Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 1.djvu/217

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ENCAUSTIC TILES, ETC. CHEHTSEY ABBEY.
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portions of a similar figure under the archbishop's feet can be traced, but the corresponding tile for the queen's compartment is wanting. The king's canopy contains a hare and a dog, at the lower corners, and the full moon and a star or sun above. Nearly the same symbols appear in the archbishop's canopy, but a rugged cross supplies the places of the hare and dog. The whole has evidently some undiscovered significance.

Other tiles were designed for borders of geometric or flowing patterns, and others again were plain, but of various shapes and sizes, forming indeed a never-ending diversity; but no clue remains for determining the general arrangements. Illustrations of many of these very beautiful and interesting remains, have been published by Mr. Shaw, F.S.A., whose work on the "Tile Pavements from Chertsey Abbey," the curious will do well to consult.

At no great depth below the concrete, alluded to as existing under the broken tiles, the workmen struck upon a slab of Purbeck marble, which proved to be the lid of a coffin hewn out of a single block of similar material, with a hole bored through the bottom. The entire length of this was 6 feet 7 inches by a width of 2 feet 3½ inches at the head, and 1 foot 2 inches at the foot and 11½ inches deep exclusive of the lid. The interior was hollowed to the depth of 9 inches, leaving the sides 2½ inches thick, the place for the head being irregularly shaped so as to accurately accord with a deformity in the neck of the occupant proved by the vertebrae. These, together with the whole of the skeleton, were found as complete as when originally deposited, but a waist-buckle was the only vestige of apparel that could be traced. Of the lid only about one third, the middle portion, remained; the centre of this was occupied by a beaded fillet, from which