Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/442

 346 OX THE BRONZE DOORS OP THE CATHEDRAL OF GNESEX. and sometimes they are not much larger than these appear. The sliields carried by the Prussians have no ornament except a border ; but those seen in the tenth pannel are decorated in a manner curiously similar to some heraldic bearings ; one may be described as party per pale, bendy, counterchanged ; a second, party per pale, barry, counterchanged ; and a third as barry bendy. This last shield is shghtly different in form from the others, the point being curved to the sinister side. The ecclesiastical costume presents but little requiring notice. The mitre is of the low early form ; the crosier a plain crook. The female costume, also, has nothing ver}'- characteristic : the garments are long, falhng on the ground, and covering the feet ; the sleeves ■wide. Round the neck, in some instances, is an embroidered border. The heads of the women of rank are covered by hoods, or kerchiefs, fastened under the chin, and falling on the shoulders. The women of lower station have the heads uncovered, with the hair long. The architectural details appear all to point to the Romanesque period, and to the Lombard or the German style ; the arches are all circular, small arcades, and slender towers, capped by dome-shaped roofs, frequently occur, all well-known featm'es of the arcliitecture of Lombardy and of Germany in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The boat in the tenth pannel is exactly like the one represented on a seal of the citizens of Lubeck, which is attached to a document dated 1267 ("Die Hansa, &c.," by Kurd von Schlozer, title-page), excepting that the boat on the seal has a mast. This seal may, of course, be much older than the document to which the impression is attached. The broad borders, enclosing figures of men, beasts, birds, and monsters, will at once recal to the architectural student the friezes, abaci, or strings, which occur in the buildings of the countries and periods to which the architectural details are above referred. Instances are to be found in the abaci of some of the columns of the south transept of St. Micbele ^ at Pavia, in a string or band on the exterior of the apse of the Cathedral of Basle ; * and in our own country, work of similar character will be seen in the remains of the Church of Shobdon in Herefordshire. 3 This church is ascribed by some to eleventh or twelfth. See Gaily Knight's the seventh or eighth century, but the " Eccles. Architecture of Italy." more probable opinion gives it to the ■* It is remarkable that the famous