EXECUTION OF REYNARD, SHERBORNE.
In the hanging scenes there is no suggestion of the religious dress. Reynard has lost his Benefit of Clergy. Besides the carving of the Ape laying out the dead Fox, at Beverley there are also others where the Ape is riding on the Fox’s back, and again where he is tending him in bed. The Ape succouring the Fox is also instanced at Windsor.
However, after the two broad classes of carvings are exhausted—the Fox deluding or eating birds, and the Fox hanged by birds, there is little left to tell of him.
It may be added that his hanging by his one-time victims has suggested to the carver another subject of the same kind—the hanging of the cat by mice, or, more probably, rats, mentioned on [page 43]. It is there stated to be at Sherborne, in error, the place being Great Malvern.
EXECUTION OF THE CAT, GREAT MALVERN.
The following curious scene from the Fox-fruitful church of St. Mary’s, Beverley, is perplexing, and gives the Fox receiving his quietus under unique circumstances. He is, with anxiety, awaiting the diagnosis of an ape-doctor, who is critically examining urinary deposits; his health has been evidently not all he could wish. When, lo, an arrow, from the bow of an archer in quilted leather, pierces him through the heart! What more this carving means is a mystery.
REYNARD IN DANGER, ST. MARY’S, BEVERLEY.