Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/383

 KNIGHTLY EFFIGIES AT SANDWU'Jl AM) A,-JI. There are few spots in all England more interesting to the historian and the archaeologist than Sandwich and its neighbourhood. On one side is Richborough, the Roman gate of Britain, even now magnificent in its extensive remains. On another side are found the monuments of Anglo-Saxon occupation : graves, arms, domestic utensils, and articles of personal adornment. The churches of Ash and Sandwich are rich in the sculptured effigies of medieval knighthood. Sandwich itself is most curious as a landmark of passing centuries, a " Bauta-stone," set up hy Time, to record how seaport after seaport has been destroyed bj the " aboundance of the light sande driven in by the sea." The narrow, tortuous streets, have clearly not changed their groundplan since the days when Edward the Third assem- bled at this spot his army of "3000 lances and 10,000 archers, with a fleet of 400 sail," and when Edward the Black Prince landed here with the King of France as his prisoner. In the quaint old houses of post-and-pane, we see the very homes of the refugee Flemings, settled here with their weaving arts in the sixteenth century ; and amongst these buildings probably yet remains the very mansion occupied by Queen Elizabeth in her stately pro- gress to the renowned cinqueport : " Mr. Manwood's house, wherein she lodged, a house wherein Kinge Henry the Vlllth had been lodged twyce before ;" where she was presented with " a cupp of gold of a hundredth pounds, and a New Testa- ment in Greeke, which she thankfully accepted ;" and where, on " a scaffold made uppon the wall of the scole house yarde," were seen divers " Englishe and Dutche, to the number of Cth or VI score, all spynning of fyne baye yarne, a thing well lyked both of her Majestic, and of the Nobilitie and ladies." ^ And not least interesting and instructive to the archaeologist and the historian is the rare collection of ' One cannot help comparing and curi- Victoria at the Crystal Talaco cxaniin- ously considering the very similar scene ing the Department of " Mn.lnii. ry in which has been enacted under our own motion." eyes within this p:issing niontli- Queen VOL. VIII. " "