|
Gentleman's Magazine 1780 p.131
Mr. URBAN,
A FEW days ago I receieved the annexed sculpture and
inscription from a good friend at Lancaster, who hoped that
I might be able to throw some light upon it; which, I
frankly own, I am not able to do: but as others may be more
fortunate, to them I recommend it through your channel; and
if it may save them some trouble, I will just mention what
has occurred to them on the subject. To begin with the
Carving; which one would expect would speak an universal
language, and consequently be readily made out; which is
not, however, the case, at least with me. I see two
combatants, seemingly cased in armour from head to feet; the
helmets of both are remarkably pointed at top; and both
plainly have stirrups, which seem to grow out of the belly
of the horses, without any the least appearance of
stirrup-leathers. The horses too of both seem compleatly
cased in leather at least, as they exhibit no eyes, mouths,
ears, or manes: but as their tails too seem equally covered,
(looking more like those of large rams) perhaps the
uniformity of their whole appearance should be charged to
the badness of the carving: though I think not, no more than
to being worn smooth by time and weather: the stirrups might
be fastened to this case or shell. One bears on his left arm
an oval shield, which, I believe, is an uncommon shape: his
right hand is raised level with his shoulder, and he pushes
a tilting spear (I venture to call it so from its swelling
bigger in the middle) into the neck of his adversary, who
lifts up his left hand, and lowers the banner in his right
hand; both seemingly in token of yielding. It is observable
that there is no appearance of his having a shield; nor has
his banneret any apparent head or spike to it, and the staff
is uniformly slender throughout. This, one should suppose,
was the representation of some formal combat: but in these
it was usual to be very exact in seeing that the combatants
arms were the same in size, &c. and from the cut or
indented shape of the banneret, we must conclude, that it is
the Gonfannen or Ecclesiastical banner: such, I supose, was
St. Cuthbert's, at Durham; which, besides appearing in
processions, was sometimes advanced against the Scots, with
good success: but if so, this must be the champion,
Vower, advocate or avoué of the church
in some dispute; and that the fight should refer to somewhat
of this kind , is natural enough to think, from the place
where it is fixed. But we may well wonder why a defeat of a
son militant of the church should be represented.
If I have made but little out of the carving, I am afraid I
shall come off still worse with the inscription. In it I
observe two crosses, + +. Combatants crossed themselves
before they began to engage; and children before they
ventured upon their A B C, hence called the
Christ's-cross-row, and the sign of it is still prefixed as
a mark or direction to them in their hornbooks.
if the first word of the 4th line ends like justitie,
maestitie, tristitie, &c. are employed in this short
inscription. The two first words, as I venture to call them,
seem exceedingly like those that compose the last line;
except a final horizontal stroke in the middle of a
perpendicular stem of the 1st letter, which, perhaps, was
not visible in the correspondent one of the last line, or
was over-looked. If it ought not to be at all in the first
letter, then one might read DominuS LVR RENDE WERE DVN ASHVM
MILES DE BO ELTYN. Ð the first letter may be supposed
to be the Saxon Ð; but that is, I believe, always
formed with a stroke of equaly length on both sides of the
perpendicular one; which is not so here; and if it was, no
more insight into the meaning is gained.
Mr. Burn, in his History of Cumberland. p.454, informs us,
that Boeltun was one of the four ancient ways of writing
Bolton. If it should be thought that the copy doth not
justifying supposing that more than a single letter is
wanting in M E S, we should consider that it might be wrote
L E S: the I being included in L, either thus [L with a
stoke] or thus
differing only in length. But a still greater difficulty
with me, is the knight's being loaded with three names, at a
time when very great people had often no more than a short
|