of jewels. The tasselled extremities of the But it is the head dresses in this period which present the chief variety in costume. The example on this brass is a modification of the reticulated head-dress, or cap of protuberant fret-work or netted drapery. The special name given to this head-attire is "crespine," or "crestine." It was a netted caul worn over the head, confining the front hair over the forehead and in two small bunches above the ears. A roll seems to have encircled the head to keep the headdress in its proper position. Over this a veil or kerchief was thrown, which fell upon the shoulders each side. I may mention here that a fine sculptured illustration of headdresses occurs in the springing of one of the cloister arches in Southwell Collegiate Church. It is engraved in Carter's Ancient Costume. The head rests upon a bolster and pillow very similar to the supports of the head of Lady Berkeley before mentioned, and Lady Bagot, in Baginton Church, Warwickshire, and Lady Drury, in Rougham Church. This is not an uncommon arrangement; the effigy of Joan of Navarre, in Canterbury Cathedral, affords another good. specimen. Sometimes these cushions are beautifully diapered; sometimes they are supported by angels.* The sleeves are buttoned down the arms, and cover the back of the hands. These are sometimes seamed with precious stones * Frequently the upper of the two cushions is set as here, lozenge-wise. The same may be seen on the brass of Eleanore de Bohun, in Westminster Abbey. e.g., those of Beatrice, Countess of Arundel. At the feet of a lady is a dog, generally regarded as an emblem of vigilance or fidelity. Of the inscription, the following words only remain :— Mens' Aprilis An° D'ni M° cccc iiij et Maria vx. eius Quor Ame'. Diddington Church, or "Dodington," as it used to be written, possesses two brasses. The one is attached to the east wall of the south transept: that of Alicia Taylard is riveted to its slab which lies loose in the chancel. It will be seen that portions are lost. One portion wanting of William Taylard is preserved at the vicarage. The monument is to the memory of William Taylard and Elizabeth his wife. He quarters the arms of Chapell of Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, his mother's family. These arms are canting. The lady, who was a daughter and co-heir of John Anstye, quarters with her paternal arms those of Streete, Raynes, and Scudamore. Her maternal grandfather was "Henricus Streete," whose arms were three horses courant. This man's wife was Cecilia, daughter of John Reynes. This John Reynes was twice married, first to Catherine, daughter and heiress of Petrus Escudamore, whose arms were gules, three stirrups with buckles and straps, or. From the heiress of Taylard, her arms were derived to the Brudenells, and they now form part of the quarterings of the Earl of Cardigan. Here is an example of the kneeling attitude before a prie-dieu, or prayer desk. A similar arrangement may be seen on the brass of Sir John Spelman, in Narburgh Church, Norfolk; and another in the same church to John Eyer and wife; in this latter case, however, the scrolls proceed from the face parallel to each other. The scrolls contain the words: "Misericordia tua domine super nos quemadmodum speravi in te." The lady is clothed in the pedimental headdress and in heraldic dress. The inscription runs : Willelmus Taylard pariter cum conjuge grata This is a more respectable attempt than most of the metrical epitaphs. But it will be at once seen that more than one of the tritest rules of versification is infringed. The shafts occupying the sides of this brass contain six figures beneath elaborate canopies. The three male figures on the side of the man, and the three female on that of the lady. They are placed in order of precedence. First, the figure of our Saviour, his right hand in the attitude of blessing; his left holds a globe, surmounted by a cross. Below, a figure of John the Baptist, clad in a long mantle, fastened at the neck by a quatrefoiled morse. In his left hand he holds a book with a lamb impressed upon it, surmounted by a cross. His right hand points to the same. Below him is St. John the Evangelist. He holds in his right hand a chalice, with an eagle sitting upon the top of it; his left hand supports the base. The eagle frequently symbolises St. John on brasses and painted glass, the reason assigned for such being, that, as the eagle flies highest and looks at the sun, so this holy apostle gazed especially at the glory of our Lord's Divinity. At the top of the sinister shaft is the Blessed Virgin, holding in her right hand the infant Jesus, and in her left a sceptre surmounted by the fleur-de-lis. Beneath her is St. Mary Magdalene, represented with long hair flowing down her shoulders. In her right hand is a peculiarly shaped box of ointment. Beneath her is St. Catherine, the patron saint of Diddington Church. She is crowned, to denote (1) her royal descent, she being daughter of Costis, King of Egypt; (2) her martyrdom. She holds in her right hand a wheel, in her left a sword; the former denoting the torture prepared for her by the tyrant Maximin, the latter representing the instrument of her execution.