of the aforesaid William | Codrington, who died 25th November, 1821, aged 46 years. | In memory of Mrs Mary Codrington, wife of the abovesaid Wm Codrington, | (Senior), who died March the 12th, 1822, aged 69 years.

8.

Sacred to the memory of Elizabeth Dyer, | relict of John Dyer, of Wottonunderedge, and sister of Thomas Webb, Esquire, of this Parish. She died June 23rd, 1807, aged 86 years. Also of Robert Dyer, Merchant, fifth son of the above John and Elizabeth Dyer, who died on his passage home from the East Indies | July 25th, 1802, aged 40 years. | John Dyer, their eldest son, died May 15th, 1815, aged 65 years. Frances Dyer, wife of William Dyer, their youngest son, died 29th November, 1827, aged 61 years. The abovenamed William Dyer, | died 2nd November, 1834, aged 68 years. Charles Dyer, | died 29th August, 1842, aged 77 years.

9.

In this chancell❘ (the sepulchre for many ages of the ancient family of the Hickes's, of the Court House, in this Parish) | lie interr'd the remains of Thomas Hickes, who died 11th January, 1726, aged 55 years. Mary, his wife, died 25th March, 1749, aged 69 years. Also the following children: | Mary & Richard, died in their infancy; John, died 24th Augst, 1741, aged 36 years; Thomas, the eldest son, died in London, and was buried there. In filial remembrance of her belov'd parents this monument is erected by Mary, only surviving daughter and heiress of the above Tho Hickes and Mary, his wife, daughter of Tho Webb, of Abbott-side, in said Parish, | Anno Domini 1777. | Mary Hickes, died the 25th day of May, 1783, | aged 76 years.

10.

Near this place | are deposited the remains of Lieutenant William Morris, (A) R.N., | of this Parish, who departed this life! the 12th day of May, 1830, in the 41st year of his age. In affection to whose memory | this tablet is erected by his widow. | In the same vault also rest her remains | Priscilla, youngest daughter of the late | Thomas M. and Ann Hardwicke, of Tytherington, in this County. Born 16th Feb, 1786, and died 17th Feby, 1863.

11.

Near this place are deposited the remains of Robert Webb, | of Abbot's-side, in this Parish, who died the 25th day of September, 1731, aged 41 years. | Lucia, his wife, daughter of Robert Allen, of Wood-End, in this Parish, died the 3d day of December, 1754, aged 64 years. Robert, eldest son of the abovementioned Robert and Lucia Webb, died the 19th day of August, 1762, aged 44 years. Catharine, wife of Thomas, youngest son of the abovementioned Robert and Lucia Webb, daughter of John

Llewelin, of Bridgend,

in the County of Glamorgan, died the 7th day of October, 1780, aged 61 years. | Thomas Webb died the 12th day of November, 1802, aged 77 years.

ABHBA.

1942. THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE SOCIETY IN LONDON.-(See No. 1901.) The London Postman of February 1, 1705, contained the following announcement :

GLOUCESTERSHIRE CLUB.-At the sign of the City of Bristol, in Friday Street, Cheapside, is newly settled a Club or Society, of men from the city and county of Gloucester, who meet every Wednesday, in the evening, at the place above said, where any Gentlemen, or others of the aforesaid city and county that are desirous of promoting the society of their countrymen, are hereby desired to meet the said Club or Society.

J. L.

1943.-A "MAIDEN" ASSIZE. Few people, probably, are aware that this term, now applied to gaol deliveries where there are no prisoners to try, was used in the last century, when the penalty of death attached to every description of felony, to designate assizes at which the highest punishment awarded was transportation. To take a local example, the London Weekly Miscellany of August 9, 1740, published the following:-"Gloucester, August 2. late assize proving a maiden one (one man was sentenced to death for horse stealing, but was reprieved and transported; two were burnt in the hand, and one was ordered to be whipped) the Under Sheriff made the usual present of the Glove Money to the Judges' Servants."

