Dom Guéranger gives long extracts from a twelfth century office of St. Nicholas, but in these we find no mention of the legend of the children in the tub, though prominence is given to such things as the refusal of the breast. The Liturgical Year, tr. by Shepherd (Dublin and London, 1867), vol. i, pp. 355-369. St. Nicholas was the patron of children, and especially schoolboys, as we have seen'; of poor maidens, because of the three to whom he showed such kindness; of sailors, because he calmed a storm at sea and helped the sailors; of travellers and merchants, for the same reason, and because he multiplied corn in a time of dearth. He was accounted a protector against thieves, and losses by robbery and violence, because of legends in which he appears in that capacity. He is the chief patron of Russia, also of Bari, whither his body was conveyed in 1087, of Venice, of Freiburg, and of many other towns and cities, particularly of seaports and towns engaged in commerce. Hence the churches of St. Nicholas at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Great Yarmouth, Old Shoreham, South Ferriby, and elsewhere. But there are about 372 old churches in various parts of England named in his sole honour. A frequent "attribute" of St. Nicholas is three golden balls, sometimes three purses of gold, in allusion to the three marriage portions that he secretly put in at the window for the three poor maidens mentioned above. The three balls now used as a sign by pawnbrokers are supposed to have some time been a device adopted by merchants, of whom pawnbrokers are in some sort the successors. The three balls do not appear upon the Pocklington seal, the saint being sufficiently indicated by the children in the tub. PASSAGES TRANSLATED ABOVE. CHARACTERISTIQUES DES SAINTS, par Le P. Ch. Cahier. Paris, 1867. Page 304, col. 2. Voici la signification du saloir et des trois petits enfants, d'après le trouvère normand Wace. Trois clers alloient à l'ecole, 1 The Boy Bishop was elected on St. Nicholas' Day, and maintained the out ward state of a bishop until the Holy Innocents' Day. Les clers à l'oste demanda; N'es pot céler, se li mostra. Por che c'as clers fist cele honor Font li clers sa feste a son jor. Quant au fait en lui-même, qu'on ne retrouve pas chez les Grecs, si enthousiastes de saint Nicolas, j'y soupçonne une interprétation du secours prêté par le grand évêque de Myre aux trois officiers condamnés à mort par Constantin. Les captifs sont fréquemment représentés, au moyen âge dans une petite tour; et pour peu qu'on ait voulu rendre la scène plus visible, la tour aura été coupée par le milieu. Les protégés d'un personnage étant souvent réduits par l'artiste à de petites proportions pour faire ressortir l'intercesseur, la tour ne sera-t-elle pas devenue un baquet, et les clients adultes n'auront-ils pas été changés en petits garçons. SANCTI BONAVENTURAE OPERUM, TOM: 3. Romae Ex Typographia Vaticana MDXCVI. De S. Nicolao Sermo 1, Quarto beatus Nicolaus secutus est aliqualiter Christum, quantum ad vestigia potestatis in opere signorum. Nam inter sanctos omnes temporibus suis maximis miraculis claruit, et stupendis, sicut de eo sancta Ecclesia in oratione dicit: Deus, qui beatum Nicolaum innumeris decorasti miraculis, de quibus quaedam in Legenda sunt posita, quaedam supra narrata. Nam ego unam ponam, et alibi scriptum est, quam in ipsa Legenda. Nam duo scholares nobiles et divites, multumq. secum auri deferentes, Athenas ad philosophandum pergentes, prius sanctum Nicolaum videre volentes, ut se eius orationibus commendarent, in civitatem in qua degebat Episcopus, advenerunt. Quos hospes tam divites cernens, maligno spiritu pulsatus, eos occidit, et more porcorum in frusta concidit, et eorum carnes in vase saluit. Quod sanctus Nicolaus dum ab Angelo cognovit, in domum hospitis mox accessit, et quidquid fecerat indicavit eumq. valde redarguit, et tandem orando pueros suscitavit. Quia ergo in opere miraculorum imitatus est Christum, potest de eo exponi illud de quod de Christo dicitur: Venient ad te, qui detrahebant tibi, et adorabunt vestigia pedum tuorum. Rogamus ergo Dominum. MONUMENTAL BRASSES IN THE NORTH RIDING. BY MILL STEPHENSON, B.A., F.S.A. THE North Riding contains twenty-three brasses with effigies, which may be classed thus: 5 Ecclesiastics (Romaldkirk, Sessay, West Tanfield, Thirsk, and Wensley). 4 Armed figures with ladies (Catterick (2), Helmsley, and Hornby). 3 Armed figures alone (Aldborough, Roxby, and Wath). I Judge and lady (Wath). 3 Civilians and ladies (Hauxwell, Leake, and Topcliffe). 3 Ladies alone (Forcett, Kirby Moorside, and Sheriff Hutton). 