* I will only add of this brass, how great is the misfortune that it is imperfect, as it is an exceedingly fine specimen of architectural and heraldic design. Alicia Taylard, widow of Walter Taylard, eldest son of the afore-named William Tay*It is curious that all of these figures, except that of our Lord, are represented on the frontal orphrey of the cope of John de Sleford, Master of the Wardrobe to King Edward III. upon his brass in Balsham Church, Cambridgeshire. lard, and brother to Dr. William Taylard, of Offord, whose brass we shall notice presently. This Alicia was daughter and coheir of Robert Forster, who was buried in the Temple Church, London, whose arms are impaled with those of Taylard beneath her brass. She is represented in a pedimental or angular head-dress, which was generally made of velvet or embroidered cloth, and was characteristic of the latter part of Henry VII.'s reign and that of his successor. The lappets fall over the shoulders and back. She wears a barbe, which, though a conventual form of dress, was adopted by elderly widows. A similar example may be seen on the brass of Elizabeth Porte, in Etwall Church, near Burton-on-Trent. It was a common practice for widows to retire to some religious house, and assume the veil, in proof of which we may notice the brass of the widow of John Braham, in Frense Church, Norfolk. She is there described as vidua ac Deo devota. But without such retirement the dress was constantly assumed by widows. The barbe was a linen neckerchief, plaited in front in perpendicular folds. Lady Philippa de Beauchamp appears thus clad on her brass in Necton Church, Norfolk. In mourning, however, a kind of barbe was adopted by females of all ranks, though the sumptuary laws of Henry VIII. ordained that countesses and ladies of still higher rank might be barbed above the chin, that baronesses might be barbed about the chin, and all other gentlewomen beneath the gullet. A scroll issues from her mouth: "Jesu merci Ladye help." The same words may be seen on a slab in Kirby-in-Ashfield Church, Notts. Another scroll addressed to the Virgin is engraved on the brass of William Berdewell, in West Harling Church, Norfolk : Sancta Dei genetrix ora pro me. More frequently they are addressed to our Saviour. The scroll points appropriately to the Virgin Mary, to whom it is addressed; she is nursing the infant Jesus. A similar representation of the Virgin and Child may be seen over the triple canopy of the beautiful brass to the memory of Thomas Nelond, Prior of Lewes, and in that of Sir Nicholas Hawberk, Cobham Church, Kent. Kneeling behind the widow are three daughters-children are usually grouped; sometimes they stand at the feet, sometimes kneel behind. Sons are placed at the father's side, daughters by that of the mother. And when a man has a family with two wives, care is taken that each has the honour only of her own. The insertion of kneeling children commenced in the middle of the fifteenth century, and became quite common in the sixteenth. Several interesting examples are engraved in Cotman's Sepulchral Brasses of Norfolk and Suffolk. The date is subscribed in Arabic numerals "1513. In this year by her last will she ordeyned that her body be buried in Dodington Churche." (To be continued.) Lord Hungerford of beytesbury. By WILLIAM JOHN HARDY. PART I. N Canon Jackson's Guide to Fairleigh Hungerford will be found several versions of the curious legends which still attach to Farley Castle, implicating some member of the Hungerford family in a crime that was once committed within the castle walls. So widely So widely do these legends differ as to the nature of the crime, the period when it was committed, and the name of its perpetrator, that we might at first feel inclined to dismiss them as idle tales, mere scraps of village gossip, which after generations have woven into a connected narrative. But on reflection we shall remember that there are suspicious circumstances connected with certain members of the Farley line of the Hungerford family that will make us pause before dismissing as idle these dark legends which, outliving the decay of their scene of action, linger on to be told to visitors of the present day at Farley. To persons in three successive generations of the Hungerford family, all living during. the sixteenth century, these suspicious circumstances attach; and to these persons it would seem that the legends of Farley owe their origin; they are: I. Agnes, second wife of Sir Edward Hungerford, who was hanged at Tyborne, in 1523, for being instrumental in obtaining the murder of her first husband, John Cotell. The murder was committed actually within the walls of Farley Castle, and the victim's body thrown into the kitchen furnace there. II. Walter, Lord Hungerford, of Heytesbury, only son of the above Sir Edward, by his first wife. He married three times; behaved with cruelty to each wife, especially to the last, whom he imprisoned for several years in one of the towers of Farley Castle. Lord Hungerford was finally charged with treason and an unnatural offence, found guilty, and executed on Tower Hill with Thomas Lord Cromwell; and III. Sir Walter Hungerford, known as "the Knight of Farley," eldest son of the executed Lord Hungerford. Like his father, he married three times, and made but a little better husband. From his second wife he was divorced, and married his third, probably on the point of death. Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury, the person of whom we are about to speak, was then one of those who had a share in originating the legends of Farley. The story of the unfortunate Agnes has been too recently told in the pages of this magazine to need repetition now;* and mention of the incidents connected with the life of "the Knight of Farley" must be reserved for some future occasion. Walter was the only son of Sir Edward Hungerford by his first wife, Jane, a daughter of Lord Zouche of Haryngworth; he was born about the year 1503, being aged "nineteen and upwards" at his father's death in 1522. Sir Edward (who left the whole of his personal estate to his second wife, Agnes) makes no mention of his son in his will, and the first we learn of him is on the 26th of June, 1523, four months after his stepmother's execution, when he was party to an Indenture made with the King prior to obtaining livery of his father's lands. The Livery itself is dated on the 15th July following, and gives to Walter license to enter upon all the lands, &c., of which his father died *THE ANTIQUARY, vol ii. p. 233. + Close Roll 15 Hen. VIII, m. 22. seized, and which his stepmother had held for term of her life.* Walter's first wife was Susan, a daughter of Sir John Danvers, of Dauntsey, who bore him one child, the "Knight of Farley." This marriage must have been contracted at an early age, as in 1528 Walter was the father of three daughters, all of whom, according to the pedigrees, were born of his second wife, Alicia, one of the daughters of William, Lord Sandys, of the Vine, Hampshire. The authority for this statement is a curious Indenture,† made on the 14th of April, 1528, between Walter Hungerford and Sir William Stourton, Knt., son and heir of Edward, fifth Lord Stourton, by which-for the sum of £800-the wardship and marriage of Charles (son and heir apparent of Sir William Stourton) were sold to Walter. "To the intente only that the said Charles shall marye and take to his wyfe oon of the three daughters of the saide Walter, Elynor, Mary, or Anne; to wyte suche of theym as the saide William shall hereunto appoynte," the "appointment" to be made "thisside the feaste of Ester next comyng; Yf the saide Elynor, Mary, or Anne, or any of theym to the saide maryage wyll assente." If Charles happened to die, it was further agreed that Andrew, Sir William Stourton's second son, should become Walter Hungerford's ward, and marry one of his daughters. These matrimonial arrangements, however, so carefully agreed upon by Stourton and Hungerford for their respective children, do not seem to have proved acceptable to the parties principally concerned in the matter; and, as there is no record of any Hungerford having become the wife of a Stourton, we may conclude that neither Eleanor, Mary, nor Anne "to the saide maryage" did "assente."‡ In October, 1532,§ Walter married his third and last wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John, Lord Hussey of Sleford, the lady who was afterwards, by her husband's order, incarcerated at Farley. Till this time Walter does Pat. Roll 15 Hen. VIII. part ii. m. 5. + Printed in Grose and Astle's Antiquarian Repertory, vol. iv. p. 669. Eleanor married (1) William Maister, gentleman; (2) Sir John Hungerford, of Down Ampney; and died in 1591. Mary married (1) James Baker, (2) Thomas Shaa. Anne died unmarried. § See " Inquis. P.M. of Sir Walter Hungerford,” No. 159, 6 James I. not appear to have been prominent in public affairs; but very soon after his last marriage, we find his new father-in-law writing to Secretary Cromwell that Walter (who had now taken up his knighthood) "much desired" to be acquainted with the minister, and that he (Walter) had asked the writer " to be a means of furthering him in the same."* To make sure of obtaining the sought-for friendship, Walter had, it seems by the same letter, sent for Cromwell's acceptance "a patent of five marks a year." This had the desired effect, and a little later we find Lord Hussey again writing to Cromwell, thanking him for his "godnes shewed unto my sone S'Walter Hongerford," and further asking that, by Cromwell's aid, Walter might be the next sheriff of Wiltshire; Lord Hussey adding that Walter did "so deserve it that I am sure ye wilbe contented."+ An introduction once obtained to Cromwell, Walter was not slow in following it up to advantage, and from this time his pen was frequently employed in writing letters to the Secretary, soliciting favours, occasionally in acknowledging the receipt of them. Some dozen or so of these letters will be found in vol. xviii. of the Cromwell Correspondence at the Public Record Office. It is much to be regretted that they throw so little light upon his domestic life at a period when any glimpses into it would be most interesting. Still these letters deserve notice here, because for the most part they treat of the way in which the writer dealt with those who were brought before him on the charge of having spoken treason against the King, the very crime for which Walter was afterwards himself convicted. On the 8th of June, 1536, Walter