Bill was passed, the borough had long enjoyed an unenviable notoriety for stratagems not altogether right-worshipful in constitutional engagements; and corrupt practices in parliamentary candidates were openly and shamelessly carried on by all parties. Even so late as 1802, according to living testimony, the town-crier publicly announced the inn where voters were to apply for their fees of three guineas each from the agent; though some of the more wily puritan-men received a larger bonus, besides heavy guttling, from the election-money. To those who are not conversant with the local affairs of this part of the county, it may be necessary to explain what Bedford's Charity here means, in order to prevent any collision with the admirable benefaction at Bedford.* A gentleman of Aylesbury, John Bedford, by his will dated on the 12th of July, 1493 (9 Henry VII.), bequeathed a real estate for the perpetual use of the parish, in amending its highways and relieving the poor inhabitants. The bequest then consisted of a certain quantity of land and messuages, of the annual rental of 30l. It now consists of eleven dwelling-houses, and nearly 106 acres of land in and near the town, with 897. in the funds-the present income being about 6001.

per annum.

Another question which has been gravely asked, is to the effect of wondering how it was first known that this Gurney brass was "two-faced"? Now, although pretty well versed in the whole story, I thought the most advisable step would be to have it recorded in the ipsissima verba of the actual discoverer, the Rev. J. B. Reade, the former vicar of Stone, who brought its duplicity to light. On applying to this gentleman upon that and other points under consideration, he promptly returned the following details from Ellesborough Rectory:

I will gladly devote a portion of my solitude here to your service, acknowledging that you have claims upon me; but I must first thank you for your "excellent discourse," to use the stereotyped form of approval on the double-faced brass in the old church.

You apply the lignum so sharply to robbers of churches, that I think they would rather have a monument than an admiral standing over them. However, with respect to the Stone brass, there is clearly no case of Tharpe v. Gorney for the decision of your Court of Records (Acts, xix. 37). The worker in brass committed no robbery, and Tharpe was never a much-trodden-upon individual, in Stone Church at least, as Gorney is proved to have been by the trituration of his brass. In fact the fresh, and therefore somewhat coarser, character of the Tharpe inscription, satisfies me that his brass was never laid down; the edges of the letters are perfectly sharp, and their depth of cutting has not suffered from the feet of church-going people. The double reading was discovered in 1844, when we restored the church. It was then necessary to remove all the tomb-stones on the floor of the edifice; and, lest the organ of acquisitiveness should be unduly excited in any wandering antiquary, if we may describe a pilferer so mildly, I took all their brasses to the vicarage, and had them ultimately carefully replaced. A few of the best encaustic tiles, having figures of swans, &c., remained in the church-or rather ought to have remained—but some wandering antiquary got hold of them. Other memorials of the time perished also. A new chancel, as you are aware, was erected; but the time

* This most useful and liberal endowment is owing to Sir William Harpur and Dame Alice his wife, who, in 1556, left 13 acres of land-then on the skirts, but now in the heart of London-to Bedford, the knight's native town. It quickly improved in value, and in 1668 the annual rental was 997; then in 1836, when I was a trustee of its management, it amounted to the magnificent sum of 13,500l. per annum ! And Bedford possesses lots of other charities-generally well-administered.

honoured features of the old chancel-too elaborate for the naked architecture of the modern builder-were ruthlessly destroyed. To my inquiry for the fine old sedilia, foliated canopies, and columns, &c., the reply was Oh, Sir, the architect has ordered them to be brayed into sand!" I held my tongue for very shame and sorrow. No wonder that your holy places are disfigured by railway-roofing!

66

The discovery of the second inscription on the Gurney brass led our friend Thorpe, of Stone, to claim the grave as family property. It was therefore opened for the purpose of identification from coffins or otherwise, and, curiously enough, we found exactly as many pairs of thigh-bones as there are figures of the Gurneys -namely, the old people, six sons, and three daughters. No other part of the bodies remained, with the exception of a small portion of one of the vertebræ; neither was there a trace of coffins or wood. All had perished. A striking comment on the words pulvis et umbra.

We also ascertained by thus opening the ground that Lipscomb is wrong-you will say as usual— when he asserts that the church is built "on an artificial mount, probably an ancient barrow;" for it is erected, beyond all question, on one of the natural sand-hills which are so common in the parish, and the lines of stratification in the sand below the grave, and on its sides, proved beyond mistake the character of the formation. No barrow of any kind had anything to do with it.

