Wells, Durham, and Winchester, in succession-that he turned aside to revisit his birthplace, and told his parents, when they wished him to stay with them, 'that their homestead would not serve for the kitchen of the house that he was building for himself.' It does not appear that this house was Corpus, which he built in his old age, intending it as a seminary for the monks of St. Swithin at Winchester; till his friend Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, to whom it was given to read the signs of the times, dissuaded him from forming a monastic institution likely soon to perish, but rather to devote his means and exhibit his piety in founding a College for sound learning which would be destined to endure for ages. Thus Corpus Christi, Oxford, arose, and thus it has endured as a monument to the pious churchman. To it Fox bequeathed his crosier, his salt-cellar, his high-standing cups, his silver-gilt low bowl and cover, enriched with a stamped pattern of roses and fleurs-de-lis; his rose-water dish, enamelled in the centre; and his two sets of spoons, one with owls, and the other with balls or knops at the end of the stem. Of these, the crosier and the salt-cellar are among the finest pieces of goldsmith's work in existence. It is true that Oxford treasures up in Wykeham's Chapel at New College the crosier of that magnificent prelate. In its pristine condition, rich with Limoges enamels, and fretted with the finest work, it probably outshone the rival crosier at Corpus; but, as it now exists, it has suffered much, probably more from the constantly cleaning and rubbing of centuries than from wilful ill-usage. It should never be forgotten that the foe of fine old plate belongs almost invariably to its own house. The modern butler, like the medieval manciple, with his plate-powder and wash-leather, has gradually polished and worn down the pieces confided to his care. From whatever cause, the crosier and salt-cellar of Fox have, to a great extent, escaped this enemy. The photographs of both these grand pieces, which are now before us to refresh the memory of many visits to Corpus, show a sharpness of edge, and a boldness of outline and tracery, quite wanting in another photograph of Wykeham's crosier, in its dilapidation and decay, which now lies side by side with them as we write. We wish we could say that we think any of these three noble pieces are of English workmanship. Wykeham's crosier, covered originally with enamels, of which in most cases the matrix alone remains, reveals the hand of a master of Limoges. We have often scanned the crosier of Fox and his salt-cellar to detect an English hall-mark, but in vain. It is possible that in works so highly chased and covered with ornament the hall-mark may have been obliterated by the engraver; but, on the whole, we are inclined to think that they

are

are of foreign, and probably of French workmanship, for Fox was well known in Paris, both when he was in exile with Henry of Richmond, and afterwards, when he had risen to the highest offices in the State. If we are to award the palm to either of these pieces, we must pronounce in favour of the saltcellar, which rises from a pentagonal base in tiers of pentagons, relieved between the first and second tiers by a circular band enriched with lions. The cover, which is also pentagonal, is surrounded by a knop or finial formed out of two pelicans in their piety, taken from the arms of the founder, and which are constantly repeated both on the salt-cellar and the crosier. As is well known, the same emblem has been handed down to our time as the arms of the College.

We cannot, however, dwell any longer on these precious pieces. Suffice it for our purpose to have pointed out the spot in which the greatest and costliest collection of medieval plate exists in these kingdoms. Most of the other pieces which Fox bequeathed to his College are London hall-marked; thus his spoons with owls on the stem bear the hall-mark of 1506; his low bowl and cover are stamped with the letter which indicates the year 1515, and his spoons with balls at the end of the stems are of the ensuing year. If we remember right there are a dozen of each set, and when we also remember that a thousand pounds has been recently asked by an eminent London firm for a matched set of Apostle spoons of considerably later date, we may form some conception of the value not only of those two dozen spoons, but of the whole collection of Bishop Fox. If, which Heaven forbid! some new University Commission should resolve that as much sleeping capital these noble pieces should be sold by auction to augment the incomes of working Fellows and learned Professors-when that day comes, let some millionaire of the period put some thousands of pounds in his pocket, and see what a cab-load of real old English plate he may, if a cheerful buyer, bring home with him from Christie's.

SO

By this time the reader will probably think that he has heard enough of Bishop Fox and his plate. Besides, if he is of a captious turn, he may ask, 'But is this collection, rich as it is, all that is left to us of that great store of medieval plate which undoubtedly existed?' We have already answered this question in a general way; but it may be as well to reply to it more particularly, lest the inquirer may be one of those who have acquired any of that choice medieval plate against which we have already warned him. There are other older pieces of English plate than those still to be seen in the lodgings of the President of Corpus, but they are few and far between, and a

man

man may count them on his ten fingers. Here is the list as given by Mr. Chaffers, who, besides his own natural insight, has had the immense advantage of cataloguing and noting the marks of each piece as they have at various times been exhibited in the Art collections at South Kensington. It must be admitted that the first on the list is a real treasure, both for its artistic merit and its history. It is no less a piece than the Grace Cup of St. Thomas a Becket, now in the possession of Mr. Philip Howard, of Corby, in Cumberland, in whose hospitable house over the romantic glen through which the Eden rushes we have been so fortunate as to behold and handle this most interesting relic. The cup and cover are of ivory, mounted in silver-gilt, on which runs the cheerful inscription betraying little of the asceticism of the Saint's later years, "Bibe vinum tuum cum gaudio," and which is stamped with the London hall-mark of the year 1445. Besides this silver mounting, there are ornamental borders of a later date, probably of a period after the cup had passed away from Canterbury. So that in this piece, as it stands, we may discern three periods; the first, that of the ivory cup and cover, is no doubt of the age of the Saint. Then after the original mounting had suffered during nearly three centuries of rubbing by the manciples of the Priory, it was remounted, much in the same way as Offa's gift to Osney was recast; a practice thoroughly medieval, for it requires little experience either of plate or architecture to convince oneself that those medieval times, which we regard as so conservative, could be cruelly destructive when addition or reconstruction was needed. Witness the wholesale destruction and mutilation of regal tombs which evidently occurred round the shrine of the Confessor when a tomb was needed for Henry V. But to return to Becket's Grace Cup; the third addition or restoration happened, as we have said, after the tomb of the Saint and his shrine, and his very body, together with the treasures which his sanctity had accumulated round it, passed away from Canterbury at the Reformation. No doubt it was among those piles of wealth which were carried in two huge chests to Henry VIII. What became of the great ruby given to the Saint by Louis of France, and seized and worn on his thumb by the Royal reformer, is, we believe unknown; but there at Corby, in a quiet Catholic house by the noisy Eden, is Becket's Grace Cup. We have heard a tradition that it was bestowed by her royal lover on Catherine Howard, from whom it came to its present possessor. That at least is a That at least is a piece which vies in workmanship with Fox's salt-cellar, as it certainly exceeds all his bequests in historic interest; the only work of art which escaped the ruin which the Reformation brought

