Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/197

 Helmdon Mantle Tree Infcription, &c. '47 the great rofe, if of one colour only, he might fhew the royal houfe to which he was moft inclined, as by the double compartment with rofes he might denote their happy union under Henry the Vlllth. And William Ranalde I ftill hold to have been the incumbent in 1533, not finding any other reclor to whom the letters W. R. can be applied as initials of the names. From an extract of the regifter of John (Longland) bifhop of Lincoln, communicated by Mr. Fardell to Mr. Gough, it appears that William Ranalde, mafter of arts, was in 1523 admitted at Buckden to the rectory of Helmdon, on the prefentation of the mafter and brethren of the hofpital of St. John near Northampton. But when he vacated the benefice, or whether by refignation, cef- fion, or death, is not known. Mr. Gough writes " unfortunately the regifter of the parifli does not begin till 1570, which is ten years after the time of the next fucceilbr noticed in Brydges' lift of the incumbents, and Helmdon church having been completely new paved," Mr. Gough looked in vain for any fepulchral veftige of him. Should his will be difcovered it may afford fome material intelli- gence concerning him. At prefent there is a ftrong prefumption of his having built the re&ory-houfe ; and after duly weighing the feveral circumftances alledged to eftablifh the early ufe of Arabic numerals from the Helmdon date, I icruple not to plead that it ought to be ftruck out of the record. It being alfo undeniable that as the Arabic numerals on the outbuildings at Prefton Hall could not have been carved before the conclufion of the fixteenth cen- tury, there muft be in them a rctrofpe&ive allufion to the date of the year, and confequently this is another cafe not in point. The unknown quaint writer in Bibliotheca Litcraria, together with other critics lefs eccentric, have difmhTed the Colchefter date ; and, if I am not miftaken, there is not a {ingle infcription produced in the controverfy that has not been difallowed as being indefenfible U 2 by