dral. In the same century, Amicia Countess of Devonshire gave her heart to Lacock Abbey, because her daughter was a nun there. One of the latest instances of this separate interment is that of the loyalist, Sir Nicholas Crispe, whose body was interred at St. Mildred, Bread-street; but his heart is placed in an urn in Hammersmith church, under a bust of Charles the First.*

After the practice of devoting large estates to the erection of monasteries had been materially checked, and the sacrifice of broad lands, ad manus mortuas, was no longer permitted to any great extent, the religious rite of prayers for the dead still continued to occasion a profuse devotion of their rents, during many years, to the erection of chantry chapels, and splendid monuments.

So large a proportion of the members of great families were interred in conventual churches, now reduced to ruin, that the ancient monuments at present preserved can be regarded only as the relics and examples of what formerly existed. The wholesale destruction which was made at the spoliation of monasteries, (particularly in the principal conventual churches of the metropolis, and some other cities) is indeed astonishing to contemplate; and the apathy with which it was witnessed by the descendants and representatives of the defunct, is a striking proof how the pride of family, and the kindlier feeling of reverence for the ashes of their forefathers, was then merged in religious enthusiasm, in terror, or in avarice. The antiquary can never peruse the records of these devastations without a sigh.

Sepulchral monuments present two collateral series of objects, that of their architectural designs, and that of the effigies and engravings on brass. The latter embraces the history of armour and costume, to which Mr. Bloxam has paid much attention. He has embellished his volume by numerous cuts, which form a very pleasing illustration to his instructive descriptions. The excellence of their execution will be seen by the speci

* Abroad, it is still prevalent. During the past year the heart of Boieldieu, the composer, has been presented by his widow to the city of Rouen; and Dom Pedro, of Portugal, has bequeathed his heart to the city of Oporto.

mens which we are enabled to lay before our readers. As series of effigies have been previously given at one view,t we have selected the cuts with a view to the form and fashion of the monuments in their general and entire appearance.

The following may be regarded as a catalogue of the genera of sepulchral monuments, and of the most usual species.

I. The coffin-lid, which was either 1, coped or ridged; 2, carved into devices, of which crosses in endless variety are the most frequent; or 3, carved with an effigy in low relief, or with the head and arms only. In. scriptions at this early period are rare; but when they occur, they run round the verge, and down the centre of the stone, and many Latin hexameters are crowded into a surprisingly small compass by abbreviations, and the insertion of one letter within another.

II. The coffin-lid carved into an effigy in high relief, and which soon became a distinct portion, and was continued with the four following forms of monuments. Its position was now frequently within a low arch in the wall, the circumference of which became enriched with architectural ornaments, increasing in elegance with the advance of Pointed architecture.

III. A raised table or altar tomb, sustaining the effigies, or a slab inlaid with figures engraved on brass; the sides (commencing in the reign of Edward I.) surrounded with architectural paneling, with armorial shields, or, lastly, with niches containing small statues of angels bearing shields, of saints, or of relations of the deceased. The last have received the name of weepers, and are beautiful examples of civil costume, whilst the larger effigies are generally attired in armour.

IV. Canopied monuments, gradually increasing in magnificence, until they became small apartments erected between the piers of large churches; and then the chapels, which were really additions to the edifice, and within which the monument properly so called was erected, in the most magnificent style of the preceding form.

See particularly a well-selected plate of figures in armour, in Fosbroke's Encyclopedia of Antiquities, and others in the plate of costume.

V. Altar tombs, with canopied recesses, erected against a wall; some having at one side a space left for the desk of the chantry priest. These begin in the latter part of the fourteenth century, and are the last that partake of Pointed architecture, many of them being mixed with the forms and ornaments of the Italian style.

VI. Colossal architectural erections, also placed against the wall, with many columns and obelisks, and every other form into which stone can be shaped and piled up. The effigies are sometimes recumbent, sometimes kneeling, and in the latter portion of the class, in the seventeenth century,

recline on one arm.

For a full cen

tury after the Reformation, the hands continued to be represented joined in prayer. Small allegorical figures of virtues, &c. were frequently the sculptor's substitutes for the saints of Rome. VII. Mural monuments, partaking of the same characteristics; and containing either small kneeling figures, or half-length figures; or busts.

