Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/575

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 401 founded, about 1210, by William de Courtenaye, iu his own lordsliij), where the Chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr stood, to the honour of the holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Thomas Becket, the then reci^rit Martyr of Canterbury. This William de Courtenaye was son of Robert de Courtenaye, Lord of the Manors of Kew Stoke, Swallowcliffe, and Locking, and descendant of William de Traci, as well as nearly allied to the three other mm'derers of the canonised Archbishop, to whom the Priory was dedicated. For this reason, many of the descendants of these families became benefactors to the Institution. The Confirmation Charter of 18. Edw. II. states, that the dedication was to the Blessed Virgin, and St. Thomas the Martyr; the document given in the Monasticon, vol. iii. p. 47, (orig. edit.) is a curious letter to Jocelin, Bishop of Bath, from William Courtenaye, detailing his intention of founding a convent of Augustine Monks, near Bristol, (for the benefit of the soul of his father, Eobert de Courtenai, &c.) who should here serve God, the Virgin, and the Blessed Martyr St. Thomas. It seems not improbable, that the Founder, when he endowed his monastery, in honour of the recent Martyr St. Thomas, had obtained for the conventual church a portion of the Saint's relics. It is well known, that in early times, it was a common usage to place a vial or vase of the blood of the martyr in his tomb. Innumerable instances of this occur in the catacombs of Eome; and in the Kircher Museum, at the Collegio Romano, is preserved an agate cup, containing a mass of hardened blood found in a tomb, in the catacombs of St. Calixtus. There seems nothing unreasonable therefore, in supposing, that the little cup at Kew Stoke, may have been the depository of some of Becket's blood. The form of the niche, and the mouldings, are of a date earlier than the part of the parish church in which it was placed, but coeval with that of the conventual church ; it is not unlikely that it was brought from the Priory, at the time of the sup- pression, and placed for security in the site, in which it was lately found ; there might still at that period, have been sufficient reverence for the Martyr's relic, to have induced the ecclesiastics to take steps for its preservation. It may, however, have been the depository of the heart of some person of note or benefactor to the fabric. The nave of the conventual Church of Worspring is still standing, but converted into a farm-house, which, with the adjoining estate, belongs to the Pigot family. At a short distance, is a curious precipitous path, called St. Kew's steps, a descent from the summit of the hilly ridge, down to what was the shore. The sea has receded here so considerably, that St. Kew's steps are now a long way from the water side. Qntiqutttrs <inlr ZSSaviiS of <a[rt (BrDihiWa. By Mr. James Wakdell, of Leeds. — A collection of antiquities purchased recently, on the dispersion of a Museum, which for many years had been open to the public at Leeds. They were described as having been found at different times at York, and consisted of a bronze dagger, the bronze 3 H