Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/237

 12 8. UI. MARCH 24, 1917.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

231

of whom are laying violent hands on a civilian, who, from the appearance of a rope in close proximity to him, is in grave danger of sus. per col.

At the bottom of the panel is the following inscription in raised letters, Latin capitals :

ON. STILL. STAN. 7 BONING. THUT ICH 8LAN.

Perhaps some reader may be able to throw some light on the meaning of this quaint inscription. G. H. PALMEB.

JAMES DRAYTON. Information is de- sired about James Drayton, botanist. There is a sandstone tablet in Allington Church with inscription :

IN MEMORY OF JAMKS DRAYTON

A FAMOUS BOTANIST OF MAID-

STONE WHO WAS BURIED IN

THIS CHURCHYARD 11. SEP. 1749.

J. AJBDAGH.

THB PLYMOUTH BRETHREN. Wanted, in- formation about two pamphlets, published in 1882, entitled 'The Gentile Power' and "* The Protestant Martyrs,' written by Charles Orde Browne. They are not in the British Museum. Are copies extant ?

J. H. LESLIE.

THRALE HALL, STREATHAM. Does any part of this house visited by Dr. Johnson still remain ? If not, I should be glad to know the date of its demolition.

W. KENT.

fUplws.

REPRESENTATIONS OF THE

BLESSED TRINITY.

(12 S. iii. 168.)

THOUGH I have reason to believe the de- scription by MR. JOHN D. LE COUTEUR to be very accurate, I should like to inquire about " the body of the- dead Christ streaming with blood ^and displaying the wounds." The fact of its being now somewhat mutilated leads one to suppose that the glass is actually incomplete, and -that, as regards some parts of it, we have only guesswork to go upon. May I go so iar as to suggest that, probably, Christ was represented alive ?

According to the account of the Passion
 * given by St. John, xix. 34, when " one of

the soldiers with a spear opened his side, there came out blood and water." This was intended, I think, as a proof that blood

was not flowing any more, because of death. The streaming blood as figured in the glass seems to be purely emblematic, an allusion to redemption or to the Holy Sacrament. This " mystical fountain " is represented in many documents of the period : pictures, glass, alabasters.

Moreover, I venture to say that a repre- sentation of the Holy Trinity with one of the Divine Persons figured as a dead body would be a most unusual thing in Christian art.

On the other hand, the Trinity with a Christ in glory, bearing His Cross, and show- ing the stigmata, is most frequent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially in Flemish art. One instance, a most beautiful one, is the central figure of the so-called ' Retable de 1'abbaye d'Anchin,' by Jean Bellegambe, a painter from Douai, 1470-1531.

I have not seen the picture since the beginning of the War, and I do not know what ha.-, happened to it. It was exhibited in the vestry of the church of Notre Dame in Douai. It is reproduced in the book on Jean Bellegambe by Mgr. Dehaisnes. Per- hapa some reader of ' N. & Q.' would go to the V. and A. Museum library, where he is sure to find the book, and furnish MB. JOHN D. LE COUTEUB with a better description. I will try to trace it from memory :

God the Father is represented as an old man, bearded, wearing the tiara, like a Pope a very frequent feature at the time. He is half-sitting, half -standing, as the monks used to be when leaning on the " misereres " during the services. On His right knee He supports the Christ naked, and showing with His hand the wound in His side.

I should think that a general study of the representations of the Holy Trinity in England might lead to curious results and help to correct accredited errors. I should, for instance, personally be pleased to know if the presence of a skull under the Cross, as I observed in a fourteenth-century glass in the church of Cheriton, Kent (12 S. i. 37), is a solitary instance during this period. I have usually met with a world-like globe in the same place.

On the other hand, it seems extraordinary that such a learned archaeologist as Albert Way has, without any reason, omitted so much as a mention of the Emblematic Dove when describing, in Dean Stanley's ' Memorials,' two different representations of the Trinity one in the painting on the canopy of the Black Prince's tomb in Canterbury Cathedral, the other one on a