Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/337

 n s. vi. OCT. o, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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REGENT'S CIRCUS (11 S. vi. 109, 174, 216). In the 'Map of London' published by Darton, 1817, " Regent's Circus " is clearly marked as though completed, at the top of Portland Place, the northern segment enter- ing at its middle directly into the Broad Walk of Regent's Park, having the New Road between. Further up the Broad Walk, and on the west side, opposite Chester Gate, is a long pond of water, now filled in.

W. Louis KING.

Wadesmill, Ware.

AI.AB ASTER EFFIGIES (11 S. vi. 208). j The late Mr. Octavius Morgan, F.R.S., F.S.A., President of the Monmouthshire and | Caerleon Antiquarian Association, published in 1872 a small work entitled ' Some Account of the Ancient Monuments in the Priory Church, Abergavenny.' Amongst the effigies existing in the Herbert Chapel in that church he describes those of Sir William ap Thomas of Raglan Castle (d. 1446) and his wife Gwladys, daughter of Sir David Gam ; those of Sir William ap Thomas's second son, Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook (beheaded as a Yorkist, 1469), and his wife Margaret, sister of Sir Rhys ap Thomas ; and that of Sir William's grandson, Richard Herbert of Ewyas (d. 1510). All these effigies are of alabaster, and in connexion with them Mr. Morgan writes :

" The most ancient remaining example of a finely sculptured effigy in alabaster is the cross- legged figure, said to represent Sir John Hanbury, in Hanbury Church, Staffordshire, of the date 1240. The material, however, does not seem to have been much employed till a century later ; but from the middle of the fourteenth century it gradually came into general use, and so continued till the beginning of the seventeenth century. Its substance is a compact gypsum or sulphate of lime, and when burned formed plaster of Paris, and this quality may probably have caused the destruction in ruthless times of many examples, certainly of the fragments of statues. Its geo- logical position is in the new red sandstone, and its chief deposit is in Derbyshire, where at Chellaston and Burton-upon-Trent it has been largely worked for sculpture and monumental purposes for many centuries. The ' marbellers ' in alabaster of Burton were early celebrated, and the execution or production of these sculptured monuments was a great trade of the district. Most of the finest mediaeval monumental sculptures were of this material, and so greatly was it prized, that Gough informs us that an alabaster monument of John, Duke of Bretagne, who died in 1399, was exported from this country to be erected in the Cathedral in Nantes, and that it was executed by three English workmen, Thomas Colyn, Thomas Holewell, and Thomas Popplehouse, to whom King Henry IV. granted a passport to carry it over in February, 1408. The monument, how- ever, no longer exists. We may therefore infer that the making of these monuments was a

peculiar English trade, and that the monuments were all executed at the quarries, and sent thence to their destination to be erected."

Some of the Herbert effigies above referred to are of that period to which MR. LLECHID JONES states the effigies in the church at Bettws-y-Coed are attributed. The sculp- tured armour and dress of these Herberts are minutely described by Mr. Morgan, and should show points of resemblance to the workmanship in the monuments at Bettws-y- Coed if the latter are, as is believed, of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

There is an interesting paper in vol. x. of The Archaeological Journal on ' Mediaeval Sculpture and working in Alabaster in England,' in which Derbyshire is mentioned as having been largely connected with the industry, but there is no reference to Not- tingham. Camden states that, in the reign of Elizabeth, Burton in Derbyshire was still noted for alabaster work.

CHARLES H. THOMPSON.

Junior Constitutional Club, W.

In a paper read at Nottingham in 1901, and printed in The Archaeological Journal, vol. Ixi., Mr. St. John Hope expressed the opinion that the earliest alabaster effigy known is that of a cross-legged knight in Hanbury Church, Staffordshire, the date of which he put at about 1290. The reputa- tion of Nottingham for the skilled work of its " alablastermen," or " marblers," is well known. In this connexion see ' Arms, Armour, and Alabaster round Nottingham,' by George Fellows, 1907, which is a well- illustrated and handsomely produced slim quarto on the local alabaster altar-tombs. G. L. APPERSON.

Alabaster from the Derbyshire quarries was the favourite material for monumental effigies in the fifteenth century and after. The soft material lent itself to elaborate carving ; and England was famous for her alabaster images and retables. Small panels in relief of altars and reredoses, with which may be classed the " St. John's Heads," produced apparently at Nottingham, were in much request, both here and on the Continent. A. R. BAYLEY.

It is far more likely that these were made j at Burton-on-Trent than at Nottingham, i Leland in his ' Itinerary,' 153340, says he j found at Burton " many Marbelers working j in Alabaster." and it is to the latter that I numerous effigies and inscribed slabs in j churches of adjoining counties are generally attributed. W. B. H.