PICTURES OF QUEEN ELIZABETH AND CHARLES I. IN CHURCHES.
Your correspondent "R.O." will find two pictures of Charles I. of the same allegorical character as that described by him in his note (antè, p. 137.), one on the wall of the stairs leading to the north gallery of the church of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, and the other in the hall of the law courts in Guildhall Yard. I know nothing of the history of the first-mentioned picture; the latter, until within a few years, hung on the wall, above the gallery, in the church of St. Olave, Jewry, when, upon the church undergoing repair, it was taken down, and, by the parishioners, presented to the corporation of London, who placed it in its present position. In the church of St. Olave there were two other pictures hung in the gallery, one representing the tomb of Queen Elizabeth, copied from the original at Westminster, the other of Time on the Wing, inscribed with various texts from Scripture. Both these pictures were presented at the same time with the picture of Charles I. to the corporation, and are now in the hall in Guildhall Yard. The representation of Queen Elizabeth's tomb is to be met with, I believe, in some other of the London churches. The picture in Bishopsgate Church is fully described in the 1st vol. of Malcolm's Londinium Redivivum, p. 243., and the St. Olave's pictures are mentioned in the 4th vol. of the same work, p. 563. Malcolm states he was not able to find any account of the Bishopsgate painting in the parish books. Hitherto I have not been able to discover anything connected with the history of the St. Olave's pictures, which, as the old church was destroyed in the great fire of 1666, were doubtless placed there subsequently to that year. I shall be glad if any of your readers can throw any light as to the time when, and the circumstances under which, such pictures as I have mentioned, referring to Queen Elizabeth and Charles I., were placed in our churches.
JAMES CROSBY.
FLAYING IN PUNISHMENT OF SACRILEGE.
In the Journal of the Archæological Institute, for September, 1848, there are some most interesting notes on the subject of "Flaying in Punishment of Sacrilege," by Mr. Way. Since then I have felt peculiar interest in the facts and traditions recorded by Mr. Way. Can any of your correspondents, or Mr. Way himself, give any further references to authors by whom the subject is mentioned, besides those named in the paper to which I allude? A few weeks ago I received a piece of skin, stated to be human, and taken from the door of the parish church of Hadstock, in Essex. Together with this I received a short written paper, apparently written some fifty years ago, which ascribes the fact of human skin being found on the door of that church, to the punishment, not of sacrilege, but of a somewhat different crime. The piece of skin has been pronounced to be human by the highest authority. As the above query might lead to some lengthy "notes," I desire only to be informed of the titles of any works, ancient or modern, in which distinct mention, or allusion, is made of the punishment of flaying.
R.V.