Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/90

66 accidental defects are the same in both; therefore I have no doubt that the two sides were struck from the same die, and that the plates were joined together afterwards. Probably they enclosed a strip of parchment, or some other attachment by which the lead was fastened to a petition, deed, roll, or other legal instrument; but there is no trace whatever of the place where such a fastening could have been, nor can I discover the junction of the two plates. It is an interesting relic, for I have every reason to believe that it is the only impression in existence. There is no example of it amongst the Duchy records, nor in the British Museum, nor in the Chapter House of Westminster." To these remarks it may be added, that this curious object is undoubtedly a leaden bulla, similar in character to the metal seals used by the Hospitallers in England, examples of which may be seen among the ancient charters in the British Museum, and in the cabinet of Mr. Fitch, of Norwich. As it bears no mark of having been attached to a document, it is probable it may have been intended to perforate the upper part, in order to attach it by a lace to the deed; a mode of fastening which may be remarked in many instances, where pendant bullæ are used. The device represents two stream- tinners working in their mine, "with no aid," as Sir Charles Lemon observes, "but that of the stream of water which nature continually supplied in what was their principal tin-ground, namely, the beds of rivers;" Sir Charles further remarks "this is expressed by the lion's head, which in old seals and gems is generally used as the emblem of running water." The field is diapered, apparently with quatrefoils; the legend reads ✠. . There are no very peculiar features in the style or execution of this seal, to indicate its probable date, but from the character of the letters of the inscription, and from the orthography of the word "stangnatorum" it may be reasonably ascribed to a period not later than the earlier half of the fourteenth century. Although certain franchises were granted to the tinners of Cornwall, by the charters of the third of John, and the thirty-third of Edward the First, their formal in- corporation cannot be shewn: yet the use of a seal, and the style of a "communitas," would seem to countenance their pretensions to a corporate character at least for certain purposes. An analogous example of the use of a common seal by tenants enfranchised, but not, so far as is known, incorporated, is afforded by Sir Frederick Madden's "Remarks on the Common Seal of the men of Alwarestoke, co. Hants," printed in the volume of the Proceedings at the Annual Meeting of the Institute at Winchester in 1845.

Mr. Hudson Turner submitted to the Committee a drawing of an impression of a very remarkable personal seal, here represented of the full size. It is appended to a deed (preserved in the Public Record Office) dated in the ninth year of Edward the Third, whereby Walter de Grendene,