Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/106

86 aperture is cut in the slab to shew the head and bust of the body supposed to lie beneath, the remaining surface of the stone being decorated, as in this case, with a cross, or with armorial bearings, as on the tomb of Sir William de Staunton, in Staunton church, Notts. Other examples of this fashion occur at Brampton, in Derbyshire, and at Aston Ingham, in Herefordshire.

Mr. Wykeham Archer exhibited drawings from the frescoes recently discovered in Carpenter's Hall; and from the statues of King Lud and his two sons, formerly in niches on the eastern front of Lud-gate. Sir Richard Westmacott observed, that although these statues had been considered as of great antiquity, he thought, from their pseudo-classical costume, that they were not older than the seventeenth century. But Dr. Bromet was of opinion that, from their style, their heads were as old as A.D. 1260, when Stow says, Ludgate "was beautified with images of Lud and other kings," and which, having been smitten off at the Reformation, were, in Mary's time, replaced, and so remained till 1586, in which year the gate was newly built, with the images of Lud and others, as before. He thought it probable, however, that the bodies and limbs of these statues are not older than 1666, when the gate, which had been damaged by the fire, was again repaired; and having been used as a prison until 1761, was finally taken down, and its statues deposited in the small churchyard adjoining, whence they were removed to their present situation, in the gardens of the Hertford villa in the Regent's Park.

Amongst various antiquities and curious objects, communicated by Mr. George Grant Francis, Local Secretary for South Wales, from the collection of the Royal Institution at Swansea, was a die, supposed to have been found near that town, formed of coarse whitish clay, coated with a blue glaze. Each of the six sides bore a letter, as here represented, indicating the amount of gain or loss; this object having evidently been used as a plaything in place of the te-to-tum, and thrown with the hand or with a dice-box, the T denoting turn again, the A all, N nothing, &c. It has been conjectured that this may be the plaything formerly termed a Daly. "Daly or play, tessura, alea, decius." Promptorium Parvulorum. Horman says, in the Vulgaria, that "men play with three dice, and children with four dalies—astragulis vel talis. Wolde god I coude nat play at the dalys, aleam. Cutte this flesshe into daleys, tessellas." In the British Museum there is preserved a die, having eighteen rectangular faces, six of which are marked with the following letters, TA—LS—SZ—NG—NH—ND, and the intervening sides are marked with picks, like an ordinary die, up to the number twelve. The