Such is a general classification of our old sepulchral monuments; stopping short of the last century, during which a greater variety of design (in those, at least, of a superior description) would be found. Each of the several classes are represented in the cuts with which we have been favoured, except that we have numbered the fifth which, being contemporaneous with the fourth, differs chiefly in the architectural additions of canopies and screenwork, and a consequent greater outlay of expense. Of course, many other varieties might be pointed out; but they are rather anomalies, and curious from their singularity; such as a mural monument (1376) of the Foljambes at Chesterfield, where the knight and lady are represented in half-length, upright. Instances in which part of the effigy is left uncarved, as if concealed in the tomb, are sometimes found,-an idea evidently suggested by motives of economy.

The brass plates inserted into gravestones, were also used in the place of any other monument, from the latter part of the thirteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century. Many of them are rich works of art; and they attained the summit of beauty and mag

nificence at the best period of Pointed architecture.

With regard to cross-legged effigies, Mr. Bloxam makes the following remarks:

that such attitude was intended to distin"The most common supposition is, guish those nobles, barons, and knights, who were either actual crusaders, or who, having vowed to engage as such, died before their vow could be performed. That notion is, however, but conjectural, and can be traced to no sufficient authority; and, besides this, the cross-legged attitude was retained for more than half

a century after the cessation of the last subsequent to the thirteenth century the crusade, though it may be remarked that instances of such attitude are not very numerous."

Mr. Bloxam's succeeding remarks seem to denote that he is inclined to attribute the attitude to the sculptor's aim at a more graceful display of drapery. The vulgar error is, or was, that all cross-legged effigies represented Knights Templar; this was corrected by Mr. Gough and the more judicious antiquaries of the last century: but that they are all Crusaders we fully believe. From the deficiency of historical proofs, it would, indeed, be difficult to substantiate this; in fact, scarcely any of them are appropriated except by circumstantial evidence, for they have no incriptions; but our opinion is in some measure influenced by the circumstance of having ascertained the cross-legged effigies of three of the most distinguished combatants at the assault of Mansoura in 1250, the subject of a curious poem printed in the Excerpta Historica; namely, that of Earl William Longespé in Salisbury Cathedral; that of Sir Alexander Giffard in Boyton church, Wiltshire; and that of Sir Robert de Vere, the same which Mr. Bloxam has engraved, and which is now placed before our readers.

Whether the minuter peculiarities of these effigies had also a symbolical meaning-whether the right leg crossing the left had a different signification from the left crossing the right; and the hands raised in prayer from the hand grasping the sword- hilt; whether by these or other masonic tokens, was denoted the stage of the Crusader's progress, such as his mere

assumption of the cross, his death in the holy voyage, or the completion of his vow, it would be interesting to know, could it be decided on any sounder foundation than mere conjec

ture.

We have not space to review the subject of effigies in general; but we may remark that the admired figures of Alderman Blackleach, and his lady in Gloucester cathedral, which are engraved in Mr. Bloxam's book, are equalled by two of the same period (Charles I.), hitherto little noticed, at Bishop's Cleeve, in the same county. The same chisel was probably employed in both cases; the figures at Gloucester have been attributed to Fanelli.

One of the latest recumbent figures we ever saw, as well as one of the most grotesque, is at Camerton, in Somersetshire, representing John Carew, Esq., who died in 1683. Instead of the full-bottomed peruke of his time,

EVERY one who is acquainted with the various materials for history, or for the memoirs of persons who are distinguished in its pages, must be aware that both historians and biographers have often neglected some of the most obvious sources of information.

The truth of this remark is shown in the instance of Sir Ralph Sadler, whose State Papers were edited by Sir Walter Scott, accompanied by a memoir from his pen. It is there stated that, "probably before Sadler attracted the King's notice, he became the husband of the widow of one Ralph Barrow, who does not seem to have been a person of high rank, although no good grounds have been discovered for the scandal with which Sanders and other Catholic writers have stigmatized this union. That she was a woman of credit and character, must be admitted, since Lord Cromwell, to whom she was related, not only countenanced the marriage, but was godfather to two of their children, the first of whom died in infancy.” Other authorities correctly assert that Lady Sadler's maiden name was Ellen Mitchell, and that she was the widow of

he wears his own hair, and a very full beard; a long cravat; a brown coat with innumerable buttons, breeches very full about the knees, shoes, and spurs. This very singular old-fashioned gentleman is exactly five feet high; his wife, who lies by his side, is an inch or two taller. He was probably an eccentric character; but whose "frailties," as his "merits," are now alike forgotten. We believe the late Alderman Fletcher, the antiquarian virtuoso of Oxford, left directions for a recumbent effigy, in the old style, to be placed upon his tomb.

