Page:The Ancestor Number 1.djvu/187

THE ANCESTOR 137 decorated. All traces of the old colouring were concealed in 1873 beneath a thick coat of gold leaf applied to the effigy by H.M. Office of Works to try and make it resemble the gilt bronze of some of the Westminster monuments ; the bruised remains of the king's crown were at the same time covered with a brass ring. In July, 1797, during preparations for a proposed removal of John's tomb, the king's remains were disclosed. The appearance of the vestments is thus described in an account published at the time : ^ The dress in which the body of the king was found appears also to have been similar to that in which his figure is represented on the tomb, excepting the gloves on his hands and the crown on its head, which on the skull in the coffin was found to be the celebrated monk's cowl, in which he is recorded to be buried, as a passport through the regions of purgatory. This sacred envelope appeared to have fitted the head very closely, and had been tied or buckled under the chin by straps, parts of which remained. The body was covered by a robe reaching from the neck nearly to the feet ; it had some of its embroidery still remaining near the right knee. It was apparently of crimson damask, and of strong texture : its colour however was so totally discharged from the effect of time, that it is but conjecturally it can be said to have been of any, but what has now pervaded the whole object ; namely, a dusky brown. The cuff of the left arm which had been laid on the breast remained. In that hand a sword, in a leather scabbard, had been placed as on the tomb, parts of which much decayed, were found at intervals down the left side of the body, and to the feet, as were also parts of the scabbard, but in a much more perfect state than those of the sword. The legs had on a sort of ornamented covering which was tied round at the ankles, and extended over the feet, where the toes were visible through its decayed parts, the string about the left ankle still remained. The upper part of those coverings could not be traced, and it is undecided whether they should be termed boots, or whether they were a part of the under dress similar to the modern pantaloons. It would have been fortunate had it been determined whether they were of leather, or of what sort of drapery. As will be seen below, the royal vestments enumerated in the lists of 1204 and 12 15-6 were in existence in 1220, four years after John's death, but those in which the king was buried may well have formed part of the plainer set of the 1207 list, and the description of the remains found is quite compatible with such a suggestion. The contents of the coffin seem to have been only superficially examined, owing to the ^ Valentine Green, Jn Account of the Discovery of the Body of King John in the Cathedral Church of Worcester, July ijthy 1797 (London and Worcester, 1797), 4» 5.