Effigy of a Pilgrim.
—There is in the parish church of Ashby-de-la-Zouch an effigy, which is very interesting from its extreme rarity; it is placed under a depressed arch in the north wall of the interior of the edifice, and consists of a recumbent figure of a pilgrim habited in a cloak and short boots, which lace in front with six holes just above the instep: his legs are bare, and so is his head, but his cockle hat lies under his right shoulder; his scrip, hanging from his right shoulder to his left side, is tolerably perfect; but his row of beads, suspended from his left shoulder to his right side, is mutilated, as is also his staff; the hands, which were probably raised in prayer, are gone; a collar of SS. hangs from his neck (will this be of any use to MR. E. FOSS, Vol. iv., p. 147.?); the feet of the pilgrim rest against a curious looking animal, which is said to be a dog.
Nothing is known as to whom the effigy represents, and I have not Nichols's Leicestershire by me, to see if he hazards an opinion on the subject. I shall feel much obliged by any of your numerous readers kindly informing me where other effigies of pilgrims are to be found, because if anything is known of them it may possibly help to elucidate this present case of obscurity.
THOS. LAURENCE.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
[Nichols, in his Leicestershire, vol. iii. p 623., has given some account of this effigy from Carter and Burton, together with two sketches of the monument. Carter says, "There is no tradition to determine whom this figure represents; but Mr. Gough thinks that it was some person of authority, perhaps a keeper of the castle, or a bailiff of the town." This monument had been noticed by Mr. Burton, subsequent to the publication of his History; for in the margin of his volume is this MS. note, and a slight sketch of the tomb, when the scrip and staff were more perfect than they are at present:—"On the north side of the church, near to the great north door, lieth in the wall an ancient monument of a Palmer in alabaster, which I guess to be of some of the family of Zouch; which, for the expressing of the manner of the habit, I caused to be cut and inserted." This sketch is also engraved in plate lxxvi. of Nichols's Leicestershire.]
"Modern Universal History."
—At the conclusion of the preface of this History, in vol. xvi. of the first edition, it is stated, "this work is illustrated by the most complete set of maps that modern geography furnishes." My copy is a very fine one, but I do not find any maps whatever in it. Can any of your readers inform me whether such maps exist; and if so, in what volumes, and at what pages, they ought to be? Are they to be obtained separately?
S. QUARTO.
[The maps and charts, thirty-seven in number, to the Modern part of the Universal History, were published separately, in folio, 1766: the volume and page where they are to be inserted are given on each plate.]