A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE All the wooden effigies in the county are carved in oak, and there is no pretence for the idea that any of them are in chestnut. Having arrived at the borders of the third quarter of the fourteenth century, by slow and well-defined changes in military costume, the alabaster period is entered upon, but as regards this county not until thirty years after this tractable material first came into use. A type of military habit is now presented which is more fully exemplified than any other in the whole range of English monumental art. The recumbent bronze statue of the Black Prince at Canterbury — ' An image in relieved work of laton gilt placed in memory of us — ' tout armez de fier de guerre ' — is indeed a notable type of the camail and jupon period, and the pure alabaster figure of Sir John de Hertcshull is no less important in its way, and a very early example of the style of armour which, arrived at step by step, again passed away by equally slow degrees.' John de Hastings at Abergavenny (died 1 3 1 3), and Aylmer de Valence in Westminster Abbey (died 1323), none of whom went to a crusade, as well as countless similar figures of the same period, and later, which were made under the same conditions, and dating, indeed, throughout the first half of the fourteenth century, are not only entirely in accord with the system of medieval sculpture, but constitute the irrefragable evidence of historical monuments as regards the subject. And although art of this kind naturally deterio- rated with the gradual change from mail to plate defences, there was always propriety of treatment of the subject. The truthful though wholesale manufacturers of the bascinet-and-camail and later effigies in 'monumental alabaster,' soon recognized the fitness of not crossing ' in effigy ' the legs of men encased in rigid tubes of steel, and who could not have so placed them with any degree of comfort, if at all, in real life. Of the fifteen cross-legged effigies in Northamp- tonshire, only one, that of Sir Robert de Vere (died 1250), represents a man who is known to have taken part in a Crusade, namely, in the Seventh of 1 248. Of the rest, one is of Sir David De Esseby who died before 1268, while six repre- sent men who deceased between 1280 and 1296, and who may or may not have gone to Palestine ; but of such expeditions there appears no record, although other military services are carefully chronicled. The remaining seven cross-legged effigies in the county are the memorials of persons who died between 1305 and 1350, and who took part in no crusade, the latter date being in fact eighty years after the last of those military expe- ditions. No doubt an analysis of the cross-legged effigies and brasses in any county in England would yield precisely the same results. 1 It is apparent from examples which will be duly notified that blocks of clunch, magnesian limestone, alabaster and other proper material were Sir John de Herteshull. Dead 1365. Ashton. The effigy lies in the south-east corner of the south aisle upon a tomb of hard red sand- stone, of rude and no doubt local workman- ship, with the front divided into seven panelled compartments, with flat single cusped ogee arches. The figure is sculptured out of a block of pure alabaster 7 feet long, 2 feet wide, and about 18 inches thick. De Hertes- hull appears armed in a tall conical bascinet, with a camail of mail fastened by laces run- ning through vervelles. The shoulders are protected by articulations of plate, and the arms by brassarts, articulated coudi^res and vambraces. The curtailed cyclas has developed into a jupon under which is worn the hauberk of which the lower part appears below the jupon's cointised edge. Under the jupon a circular breastplate or plastron de fer is sug- gested by the swelling outline of the chest. Round the hips is buckled a very elegant constantly sent from their beds in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Derbyshire and other parts during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to be sculptured into effigies in London and other artistic centres. Their high character marks them out from the rude memorials presumably made by the village mason at local stone quarries. It will be remembered that Cennino Cennini, who com- pleted his valuable work on painting in 1437, in his usual simple piety invokes the Virgin Mary, and then gives directions how to take casts from the life. This is valuable evidence, as showing what assistance the sculptors may have had in special cases in the early part of the fifteenth century towards obtaining faithful likenesses. Shortly after the end of the first quarter of the fourteenth century the uses and value of Derby- shire alabaster were recognized. The earliest artistic exponent of this material is perhaps the beautiful figure of John of Eltham in the Abbey (died 1334). But the effigy of Edward II., set up in Gloucester Cathedral by Edward III., must have been made about the same time, as well as that of the king's second son, William of Hatfield in York Minster, who, having been born in the winter of 1335, and living only a few weeks, is commemorated by a statue of a boy of about twelve years old. Thus appreciated in the highest quarters, alabaster opens a long artistic vista, and its importance is emphasized by the fact that we know precisely the sources of this admirable ma- terial which surrendered so readily to the chisel, and was worked principally on its own ground. The results were sent everywhere, actually under safe-conducts to Nantes, in 1408 — the monument of the irascible John Duke of Brittany, made by Thomas Colyn and two others, at the request of Joan of Navarre, as a memorial of her first husband. Even without looking at the effigies, a clear judgement can be formed as to the amount of 406
