cross in each, such as are at times found on Early English chests. The flat lid of this Wittersham coffer is secured by three padlocks, the iron hasps and staples for which are very strong.

In our Journal (xxii, p. 272) is given an engraving of an elaborately embellished oaken chest, of the fourteenth century, at Brancepeth Church, Durham, the front of which has at either end a tier of three panels, each occupied by the figure of some bird or beast, and the centre covered with an arcade resting on a base of lozenge-shaped panels filled with tracery.

The church chests of the early part of the Perpendicular period did not differ materially in adornment from those made during the Decorative era. This fact is pretty well exemplified by examples in the churches of St. Michael, Coventry; St. Mary, Cambridge; the Chapter House, Oxford; and Guestling, Sussex. In our Gloucester Book (p.303) is a good representation of the chest in Frettenham Church, Norfolk, made apparently about the end of the fifteenth century. The front and ends are carved with an arcade of semicircular-headed arches, and the spandrels filled with long-leafed trefoils. It is secured with a fixed lock, no provision being made for padlocks.

As time advanced, the carving on the church chests became less flamboyant, and a device termed the "linen pattern" was frequently introduced into the panelling. As one instance among many that might be cited of the presence of this form of embellishment, reference may be made to a fine oaken chest in the Forman collection at Pipbrook House, Dorking.

Fanciful designs and figure-subjects are exhibited on a few of the church chests of the Perpendicular period. Thus in Harty Chapel, Kent, is a chest on the front of which are carved two knights in armour tilting at each other; and in the vestry of Southwold Church, Suffolk, is a chest with St. George and the dragon sculptured on its front, the work evidently of the time of Henry V. And to the same age belongs a remarkably fine chest of oak in the treasury of York Cathedral, on the front of which is carved the legend of St. George and the fair lady he rescued from destruction. In the distance, on the sinister side, is a view of the city of Selene, the king and queen being represented gazing from

a tower; and on the dexter is the first meeting of the Princess Cleodolinda, or Sabra, and the knight, whose horse stands immediately behind him. Below this tableau is the fierce rencounter with the fearful quadrupedal dragon, whose jaws seem just pierced by the mounted champion. On the same level with the fight, and immediately beneath the city, is shown the wounded monster being led by the virgin princess; behind whom rides the victorious saint in a conical bascinet, with ample camail, large hanging sleeves, and the guige of his shield passing round his neck, the whole equipment being that of a warrior of the reign of our fifth Harry. We must now mention a few chests belonging to the Perpendicular period of architecture, which present a very different aspect to any yet spoken of. There is in Stonham Aspel Church, Suffolk, a coffer of a very remarkable character, which so far as internal division goes may be compared with the one at Newport, Essex, but their resemblance extends no further. This curious example is of chesnut wood, 8 feet in length, 2 ft. 3 ins. in height, and 2 ft. 7 ins. from front to back; and is entirely covered on the outer surface with sheets of iron 4 ins. in width, the joinings being hid by straps. The two lids are secured by fourteen hasps; the second from the left locks the first, and the hasp simply covers the keyhole; the fourth locks the third, etc. After this process is finished, a bar from each angle passes over them, and is secured by a curious lock in the centre, which fastens them both. The interior of this gigantic chest is divided into two equal compartments by a central partition of wood, the one to the left being painted red; the other is plain. Each division can be opened separately; the rector holding four of the keys, and the churchwardens the others, all being of different patterns. Mr. Watling, who has kindly furnished me with a sketch of this interesting piece of ecclesiastical furniture, states that it is now employed to hold coals and coke for the supply of the stove in the church: a purpose to which the old chest at Compton, Surrey, is also applied. I am well aware that this Stonham Aspel coffer has been referred to a very early period, but I believe it to be a fabric of the latter part of the fifteenth century. (See Plate 14.)

To the same era I would also venture to assign certain trunk-shaped chests which some have considered of remote

antiquity. The class I now indicate have coved lids which, with the rest of the timbers, are frequently thickly bound with broad bands of iron, and have at times annular handles swinging at their ends. A good example of one of these coffers is kept in a chamber over the south porch of Southwold Church, Suffolk; of which Mr. Watling has obliged me with a sketch, and which closely resembles a chest in the vestry over the porch of St. Nicholas Church, Ash, engraved in Mr. Planché's Corner of Kent (pp. 37, 199).

In the first half of the sixteenth century we occasionally find the panels on the fronts of the great chests filled with good-sized profile busts and royal and other armorial bearings; but most of the church coffers of this century display no pretence at ornamentation. Two plain but yet curious examples are to be seen in Combs Church, Suffolk, of which sketches by Mr. Watling are before you. The angles of one are strengthened by straps of iron; and its stout, flat lid is secured by three locks, the middle one being very much larger than its companions. In this coffer are preserved two sacramental flagons of pewter, made in the seventeenth century.

