which is more than probable included his favourite minister, who we know took an active part in the civil wars; that the friend of that minister, Lord Daubeney, was Constable of Taunton Castle; and that Sir Reginald was eminent as an architect. There is another reason for believing that Taunton may have been much in favour with the King just now, as it was at this period that Richard Fox was Bishop of Wells-a divine who rendered important services in helping Henry to the throne; and that he was well disposed towards the town we have evidence in the grammar-school he has given us. Another of the favourites of Henry VII was also in the west; Dr. Oliver King about this time was Archdeacon of Taunton, still rising in favour, until he was at length promoted to the see of Bath and Wells. He it is said had great knowledge of Gothic architecture, and was induced by a vision to rebuild Bath Abbey. We also find that he was Registrar of the Order of the Garter, of which Sir Reginald was a Knight.* They both died in the same

*By the occurrence of so many circumstances common to each of these notable men; their favour with the King; their knowledge and love of architecture; and their connection with the Order of the Garter-imagination leads one to picture Bray as taking an active share in designing the new Abbey, the style being Tudor, and the pierced parapet of the tower having a strong resemblance to St. Mary's, Taunton. It would seem also that King Henry was in some way connected with the building, as beneath the pedestals supporting the figures of St. Peter and St. Paul we find the portcullis and the union rose crowned, and a niche over the great western door is supposed originally to have contained his figure, his arms, crowned with supporters, being sculptured at the base. Below another bracket, likewise on the west point, are two shields, charged with the arms of the see, surmounted by a dragon and greyhound, Henry's supporters, sustaining a rose crowned.

There was another important Tudor building, richly decorated with the arms and badges of the seventh Henry, in the course of construction at this time, whose fan tracery roof resembles in design that of Bath Abbey, St. George's, Windsor, and the Westminster Chapel, and the termination of whose turrets are almost identical with the buttresses at Westminster, -I allude to King's College, Cambridge. We have stated on authority that VOL. VIII., 1858, PART II.

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year, and both founded chantry chapels at St. George's, Windsor, in which they were buried.

If these facts prove nothing beyond, they identify Henry VII with the church architecture of the county, in connection with men holding important offices in Somerset, one of whom was remarkable for his skill as an architect.

The ancestors of the Lord Daubeney, also, who Sir R. Bray engaged to assist him in helping Henry to the throne, held for centuries the manor of South Petherton, at which place they no doubt had a mansion, as I find a Sir. Giles Daubeney, in the year 1444, "bequeathing his body to be buried in the chapel of our Lady within the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, South Petherton, where divers of his family lay interred.” Now we learn that two of the staunchest adherents and greatest favourites of the King were Daubeney and Bray; and as we find in the small town of South Petherton a building of this period, having on one end a portion so rich in architectural decoration as

Bray had a principal concern in building Henry the Seventh's chapel, and in finishing and bringing to perfection the chapel of St. George, his initials being introduced on the ceiling of the latter in many places. Now this ceiling is of rich fan tracery, as is likewise that more famous one of the Royal chapel of the Abbey, and that most famous of King's College, Cambridge. Where, then, is the improbability that the unknown architect of the chapel at Cambridge may have been Sir Reginald Bray? It is very certain that his royal master gave £5,000 towards the building of this chapel, which, as we find "the stone roofs to the seven chapels in the body of the church were to be built at the rate of £20 each," was a considerable sum for such a purpose. In turning to a description of the chapel in the History of Cambridge, published by Ackermann, I find it stated that the foundation of this singular edifice was laid by Henry VI upon St. James's day, in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, 1446; but as it is said "that only the east and part of the north and south walls of the chapel, beginning from the east, were finished during the reign of the founder," and that Mr. I. Smith, Fellow of the College in 1742, says, according to Cole, "It is not certain how far the building was raised in the founder's time, and that it was left in a state of suspension and neglect until 1479, during the reign of Edward IV, and that it proceeded, with interrup

to have given rise to the tradition that it was formerly a palace—what seems more probable than that this elaborately decorated portion of the structure was designed for Daubeney by his friend Bray? Indeed the windows, running as they do from the base to the summit of the walls, the two stories being separated only by a rich ornament of shields, in the same continuous jamb, have a sort of resemblance to the three sets of windows in St. Mary's Tower, and strengthens the supposition that it may have been designed by the same genius.

