various works. The liberality of the family was entitled to some conspicuous memorial,[1] and, accordingly, over the great western door is found an effigy with the arms of Vavasour, placed with the statues of Archbishop Melton and of Robert de Percy. In the hands of the first is seen a rough block of ashlar, commemorative of the especial benefaction already mentioned. These effigies on the west front had been restored by Michael Taylor, a sculptor of York, during the renovation of that end of the Minster, carried out from about 1802 to 1816. At the east end, were likewise figures commemorative of the liberality of these families, one with the arms of Percy being at the south-east angle.
Mr. Waterhouse, of Dublin, communicated a notice of an unique fibula, discovered near Drogheda. He had most kindly brought the original to the apartments of the Institute, that members of the Society might have the gratification of examining this precious relic; but, being under the necessity of returning forthwith to Ireland, he had left for exhibition at this meeting an elaborate drawing, which he also presented to the Society. Dr. Petrie, in a Report to the Royal Irish Academy, had assigned this brooch to the eleventh, or early part of the twelfth, century. The material he considered to be "white bronze," a compound of copper and tin, resembling silver; and the enrichments are of the most elaborate variety, comprising examples of enamelled work and of niello; interlacements and designs of most intricate character, of which not less than seventy-six varieties occur; and there are small human heads, cut or cast, with marvellous delicacy, the material amber-coloured, and supposed to be glass. This type of fibula, consisting of a ring, highly enriched with ornament, upon which the acus moves freely, is known by examples already published by Col. Vallancey and other antiquaries.[2] It has been admirably illustrated by Mr. Fairholt, in a memoir on Irish fibulæ, in the Transactions of the Archæological Association, at their Gloucester Congress. Dr. Petrie considers this type to be peculiarly Irish, but common to Scotland, as also, it has been stated, to the Moorish tribes of Africa. A peculiarity of the noble specimen in Mr. Waterhouse's possession consists in its having a silver chain attached, of the construction usually known as "Trichinopoly work," which is supposed to have served as a guard to keep the acus in its proper position, and ensure the safety of this rich ornament. This chain is unfortunately broken; it is conjectured that a pipe or socket was attached to its extremity to receive the point of the long acus.
Lord Talbot de Malahide observed that he had been assured that there is a mixture of metals in this remarkable fibula: it is not wholly of white bronze; portions are of lead, upon which the exquisite filagree work was attached. It had been called in Ireland the "Royal Tara Brooch," but there is, in fact, no evidence as to the place of its discovery. It had been brought by a poor woman into Drogheda, and sold for a few shillings to a silversmith: every attempt to ascertain where it had been found proved fruitless.
M. Pulski remarked that he recognised this form of brooch as occasionally
- ↑ A singular tradition, it is stated, exists in Yorkshire, that of certain privileges belonging to the chief of the Vavasour family, of Hazelwood: one is this,—that he may ride on horseback into York Minster.—See Notes and Queries, vol. ii., p. 326.
- ↑ Some specimens of analogous type, but less richly ornamented than those found in Ireland, have occurred in England. See one figured in this Journal, vol. vi., p. 70.
