A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE historical monuments defaced or wiped out under the shelter of ' restoration,' which daily devours apace. Sir Thomas Greene, died 1457, and Philippa his wife. Greene's Norton. The long-suffering alabaster effigy of the third Sir Thomas Greene again shows an ad- vance, and is a good prelude to the still more elaborate but rare military effigies which were set up to the memory of men who flourished during the latter part of the wars between the rival Houses, and of which unfortunately there are no examples in the county. Greene is represented in a standard of mail or gorget, and wearing a collar of SS with a trefoil and ring pendant. The shoulders are protected by deep articulated dpauli^res, with reinforcing plates, replacing the earlier pallets, fixed to the body armour by nuts, and the right plate being shaped for freedom of the sword arm. The ' d^fauts de la cuirasse ' are of mail, the avant-bras and brassarts circularly channelled or fluted, and the great coudieres fixed by ties or arming points. The bare hands are uncommon at this period. The tassets are hinged on the right and buckled on the left side ; to the lowest the channelled tuilles with engrailed edges are attached, the mail skirt being worn under them. The cuissarts are slightly waved, the genouilleres plain with the large wings and small articula- tions of the period. The reinforcing plate of the plain jambes is fluted. The bare head, resting upon the tilting helm with the crest, shows that the hair cropped high up to a hard line, as in the effigy of Sir John Cressy, is now abandoned. The effigy of Philippa Greene exhibits the hair confined in a flowered caul, the lady wearing a mitre head-dress such as may still be seen among the peasantry in Normandy. She is habited in a tight-fitting gown falling in straight folds to the feet, and a mantle fastened from a brooch on the right side by double cords looped through a brooch on the left ; the head rests on a pillow supported by mutilated angels, and round the neck is a collar of SS, a very unusual attribute of a lady. The church of Greene's Norton formerly contained a most interesting series of monu- ments of the Greene family, consisting of altar-tombs with brasses and tffigies. Their general condition at the end of the seven- teenth century is somewhat indifferently shown by engravings in HalsteacTs Genealo- gies, a volume of great rarity compiled by Mr. Rans, chaplain to the second Earl of Peterborough, and the memorials appear to have been considerably maltreated and de- spoiled before that time. The effigies in question were then said to represent Chief- Justice Sir Henry Greene and Katherine his wife. Sir Henry Greene was buried at Boughton, and the costume shown by the Greene's Norton effigies is nearly a century after his time. Bridges in his description of the monuments has confounded one tomb with another, taking no account of armour and costume. Baker identifies the effigy with the first Sir Thomas Greene who died in 1 39 1, but the costume exhibited is not of this period ; and it fortunately happens that the armour and dress shown by the figures are of so distinct a character that their date cannot be mistaken. They are the effigies of the third Sir Thomas Greene who died in 1457, and of his wife Philippa, daughter of Robert fourth Lord Ferrers of Chartley. The Greene monuments had already suf- fered before the time of 'Halstead'; they had been further mutilated and plundered of their brasses when Bridges described them ; but their complete desecration was reserved to the year 1826, when the church was beautified by the authorities — ' actuated by a proper spirit.' It is one of the saddest passages of Northamptonshire history. Whatever memorial there was of the first Sir Thomas Greene, died 1391, has vanished entirely. The grey marble slab of the second Sir Thomas Greene, died 141 7, and his wife, has been taken off its tomb and laid in the pavement ; the brass plate with the inscrip- tion, the two shields and the knight are gone ; the figure of the lady alone remains, the sides of the tomb being used as paving in the chancel. The alabaster effigies of the third Sir Thomas Greene and his wife appear to have been taken from the midst of the chan- cel and cast into an obscure corner of the church before 1826. At this time they were again brought to light ; the despoiled tomb of the fifth Sir Thomas Greene was entirely re- moved from its arch in the north aisle, and in its stead the effigies were placed — the lady in a recumbent position, raised upon a tomb of rubble, and at her head, in an erect attitude, the figure of the knight broken off at the knees, the feet resting against a lion and portions of his legs lying loose. At the back and one end of the arch are slabs of alabaster, divided into narrow trefoil-headed compart- ments, containing alternately shields nearly obliterated. These are parts (about one- third) of the sides of the tomb ; the re- mainder are said to have been taken away and made into a pigsty. The tomb of the fourth Sir Thomas Greene, died 1462, and his wife, has been entirely destroyed, but the 412