We get, however, by Lipscomb, out of Kennet, the accurate date of the consecration of the church, viz. 1st June, 1273 (2 Edward I.); and it may amuse you to learn, on an authority you will readily admit, that the chancel then consecrated had just been built, and not very well built either. At the time of our restoration of the church this dilapidated chancel found a restorer in the lay-impropriator Dr. Lee. I happened to be present when a portion of the wall at the south-east angle was taken down, and with my own hand I took from between two of the largest stones a silver penny of Edward the First; thus obtaining satisfactory proof that the chancel was built in the reign which had not long commenced. The weakness of the structure was found to arise from the fact of the south wall having no foundation! The lowest stones-and those of a crumbling kind-were placed only just below the surface; and the only wonder is that it had the power of self-support at all through upwards of 500 years.

As the chancel in question was not exactly square with the church, I proposed that the new south wall should stand four or five feet more northward, in order that the central lines of the church and chancel might coincide. On preparing the ground for this object, the workmen found a deep and well-laid foundation of a former wall, exactly similar in character to the foundation of the north wall of the chancel. There was no doubt in our minds as to this foundation having done duty in supporting the first chancel of the ancient church, and, being so, the continuity of the central line from east to west was in the first instance preserved. That continuity is restored with good effect in the present, or third, chancel, which does in fact stand upon the first foundations; for time would have been thrown away in an attempt to destroy the skilled labour of the close of the eleventh century. As A.D. 1150 is the date of the earliest historical notice of the church, there can be no doubt that the south porch and the massive pillars of the semi-circular arches are at least as early as 1100. Why a new chancel should have been built so soon as 1273 is a question of curious speculation. As the tooth of time could scarcely reach maturity in a couple of centuries, we must look for wanton destruction, accident, or design. The priests may perhaps have craved more room, with suitable and comfortable sedilia. At all events, a second chancel was then erected, and not improbably the transepts and tower also; and the formal consecration of the church, as St. John the Baptist's, then took place.

Such is my story; and remember that it is virtually at your bidding that I write, and thus record for your amusement a few facts to which you will readily assign their archæological value: but, as connected with some of the happiest years of my life, it is to me very cheering to be called upon to refer to them. The old parish and the old church are not to be forgotten places. "Many a time and oft" I may have given

most of these particulars to you a viva voce; but now I take a hint from your valuable paper, and transfer them, if they are worth it, to the safer keeping of the litera scripta.

With this lucid explanation, our remarks on the Gurney brass may be concluded; and I append a view, or rather, as an antiquated landskip-monger would have had it, a south-west prospect of the church itself; one of the last of our fanes that was "littered" with grass on its patron's day:

By Mr. Reade's letter the saddle is placed on the right horse; and it will be seen that his conjecture of the "two faces" not being the result of fraud, or involved in sacrilege, coincides with my own expressed opinion. Indeed such numbers of mere double-faced and true palimpsest brasses have turned up of late, that, keeping all the inducements in view, I cannot but think if both sides could be examined, that a very large portion of these memorials would be proved to have been used twice. This nefarious custom might have originated in a singular view of economy; and cannot be put in parity with twice-laid deeds, conveyances, or other manuscript writingswherein both the then scarcity and dearness of the proper materials may account for the practice. And here I take leave to present the society with a copy of the new application of lithography to rubbings, so ably carried into execution by Mr. Williams. The following brief notice will give all that I know about it; and, however little that may prove to be, it can in no way interfere with the value of the document.

Away in the West of England, and not far from the fair town of Helston in Cornwall, there

is a small and rather obscure village named CONSTANTINE in all our maps and directories; though as it is vernacularly enunciated Constann-tinn, there seemed reason to suspect that the classic orthography has led us adrift from the real meaning of the name; which, as mining is still a principal occupation there, seemed more in allusion to stanneries and tin, than to the Roman appellation. Being fully aware of the peril of jumbling facts and fancies together, I submitted my conjecture to Sir Richard Vyvyan of Trelowarren, well known as the highest Cornish reference. The returning post brought me the following reply:

The church of Constantine is a fine old building in the neighbouring granitic region of this district. It has always been supposed to have derived its name from Constantine the son of Cador, Duke of Cornwall, and cousin to King Arthur by his alliance in marriage; who succeeded Arthur by his will as King of Britain in 542 A.D. (Speed, page 273.) Thus far as regards the existence of the man, who is moreover said to have reigned three years, to have been killed in battle by Aurelius Conanus his successor, and to have been buried at Stonehenge.

It is remarkable that Speed, following older writers, names Stonehenge as the place of sepulture of those earliest Anti-Saxon Kings, who were constantly at war with the invaders. He names thirteen such kings from Vortigern to Cadwallader-from 400 and odd to 685 A.D., say 250 years: Constantine was the sixth of this dynasty, the predecessor of an equally violent tyrant.