had summons to Parliament as "Walter Hungerford de Heytesbury Chev." Cromwell was created Baron Cromwell of Okeham on 9th July following; the principal portion, therefore, of Walter's letters, addressed to Cromwell as "His good Lordship," were written after the latter date. One of the charges brought against Lord Hungerford at his trial was for having retained. in his service, and generally befriended, a Cromwell Correspondence (Public Record Office), vol. xviii. + Ibid, certain priest named William Birde, who was guilty of treason; and therefore the most important letters of Lord Hungerford, in the series before us, are those in which he treats of the traitorous priest; these are two in number, and we will quote them, one in full and the other in part, as being interesting in subject and illustrative of Lord Hungerford's style of writing. The first of these is dated at Farley on the 22nd of June.* Pleasyth hyt your Lordshypp to be advertysed that ther come to me on yo XIXth daye of June, last past, one Wyllyam Wyllyams, bayly off Bradford to my house at Farleygh, and ther detectyd byfore me one S' Wyllyam Byrde, vyker of Bradford, and parson of Fytylton, of hygh treson, as more further hyt aperyth by hys conffessyon hereyn inclosyd, wych Y have send unto your good Lordshyp. Y have noo more recorde of y words y' was spokyn by hym, but onely hym selffe, but y mater of hyt selffe ys soo heynus, and y words soo detestable yt me thynke of my boundyn duty and alleagens to my Prynse, and Soverayne Lord and King, I can do noo lesse but to asertyne your Lordshypp theroff. And as consernyng y seyd Wyllyam Wyllyams, y have send hym uppe by my servant Hary Pane, yrs berer. And also y have y seyd Vyker inlykneyse yn hold untyll y doo knowe of your further pleasur thereyn. Also I dyd ask y seyd Wyllyam Wyllyams whye he dyd kepe ys treson soo long, and he seyd yt he wold have utteryd hyt many tymes er thys, but he was lothe too doo hytt, forbycowose yo seyd Vyker was hys unkyll, and of late yo seyd Vyker, layd untyll hys charge, yt he dyd stele hys geldyng, and sertyn mony of hys. Wherapon ys wordes aforseyd was ye rather by hym spokyn, or ells my thowght by hym he wole never have utteryd hyt; but truly my Lord hyt ys peyte y' such a wrech shold lyve soo longe, knowyng any such maters to be trewe by any man to be spokyn, and wold althys longg space keppe y' treson yn hys bely. And yy may further knowe your pleasur yn y premisse, & y shall fullfyll your comandment accordyngly. And further y besech your Lordshyp to have me yn your good remembrans yn such old sutes as my seyd servant shall informe your good Lordshyp, & he shall gyve hys delygent attendans to knowe your further pleasure thereyn, & y' hyt maye please your Lordshyp to gyve further credens unto my seyd seryant. And y y rest at your comandment. Farleygh yrs present xxiith day of June By your Lordshyppes most bowdyn, and at your comand', At WATER HUNgerford. Endorsed"Letter from the Lord Hungerford of the detection of the Vicar of Harford."† So then we see Lord Hungerford, according to his own account, a zealous officer of The Indictment against Lord Hungerford (Parliament Roll, 31 and 32 Hen. VIII., m. 42) states that proceedings were first taken against Birde in 1536. + Clearly a mistake for Bradford. the King, anxious to bring to justice and punishment rather than befriend the rash utterer of treason. The next letter, dated on the 5th of October, evidently in the same year, contains the following allusion to Birde. And further that wher your lordshpp dyd comande me to sende ye vyker of Forde* unto ye comyn jayle, thereto remayne w'owt bayle, or mainprise, for hys abhomynabell words, that he had azeust ye kynges hyghnys, he ys at large yn hys paryshe notw'stondyng your comandment, and as yet wowt punysmente. And also he doth dayley use hys tonge as unthryftly as ever he dyd; and what youer plesur shalbe done heryn, yt y myght have knowlege, and hyt shalbe fullfyllyd accordyngly, for y have send many tymys unto your good lordshype, and had never answer as yet, of your plesure thereyn. By the foregoing it would seem that Lord Hungerford was powerless to execute Crom well's order for the committal of the traitorous vicar, much as he desired to do so. Woodspring Priory, Somersetshire. F all the barbarous examples of sanctuaries degraded and profaned, that of Woodspring (now So called, really Worspring) Abbey Church is perhaps the most offensive extant. In some instances, the waste of time has been so effectually reinforced by dilapidating violence-that the more sacred parts of the whole monastic pile have disappeared, those only surviving which some economic use has rescued. Such is Cleeve Abbey, in the north-western part of the same county. There refectory and barns survive the demolished walls which enclosed the scene of divine worship. In other cases, too numerous to mention, the whole has gone impartially to wreck together, and there has been no "survival of the fittest" for daily human needs. But the case of Woodspring is that of a church, every ancient member and feature of which unmistakably suggests its sacred character, deliberately converted into a farmer's family house, and with the group of its appurtenant chimneys cropBradford, |