Our

It would be curious to discover when the "glove money" was converted into a present of gloves to the judges.

J. L.

An extract from Beck's volume, entitled Gloves, their Annals and Associations (London, 1883), p. 55, may not here be out of place:-The judge always receives a pair, but in some instances, all the officers of the court are given either gloves or an equivalent in glove money. The sheriff is invariably the giver of the gloves. It is merely a supposition, and the suggestion is offered with some diffidence, but may not this presentation of gloves by the sheriff at a maiden assize taking into consideration the original acceptation of the term, an assize at which no prisoner was capitally convicted have some connection with the horrible office of executioner, which has been the duty of the sheriff when no person willing to take the office for the sake of reward or the remission of sentence could be found? EDITOR.

1944. THE GLOUCESTER CORPORATION MANUSCRIPTS. - The Twelfth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, dated August, 1889, contains these details under the head of Gloucester, pp. 46, 47 :

The manuscripts of the Corporation have been recently examined by Mr. W. H. Stevenson. They consist largely of a valuable collection of early deeds, but as these are almost exclusively of local interest, they do not come within the province of this Commission. There are, however, other papers that have yielded some valuable historical matter. The detailed report records the visits of Henry VIII. and of his daughter Princess Mary to Gloucester, and the preparations made for their reception; the levying of troops in the city for various expeditions, ranging from Flodden Field to Charles the First's abortive attempt to suppress the outbreak of the Scots in 1639; the preparations made by the citizens for the momentous siege of the city by the King in 1643, and their equally determined preparations to resist Charles II. when he approached the city in 1651; and the celebration in the city of Cromwell's assumption of the Protectorship. The long series of letters to and from the Lords of the Privy Council reflect the troubles of the local leaders caused by the aimless movements of troops in the reign of Charles I. and by the constant demands for money. There are also some letters connected with the preparations to resist the Armada. Leicester's request in 1584 to have the city's return to Parliament sent to him for him to fill in the members' names, and the somewhat nervous refusal of the Council to accede to his request, may also be noted. The elections were made in the county court of the city as late as 1555, as we glean from a minute of that year. The minutes and orders printed in the report illustrate the government of the town, its police, sanitary, and trade regulations. Some orders made for the suppression of immorality in the town in the early years of the sixteenth century reveal the existence of much looseness of living in the borough. Much of this is ascribed by the compilers of these orders to the priests and men of religion who formed so large an element in the population of Gloucester. It would be interesting if we could ascertain that Gloucester really had such a reputation for immorality as these orders assert, for it is possible that the zeal of the reformers of these abuses has led them to exaggerate the evil condition of the town. The extracts from later accounts of the same century show that the authorities were by no means remiss in punishing offences against morality. They also record some characteristic punishments of gipsies, vagabonds, and offenders of various sorts, besides containing much other matter of interest. Earlier documents record a visit of Edward the Black Prince to Gloucester to mediate in a dispute between the rich and powerful Abbey of Gloucester and the poor Friars Minor. The award made by the Prince records the use of leaden pipes for the conveyance of water in the borough.

1945.-SIR THOMAS RICH'S MONUMENT.-At a meeting of the Gloucester city council, held on Tuesday, May 20, 1890, the townclerk read the following letter, dated April 22nd, from the Ven. Archdeacon Pott, Sonning Vicarage, Reading:

Referring to your letter of April 21st, the monument to Sir Thomas Rich formerly stood at the east end of the chantry on the south side of the chancel of Sonning Church, the said chantry being then the property of the Rich family. In the year 1880 the monument was moved under a faculty granted by the chancellor of the diocese, with the consent of the present owners of the chantry, after a vote of the vestry taken and six weeks' notice on the church door. It should be added that the Rich family became extinct in the legitimate line early in the present century. His monument is still in perfect condition, and is placed in the western tower of the church. All the persons who were responsible for the removal-vicar, churchwardens, and lay impropriator-are dead. Everything was done in due legal form. The faculty is dated March 8th, 1880. The monument could not be again removed without another faculty and very considerable expense."