I am surprised that modern antiquarians have not made more of the tradition about Stonehenge, as the sacred place of Britain, long after the arrival of Hengist and Horsa.

My excellent friend having thus demolished the baseless vision which I had called up, we will proceed with the story which brought the inquiry forward.

In the old church of that old village is a funereal brass, the obverse or visible part of which had immemorially commemorated a worthy gentleman and his wife, small in size, but standing beneath canopies, in Elizabethan habiliments. From a shield of arms between them, it may be inferred that he was one of the Gervis family; there exists, however, no inscription in proof, and on the whole there is reason to think he died circa 1570. Now it came to pass that Constantine church lately needed repairs, in consequence of which the said memorial was taken down from the place it had occupied for nearly 300 years; when, to the surprise of the spectators, it was found that the reverse bore the effigies of some person of note, and that it was a portion of a Flemish brass of superior workmanship, in exceedingly sharp preservation. From particulars in the boldly incised armour, and other indications, the date of this specimen is evidently towards the latter part of the 14th century-say between 1360 and 1380: but there is nothing to throw any light whatever on the name of the individual. Yet, though all written trace appears beyond reach, it is just possible that the arms on the surcoat might afford a clue. And here I cannot do better than quote Mr. Williams' own account of the steps which he took to ensure the discovery, and promote a general knowledge of so interesting an archæological fact: his letter is dated 26th February, 1861

This beautiful brass was exhibited at the first meeting of the Society of Antiquaries this session, at Somerset House, by Mr. J. G. Waller, and commanded very great attention. I obtained the permission of that gentleman to take a copy. As the reverse appeared to be of considerable interest, and Mr. Waller thought that the brass was about to be replaced in its original situation, in which case the

obverse only could be visible, and as I could hardly expect to get a better example, I considered it a good opportunity to apply to it my process of rubbing, so modified as to enable me to produce a lithographic copy. The result is the lithograph in question, which I now have the pleasure of sending for your kind acceptance.

"I have had this process in view for many years, my first specimen of a lithographic copy of an object dating in December, 1834. The method appears to excite a great deal of attention; and, being very easy, and comparatively speaking not very expensive, I quite hope to see it adopted in cases of particular interest, as thus, with the labour of one rubbing only, authentic copies may be multiplied to any extent.”

From what has been since heard, it appears that the Constantine brass has actually been restored to its place over the family commemorated on the obverse side, and there secured; so that the subject of Mr. Williams' excellent lithograph is once more concealed, probably for ages. In the great concern which this incident excited among antiquaries Mr. Albert Way has suggested, in a letter to me, that valuable palimpsests which accident or other cause may bring to light, instead of being again fastened down, should be supported by a hinge-apparatus, so that either side of the sculptures might be readily open to examination. He caused the plan to be adopted at Hedgerley, Bucks, following an example previously set at St. Margaret's, Rochester.

To the very natural inquiry as to how so fine a mortuary fragment-evidently in honour of some great man-should ever have got into so distant a region as Cornwall, it may be answered that, probably, it is a relic of the reckless spoliation of churches which took place in the Netherlands, a few years previous to the later date above given. In that calamitous time the infuriated mob of fanatical reformers broke into the various sacred fanes, mutilating and destroying everything around them, and tearing up the brasses that bespoke the merits and services of the individuals buried there. The laboured reminiscences thus wantonly desecrated by iconoclastic plunderers were sure of a ready sale, from the known superiority of the then manufacture of metal in the Low Countries-called latten, brass, or cullen (Cologne) plate: the dealers in such articles took them, of course, to the best markets. Hence we may account for the presence in England of the curious specimen under our consideration: and for the existence of such numbers of bi-monuments.

Of this enough: but in closing such a lucubration it is impossible to view the sacrilegious callousness, and dishonest perversion, with which the sacred memorials of one generation have been desecrated, to glorify a squad of unknown interlopers of another, without recollecting the beautiful lines in Pope's pathetic elegy on an unfortunate lady—

So peaceful rests, without a stone, or name,

What once had beauty, titles, wealth, and fame.

How lov'd, how honour'd once, avails thee not,

To whom related, or by whom begot;

A heap of dust alone remains of thee,

'TIS ALL THOU ART-AND ALL THE PROUD SHALL BE !

I beg to subscribe myself, &c.

The Rev. Charles Lowndes, F.R.A.S., &c.

W. H. SMYTH.