50
NOTES AND QUERIES.
. x. JULY w,
by him to English friends and to obtain
copies of them, if the owners should not feel
inclined to present the originals to the
museum. With regard to articles published
about him, Poole's ' Index ' has yielded a
single reference. L. L. K.
24, Henderson Road, Wandsworth Common.
SHELLEY'S ANCESTRY.
(9 th S. ix. 381, 509.)
THE editor of the Mirror presented to his readers a biographical sketch of Sir John Hawk wood in the issue of 11 July, 1835. ' It was accompanied by a copy of the " engraved portrait of him presented to the Society of Antiquaries in 1775 by Lord Hailes." I extract the following particulars concerning his death, burial, and memorials :
"Hawkwood died 6 March, 1393, advanced in
years, at his house in the street called Pulverosa, near Florence. His death was received with the general lamentation of the whole city, and his funeral was celebrated with much magnificence. His bier, adorned with gold and jewels, was sup- ported by the first officers of the republic, followed by horses splendidly caparisoned, banners, and other military insignia, and the whole body of the citizens. His remains were deposited in the church of Sta. Reparata, where a monument of him on horseback was set up by a public decree. On the dome of the same church is likewise a representa- tion of Hawkwood mounted on a pacing gelding, whose bridle, with the square ornament embossed on it, is covered with crimson velvet or cloth, the saddle being also red, stuffed or quilted. He is dressed in armour, with a surcoat flowing on from his shoulders, but girt about his body ; his greaves are covered with silk or cloth, but the knee-pieces may be distinguished under them ; his shoes, which are probably part of his greaves, are pointed, according to the fashion of the times. His hands are bare : in his right hand he holds a yellow baton of office, which rests on his thigh ; in his left, the bridle. His head, which has very short hair, is covered with a cap not unlike our earl's coronet, with a border of wrought work.
"Sir John had a cenotaph in the church of his native town, Hedingham, erected by his executors ; and it remains in tolerable preservation near the upper end of the fourth aisle. The arch of this very interesting tomb is enriched with tracery and adorned with hawks and their bells and emblems of hunting, as a hare, a boar, a boar sounding a conch shell, &c. Under this arch is a low altar tomb with five [sic] shields in quatre-foils formerly painted. In the south window of the chantry chapel are painted hawks, hawks' bells, and escallops, which last are part of the Hawkwood arms, as the first were, probably a crest, as well as a rebus of the name ; ana we find a hawk volant on Sir John's ^^ ~ In the north and west side of the tower are wite, i wks on perches in neat relief, in rondeaux men, tbwtb-the wa ll ; which probably denote that built the tower. Mr. Morant
supposes that some of them rebuilt this church
about the reign of Edward III. ; but none appeared
to have been in circumstances equal to such muni-
ficence before our hero ; and perhaps his heirs were
the rebuilders."
The engraving at the head of the article, which merely shows the upper part of Sir John Hawkwood's figure, exactly tallies with the description of the monument at Sta. Reparata.
In the Mirror of 14 November, 1835, ap-
eared a small engraving of the cenotaph to ir John Hawkwood at Sible Hedingnam. It was from a sketch sent by C. A., who also supplied the following notes :
"Anxious to contribute in illustrating the events of bygone days, I inclose a sketch of the tomb of Sir John Hawkwood in the south aisle of the church at Sible Hedingham, Essex. It is a long, low altar tomb, having in front six quatre-foil divisions, each charged with a shield ; over this is a beautiful ogee arch, ornamented with tracery and supported by corbels ; that on the dexter side representing a cockatrice, and that on the sinister side a lion rampant ; above this are twelve long narrow arches with trefoil heads ; the whole being mounted with an embattled cornice. The tomb is supported on each side with a slender buttress, finished with a crocketed pinnacle. The whole is a very good specimen of the sepulchral architecture of the four- teenth century."
JOHN T. PAGE.
West Haddon, Northamptonshire.
According to Mr. Augustus J. C. Hare ('Florence,' p. 105), Sir John Hawkwood's body was exhumed by request of King Richard II. and sent to England, the munici- pal authorities of Florence declaring :
" Although we should consider it glorious for us and our people to possess the dust and ashes of the late valiant knight, nay, most renowned captain, Sir John Hawkwood, who fought most gloriously for us as the commander of our armies, and whom at the public expense we caused to be interred in the cathedral church of our city ; yet. notwith- standing, according to the form of the demand, that his remains may be taken back to his own country, we freely concede the permission, lest it be said that your sublimity asked anything in vain, or fruit- lessly, of our reverential humility. Mr. Hare says that the frescoed memorial to Hawkwood is on the right of the west door as one enters the Duomo at Florence.
ST. SWITHIN.
Prof. Edward Dowden, in an appendix to his well-known life of Shelley, says, " It is not quite certain, I believe, whether Beatrice Shelley was daughter or granddaughter of Sir John Hawkwood," and the ' D.N.B.' im- plies that she was the great captain's daughter, possibly by his first wife, and born before her father's marriage with Donnina Visconti.
In 1395 the Republic of Florence, at the special request of Richard II., granted