Another link in the chain: We find one more ancient family in the neighbourhood in favour with the King; for if Sir Reginald Bray "bore a rich salt of gold” at the christening of Prince Arthur, Sir Richard Warre was created a Knight of the Bath at his marriage, Bray being still alive. This renders it likely that the Hestercombe

tions, until the reign of Henry VII, when the stone-work was completed," may we not fairly assume, seeing that the style is nearly half a century later than that named as its foundation, being essentially Tudor, abounding both internally and externally with the arms and badges of the Seventh Henry-may we not fairly assume that, though the foundation may have been laid during the reign of Henry VI, and some small portion of the walls built, that the original design may have been altered to the then prevailing Florid Gothic? It not only appears to me that this may have been so, but I fancy I can detect such a resemblance, in parts, between this building and that of the Abbey Chapel and the ceiling of St. George's, Windsor, as may lead one to the conclusion that they were all the work of the same master mind-the Tudor Bray, and that the ceiling which astonishes the world may have been constructed by the architect of St. Mary's Tower. That the roof and towers were designed in Henry the Seventh's reign, we have proof from an indenture dated 4 Henry VIII, A.D. 1512, "that the great stone roof of the chapel divided into twelve arches, and built of Weldon stone, according to a plan signed by the executors of Henry VII, was to be set up within three years, at the price of £100 for each arch;" while from another indenture, which is dated in the same year, we find that £100 was the sum agreed to be paid for each of the towers by which the exterior of the chapel is embellished. The peculiar termination of these towers, more than any other feature in the building, resembling as they do the buttresses supporting the flying arches of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster, induces me to believe that they are the work of the same man, rather than of the same period,

granite found in the Tower of St. Mary's may have been a gift from Sir Richard Warre to assist the church in carrying out Sir Reginald's design; and likewise makes it more probable that the neighbourhood which afforded King Henry such valuable adherents would probably come in for more than ordinary marks of royal favour.

The initials R. B. also occur on a shield* in a window of the church, accompanied by a monogram, † such as, I am told, a Freemason might probably adopt; and that Sir

Reginald Bray was a Freemason high in the craft is certain, as we have it recorded in an old book, entitled Constitution of Freemasonry, that "King Henry VII, being Grand Master, chose for one of his wardens of England Sir R. Bray, the other being John Islip, Abbot of Westminster, by whom the King summoned a lodge of masters

* Dr. Cottle moved this shield to its present position in the north-west window, from a window south of the Tower.

+ Merchants' Marks.-It has been surmised that this monogram may possibly be a merchant's mark, as such signs were frequently used by them, consisting for the most part of a figure resembling a numerical 4, turned backwards, which, it has been conjectured, represents the mast and yard of a ship; but then, says Parker, in his Glossary of Heraldry-"If this conjecture be well founded, why did the early printers so often use this figure?" It is much more likely that the triangle symbolises the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, as the cross does that of the Atonement; and this probability seems increased by the same authority on Merchants' Marks-that this term is too narrow in its import, as marks of the kind, so termed, were used not only by merchants, but by ecclesiastics." It will be observed the figure of the monogram in question is not a figure of 4 turned backwards, but one turned upside down-if it has any resemblance to a figure of 4 at all. As this monogram occurs in one of the windows of the church, it possibly may not apply to Bray; but the coincidence of the initials seemed too striking to leave it unnoticed.

in the palace, with whom he walked in ample form to the east end of Westminster Abbey, and levelled the footstone of his famous chapel on June 24th, 1502; that the King likewise employed Grand Warden Bray to raise the middle chapel of Windsor, and to rebuild the palace of Sheenupon-Thames, which the King called Richmond; and to enlarge the old palace of Greenwich, calling it Placentia, where he built a pretty box, called 'The Queen's House.' He is likewise supposed to have built the chancel of the Abbey Church of Great Malvern, where, in the east window, his figure is introduced, with that of Prince Arthur, kneeling.

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It seems probable that Bray may have done little more than furnished the plans and elevation of St. Mary's Tower, and that the builders were driven to an economic method of construction in carrying out the grand design, which may account for the loose way in which some portions of the building seem to have been put together, and the inaccuracies which occur in the setting the buttresses, the measurements of the belfry windows, which differ slightly in width the one from the other in the same story, and in the several chambers of the tower, which are none of them quite square. As regards the architectural merits of the building, a professional member of our Society tells us "that for height and magnificence it may claim nearly, if not quite, the first rank in the country;" but then, he adds, "it sins against the first law of tower building, which should be a gradual increase of lightness and decoration towards the top, the lower part being plain and massive; that having double windows nearly as large as those in the belfry stage in the two stories beneath, this progressive diminution of massiveness is quite lost, and that it is top heavy." Another learned member tells us