Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/520

 352 EFFTOY OF A KNIGHT (>F THE FIFTEENTH CENTFEY, Aveley, in Essex, so skilfully figured by Waller, the brass- engraver has paid so little attention to the dignity of the knightly toilet, that Sir Radiilphns has the sleeves of his gambeson protruding beyond his arm-defences in the most uncomely manner. But hence we learn the internal economy of the fourteenth-century vambrace : and many similar in- stances might be given; all useful as minute details, contri- buting to the general mass of knowledge, necessary to the complete understanding of ancient monuments and ancient usages. The sculpture of the figure before us is so extremely rude, that the face has the appearance of twelfth-century work. The features are formed out of the solid round by merely cutting away a little of the surface beyond their outline. Of the rest of the figure, it may be per- mitted to say, that it has been drawn with scrupulous exactness, and throughout to scale. The statue is of Purbeck marble, and was dug up in the churchyard of Minster in 1833 ; being found at the depth of five feet below the surface of the soil. It has very properly been placed on an altar-tomb in the chapel adjoining the chancel, with an inscription, giving the particulars of its discovery. It is, probably, to this circumstance of its burial that we owe the preservation of the curious little figure of a soul, which is held upon the breast. Had he been above-ground in the days of reckless Puritanism, it is certain that some Kentish Dowsing would have condemned our knight as an image- worshipper, and the " image" itself would have fallen at one blow of the iconoclastic hammer. As it is, the effigy has suffered much mutilation, all that portion represented by cross-lines having been cut down to the depth of several inches (see Woodcut). This Avas, of course, done before it was exhumed. Not a trace of colour is left on the surface, and the decomposition of the marble has been so powerful, that it has all the appearance of a coarse gray sandstone. The figure is of life-size, in full relief, and lies upon a coped slab, of which much has ]jeen cut away. From the arming, the date of the work seems to be about 1440; not earlier, or the tuillcs would not be of such advanced form ; not later, or the gauntlets would probably have exchanged their fingers for broad plates. The breast-plate of our knight is in two parts, the lower overlapping the other, so as to give greater