on

6

on Becket and his worship. The second piece in Mr. Chaffers's catalogue seems poor and insignificant. It is only a spoon, but it, too, has a history. When the cause of the White Rose culminated on the bloody day of Towton on Palm Sunday, in 1461, and Henry VI., with the Queen, the Prince, and a few followers, leaving many great lords and knights, and twenty-eight thousand men, numbered by heralds,' as the 'Paston Letters' tell us, dead on the field, we may be sure that he carried this spoon about with him. It is marked with the date letter of 1445, and, after the battle of Hexham in 1463, was given by the unfortunate monarch to Sir Ralph Pudsey, whose descendants still preserve it at Hornby Castle in Lancashire. The third is a more important piecethat called the Anathema Cup, bearing the London hall-mark of 1481, and inscribed with the date 1497, when Cardinal Langton, Bishop of Winchester, presented it to Pembroke College, Cambridge, with this inscription, Qui alienaverit anathema esto.' Number 4 in Mr. Chaffers's list is a silver-gilt low bowl with fluted stem, formerly in the possession of Mr. Huth, but now belonging to Mr. Dunn Gardner. It is, or was, exhibited at South Kensington, and is inscribed in Lombardic letters, Benedictus Deus in donis suis Amen ;' for the reading as given by Mr. Chaffers is evidently corrupt: Benedictus Deus in dona suis Ame.' This small piece is also hallmarked, with the letter of 1481. Number 5 bears the letter of 1487, and is a silver-gilt salt-cellar, belonging to Christ's College, Cambridge. Number 6 is of the year 1493, the first Apostle spoon known, surmounted with the full-length figure of a Saint. It belongs to the Rev. W. Staniforth, a well-known collector of silver-plate, to whom also belong Number 7 in Mr. Chaffers's list, three small spoons, with slender stems, and bearing the London hall-mark of 1497.' According to Mr. Chaffers therefore, the total number of pieces of Early-English plate before the year 1498 amount to nine. It is possible that a few earlier pieces may lurk in plate-closets and churches here and there about the country. The late Lord Zouche possessed at Parham a fine piece, which he believed to be English from its weight and workmanship; but it is marked with a doubtful letter, and is probably of foreign manufacture. Then there is the famous Lynn cup, said to be of the time of King John, which, in all likelihood, was made in Flanders; but, as we have already said, the total number of pieces ascertained to be Early-English by their hall-marks is just nine; beginning with Becket's Grace Cup in 1445, and ending with Mr. Staniforth's three small spoons in 1498. To which we may add as

the

the tenth, to close the century, the Grace Cup and cover of the Mercers' Company, presented to them by Sir Thomas Legh, a fine piece, bearing the London hall-mark of 1499, ornamented with cross bands, in the panels of which are maidens' heads and flagons, the badges of the Company. On the cover, which is decorated with bands of blue enamel, is a maiden seated by an unicorn.

To the earlier years of the sixteenth century belong the treasures which we have already described, as bequeathed by Fox to Corpus. To them we may add the gifts of one who was singularly like him in piety and charity, Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the mother of Henry VII., who survived her son, and who had in her mind the same thought as inspired Fox, till like the prelate the Princess was persuaded by her friend, Bishop Fisher, to found a College for sound learning, rather than a monastery for ascetic meditation. While Fox betook himself to Oxford, the Lady Margaret bestowed her bounty on Cambridge, where she founded Christ's College, and there may still be seen her gifts. The first, a silver-gilt cup and cover, in the form of a Tudor Rose, battlemented and engraved with the Roses of Lancaster, and the portcullises which astonish the beholder as he surveys the interior of the majestic chapel added to Westminster Abbey by her son. To these badges are added the daisies, marguerites, which play upon her name after the fashion of the age. Her other gift to the College was a pair of silvergilt salt-cellars, of hour-glass form, ornamented with Tudor roses. We hope that the members of the College which she founded and endowed are grateful to the memory of that venerable woman, whose effigy, with its pure and kindly features, so like, and yet so unlike, the countenance of her jealous and suspicious son, still attracts the eye, and excites the admiration of every visitor to Westminster Abbey.

We now claim abundantly to have proved our first point, the excessive rarity of genuine old English plate, for the most part closely locked up in the halls of colleges and guilds, and, therefore, not to be regarded as objects of acquisition by eager buyers. It is always possible, of course, that the impossible may happen; and so the day may come when the guilds and great companies of London may be dissolved by some social convulsion, just as some coming commission may dispose, for University purposes, of that idle plate in Christ's and Corpus. But, humanly speaking, we should say that such spoliations are impossible, and so let no one rest his hopes of making a collection of old English plate on those most unlikely contingencies. So scanty is the harvest to be reaped in retrospect from the days of Fox,

that