CHAPTER VIII.

AMONG SEPULCHRAL SLABS AND BRASSES, ETC.

SEPULCHRAL slabs, crosses, and brasses are found in so many old churches and churchyards, and possess so much and such varied interest, that half an hour -or many half-hours-may well be devoted to them. The earliest known examples (of course leaving out of the question the Roman inscribed stones to which I have referred on another page) are apparently of the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. A number of these were found in 1833, on the site of the ancient monastery at Hartlepool, founded in the seventh century by St. Begu, who is said to have been the daughter of a powerful Irish prince, Donald III. Having early conceived the idea of devoting herself to the service of God, she was recommended by a holy man to make a vow of celibacy, and on doing so was presented by him with a wonderful bracelet as a memento. Having afterwards been sought in marriage by a prince of Norway, whose suit was encouraged by her father,

she fled from home by night, reached the coast, found a ship on the point of sailing, took a passage, and was landed on the coast of Cumberland, where "St. Bees" still commemorates her name. There she constructed herself a cell, and led a solitary life, until such a life was rendered unsafe by the pirates who infested the coast. She then quitted her cell, went to St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, and placed herself in his hands. This saint gave her a black habit and veil, and consecrated her first nun of Northumbria, and obtained for her, from St. Oswald, a grant of land at Heritesei on which to found a monastery. This she did, and it became a large and important establishment. On resigning this charge in 649, St. Hilda was elected to succeed her, and remained until her departure for Whitby. From this time-A.D. 657-no historical notice of the Hartlepool (Heritesei) monastery exists. "Its situation on the coast exposed it to the fury of the Danes in the ninth century, and it was never restored. All traditional recollection, even of its site, was lost; until in the month of July, 1833, in the course of some excavations in a field called 'Cross Close,' about 135 yards south-east of the ancient church of St. Hilda, the cemetery which belonged to it was discovered. Whilst excavating for the foundations of houses, the workmen found, at the depth of three and a half feet from the surface, and resting immediately upon the limestone rock, several skeletons, both male and female,

apparently of a tall race, and remarkable for the thickness of the fore part of their skulls, lying in two rows, in a position nearly north and south. Their heads were resting upon small flat stones, as upon pillows; and over them were other stones, marked with crosses and inscriptions in Runes and in Romanesque letters." One of these early stones, nearly the whole of which have a decided AngloHibernian character, has been of circular form, and bears a cross, which in heraldry might be described as a cross pomée, and fragments of the words REQVIESCAT IN PACE. Another has an incised cross, and an inscription in Runes; the name of a female, HILDITHRYTH, and in the upper limbs A . The next example bears, Ω. besides the cross, the name HILDDIGYTH. Another bears a cross, the letters A 2, and the name BERCHTGYD. Others bore EDILVINA; ORA PRO VERMVND 7 TORHTSVID; ORATE PRO EDILVINI ORATE PRO VERMVND ET TORHT SVID; HANEGNEVB; and other names. Another slab, with a cross of a more elegant and flowing design, bears portions of inscriptions said to read TE BREGVSV... . GVGVID, and is conjectured to commemorate Breguswid, the mother of St. Hilda. There is a striking similarity between these stones and those of a contemporary early period in Ireland. One of these may be given for comparison. It is from Lismore, and bears a cross, and the inscription - BENDACHT FOR

ANMAIN COLGEN (a blessing on the soul of Colgan), being in memory of Colgan, an eminent

ecclesiastic, who died at Lis

more in 850. It is shown in Fig. 206.

Another good Anglo-Saxon example is preserved in the vestry of Wensley Church, in Yorkshire. It bears a cross patée, with birds and grotesque animals on its limbs,

bed and the name DONFRID in

CHT FOR anmain COLJEN

Fig. 206.

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Saxon characters, in relief. At Stow, in Lincolnshire, two of these very early slabs appear, but they bear interlaced patterns and no cross.

Most of these slabs are of small dimensions, simply intended to commemorate the deceased, but not to cover the entire body either when in or out of a stone coffin. Most of the slabs of a later date are of larger size, and have been either intended as lids to stone coffins, or to be laid in the pavement, or to cover the grave in the churchyard. Some are flat on their surfaces, and others are "coped" or "ridged." The ornament is produced either by incised lines, or by cutting away the stone itself, so as to leave the pattern in relief. In

some instances both styles appear upon the same slab. The design usually consists of a cross, more or less ornate, and some symbol of the station or occupation of the deceased. Occasionally coats of arms and even lettering occur, but these are exceptions to the general rule. In shape, the earlier examples usually tapered from the head to the foot, but a large number are in existence in which the form is rectangular.

Coped tombs were usually sloped in two angles only, but occasionally the ends were also sloped, and the whole sometimes covered with elaborate ornament. A good plain example of this kind of covering is found on the historically interesting tomb of William Rufus, in Winchester Cathedral. In this instance the coped covering is devoid of ornament. Usually the ridge of the cope forms the stem of a cross, the foliated arms and branches of which slope down its sides. The angles of one discovered at Bakewell are carved into a cable pattern, and on one side is a central band of interlaced pattern dividing it into two panels, each of which is filled in with grotesque animals. The other side is also divided into two panels filled in with "knob" work. It is of small size, and has probably, like that of William Rufus, been placed upon a coffin of larger dimensions. In the same church two other coped lids of the twelfth century, the one covered with zigzag ornament, and the other " 'roofed" as with tiles, are pre