Queries.
Reading edition
PICTURES FROM LORD VANE'S COLLECTION.
No. 1. is a young man in what appears to be a court dress, exhibiting armour beneath the folds of the drapery. Point lace neck-tie. 2. Do., in brocaded silk and fringed dress. Point lace neck-tie and ruffles. A spaniel introduced, climbing up his knee. 3. A youth sitting under a tree, with pet lamb. Point lace neck-tie and ruffles, but of simple dress. 4. A lady in flowing drapery. Pearls in her hair and round her neck, sitting under a tree. An orange blossom in her hand. 5. A lady seated in an apartment with marble columns. Costume similar to No. 4, minus the pearls in the hair. A kind of wreath in her hand. 6. A lady in simple, flowing drapery, without jewellery, save a broach or clasp on her left shoulder; holding a flower in her right hand. In all, the background is very dark, but trees and buildings can be traced through the gloom. The hands are models, and beautifully painted. Size of pictures, divested of their carved and gilt frames, four feet two inches by three feet four inches. If any of your readers can, from this description, give me any clue to the name of the artist, it will greatly oblige and be duly appreciated by an elderly spinster.
S. D.
BURIAL-PLACE OF THURSTAN, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.
The church of All Saints, in Pontefract, county York, was some years ago partly restored for divine worship; and during the progress of the works, a broken slab was discovered in the chancel part of the church, upon which was cut an archiepiscopal cross, extending from the top apparently to the bottom. On the upper part of the stone, and on each side of the cross, was a circle or ring cut down the middle by a dagger; and bearing on the circle the following inscription in Old English characters:
Beneath this part appears the commencement of the inscription, which seems to have run across the surface of the stone, "Orate pro anim...." Here the stone is broken across, and the lower part not found.
Can any of your numerous readers inform me if this stone could possibly be the tombstone of Thurstan, Archbishop of York? It is said that he resigned the see of York after holding it twenty-six years:
"Being old and sickly, he would have been made a monk of Pontefract, but he had scarcely put off his pontifical robes, and put on his monk's dress, when death came upon him and made him assume his grave-clothes; for he survived but eleven days after his resignation, dying Feb. 5, 1140."
Thurstan is stated to have been buried in the Monastery; but may he not have been buried in the church of All Saints, which was the conventual church of the Priory of St. John the Evangelist, and was situated adjoining the Grange, the site of the Priory? In the bull of Pope Celestine, "right of burial in this church was granted to the monks, saving the privileges of neighbouring churches." (Ch. de Pontif. fol. 8. a.)
George Fox.