Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/213

 us. VIIL SEPT. 13, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

207

it would be interesting to be able to identify him has made two slips in the Dedication. He heads it ' To Mr. B*****r,' which should be "To My Brother " ; and he makes the signature " Goma de Palajos," instead of Oonia de Palajos, which Querard says is Danish for " Vieil Ange " = Angliviel, the second name of the author, who concealed his identity under this pseudonym.

C. D.

WE must request correspondents desiring in formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct-

CROSS-LEGGED MONUMENTAL EFFIGY AT BIRKIN. W. R. YOBKS. I have lately had an opportunity of glancing at a monument, in the north wall of the nave of this church, which has left a lasting impression on my mind. The recumbent figure is that of a bareheaded young man, with abundant curling hair ; he is dressed in a long, un- decorated mantle, and has his legs crossed. Between his hands he holds something that may be intended to represent a heart. I was told that the original was probably one of the De Birkins, but who they were I do not know. * Murray ' refers to the late Rev. G. A. Poole as having felt that the " robe," as he called it, tempted the sus- picion that it was a penitential garment.

" The roll moulding over the recessed aperture [wrote that admirable antiquary] agrees with the presumption that he who lies beneath de- parted in the faith after the dispersion of the Templars ; and we may be excused for suggesting the probability that here rests the Preceptor, or some noble brother of the Preceptory at Temple- hurst "

an establishment of which nothing now remains.

Has anybody else written helpfully about this monument ? It interests me because it seems to be that of a civilian, though the curly hair and the feminine face do not favour the fancy that he was an ecclesiastic ; indeed, Prof. Barnard of Liverpool Uni- versity is of opinion that no ecclesiastic has been represented in the cross-legged pose. This was stated in a paper on ' The Military Effigies at Maltby and Belleau,' contributed to the Transactions of the Lincolnshire Architectural Society in 1910 or thereabout. As I have met with an F.S.A. clinging to the old belief that cross-legged effigies denote , Crusaders, and the fiction is dear to many I

less learned than he, it may be well to note what Prof. Barnard teaches on the question. He says the attitude

'' was simply an easy and a natural pose for a man in pliable mail, and one which assisted also to a free and graceful disposition of the drapery of the surcoat. It is found before the first Crusade, and for eighty years after the last ; it is seen on the tombs of men who we know never went Crusading ; it is apparently peculiar to England, while Crusaders were not ; and though there were priestly Crusaders, no ecclesiastic has been discovered similarly commemorated. After plate takes the place of mail and other pliant defences on the legs, we no longer find this position, since it would be unnatural and difficult for limbs locked up in steel." 'Reports and Papers read at Meetings of Architectural Societies,' vol. xxx. p. 372.

ST. SWITHIN.

[For opinions on cross-legged effigies see 3 S. viii. 312 ; 4 S. ii. 392, 446, 535, 588 ; 8 S. v. 166, 252 ; 10 S. v. 130, 175, 257, 314 ; 11 S. iv. 88.]

BUCKFASTLEIGH'S ISOLATED CHURCH. The church of Buckfastleigh stands on a hill more than half a mile from any part of the present town, and with no habitations within sight. Yet it is the only edifice for the use of members of the Church of Eng- land who reside in the adjacent town. What was the reason for its being built in a position so splendid and commanding, but so inconvenient of access ?

The church on Brent Tor is equally singular in position, but is in the midst of a sparse and scattered farmhouse population, some of whom are as near to it as to the other church in the parish. W. S. B. H.

QUARITCH MSS. Bernard Quaritch's Rough List Catalogue for June, 1895, contains on p. 4 a description of some manuscripts of English poetry from the Phillipps Collection. These are numbered 15, 16, and 17. The dates assigned to them are : for the first MS. mentioned, 1628- 1630; for the second, 1640-46; for the last, 1635-60. No. 15 is described as con- taining signed poems by Randolph, " Alla- blaster," and others ; Nos. 16 and 17 as

omposed of mostly unpublished pieces by Jonson, Randolph, Corbet, Strode, Donne^, Mayne, Cartwright, Carew, &c. Mr. Quar- itch has no record of the sale of any of these three manuscripts. They seem to be of first-class interest and importance to stu- dents of seventeenth-century verse. Can any light be thrown on their fate and present whereabouts by some expert who reads

N. & Q.' ?

And again : Quaritch bought from Sotheby, in March, 1895, a household book