Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/543

Rh relicks or tears; the first scolloped is peculiar to the Order of St. James de Compostella; and a church at Dunwich, dedicated to that saint, shows some probability it did belong thereto. The other three might appertain to particular shrines, as to my Lady of Walsingham, Thomas Becket," &c. One of them bears the crowned W. as seen upon that here represented, but from a different mould: this initial may very probably have designated the noted shrine of East Anglia, to which Gardner refers; another pouch bears the letter T., and the fourth presents the symbol of the lily in a vase, usually appropriate to the Virgin, with the initial R., possibly St. Richard, of Chichester. Each of them has loops by which they might be attached to the cap.

By the, Rector of West Rasen, Lincolnshire.—A Book of Swan-marks (cigninotæ) originally compiled, probably, towards the latter part of the times of Elizabeth. It contains about 300 marks, some of them dated 1607, 1608, 1610, and 1612; but these appear to be additions or corrections. The list seems chiefly to relate to swans on the meres and rivers in the neighbourhood of Ramsey, Huntingdonshire, and it came into Mr. Cooper's possession from his ancestor, Sir Oliver Cromwell, (uncle to the Protector) who had considerable property in that county, including Ramsey Abbey and Hinchinbrook Nunnery, which the loyal knight expended in supporting the cause of Charles I. The list commences with three royal marks, indicated as "Regine—ye crowne, ye swordes," (doubtless Queen Elizabeth,) those of the Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, the Earls of Huntingdon, Essex, Wiltshire, Sussex, &c. It deserves notice that in some cases the intention of these strange devices is indicated by an interlinear gloss; for instance, two square symbols marked with an ace are explained to be "ye dysse;" a large Tau is marked "tantony crosse;" there are also "boot and rother, a skorge, ye Trifollye (trefoil), the dobel pelles (bakers' peels), ye spades, shavm and sheres (the musical instrument called a shaum), ye crose sprites (cross poles, used for pushing boats in shallow water), doubyll pylger (a fish-spear, Forby, Norf. Dial.),dobyll ankers sheris, nedill," &c.; "ye sterrope, ye acre staffe," &c. At the top of each parchment leaf of this register are scribbled two lines of rhyme, of a penitential character, running through the book. On the last leaf is the following note:—"Mēd'. that on the sixtenth daye of July Anno Dm'i 1612 there appeared a Swanne of the long Squires foyled, being matched wth the gredyron, hauing betwixt them a brood of fyue Signetts, And for that the long Squyres was the fayrest & that no man could clayme the Swann nor shew whose marke it was that had foyled the same, there was giuen to the field one bird & a halfe, wherupon the marke of the long Squires was amended and allowed upon Ramsey streame, the same Sixtenth daye of July afores'd. By us, —

The signatures are autograph. A very curious and more ancient book of swan-marks was exhibited by Mr. Bromehead, of Lincoln, in the Museum formed during the meeting of the Institute in that city. Another was in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, and has been published in the "Archæologia."