We must now close our notice of this interesting volume, in which we have only to censure the erroneous spelling of authors' names: this fault occurs with those of Douglas, Lysons, Nichols, Nicolas, Nicolson, and with some of them several times. In p. 31, for Reston, read Keston.

J. G. N.

RALPH SADLER. Matthew Barre. Sanders' remarks, to which Scott alluded, are to the following effect:

"There was a mechanic named Mathew Barr, whose wife, by whom he had children, at one time washed the linen of the family of Cromwell, wherein dwelt Ralph Sadler, a man of some note, and now a member of Queen Elizabeth's Council. This Matthew went abroad, I know not from what cause, unless as some thought he suspected the chastity of his wife, and therefore he went away that he might not be compelled to witness that which he could neither endure nor prevent. When he had been gone some ing that he was dead, married Sir Ralph his wife, either hearing or pretendyears, Sadler. Matthew at length returned, and when he found that his wife had married another, he re-claimed her. Sadler on the other hand, who had children by her, would not give her up. The matter was therefore referred to the highest tribunal, i. e. to the parliaments (comitia) of the realm, as well under King Henry as under King Edward. It was there decreed that this woman, who was first

married to Matthew and then to Sadler, and had had children by both, was, from thenceforth, to be deemed not the wife of Matthew the first husband, but of Sadler, he being the more powerful and rich; and therefore against the truth of the Gospel,

tween her and Sir Ralph Sadler was by the Ecclesiastical Laws illegal, and by the Common Law his children were illegitimate; but, as the second marriage arose from the misconduct of her first, and indeed only lawful husband, Barre, and as her marriage with Sadler was made bona fide with a " pure conscience," under the impression that Barre was dead, Sir Ralph Sadler prayed that it might be enacted that all his children by her should be reputed and adjudged lawful and legitimate, and be inheritable to him as if they had been begotten and born in "lawful and perfect, and indissolvable matrimony."

The Act then confirms the grants made to Sadler and Ellen his wife, and to their heirs and assigns, of the inheritance of the estates of the late dissolved College of Westbury upon Trim, in the county of Gloucester, and provides that if any separation or divorce was prosecuted between Ellen and her husband Matthew Barre, that she should, during Barre's life, be considered a woman sole, as if she had never been married to him; that by the name of "Ellen Mitchell" she might during the life-time of Barre, take any grant of lands, &c. independently of him, and by that name to sue and be sued as a woman sole.

Viewed as a legal proceeding the whole affair is anomalous, and, it is believed, had no other precedent in England than the well-known case of the children of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Though born in adultery as well by the Common as the Ecclesiastical law, the children are legitimized, whilst the marriage of their parents is admitted to have been void ab initio. In contemplation of the usual process for a divorce in the Ecclesiastical Court, the Act declares that if such process be completed, she shall be considered a single woman, thus giving her power to marry Sir Ralph Sadler; but no other proceedings on the subject have been discovered. It is to be presumed that they were afterwards legally married, but no children appear to have been born subsequently to the year when the Bill passed. Thomas Sadler, their eldest surviving, but second son, was the child for whom Sir Ralph Sadler, in the interesting letter printed

by Sir Walter Scott, solicited Thomas (afterwards Lord) Cromwell, whilst a Commoner and Secretary of State, to stand sponsor, and to allow him to bear his name. His birth must have occurred about the year 1535, and certainly before July 1536, when Cromwell was created a Peer.

This statute corroborates the opinion which I have elsewhere expressed, as to the great utility of printing all the early private Acts of Parliament, on account of the valuable illustrations which they afford to history, biography, and genealogy, the light which they occasionally throw upon manners and customs, and the evidence which they contain of the descent of property.

I take leave, whilst alluding to Sir Ralph Sadler, to make an inquiry connected with one branch of his descendants.

It is said in a note to the Appendix to the Sadler State Papers, that General Thomas Sadler or his father Blount Sadler* (for the omission of the reference in the text makes it uncertain which is meant), left a son Thomas, who was living at Barbadoes in 1692; that he married the widow of Colonel Salter, and had issue two daughters; viz. Ann, who was two years old in 1692; and Elizabeth, who was born in that year, after which date nothing is known of that branch. Can any of your correspondents inform me whether Grace Sadler, who was born in 1693 or 1694, who is said to have come from the West Indies, who was first married to Sheldrake, and secondly in November 1726 to George Davison, esq. Alderman of Rochester, and who died in February 1756, æt. 62,+ was, as is highly probable, a daughter of the said Thomas Sadler of Barbadoes?