The only other inscription I have to refer to is on a very elegant stone slab recently disinterred at Hexham. This grave-stone had evidently been buried in the earth very soon after it had been placed in the church-yard, for the letters and mouldings are as fresh as though only cut within the past year. The inscription is plainly as follows:Hi jacet Matilda uxor (P)hilippi mercerarii. "Here lieth Matilda wife of Philip the merchant." Does mercerarius here mean a mercer, clothier, or woolstapler? If so, this stone would rather tend to support the notion of the shears being the woolstapler's mark, but, on the other hand, if they denote a female, the wife of the mercer would be as much entitled to them as any other woman.
I shall not here enter into any disquisition regarding the forms of the crosses on these sepulchral memorials. Out of the great number that I have examined I have hardly met with two perfectly similar. I have remarked however that certain forms of the cross prevail in certain districts and parishes; for instance, that the designs of the cross are much richer and more ornamented along the banks of the Tees, than in the remoter church-yards of Northumberland.
I have also met with two emblems, the meaning of of which I am unable to explain. One is the outline of a fish (qu. salmon?) on a cross of Early English date, in St. Mary's church, Gateshead. The key is associated with this figure, and some would therefore refer the two symbols to St. Peter, while others, who explain the emblems as denoting the trade, must suppose that the individual here commemorated carried on the two rather dissimilar trades of a locksmith and of a fishmonger.
The other symbol I have met with in three instances, at Woodhorn, Northumberland, where it accompanies the cross; in the belfry of Lanchester church, where it is similarly associated; and lastly, in a drawing sent to me, I believe from the county of Durham, but I have been unable to ascertain the exact locality. What the instrument of trade here figured may be, I cannot determine; in the last instance mentioned, there is a sword on the other side of the cross.
The suggestion I have made in reference to the meaning of the shears and key, will, I hope, engage the attention of those who have more leisure than myself to investigate the subject, so that we may, even in these minor particulars, add something to archæological science.
