130
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. FEB. is, iw*.
with the church or schools, sold it to the
Roman Catholics. Such memories are worth
next to nothing.
Let me describe the chasubles very shortly indeed. In doing so I am not going to attempt to identify all, or nearly all, of the saints, &c. I take first the chasuble which is probably that which was found in or about 1824, if there was only one. On the back is a large cross. The crimson velvet on which it now lies is modern. At the top of the cross is a dove, below that the letters INRI, and below that Christ on the cross. In the right arm of the framing cross (the actual right) is an angel with two chalices, catching the blood spurting from the right hand and the side. In the other arm is an angel with one chalice, catch- ing the blood from the hand. At the right side of the foot of the crucifix is, I suppose, the Virgin Mary, on the other presumably St. John. Below the foot is a saint (?), and below the saint a man in armour with a long axe. On the pillar on the front of this chasuble are, at the top, a saint (?), then a saint, and thirdly a man, perhaps a bishop.
Now as to the other chasuble, about which I may say in passing that it is so similar in design to No. 1 that it appears to me to be possible that it was not found in the parish church, but was acquired later from some- where else because of its likeness to No. 1, and then came to be believed to have been its companion in the parcel. On its back (modern damask or brocade) is the framing cross. The dove, the initial letters, the crucifix, the two angels with chalices, are in like positions. There are no figures by the foot of the crucifix. Below is a figure with a chalice disconnected from the crucifix. Below that is the upper part of a saint with a book. On the pillar on the front are three figures : at the top a saint, then a figure holding the tables of the Law (therefore I suppose Moses), and at the bottom a saint.
In collecting the materials for what I have written I have referred to Beamont's own copy of his book, in which are entries made by him after its publication, and to a small commonplace book concerning the history of Warrington made up by Kendrick. They are both in the Warrington Library.
I have omitted to say that, in his communi- cation on Warrington printed in the Man- chester Courier much earlier than that which appeared in the Warrington Examiner, Ken- drick gives an account of the discovery of the staircase, but says nothing of any chasuble. [ regret that I cannot give an absolutely certain history. I need scarcely say that
there was no local newspaper during the
time included in the various dates assigned
to the discovery and transfer of the chasuble
or chasubles. ROBERT PIERPOINT.
St. Austin's, Warrington.
RALEIGH'S HEAD (10 th S. i. 49). It would be interesting to know from what source Mrs. Sinclair derived her information that after the execution of Sir W. Ralegh in Old Palace Yard his head was " placed on West- minster Hall." Had this been carried into effect it would scarcely have escaped the notice of contemporary historians and bio- graphers. The earliest account of the pro- ceedings that took place after the beheadal is thus narrated by W. Oldys in his ' Life of Ralegh,' published in 1736 :
"His head was struck off at two blows, his body never shrinking or moving. His head was shewed on each side of the scaffold, and then put into a red leather bag, and, with his velvet night-gown thrown over it, was afterwards conveyed away in a mourn- ing coach of his lady's His head was long pre- served in a case by his widow, for she survived him
twenty-nine years and after her death, it was
kept also by her son Carew, with whom it is said to have been buried" (ccxxx).
We have the testimony of Bp. G. Goodman as to the head having been preserved for many years, as in his ' Court of James I.' (ed. Brewer, 1839) he notes, " I know where his skull is kept to this day and I have kissed it"(i. 69).
Owing to the circumstance that Carew Ralegh at one time possessed an estate in the parish of West Horsley, Surrey, which he sold a few years before his death, many writers have been led to believe that his remains were interred in the church there, his father's head being deposited in the same grave. That this is incorrect is proved partly by the absence of any entry in the burial register of West Horsley Church, but prin- cipally by the fact of his burial being thus recorded in the register of St. Margaret's Church, Westminster : " 1666-7, Jan. 1, Carey Rawlegh, Esq., kild. m. chancel."
This . seems to indicate that his remains were placed in or alongside the grave of his father. According to tradition the head of the latter was deposited with them, and probably in this case tradition is correct; certain is it that we possess no definite in- formation respecting it.
T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D.
Salterton, Devon.
John Timbs, in ' The Romance of London, Historical Sketches, &c.,' p. 68, in a chapter devoted to the 'Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh,' says :