The second chest at Combs Church is of higher interest than the one just described. It has four panels on its front; and above the centre stile, and just beneath the flat lid, is the date 1599; and immediately below it a square tablet carved with five discs, said to be typical of the five wounds in the body of our Lord. Above the next stile, on either side of the centre, is a lock with a large square plate; and above each panel is cut a rhombic figure between two circles. Towards the sinister end of the lid is a slit; and beneath it, within the chest, a trough or till for money, this portion of the strong box having been employed for the reception of the sacramental offerings; and whilst applied to this purpose, it is stated to have stood in the chancel of the church.' Before quitting this curious object, it must be observed that the date carved on it refers, in all probability, to some addition or repair then made, for the coffer itself must have been built some fifty or sixty years before 1599. (See Plate 14.) There was a good, plain, substantial oaken chest formerly belonging to St. Mary, Newington, Surrey, which in recent

1 This is not the first church chest which has been converted into a moneybox. See II Kings, xii, 9, and II Chronicles, xxiv, 8.

times was kept in the old rectorial house hard by the church. It was of late Tudor period. Its size may be given as between 4 and 5 feet in length by full 2 feet in height. It was stilted on tall, square plinths at the angles, had its front divided into three panels, and either end furnished with strong iron handles swinging between staples. I doubt not that this venerable coffer was removed to the rectory for safety when the old church was pulled down in 1792, and never got returned to its proper place. It was standing in the hall when I last saw it, on March 3rd, 1860, and between this date and September, 1862, it seems to have vanished. No one imagines that it has been chopped up for fire-wood; but there is a surmise that it was utilised by a free and easy individual, upon whose grave, however, let us rather drop the tear of pity than cast a reproachful word.

Little need, nor indeed can be said respecting the church chests of the Jacobean and subsequent periods. The fine old oaken coffers, with their not unfrequently elegant enrichments, have been succeeded by plain deal boxes, ugly and clumsy in build and aspect; but as a taste for Gothic architecture revives and spreads, we may fairly look for church chests of more becoming character, and many of the examples referred to in this brief paper are well deserving to be taken as models for the guidance of the art-workman.

NOTES ON WAREHAM AND ON EARLY CUSTOMS AND MONUMENTS OF DORSET.

BY W. H. BLACK, F.S.A., PALEOGRAPHER.

SUCH is the title of a communication set down for me in the programme of this Congress, as if I had not more than enough to do in reading, translating, and explaining the records and documents innumerable which this county affords for the exercise of my office of palæographer. They are not inscribed monuments which I now undertake to read and explain, but monuments of old, understood well enough before the barbarous Teutonic and Scandinavian hordes overran these islands and the west of Europe, destroying and obliterating wherever they went; leaving little or nothing

but the undying traditions of ancient but subjugated inhabitants, the customs and boundaries that never could be utterly forgotten by the Romano-British women, old men, and children, when the men of robust health and strength were carried off to defend the continental provinces, and the Roman legions and their foreign auxiliaries were recalled to save, if possible, Gaul, Italy, and Rome herself, from the ravages of Goths and Vandals.

While, therefore, every inch of boundary and every peculiarity of custom, were preserved in the memory of the genuine inhabitants of Britain and of its adjacent islands, the professional knowledge and skill of official men who were ordered home, or were murdered by the Saxon invaders, were lost hence the ancient geographic measures and principles of measurement, the knowledge of making or ascertaining and correcting boundaries, and the true uses of uninscribed monuments, which had been confined to the breasts of the mensores, utterly perished in this country, and only popular and fluctuating and variable measures of length, weight, and capacity, were preserved (nor ill preserved) by the peoples of Britain. The monuments of art and beauty perished under the power of savage Goths; but the uninscribed and rude monuments, which had spoken volumes to the skilled Roman officers, escaped; and under various influences of veneration and terror these latter were preserved to us, until the stones were coveted and removed, and the land on which earthworks stood was "requisitioned" and usurped by modern innovators, whether farmers or railroadmakers, whether by the apostles or the dupes of modern economical but ill-considered "progress," or by ignorant and daring upstarts under pretence of "local improvements."

Let me assure my fellow archæologists that the ominous shake of the head, or toss of the nose, or grumble, growl, or sneer, when I have attempted to reproduce the secret professional knowledge of the ancients (which for nearly half a century I have tried to recover), have never deterred me from prosecuting my researches or bringing them forward in public societies on every reasonable occasion. I find men begin to say "Let us consider," or "There is something in it," or "Let us try," when they see that things as clearly demonstrable as the simplest geometric exercise are put before them, and they are invited to try their own rulers