MONUMENTAL EFFIGIES Sussex marble slab containing the five brasses of the knight, his wife, a child and two shields still remain. The long and compli- cated inscription has vanished, and the marble slab forms part of the pavement. Such is the melancholy and humiliating picture of the memorials of a great medieval family. Military Effigy, about 1475. Apethorpe. This half life-size alabaster effigy represents an armed man, bare-headed and with long curling hair after the fashion of the last quar- ter of the fifteenth century. The moderate size of the coudieres is unexpected, but the gauntlets with piked cuffs and plain plate backs and leather fingers are characteristic of the time, as are also the engrailled genouilleres articulations and soUerets. Over all is worn the tabard, the lineal successor of the armorial surcotes and jupons, and differing from the latter in being somewhat longer and having the flap sleeves. This garment, which eventu- ally presented a strict fourfold picture of the heraldic coat of the wearer, is not seen earlier than in the beginning of the reign of Henry VI. and endured to the end of the sixteenth century, the example under notice being about fifteen years after his deposition in 1 46 1. The head rests on the tilting helm, with the crest — a human-headed beast — and the feet on a chimerical animal. Above the head and forming part of the main block is a sculptured representation of the coronation of the Virgin. The principal figure has the right hand raised in benediction, the left, which formerly held the crown, being broken awa)-. An angel bears a long scroll dividing the two figures. On the plinth are mutilated remains of four angels holding shields, and indications of the sword and misericorde. The memorial has long been removed from its tomb and lies on a window-sill on the north side of the chan- cel. The plinth has been cut to fit into the mullions and the whole figure much damaged by whitewash and cement. Edward Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire. Died 1499. Lowick. On a high tomb of alabaster in the midst of a chapel on the south side of the beautiful church of Lowick, reposes the alabaster effigy of Edward Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire. This refined memorial is ordered in the will simply as 'a convenient tomb.' The earl is shown bare-headed, with hair long-flowing to the shoulders. He is habited in a cuirass and tassets with fluted tuillcs, under which the mail skirt appears. The coudieres are large, and fixed by nuts on the brassarts and avant- bras. The cuffed gauntlets consist entirely of a series of articulated plates to the tips of the fingers, forming steel mufllers with leather foundations. The genouilleres have quite lost the large wings of the middle of the cen- tury, and have the fine engrailed articulations of the end of it. Over the body is worn a tabard elaborately and delicately sculptured in front and on the sleeves with arms. The Earl of Wiltshire wears a dainty collar of SS, pre- sumably representing that bequeathed in his will to ' my Lord and cousin of Shrewsbury ' as 'my Collar of the King's Livery.' The sword is suspended from a plain belt, and the misericorde has been slung by a looped cord from a distinct and slender strap. The feet, clad in the wide-toed sollerets just come into fashion, rest upon a muzzled bear couchant upon the staff, the soles being further supported by crouching figures of ecclesiastics telling their beads. Under the head is the crest. Round the verge of the slab is the follow- ing inscription, in richly ornamented letters : Ocate pro 9niina iEtitoartii StafforU Comitis StaffotU ComitiB OEglttcbst qui quititm lEtitoarlJus ofattt fatccCimo quarto tie mcnfis marcit Snno Domini ml"" CCCC j^onagtCimo i^ono Cuius SLnitne ppicittut Dcug -amen. The Earl of Stafford was born April 7, 1469, and died March 24, 1499, being then in his twenty-ninth year. The effigy represents a man past middle age, with a drawn and har- assed face and prominent bony brows, in ac- cordance with the character of the conventional effigies of the end of the fifteenth century. Sir Henry Vere. Died 15 16. Great Addington. The alabaster effigy of Sir Henry V^er; is very inferior as a work of art to that of his cousin the Earl of Wiltshire. Moreover it has greatly suffered at the hands of the iconoclasts, having been much scraped and mutilated to provide 'Vere powders' for the children of the village. The knight is shown bare-headed and with the long hair of the time. He wears a standard of mail — cpaulidres reinforced by pauldrons, a cuirass with its lance-rest, tassets, channelled tuiles and a skirt of mail. The coudieres are of moderate dimensions and the gauntlets, with fingers of leather, have single plates shaped to the back of the hand, and plain cuffs. The wings of the genouilleres are quite small, and the feet, protected by articulated sollerets, rest upon a muzzled bear, and the head upon a helm from which the crest is gone. The suit here represented is of the period when Sir Henry Vere flourished, and may consequently be taken to represent the harness in which he fought on the field of Bosworth in 14S5. 413
