From the Navorscher. Constantee.
Oaken Tombs (Vol. vii., p. 528.; Vol. viii., p. 179.).—In the chancel of Brancepeth Church, co. Durham, are oaken effigies of a Lord and Lady Neville, of which the following is a description. The figure of the man is in a coat of mail, the hands elevated with gauntlets, wearing his casque, which rests on a bull's or buffalo's head, a collar round his neck studded with gems, and on the breast a shield with the arms of Neville. The female figure has a high crowned bonnet, and the mantle is drawn close over the feet, which rest on two dogs couchant. The tomb is ornamented with small figures of ecclesiastics at prayer, but is without inscription. Leland (Itin., i. 80.) says:
"In the paroche church of Saint Brandon, at Branspeth, be dyvers tumbes of the Nevilles. In the quire is a high tumbe, of one of them porturid with his wife. This Neville lakkid heires male, wherapoan great concertation rose betwixt the next heire male, and one the Gascoynes."
Cuthbert Bede, B.A.
Stafford Knot (Vol. viii., p. 220.).—It was the badge or cognisance of the house of Stafford, Earls of Stafford.
Henry Gough.
Emberton, Bucks.
Hand in Bishop's Cannings Church (Vol. viii., p. 269.).—See an article on this "Manus Meditationis," with a copy of the inscription, in the Ecclesiologist, vol. v. p. 150.
Henry Gough.
Emberton, Bucks.