Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/480

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A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE fastened up under the chin, a long coverchief falling over it in many folds. The hands are in prayer, the head rests upon two pillows, and the feet upon a dog. The mantle has been diapered in two shades of red and white, in alternatequatrefoils containing concentric folia- tions, and circles intermittently decorated with swans, and cinquefoils with the same florals centres of a smaller size. Portions of this pattern still remain in the deep folds of the drapery. Sir William de Combemartyn. Died 1318. Alderton. The wooden eflSgy is a good example of a work of art of this character and represents the man in the usual hood, hauberk, chausses, etc. It is accurately carved in an attitude of easy repose, and though it has lost every particle of colour and is sadly decayed, in its looped and windowed raggedness it still exhibits much that arrests the attention. The loose fit of the mail about the right arm and neck is well expressed, and the repair of the block by the sculptor before he handed it over to the painter is evident, as is also the straight under-eye line, the favourite fashion of medieval sculptors of this the best age. The effigy formerly lay in the south aisle of Alderton church, but when this was pulled down in 1848, it was relegated by the process of ' restoration ' to an upper stage of the tower. Hawise de Keynes, living 1329. Dodford. Under an arch in the north wall lies a neglected and dismembered wooden figure of a lady who wears a veil, wimple originally painted white, kirtle or cote-hardie, formerly blue, and supertunic. This is doubtless the effigy of Hawise, mother of the last Sir Robert de Keynes, and who was living in 1329. On the wall at the back of the arch is painted a representation of two angels bear- ing away the departed spirit in the shape of a small figure held up in a napkin, and five shields of arms of which two only are legible. An entry is now made into a new period of costume, with a new king very different from the old one. It may here be mentioned that the outer military garment for the body had three developments. First, the ancient surcote. This in its origin reached only to the knees, it subsequently came to such a length at the end of the thirteenth century that, as has been already intimated, men called upon suddenly to fight on foot got their legs enraveled in the surcote's ample folds and became easy victims to the foe. The skirt was accordingly evenly reduced all round, but still the shorter drapery was found to be an inconvenience. A new and strangely unpractical garment was therefore formed by cutting away the whole of the front of the surcote up to the middle of the thighs, slit- ting it up the sides to the hips, taking it in at the body, and lacing it up on the right side. Thus was formed the cyclas, which appears to have been a purely English garment. It did not long find favour. The useless hinder flapping part was an incumbrance, and not more than fifteen monumental effigies in the country, between 1 32 1 and J 346, repre- sent it. As early as 1340 the long hinder flap of the cyclas was cut off, it was fitted tightly to the body, the lower edges of the garment were finally quainted or dagged, it was laced up at the side, and the jupon made its appearance. These three stages of the gradual growth of a garment from long and loose to short and tight within two hundred years are well exemplified in Northampton- shire. Not less so is the gradual change of the jupon to the heraldic tabard, as will also duly appear. The effigies of which that of Sir Laurence de Pavely is an excellent type may properly be classed as belonging to the Transition military equipment between the hauberk and surcote effigies of the thirteenth century and the camail and jupon figures of the latter part of the fourteenth. As with the architectural Transition, the monumental works now to be considered have great beauty and interest. The coming change has already been indicated by the shortened skirts of the surcote, as seen in the effigies of De Keynes, Le Lou, and Combemartyn, and in the locketted scabbard of Treylli; indeed, very gradual and strictly chronological advance in armour and costume may be clearly shown from the effigy of De Vere to that of De Pavely, and although on comparing the former figure with that pre- sently to be noticed the latter shows itself as something quite different after a lapse of eighty years, it is noticeable how slowly so complete a change has been brought about by slight varying details and in almost imper- ceptible modifications in the forms of the different defences and costume. Sir Laurence de Pavely, living 1329, and ... his wife. Paulerspury. The wooden effigies of Sir Laurence de Pavely and his wife lie upon a high freestone tomb, under the easternmost arch of the chancel aisle, on the north side, with the eastern end of the tomb abutting against the respond of the arch. The north and south sides are divided into five compartments with plain shields within them, suspended altern- 402