Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/350

324 case; the vestments found being such only as belong to the humbler grade of the clergy. Perhaps the great size of the cross on the slab (which has, indeed, the peculiarities of a processional cross) may be intended to designate the office of the deceased, whose duty it might have been (if a sub-deacon) to carry the cross on solemn festivals.

This is, however, mere conjecture; but it can scarcely be concluded that a Purbeck marble slab of such magnitude as compared to the coffin would be fixed, without some special reason or meaning.

In the absence of any known date, judging from the impress on the marble, and the shape of the stone coffin, I should assign both to the early part of the fourteenth century."