ENGRAVED SEPULCHRAL SLABS.
WITH NOTICES OF SOME REMARKABLE EXAMPLES EXISTING IN FRANCE AND IN ENGLAND.
In a former volume of the Journal,[1] a brief notice was given of the incised memorials of stone with monumental portraitures, extensively employed during Mediæval times in this country, as also in France, Germany, and Italy. A few of the more interesting English examples were then enumerated; and, although the number of monumental effigies of this kind still preserved is inconsiderable, the perishable nature of the materials used in their construction having rendered them peculiarly liable to become defaced, yet a series of interesting specimens might easily be formed, ranging from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. During the restoration of sacred structures, or the removal of unsightly pews, many memorials of this nature have from time to time been brought to light, and they appear at length to have attracted a share of the curious attention, for some years almost exclusively given to the more attractive engraved memorials of metal.
It is with the view of engaging antiquaries to bestow upon the sepulchral effigies of this class some greater measure of attention, and of encouraging the members of the Institute to communicate notices, or rubbings, where it may be practicable, of such examples as may fall under their observation, that the following notice of some interesting incised memorials in France and our own country is offered to our readers.
Monumental figures, engraved in simple outline upon large slabs of stone, appear to have been more extensively used in France than in this kingdom. The extraordinary number of memorials of this nature formerly existing in many parts of France may be ascertained from the curious collection of drawings of French monuments, taken with much care, about the year 1700, by direction of Mons. de Gaignières, and now preserved in the Bodleian Library, to which they were bequeathed by Gough. This series, the result only of a limited survey of some provinces, comprises upwards of eighteen hundred monuments, effigies, heraldic decorations, sepulchral brasses, and engraved slabs. The memorials of
- ↑ Archaeological Journal, vol. i., p. 210.
