Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/311

 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 187 the lower part of the slab. The first symbol appears to be one of those borrowed from heathen art, and it occurs frequently on early Christian tombs.* It ornaments one of the ends of the sarcophagus of Honorius at Piome : and appears intended to symbolise the participation of the faithful in the blood of our Saviour. JNIr. Nesbitt thinks the date of the sculpture may be assigned to the middle of the twelfth century ; the interesting little church in which it was found is in great part of about that age. Mr. Nesbitt exhibited also a sketch of a coffin slab found in Tickhill Church, Yorkshire. (Engraved in Boutell's Christian Mon., p. 08.) It is sculptured in very low relief ; the cross in tliis example is supplied by what may be called a reversed eight-foil, a figure formed by eight equal curves, the points point- ing outwards, instead of inwards ; the extremities are floriated, and the central space occupied by the Holy Lamb. This head is supported by a plain shaft, springing from a graduated base, and on each side appears a figure of a dragon ; on the right side a space is sunk in the margin, so as to admit of a hand being carved in high relief, gi'asping the handle apparently of a sword. The foliage of the slab is of the same character as that used in the Early English period, and Mr. Nesbitt assigned this remarkable tomb to the thirteenth century. The introduction of dragons or monstrous animals on early sculptured slabs of this kind, in this manner, is a curious feature, and may have a symbolical intention. A few analo- gous examples may deserve comparison, especially the slab preserved at Dewsbury, Yorkshire, and one at St. Pierre, Monmouthshire.^ Mb. Edward Richardson produced a note from Mr. Lansdown, of Stoke- upon-Trent, regarding the removal of monuments of the IMinors' family, to which the attention of the Institute had been called by Mr. Pachardson at a previous meeting. It was stated that " A monument to some of the Minors' family was in Uttoxeter Church, in 1829, and, when repairs and alterations were then made, it was broken in pieces, in consequence of the members of the family, who were wTitten to on the subject, declining to reinstate it. My informant is the parish clerk, who says there were thi'ee figures, a man, woman, and child ; they were a good deal damaged, but he and some of the workmen broke them into small fragments and threw them into a heap of rubbish ; he is therefore sure no one has any portions of the effigies." The ancient family, one of whose memorials was thus barbarously demolished, was resident near Uttoxeter, according to Erdeswick, as early as temp. Henry III. Mr. Richardson laid before the meeting, also, casts from some curious sculptured fragments, found in excavating under the tower, at Binstead Church, Isle of Wight. giuttquttir^ mxti W&iav^^ of ^rt ertifi^trt. By Mr. Stephen Ram. — A beautiful cameo, the head of young Bacchus, a carving on ivury of very fine character, and stated to have been discovered in an Etruscan tomb. By Mr. Tucker. — A small vase for unguent, of deep blue glass, of beautiful quality, from a coluinbariwn at Rome. ^ See Boldctti, pp. 164, 372, .374 ; and the Bisliopstone slab. The rross with circles Maitland's Church of the Catacombs. is similar, as he observed, in arrangement to 9 Mr. Westwood called attention to the the Norman ornamenta at Kilpeck church, triple gonfanon, borne by the Agnus Dei on Herefordshire.