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Archaeologia Cambrensis

SIXTH SERIES.-VOL. XII, PART I

JANUARY, 1912

MONUMENTAL EFFIGIES, PEMBROKESHIRE By E. LAWS, F.S.A., AND E. H. EDWARDS

(Continued from p. 380)

No. 28. Effigy of a Pilgrim in St. Mary's Church, Haverfordwest.-The figure is placed on a slightlyraised slab, near the south-west corner of St. Mary's Church. Dinely, in his Duke of Beaufort's Progress, gives us a drawing of this effigy, which he states was then (1684) in the chancel of St. Martin's Church. He also gives the inscription on a tablet in that church commemorating one John Thomas, who died in 1680. According to him, St. Mary's hath nothing of note, ancient or modern, excepting a coat-of-arms and tablet erected to the memory of John Counsell, M.D., in 1678.

Unfortunately we can get no clue from these inscriptions, as they have both disappeared, but it is evident that Dinely mixed up the churches in his narrative; for it is almost impossible that the pilgrim should have been removed from one to the other.

That Dinely's description refers to this figure is absolutely certain. His sketch is somewhat rough, but it answers in all particulars to the effigy which now lies in St. Mary's Church; indeed, it gives some features

1 Previous mention: Official Progress of the First Duke of Beaufort through Wales: Thomas Dinely, p. 275, ill.; Arch. Camb., 1883, p. 253, ill.

6TH SER., VOL. XII.

153

of which we can trace but slight remains, and which, without his assistance, would be very difficult to identify. The figure is much worn; face, front of head, feet, and beast on which they rested, are gone.

The shoulders are very round, the head small in proportion to the rest of the effigy.

The late Mr. Bloxam, in Arch. Camb., 1883, wrote an excellent account of this figure, and incidentally of pilgrims in general. We may note that this article appeared five years before The Duke's Progress was published by the Cambrian Archæological Association. There are not many pilgrim effigies in existence; the best known example will be found in the church of St. Helen, Ashby-de-la-Zouche, Leicestershire; and a small Welsh specimen may be seen at Llangynning Church, Carmarthen.1

The slab on which our Haverford figure lies is a parallelogram, with a much worn bevel at the sides. It is from the shape of this slab that Mr. Bloxam deduced the date of the effigy, which he considered to be early fifteenth century. The cushions for the head are two, the under one a broad rectangle, shaped like a wedge, much deeper at the top than the bottom, the upper a square cushion placed diagonally. As before mentioned, the features are broken away; this mishap has taken place since Dinely's time, for he draws the face and head; the latter has a tonsure above a thick fringe of hair. Now all that is left is an indication of hair above the place where the ears would be. The collar was upright, and there are indications of a long cloak hanging from the shoulders.

The sclavine, or outer robe worn by pilgrims, reaches nearly to the ankles, and falls in rounded folds which are turned back at the hem to show an inner garment; the sleeves are tight, but much broken and abraded. The feet and their gear are gone. Dinely does not help us with them, but from slight markings on both ankles

1 Arch. Camb., 1887, p. 117.

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