The above description also agrees with the illuminations on the Saxon manuscripts. I have made sketches from one of the tenth century in the British Museum (Harleian MS., No. 2788, cat. vol. ii.), in which are shown towers, porticoes, decorated columns, enriched arches, chandeliers, and very elaborate borders round the subjects, all of which illuminations are richly gilt and coloured.

So much for pre-Norman England. And I cannot understand why, in the face of the presumptive and positive evidence above adduced, all the credit should be given to the Normans as the great promoters of architecture in this country. The church above described was built more than one hundred years before they appeared in this part of Europe at all, and more than three hundred years before Rollo, the first duke of Normandy (A.D. 911), existed; and we must not forget that when they did settle on the continent, it was on the site of an ancient British colony. No one has ventured, as far as I know, to give a date to any Norman building in Normandy earlier than A.D. 1000, the majority being ascribed to the time of the Conqueror himself and onwards, when, as has been shown, there was intimate intercourse between Normandy and England. I think the English were as likely to teach the Normans as the Normans to teach the English, who have, at all events, been pretty good hands at constructive works ever since; and I will be content to say, that we have no right to conclude a building cannot be Anglo-Saxon or AngloRoman, because it should happen to be large, durable, or ornamental.

ON SOME ORNAMENTS DISCOVERED IN WINCHESTER COLLEGE.

BY F. J. BAIGENT, ESQ.

THE accompanying drawings (see plate 17) represent some sculptured ornaments in the library of Winchester College. This building is situated in the centre of the cloister-garth, and was erected and endowed as a chantry

160 ON SOME ORNAMENTS IN WINCHESTER COLLEGE.

by John Fromond, esq., of Sparsholt, Hants, who was a great benefactor to both Wykeham's colleges, and founded this chantry about the year 1430. It is thirty-six feet in length, and eighteen in breadth. The roof is richly groined, though somewhat heavy, and upon the bosses are numerous shields charged with armorial bearings. The chantry was originally lighted by six large windows, some of them being now partially blocked up. The founder and his wife were buried in this chantry. Fromond by his will, A.D. 1420, bequeathed ten marks to be paid annually out of his manor of Allington for the support of the chaplain of this foundation, who was to sing for ever a daily mass for the repose of his soul, the soul of his wife, and for the souls of all the faithful departed; the chaplain was likewise to bear his part in the service of the college chapel on Sundays and the great festivals of the year. On one of the walls of the cloisters may still be seen a small strip of brass,-which no doubt was formerly inlaid on a slab in the floor of the chantry,-being the monumental inscription of its first chaplain :

Orate pro aia Dni Willi Clyffe primi Capellani istius

Capelle, qui obiit xxiiij die Mensis Martii An Dni

Mo.cccc.xxxiij. Cujus aic p'picictur Deus. Amen.

John Fromond bequeathed liveries or gowns annually to the choristers of the college, and his wife Matilda or Maud gave two cups to the society.

66

"1. Ciphus harnesiatus cum argento deaurato, vocatus note, cum coopere de argento deaurato, et scribitur in eodem,

"HE SHALL HAVE CRYSTES BLESSYNG TO HYS DELE
WHOSO OF ME DRYNKETH WELE." 1

Among the documents in the Augmentation Office is preserved a certificate of the survey of the college in the reign of Henry VIII, in which this foundation is thus recorded:

"One chantry.

"John Foremand and Maud his wife, to the intent to

1 In Anthony à Wood's time the following fragment was visible, inscribed on the painted glass remaining in one of the chantry windows: "Matilda quondam uxor Johannis Fromond, legavit collegio Wynton cyphum harnesiatum cum argento deaurato vocatum.... John Fromond likewise founded a chantry in the parish church of Sparsholt; it was probably in the aisle of the church, but no indication of this foundation remains. Sparsholt is a village about four miles to the west of Winchester.

ON SOME ORNAMENTS IN WINCHESTER COLLEGE.

161

have a priest to sing in the chapel within the cloister of the said college, three times in the week, and so to serve and sing in the choir of the same college on the holidays. The value of the said chantry is in money numbered £vi. xiiis. iiijd., which the priest hath and doth receive for his annual stipend."

Soon after the Reformation this building was converted into a library, and as such it is still used. A few months since some bookshelves having been removed, exposed to view, after a concealment of about one hundred and fifty years, a strip of panelling consisting of four quadrangular compartments with quatrefoils, and in the centre of each a sculptured ornament. This piece of panelling is immediately over the door of the chantry, and may be said to form its head. These having come under my observation on the 26th of January last, were forthwith denuded of the thick coatings of whitewash with which they were bedaubed, and proved not unworthy of the attention thus bestowed on them.

The first of these ornaments (plate 17, fig. 1) is, perhaps, that of the greatest interest: being a representation of the royal lion, used as the crest of the British sovereigns since the days of Edward III, made to do the office of shield bearer; from a strap passed across the breast of the animal hangs a shield charged with the arms of Fromond, azure, a chevron, or; between three fleur-de-lys, argent. The next ornament (fig. 2) is a richly sculptured mitre placed above a heart, the whole being surrounded by a wreath of entwined branches with flowers. This, I think, is an emblem of William Waynflete, who was a Wykehamist and head master of Winchester College, bishop of Winchester from A.D. 1447 to 1486, and founder of the college of St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford. In his monumental effigy in Winchester cathedral, this emblem (a heart) is represented held between the bishop's hands. The next compartment has two animals struggling together, or in other words quarrelling; this being without interest, no sketch was taken.

The next and last ornament (fig. 3) appears to be a castellain or warder blowing a trumpet, which he holds in his right hand, and in the other hand, resting on his shoulder, is a battle-axe: the spike at the back of the

VOL. X.

21

blade has been broken off, and the upper part or termination of the handle damaged. The figure is represented with the slashed or indented sleeves of the fifteenth century; the cap on his head is also similarly ornamented; from a strap round the neck hangs what can scarcely be termed a shield, inasmuch as it is a square object, bearing the arms of Fromond; behind the figure appears the hinder portion of an animal,—perhaps a lion, to correspond with that in the first compartment and originally intended to have been carved.

It may be as well to mention, that on one of the shields on a boss in the roof, is represented a monkey riding on a dog, and carrying a rabbit hung on a stick over his shoulder. The thick coverings of whitewash discouraged me from attempting to sketch it.

NOTES ON THE OPENING OF THE TUMULI ON ASHEY DOWN.

BY BENJAMIN BARROW, ESQ.

THE following notes of the examination of tumuli on Ashey Down, Isle of Wight, have been forwarded to the Association through the Rev. E. Kell, F.S.A., by Benjamin Barrow, esq., the honorary secretary of the Isle of Wight Philosophical and Scientific Society. The examination commenced on June 23rd, 1853, and was continued on the 24th; resumed on the 13th July, and concluded on the 14th and 18th, this delay taking place in consequence of the bad state of the weather. The map (plate 18), which accompanies the description, has traced out the position and distance of the twelve tumuli which were examined, in relation to the sea mark situated on Ashey Down, and will form a most useful reference in regard to future excavations.