LYDIARD TREGOZE. (All Saints.)
[Communicated by Mr. Wallis Cash.]
1. Close helmet, mid-XVIth century, mezeil partly gilded, bearing the crest of the St. John family,
a mount vert, therefrom a falcon rising or, ducally gorged gu.
2. Close helmet, circa 1570 and probably English, crested, a tree out of a ducal coronet (Fig. 1791).
3. Close helmet, temp. Charles I (Fig. 1792).
Tradition. All the above are associated with the St. John family and the first hangs near the monument
of Nicholas St. John, ob. 1589.
MERE. (St. Mary the Virgin.)
[Communicated with photograph by Mr. Wallis Cash.]
1. Close helmet, XVIIth century, with spike, made up for a funeral, from a genuine skull-piece, with
roped comb, of the XVIth century (Fig. 1793a).
2. Close helmet, XVIIth century, with spike, funerary (Fig. 1793b).
3. Two gauntlets, funerary, one of which is shown in the illustration (Fig. 1793c).
All the above are now hanging in the chancel near the altar in Sir John Bettesthorne's chantry.
Tradition. Associated with the Chafin family. There is a mural tablet to William Chafin, of Zeals, ob. 13 May 1695.
STOURTON. (St. Peter.)
1. Armet, of about 1500 (vide ante, vol. ii, p. 93, Fig. 445 J, where it is described).
Tradition. The tomb of Edward, Lord Stourton, ob. 1535, who succeeded his brother William, ob. 1523. The effigy on the tomb is in fluted armour (Fig. 1794).
2. Close helmet, probably funerary, with spike (Fig. 1794).
Tradition. None.
TISBURY. (St. John the Baptist.)
[Communicated with photographs by Mrs. Miles, Tisbury.]
Close helmet of the late XVIth century, to which are attached gorget plates of the XVIIth century
(Fig. 1795).
Hanging in the chancel (Fig. 1796).
Tradition. Associated with the first Lord Arundell of Wardour (ob. 7 November 1639, aged seventy-nine), who is buried in a vault in the church.
Lord Arundell fought in the service of Rudolph II of Germany, against the Turks, and is said to have captured with his own hands the Turkish standard at the battle of Gran in 1595.
Rudolph II conferred on Lord Arundell and his heirs the title of "True Count and Countess of the Holy Roman Empire," much to the displeasure of Queen Elizabeth, who, like James I later, refused to recognize the title. James I created him Lord Arundell in 1615.
In the possession of the Dowager Lady Arundell is a portrait of the first Lord in armour, showing, it is said, the helmet, now in the church; if this is so, it is the only known case of a church helmet being represented in an existing portrait.
There is a tradition that all the armour formerly in Wardour Castle was sent in 1625 to the Tower of London.
TOLLARD ROYAL. (St. Peter ad Vincula.)
The helmet which once was hung in the church is no longer there.
WISHFORD, GREAT. (St. Giles.)
[Communicated by Canon Macdonald, M.A.]
1. Close helmet, probably made for a funeral, XVIIth century, crested, a boar's head (Fig. 1797).
2. Sword and banner (Fig. 1797) (hanging under the helmet), bearing gu. a lion passant ermine, wounded in the shoulder gu. (Grobham).
The above hang on the south side of the chancel. The banner dates from 1804.
Tradition. Associated with the monument on the north side of the chancel to Sir Richard Grobham (ob. 1629) and his wife. Both helmet and monument were carefully restored in 1804 by Lord Chedworth, the last of the family.