Lysons's Magna Britannia (1806), vol. i,, p. 381, merely states that "the monument of Sir Thomas Rich, the first baronet of that family, who died in 1667, is very heavy." A desire had been expressed by some for the transfer of this memorial to Gloucester, the Blue Coat Hospital there having been founded by Rich, who, as recorded on his monument, was a native of that city ("Glocestria natus"), and therefore a letter was addressed to Archdeacon Pott upon the subject.

The inscription, of which the Rev. Edward I. Gillam, of Sonning, has kindly supplied a copy, has not been given by the date Canon Pearson in his Memorials of the Church and Parish of Sonning (Reading, 1890), but we may find these not very flattering details of the monument itself, p. 30:

The monument is to Sir Thomas Rich, Bart., a great benefactor to Sonning, who died in 1667. He enlarged the Blue Coat School at Reading, providing that there should be always three boys from Sonning parish educated in it ... The monument is, I believe, of Italian workmanship, of black and white marble, and must have cost an immense sum of money. The pavement on which it stands, is of marble, and it is raised on black marble steps. The monument itself consists of four colossal naked cherubs or cupids, shedding tears, and supporting on their wings a vast black marble slab, on which stand two large white marble urus. The inscription, in Latin, is on the urns, and is an extravagant panegyric on the charities of Sir Thomas Rich. Lysons in his Magna Britannia may well say, "the monument of Sir Thomas Rich is very heavy." It is really difficult to conceive anything in more deplorable taste than this monument. It is in the very worst style of the worst age, and it is lamentable to think that a sum of money which might more than have sufficed to raise such a beautiful memorial as the sculptured arch in the chancel, or have filled the church with painted windows, should have been

VOL. IV.

XX

thrown away upon what is so utterly worthless, when viewed as a work of Christian art.

Gloucester would certainly not gain by the proposed transfer of such a memorial. GLOUCESTRENSIS.

1946.- GLOUCESTERSHIRE SIGNBOARDS.-(See No. 883.) A correspondent of the Whitehall Review writes: "Concerning curious inn signs, I have just had a tour over the Cotswold Hills, and, passing through a pleasant but dormant village, found the following inscription on the sign

'Ye weary travellers that do pass by,
With heat and scorching sunbeams dry,
Or be benumbed with snow and frost,
With having these bleak Cotswolds crossed,
Step in and taste my nut-brown ale,
Bright as rubies, mild and stale,
'To make your laging trotters dance
As nimble as the sons of France;
And ye will say, ye men of sense,

That neare was better spent sixpence.'

I read the words on the quaint, time-worn, and weather-beaten signboard, and accepted the invitation of the landlord of the Plough Inn of the peaceful village of Ford. I found the inside clean, warm, cosy, and comfortable. The ale was as bright as rubies, and was very exhilarating and wholesome."

There was an old coaching inn at Witcomb which had a protruding signboard. On the side towards Gloucester, under the sign of "The Talbot," appeared the invitation:— do this hill go up Stop and drink a cheerful cup."

"Before you

And on the side towards Birdlip :

"You're down the hill, all danger's past,
Stop and have a cheerful glass."

This old inn and its sign have departed.

converted into a private residence.

The inn has been

A sign with a similar inscription swings in front of a publichouse at the foot of the hill at Longhope, and bears representations of the cup and glass, instead of the words.

"The Catherine Wheel" was formerly a very common sign. Richard Flecknoe tells us, in his Enigmaticall Characters (1658), that the Puritans changed it into "The Cat and Wheel," under which name it is still to be seen on a public house in Castle Green, Bristol (Hotten's History of Signboards, p. 299).

Some years ago there was a Cock and Bottle public-house in Bristol kept by a man named John England, who added to his sign the well-known words :-"England expects every man to do his duty" (Ib., p. 209). Cock and Bottle Lane has not as yet disappeared from Bristol.

G. A. W.