HERE UNDER LYETHE Ye CORPS OF PETER REDE ESQVIER WHO HATH WORTHELY SERVED NOT ONLY HYS PRYNCE AND CVNTREY BVT ALLSO THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE 5 BOTHE AT THE CONQVESTE OP BARBARIA AND AT THE SIEGE OF TVNIS AS ALSO IN OTHER PLACES WHO HAD GIVEN HYM BY THE SAYD EMPEROVR FOR HYS VALIAVNT DEDES THE ORDER OF BARBARIA WHO DYED THE 29 OF DECEMBER IN THE YEAR OF OVRE LORD GOD 1568.
This brass is in the north chancel-aisle of St. Peter's Mancroft in Norwich[1]. It is an instance of a practice which seems to have been not uncommon in the later days of the use of monumental brasses, when a new legend was united to an old effigy, probably with the view of saving expense. The effigy of Peter Rede is in armour, of the fashion of 1480, much resembling that of Ralf Blenerhayset, but his death did not take place till 1568, so that we can only account for the discrepancy by supposing that a new legend was attached to an old figure. Other instances of this occur at Laughton, near Gainsborough, where the date of the figure and canopy is about 1400, but that of the legend 1543; and at Howden, in Yorkshire, where the real date of the effigy attributed to Peter Dolman appears to be about the year 1500, but the legend is dated 1691. This legend is engraved on a portion of an older brass, and is an instance of what Mr. Way has styled palimpsest brasses[2].
In addition to these observations relating to sepulchral brasses in Norfolk, I must mention an example which has lately come under my notice; it seems indeed to be unique. It is a small effigy of a civilian, by his side is a sort of crutch or walking-stick; the legend refers to this:
Pray for the soule of Wyll'm Palmer wyth ye Stylt
whyche decesid on holy Rode day in ye yere of our lord
God A.MoCCCCCXXo on whose sowle Ihu have mercy.
I do not remember any similar commemoration of a bodily infirmity, such as William Palmer's lameness, in monumental brasses. The situation of this brass in the church of Ingoldmells, on the eastern coast of Lincolnshire, has prevented its being earlier noticed. W. D.
- ↑ Blomef. Norf., vol. iv. p. 200. Cotman, Pl. lxxvii. p. 41. There was formerly an escutcheon at each corner of the slab, displaying the bearings of Rede, with the honourable augmentation conferred by the emperor; a canton sinister parted per pale, on the first part two ragged staves in saltire; on the second a man holding a caduceus in his right hand, pointed downwards; on his sinister side, a sword in pale, with the point downwards, piercing a Moor's head.
- ↑ Notice of the memorial of Thomas Totyngton, abbot of Bury, now existing in Hedgerley church, Bucks. Archæol., vol. xxx. p. 121.
