border (see below, No. 12.) The sameness, to which a pavement of this kind is liable, is also partly removed by the indiscriminate use of the armorial tiles; this, however, is perhaps accidental[1].
The patterns of the tiles, which measure six inches square, are as follows:
1 . Within a circle, a lion rampant, the corners filled with a rudely designed foliated ornament.
A lion rampant occurs in the arms of many of the Devonshire families, as Redvers, Nonant, Pomeray, &c.; here however it was probably merely ornamental, as is frequently the case with heraldic animals introduced in pavements, ex. gr., those at Winchester, where there are no coats of arms, or other devices that can only be heraldic.
2. The arms of England, placed diagonally, with monstrous animals, filling the sides and top.
3. The arms of Haccombe, (argent, 3 bends, sable,) similarly arranged, and with the same animals filling the sides and top.
4. The arms of Haccombe, as before; the sides and top filled with foliage.
5. A shield bearing 3 chevrons, each surmounted by a zig- zag line; the top of the shield dancetté. Filled up at the corners, &c., with small lions, their backs turned towards the shield. (Compare Nichols' Specimens of Tiles, No. 82.)
6. A shield: the arms possibly meant for semé of fleur-de-lis, two bars embattled, or two bars embattled between seven fleurs-de-lis, 3, 3, 1. This tile is even more coarsely executed than the others, and I cannot find any clue to the coat intended.
From the arms, 3, 4, 5, the date of the tiles can be determined to be about the middle of the fourteenth century. That in No. 5 is no doubt intended for the arms of Ercedechne, (ar. 3 chevrons sa.,) the zig-zag line merely representing a diaper, and the top being similarly formed for the same purpose of ornament. Now Sir John Ercedechne (or Archdeacon) a great benefactor of Haccombe church, where also he founded an arch-presbytery, about A.D. 1342, was the first of that name who held the estate, having inherited it in right of his wife Cecily, daughter of Sir Aubin de Haccombe:
- ↑ Might not the Royal Arms be most effectively introduced into modern pavements, by placing "England," "Scotland," and "Ireland" on separate shields, and arranging them together?
