feet, exhibit the bearing, a chevron between three crows, but the chevron is not engrailed, as visually borne by Crocker of Lyneham. Sir John Crokker distinguished himself in the suppression of Perkin Warbeck's rebellion, and accompanied the earl of Devon to the relief of Exeter, when besieged in 1497. The Lyneham estate passed, in 1740, by marriage with the heiress of Crocker, to the Bulteel family. On the north side of the church, in the churchyard, there is a very ancient inscribed slab, which bears the name TOREVS.
Mr. Thomas King, of Chichester, addressed the Committee on the subject of the frequent injuries and spoliation of sepulchral brasses; he states that ten escutcheons have been taken, one by one, from the curious brass at Trotton, in Sussex, which represents Margarete de Camoys, who died 1310. The armorial ornaments to which Mr. King alludes are, probably, the small escutcheons with which her robe was semée, and their loss is to be regretted, not only because they were doubtless enamelled, but as a very singular specimen of costume; for this is the only sepulchral brass which presents this peculiar feature of ornament, and it would have been deserving of attention to ascertain whether the bearing thus introduced were her own arms (Gatesden), those of Camoys, her first, or Paynel, her second husband. Mr. King, in a second letter addressed to Mr. Smith, in reference to the collection of old papers at Cowdry House, to which the attention of the Committee had previously been called, stated that the said documents had been stored away in a detached dovecote, at the time of the conflagration, and that they related to the times of Elizabeth, James, and the Protectorate. Mr. King has some of these papers in his possession, one of which is a detailed account of expenses for liveries and tailors' work, during Elizabeth's reign: he has also court rolls and other documents, of the time of James I, The papers had been wantonly destroyed, and used as wrappers, or for kindling fires, but the Earl of Egmont has recently purchased the estate, and the ruins will no longer be accessible to mischievous idlers.
Several cases were submitted to the attention of the Committee by persons anxious to preserve from demolition certain ancient churches, which had been condemned, perhaps, without sufficient consideration. Mr. W. G. Barker, of Harmby, near Leyburn, Yorkshire, reported to Mr. Way that the vicar of Thornton Steward had resolved to demolish the venerable church of St. Oswald at that place, considered by Dr. Whitaker to be the only vestige of Saxon architecture in Richmondshire: this church is named in Domesday. The fabric is in sufficient repair, the chief landowners and the parishioners, whose families have long been resident on the spot, are opposed to its destruction: its architectural features are not very striking; the nave is Norman, the chancel, which appears to have been built during the fourteenth century, contains a "lychnoscope, credence and piscina conjoined, and a beautiful sepulchre." Portions of a very ancient sculptured cross, covered with scroll-work, have been found in the churchyard. The church is distant about a quarter of a mile from the village, and complaints are made that it is damp, but this evil at least might be corrected by draining.
