simplicity and chastity which characterizes the originals, they are not correct even as to particulars. It was partly on this account that this Work was undertaken, with a view, by paying the most particular attention to the subject, to rescue from the destroyer Time those Works of Art, introduced into our Cathedrals and Churches as Memorials for the Dead, which, independent of their antiquity, are the greater part specimens of sculpture, which, for grandeur, simplicity, and chastity of style, are not to be surpassed, if equalled, by any nation in Europe.

"There are, though not generally known, as they have never been published, a few Etchings by the Rev. T. Kerrich, of Cambridge^a,* Rom Monuments in the Dominicans' and other Churches in Paris, which claim the highest praise that can be bestowed, as well for their accuracy as for the style in which they are executed: these are mentioned as a tribute which they deserve, and as the sight of them induced the proprietor of this Work to execute the Etchings for it himself.

Note a. Some of these etchings were afterwards communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. Kerrich, and inserted in their Archæologia, vol. XVIII. p. 19A

Had it been but to remedy the above-mentioned defect, there would not, perhaps, have been sufficient encouragement for entering on a Work of this magnitude, till it was found on consideration that other very desirable points would be gained, which would make it more generally interesting. The first of which was the great service these Monumental Effigies would render the Historical Painter, by explaining the costume adopted at different periods in England, as they give more complete ideas on the subject than can be drawn Rom any other source: the knowledge we now have in this respect has been in general gathered from the illuminated MSS. in our public libraries; but either from the minuteness of the figures in some, or the rudeness of the drawing in others that are on a larger scale, they are too much generalized, and do not give us those smaller parts and ornaments which are so interesting.

"The second point gained, was that of elucidating History and Biography, as most of those characters must in the course of this Work be brought in, who have been concerned in the civil and military affairs of England Rom the earliest times to the reign of Henry the Eighth. This has also suggested the idea of illustrating the Historical Plays of our great dramatic poet Shakspeare, in order to assist the stage in selecting its costume with that propriety which will always add consequence to his characters, and give that stamp of truth which they so highly deserve. We should not then see as now the slashed doublet and cloak, peculiar to the sixteenth century, introduced without discrimination in the play of King John as well as that of Henry the Eighth; or the Bastard Faulconbridge in armour, which would puzzle the most profound antiquary to know when or where such was ever worn.

"If it be true that we may derive the above advantages R*om the Monumental Effigies of Great Britain, they surely deserve to be saved from the oblivion in which so many have already sunk, and preserved as records of the splendour with which sculpture once flourished in England."

Mr. Stothard's undertaking procured for him the warm friendship of the Rev. T. Kerrich, of whose talents he makes such honourable mention; and for the candid criticism of that excellent judge of matters of antiquity and art in the progress of his work, he at all times expressed himself much indebted^a.

Note a. Mr. Kerrich's numerous and interesting collection of sketches and plans of the details of Gothic Architecture were left, at his death, to the British Museum. His collection of paintings of the Gothic Age were bequeathed to the Society of Antiquaries, and are suspended on the walls of their meeting-room.

The talents of Mr. C. Stothard as an artist, and the accuracy of his research in objects connected with his pursuit, soon obtained for him a distinguished reputation as an antiquary, and the acquaintance of characters eminent for their learning and respectability. Among these were the late Sir Joseph Banks (who highly appreciated him), and Samuel Lysons, Esq. the joint author of "Magna Britannia," who esteemed him as a friend. Mr. Lysons employed him to make some drawings illustrative of his work; far which purpose, in the summer of 1815, Mr. C. Stothard made a journey northward as lar as the Piets' Wall, adding to his portfolio many drawings for the Magna Britannia, monumental subjects for himself, and a number of little sketches, executed in the most delicate and peculiar manner, of different views and buildings in the country through which he passed. During his absence from London Mr. Lysons gave him a proof of his esteem and regard, by obtaining for him, unsolicited, the appointment of Historical Draughtsman to the Society of Antiquaries of London.

His task being accomplished, he proceeded with Mrs. Stothard on a tour of investigation through Normandy, and more particularly Britanny. In order to render their families participators in some degree of the pleasure of their journey, Mrs. Stothard addressed to her mother, Mrs. Kempe, a particular detail of it in a series of letters, which her husband illustrated by various beautiful drawings of the views, costume, and architectural antiquities, which they thought worthy of notice in their route: these formed the ground-work of the publication of Letters to which we have referred.

Note a. Tour in Britanny, p. 294.

Note b. See Memoir of his Life, pp. 243 to 248.

In 1819 Mr. C. Stothard laid before the Society of Antiquaries the complete series of his Drawings horn the Tapestry of Bayeux; and a paper highly creditable to his discrimination, in which he proved from internal evidence, that the Tapestry was coeval with the period immediately succeeding the Conquest, refuting the assertions of the Abbe de la Rue. This Essay was printed in vol. xix. of the Archæologia. On the 2d of July of the same year Mr. Stothard was unanimously elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In the following autumn he made a series of exquisitely finished drawings for the Society, from the paintings then lately discovered on the walls of the Painted Chamber in the ancient royal palace of Westminster. Fearlessly ardent in his pursuit, he took his stand on the highest and most dangerous parts of the scaffold erected for the repairs; and on one occasion there, narrowly escaped the fate which afterwards befel him. The Society of Antiquaries are in possession of these admirable drawings; and they will, doubtless, when it shall be practicable, be carefully engraved for one of their annual publications.

Some characteristic anecdotes of the ardour of Mr. Charles Stothard in his antiquarian pursuits may find admission here.

