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224 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. a little below the elbow, but she has also a mantle, which is wanting in the other examples. A very small dog lies on her skirt, between her feet. Mr. Charles Tucker has communicated the following notice of an in- teresting portion of the ancient episcopal palace at Exeter, lately demo- lished, and of the remains of a decorative pavement. The heraldic tiles in question have been presented by him to the museum of the Institute. " In pulling down parts of the ancient palace of the bishops at Exeter, previously to the erection of the new edifice, the workmen found a floor of decorative tiles (which had been partly concealed by a more modern wooden one) in a chamber, formerly of some note and pretension, having a basement story beneath, and a fine lofty carved oak roof, which had also been hid by a modern plastered ceiling. The floor was formed with armorial decorative tiles, arranged in compartments of fours, with a border of plain reddish- brown tiles, surrounding every four. The tiles, of which three exhibit armorial scutcheons, may be thus described : 1, a lion rampant, Poictou ? 2, a lion rampant, within a bordure bezanty, a fleur-de-lys being placed above and on each side of the scutcheon ; 3, three chevronels. On the fourth tile ap- pears an eagle displayed, in a compartment formed with many cusps, the four principal points bearing crowns : this ornament bears much resemblance to the fan-shaped crest which surmounted both the basinet of the knight, and the head of his charger, as shewn by seals and illuminations of the latter part of the thirteenth century. Mr. Pitman 'Jones, of Exeter, made a communi- cation on the subject to an officer of the Herald's College, and has for- warded to me the following suggestions, as to the armorial bearings de- corating these tiles. The first shield bears the arms of Poictou, and the second those of the earl of Cornwall, Richard Plantagenet, second son of King John, having, upon being created earl of Poictou and Cornwall, in 1225, adopted the arms of Poictou, viz., argent, a lion rampant gules, crowned or, within a bordure of the ancient arms of Cornwall, viz., sable bezanty. He was elected king of the Romans in 1256, and died in 1271. All the bearings in question appear to refer personally to Edmund of Almaine, earl of Cornwall, son and successor of Richard Plantagenet, second son of King John. This Edmund intermarried with Margaret de Clare, daughter of Richard, earl of Gloucester, whose arms, three chevronels, occupy one of the shields. The device of an eagle, Avith the crown at the four points of the bordure, appear to refer to the dignity of his father, as king of the Romans, and I find that he bore on his seal the shield of his arms placed on an eagle, or rather hanging from the beak of an eagle, with the inscription: S Eadmundi de Alemannia, Comitis Cornubie>. " If the above explanation of the bearings be correct, it will afford a clue to the date of the Avork, and fix it about the close of the thirteenth cen- tury. Richard, earl of Poictou and Cornwall, the king of the Romans, espoused Sanchia of Provence, his second wife, mother of Edmund, in 12 13. Margaret de Clare was divorced from Edmund, carl of Cornwall, in 1294, and Ednunul himself died in 1300. ' Sandford's Genealogical History, p. 95.