Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/280

 210 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. and the feet below, the central part of the tomb being closed over. This tomb, it is supposed, commemorated William Staunton, who married one of the coheiresses of John Stanlej- of Elford, sister of the boy, who was killed in infancy. The date of this " semi-effigial " tomb is about 1500 ; last in this interesting series, we are presented with the figures of Sir William Smythe {circa 1526) and his two wives, the second recumbent at his right hand, and wearing a coronet over her flowing hair. She was a daughter of John Seville, Marquis of Montacute, and her sister was the spouse of the gallant Biandon. Although inferior in artistic perfection to memorials of earlier date, these figures, and the table tomb whereon they repose, formed of alabaster quarried, probably, in the adjacent county of Derbyshire, present one of the richest examples known, in the elaboi-ate execution of the tabernacle work and other decorative accessories. The student of mediaeval costume will find, in the " Elford Tombs," many interesting and instructive details, well deserving of his notice. These memorials will, no doubt, now present a more comely and attractive aspect to the visitor, to whom the undeniable evidence which they had previously afforded in their less seemly condition, may be a matter of minor con- sideration. If our acknowledgment is due to the talented sculptor for the contribution to the History of Medisival Art, which the publication before us supplies, still more should we esteem the record, which he has very properly preserved, of the actual condition in which these monuments ■were found, when committed to his hands. We respect the feelings of pious veneration which cling to the memories of bygone generations ; and we cordially sympathise with the impulse which would cause a tender solicitude for the conservation of all ancestral memorials. At the same time, we cannot refrain from an expression of regret, at the increasing taste for " restoration " of medireval monuments ; of regret, also, that the skill of talented artists should, through such well-intentioned esteem for that which is seemly ,*in preference to that which is truthful, be so fatally mis- applied. Some amends for the injury might, indeed, be found, if, as Mr. Richardson informs us was practised in the present instance, casts were carefully taken previously to the destruction of that authentic originality, which constitutes the essential value and interest of sepulchral sculptures ; provided, moreover, that some national depository existed, where the unde- niable evidence which such casts would aff"ord might be preserved, and hccomc public i juris. It is high time that the injuries caused through the mistaken plea of " restoration " should cease, and our veneration for the monuments of past generations be shown, in a more intelligent and truly conservative appreciation of their value. SPECIMENS OF TILE PAVEMENTS, DRAWN FROM EXISTING AUTHOR- ITIES. By Henry Shaw, F.S. A. Loudon : Pickering. 4to. Nos. L and II. At the meeting of the Institute in Bristol, last year, considerable interest was occasioned amongst those who take an interest in such decorations, by the mspcction of a pavement of armorial and decorative tiles, of the close of the fifteenth century, existing in an ancient dwelling in Redclitle street, f>ujiposed to have been the residence of William Canynges. This pavement exifits in its original arrangement, a feature of rare occurrence in the