The monument of Aveline Countess of Lancaster, in Westminster Abbey, was concealed by the lofty cenotaph of Lord Ligonier, and thus rendered inaccessible to the tight of day. Never daunted by any difficulties which offered themselves to an antiquarian pursuit, Mr. Stothard furnished his pockets with wax-candles, clay, and a percussion tube (a German invention for producing fire). Thus prepared, he watched his opportunity, scaled the monument of Lord Ligonier, lit and fixed his candles, and in the situation above described, smothered with dust, actually completed the drawing of the beautiful monument which embellishes his series of Effigies, without the knowledge of any of the attendants in the abbey.

In one of his customary rambles with the writer, he had the good fortune to meet with the monument of Sir John Peche, or Pechy, as the name is pronounced, at the site of an old baronial mansion, Lullingstone Castle, near Eynsford, in Kent. The effigy afforded a fine specimen of the military costume of the age of Henry the Eighth. The whole was in admirable preservation; but the very circumstance which had contributed to that perfect state, rendered it almost impossible for an artist to gain such an entire view as might enable him to draw it correctly; it was covered by an horizontal slab, distant not more than eighteen inches from the face. (See the Vignette.) This difficulty did not repulse Mr. Stothard. By the aid of a graduated line (he drew all his monuments by scale), he brought all the parts into their due relative proportion, and in two days produced the drawing of which the late Mr. Bartholomew Howlett made a very satisfactory etching, after Mr. Stothard's death, for this work.

Often when a monument was so disfigured as, to the eye of any ordinary observer, to appear hopeless as the subject for a drawing, would Mr. Stothard, by industriously stripping it, by means of a penknife, of its barbarous coat of whitewash, or other plastering (called by country churchwardens beautifying restore the sharpness of the parts, and produce a drawing replete with the finest minutiae of detail. Never was there an eye more accurately observant of the characteristic points of art in different ages than Mr. Stothard's. Not a fragment of painted glass, or tile decorated by any sort of ornament, but be could assign to it a proper era. This lion rampant was of the manner adopted in blazoning heraldic bearings in the reign of the First Edward; the ornament on that belt was of the Third; the mitre on the head of a certain Bishop was of Henry the Third's time; the style of such a capital bespoke a coeval date. The original conjecture that the collar of SS. expressed Henry the Fourth's favourite motto, was one instance of his critical acumen; and a good proof that his solution of the enigma was right, is, that some antiquaries have since unhesitatingly adopted it as their own:—an observation which might be extended to the piracies which have been committed on his monumental etchings; for such they become, when his drawings have been copied without even the courtesy of acknowledgment.

There was more of that nerve and perseverance necessary for the pursuit of his monumental researches in solitude, and in wild and unfrequented districts, than a common observer, from the unpretending demeanour of Mr. Stothard, might have supposed. Many miles did he pass through obscure paths, to bye and unfrequented villages, in search of ancient effigies. On his arrival at the church, he often found the effigy which he was in search of removed, or so mutilated and disfigured as to be useless for his work. Many days and weeks did he spend in rural solitudes, the whole of his day being passed in the church, and at night was forced to content himself with taking up his quarters at the village public-house; where, he has often been heard to say, the sight of a pedlar with his pack was a most unwelcome one, as it often foretold that the only tenantable bed in the cabin was occupied for the night. Yet Mr. Stothard had resources in his own mind, drawn not only from his pursuits, but his good understanding, which preserved his spirits in these scenes. Seated near the chimney of the village alehouse fire, the burning brands illuminating the ample hearth, the motley group of rustics all around, he would listen to their conversation, and note it down when it took a singular or comic turn; or he would take out his little sketch-book, and delineate their boorish features. "There is great pleasure," he would say, "in observing the character of man in all its forms." "How often, in a village alehouse," would he add, "have I recognized the clowns of our inimitable Shakspeare."

It was no small part of Mr. Stothard's aptitude for his task, that he joined to his rare talent a slender active body, of the middle stature, about five feet eight inches in height, habits remarkably abstemious, and the most perfect health. He was capable of the longest walks, without suffering inconvenience from them. On one occasion (in the evening, after finishing the drawing from the monument of Sir Thomas Cawne) he walked from Ightham, in Kent, to London.

Mr. Stothard had projected several graphic works, illustrative of English history, to be executed by himself, after the manner of his monumental effigies—as a chronological series of ancient seals; a miscellaneous collection of effigies, and subjects illustrating the Elizabethan age: and Mrs. Bray has in her possession his original drawings of the effigies of some of the characters eminent in French history, sufficient of themselves to form a publication consisting of several plates. Mrs. Bray has also a valuable collection of his sketch-books, in which are noted every object which arrested his attention in his numerous antiquarian excursions.

Blanche, Mr. C. Stothard's posthumous daughter, was born on the 29th June, 1821, but one month after the fatal accident which suffered her not to be greeted in this world by a father's smile. She lived little more than seven months, when she was called to join him, we humbly trust, in immortality. She died on the 2d February, 1822. Mrs. Stothard's (now Mrs. Bray's) narrative of these heavy afflictions, in the Memoir which we have so often quoted, is full of that deep and sincere feeling which gives force and beauty to language, and subdues to sympathy every chord of the human heart.

Over the narrow but peaceful tenement where the mortal remains of the Author of this Work repose, until the last trumpet shall again, at his Creator's will, arouse them into life, four rose-trees and a juniper-plant were flourishing in 1825. The lovers of the elegant arts, and historical science, will add to these an ever green laurel.