THE WICHNOR FLITCH.—The wooden flitch over the fireplace at Wichnor Hall, near Lichfield, where there was a local Bacon custom.
SILVER RING with Clasped Hands, no doubt a Betrothal Ring; also
RELIQUARY, both found near the Priory Church.
IMPRESSION of a Seal, found at Little Dunmow, which probably belonged to one of the Priors of Dunmow. The inscription is: "Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominums tecum." The words are from the Missal. The ring is of silver.
THE PRIORY CHURCH IN ITS SADLY MODERN GUISE.
The Fair Matilda
The story of the poisoning of the Fair Matilda is in the Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iii., folio 291 (British Museum), a sixteenth or early seventeenth century copy of or extract from the Dunmow Chronicle. The original of the Chronicle has not been traced. Tanner in his Notitia Monastica does not mention it, but only the Cotton MS. and the Harley MS. referred to in the Introduction to this booklet. The story is entered under the year 1211, in which "mota est discordia inter Regem Johannem et Barones suos occasione Matildis," etc. The Chartulary of Dunmow Priory (page 20), a register of charters, deeds, etc., is quite a different thing from the Chronicle, and does not contain the story. The Chartulary is in handwriting of the thirteenth century. The rubric at the beginning gives the date of its compilation as 1275. A few documents have been copied into it at later times.