23 = To these may be added the devices (now lost) at Hornby, and a small late shrouded figure in the churchyard at Thornton Watlass. Of the ecclesiastics, two are in mass vestments, one at Wensley, the other a half effigy at Thirsk; two, at Sessay and West Tanfield, are in processional vestments, and one, formerly at Romaldkirk, is in amice, albe, and cope. The only fourteenth century armed figure is that at Aldborough; in the fifteenth there are examples at Catterick, Helmsley, Hornby, Wath; and in the sixteenth at Roxby. The judge and lady at Wath are almost effaced. The only early civilian is at Topcliffe, the rest are all late. The single figures of ladies are all of the seventeenth century, the best being the finely engraved plate at Forcett. There is a curious but worn pair of children in swaddling clothes at Sheriff Hutton, with the date in arabic numerals; a girl of four years of age, but represented as a grown-up person, at Kirkleatham, and a boy of fourteen at Wycliffe. Two fine Flemish examples occur, one at Wensley, worked on the English fashion. without any background, probably the finest figure of a parish priest in existence; the other at Topcliffe, a typical Flemish plate, but not particularly rich in detail nor of large size. It is, however, the only early canopied brass remaining in the Riding. The earliest example of the local Yorkshire school is the fine armed figure at Aldborough, circa 1360; in the next century are the curious armed figures at Catterick and Wath, and possibly the priest formerly at Romaldkirk, the children at Sheriff Hutton, and the inscriptions at Gilling and Kirklington, with probably some others. Most of the late inscriptions are the work of local engravers, some are signed, as at Bedale, Ingleby Arncliffe, and Thornton-le-Street. Three palimpsests have been noted a small plate now in the Scarborough Museum, the Flemish brass at Topcliffe, and the brass of Thomas Magnus at Sessay. The two former are probably examples of shop waste re-used, the latter of plunder from the dissolution of the monastic houses and chantries. Builders of churches or founders of chantries occur at Catterick, Romaldkirk, Roxby, Sheriff Hutton, and Thirsk. Founders of schools, although not so specified on the brasses, are at Bedale and Sessay. One of the brasses at Helmsley, two at Wath, the one at Thirsk, and an inscription at Sheriff Hutton are almost effaced by constant wear. The fine figure at Aldborough has at some time been treated in the most barbarous manner, great iron nails having been driven through the eyes and dotted round the body. The tomb of John Lewelyne at Romaldkirk was ruthlessly destroyed in the early part of the last century, and the brass scattered. A small inscription disappeared from Stanwick St. John during a restoration in 1868, and for many years the brasses at Catterick have been concealed by the organ. The Flemish brass at Topcliffe, which was getting much worn, has recently been lifted from the floor, together with its original slab, and fixed against the wall. The writer is especially indebted to Messrs. William Brown, F.S.A., W. J. Kaye, F.S.A., and J. Challenor Smith, F.S.A., for numerous rubbings, without which it would have been impossible for him to have completed this paper. He is also indebted to many more friends for assistance and advice; to Mr. J. W. Clay, F.S.A., for the notes from Dodsworth's MS.; to Mr. Everard Green, F.S.A., Rouge Dragon, for the notes from Dugdale's MS., now in the College of Arms; to Mr. J. G. Waller, F.S.A., for permission to reproduce his engravings of the brasses at Aldborough and Topcliffe, and to Mr. T. M. Fallow, F.S.A., for the loan of the blocks illustrating Kirkleatham and Roxby. AINDERBY STEEPLE. I. WILLIAM CALEYS, RECTOR, c. 1460. Inscription only. Size of plate 19 by 5 inches. Now on the nave wall. Hic iacet dn's Will's Caleys quo'dam rector isti' ecc'ie confessor Johannis d'ni lescrop quor' ai'abus p'piciet deus. Amen. William Caleys was instituted on March 28, 1437, on the presentation of John, Lord Scrope. The date of his death is unrecorded, but his patron, Sir John le Scrope, Lord Scrope of Masham, to whom he was confessor, died in 1455. II. On the south side of the churchyard is a fine and interesting casement of early date. The slab, which measures 6 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 10 inches, shows the indents for a floriated cross rising from three steps, a crosier with fine crocketted head resting on its dexter arm, and a narrow inscription fillet crossing the top. The cross is 5 feet 10 inches, the crosier 5 feet 7 inches in length, and the inscription fillet measures 2 feet 7 inches by 2 inches. This slab, which local tradition assigns to an abbot of Jervaulx, is engraved in T. D. Whitaker's History of Richmondshire, vol. i, page 260, and the Rev. C. Boutell's Christian Monuments, page 53. In Whitaker's time it was in the "middle aisle" of the church. ALDBOROUGH,' NEAR BOROUGHBRIDGE. I. WILLIAM DE ALDEBURGH, c. 1360. A large full-length effigy in armour, holding a small heart, and standing upon a crocketted bracket, which has a leopard's face for a finial, and is inscribed round the edge with the name Will's de Aldeburgh. This fine figure, which was most barbarously treated at the time of its removal in 1827, is an excellent example of the work of the early local school and of the gradual growth of plate armour; it is also interesting as being the latest example of a figure bearing a shield. Both the shield and the jupon are charged with the arms of ALDEBURGH, of Aldborough, (Az.), a fess per fess indented... and ..., between three crosses botony (or), the dexter cross charged with an annulet... for difference. The indented lines of the fess are clearly shown on the shield but not on the jupon, although there can be 1 This should have been included in the West Riding series, as the greater portion of the village is in that Riding. |