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Mr. URBAN, Slawften. Jan. 1. Slawften. Jan. 1. MAKE no apology for troubling you with the following lines, as the fubject of them is a piece of curious and rich Antiquity; a fubject which you, by your ufeful and wide-fpreading Mifcellany, are always ready to communicate to the publick in general, and your Antiquarian correfpondents in particular. (See Plate III. fig. 1).

The fubject is a large and rich broche, or buckle, which was found about five or fix years ago, with fome human bones, in digging for gravel, fomewhere between Hufbands Bofworth (co. Leicester) and Welford (co. Northampton); but in which lordthip, I know not. However, I inclofe a correct drawing of the fame, coloured as it now appears. But, as the colours cannot be fhewn in your plate, I will fubjoin a faithful defcription of the whole for the fatisfaction of your Antiquarian friends; hoping that fome of them will favour me, in a future Number, with their conjectures upon it; as to the time fuch ornaments were worn; in what manner; by what degree of perfons; or whatever elfe on the fubject may occur to their minds, and does not at this time occur to me.

It appears to have been found in (or very near) the route of the hafty retreat of part of King Charles the Firft's army to Leicester, after its defeat in Nafeby field, June 14, 1545. Whether it belonged to fome of the officers or fuite of that ill-fated monarch or not, I dare not determine; but I am inclined to think it to be of a much earlier date. This, perhaps, may be af certained by fome of your learned correfpondents in a future Magazine, after I have given a defcription of the ornament in queftion. I, therefore, proceed.

The under part of the broche confifts of one entire circular thin plate of filver, its diameter 2 inches, with a circular hole in its centre of an inch in diameter. GENT. MAG. February, 1900.

On this plate lie two nearly femicircular moveable thin plates of pure gold, each inch wide, fastened together, and to the filver plate by a fingle gold wire pafling through them at aa. Each of thefe gold plates is environed with a double-twitted wire of the fame. Each femicircular plate is circularly divided into three divifions or compartments by a fingle gold wire laid upon the fame. Each compartment is overlaid with notched wire (which I have endeavoured to reprefent by dotting) of the fame metal, and in the fame forms, as fhewn in the drawing. At nearly equal diftances upon these plates are four gold fockets, two on each plate, placed in a kind of wreath of double-twifted wire of the fame metal, in each of which is ftudded a pearl about the fize of a white pea; and in the crown of each pearl is fet a ruby about the fize of a common pin's head; one of which (that just below the point of the tongue of the buckle) is gone, the other three remain bright and fparkling; but the pearls have quite loft their luftre, and are fomewhat corroded by lying in the earth, and now appear of a dead white, inclining to a light brown. The rubies, which I have marked bb, have a flat furface; but that marked c is rofe-cut; as probably was that in the oppofite`angle, which is now wanting. The buckie and tongue are of filver, the rim of which appears to be of twifted wire, but is not fo, being only caft in that form (which, I believe, is called cable filver), the under furface being flat, and falls within the gold plates upon the inner projecting part of the under filver plate. The upper part of this plate is much tarnifhed, especially the outer and inner projecting extremities, which appear as dark in colour as is fhewn in the drawing. The buckle and under fide of this plate are of a brighter colour, but rather dull. The gold belonging to this curious broche weighs 4 penny

weights,

longing, to John Bourchier, Lord Berners. Afterwards the eftate came into the poffetion of the antient family of the Weftons. See the Regifter belonging to the parifh-church of Weft Clandon.

“Henry, fon of Sir Henry Weflon, and Dorothy, haptized O&. 13, 1561. "Richard, fon of ditto and ditto, baptized Sept. 17, 1564.

"Richard Wetton, efq. and Jane Deflar, gentlewoman, married May 27, 1583."

The fifter of Mrs. Fitzgerald, of Weft Horley, who died two or three years fince, and was a Wefton, fuppofed to be about 111 years of age, was born at Ockham, at the time the family lived there.

This eftate was bought by Sir Peter. King (the chancellor); in which he was fucceeded by his eldeft fon, John, who died without ilue. Peter, the fecond fon, fucceeded him, who died a batchelor. William fucceeded him, and died alfo without iffue. The youngest fon, Thomas, enjoyed the title and eftate and left itfue, Peter, Thomas, Aune, and Wilhelmina. Peter, the late lord, whofe death and character you have in vol. LXIII. p. 1061, was fucceeded by his eldett fon, Peter, who now enjoys the title and eftate. A. Z.

Mr. URBAN,

A

Jan. 28.

N Artift and Antiquary, vol. LXIX. p. 113, b. jufily ridicules the little attention that is paid to antient coftume on the Englith ftage. Yet, poflibly, though it is their province "to catch the manners living as they rite," our managers behind the fcenes, hackneyed in trick and ftage-effect, might anfwer with fome appearance of truth, that a too faithful copy of the obsolete manners of the dean, on every occafion, would frequently tend to create difguft or ridicule, inftead of applaufe, amongst the "

profanum vulgus, the great vulgar and the small." In the gaping crowd of pit, box, and gallery, how comparatively few (they may juftly retort) are artists of vntú, or

learned Antiquaries! Indeed, the moft conftant attendants at the theatre, confequently the managers' best friends, can hardly be fuppofed to know, or care, whether Hamlet's “inky cloak" could really be fathioned like Mr. Gar

rick's full-drefs coat of black velvct; or, as his Father, when he "combatted the ambitious Norway," muft have been harneffed in fcale or in chain mail, whether the ghoft of the Royal Dane, in arms, could be fuppofed to ftalk away from the platform in vambrace and gorget of plate-armour: but, furely, the apparition itself fufliciently aftounded Denmark; no need to exhibit the late living warrior frowning under fuch a formidable fuit of buckram as no warrior then living had feen before. The armed ghoft of a king, I ween, if he is to be recognized, thould be "femblably furnished like the king himfelf." We repair to the theatre for rational information as well as vacant pleafure; and it ought not to be the managers' fault if we return confirmed in ignorance. The fpectators in general, but more eipecially thofe who are themfelves unable to judge of the propriety of all parts of the fpectacle, are fuppofed to rely on the taste and judgement of another, who, by receiving their money, feems tacitly to undertake the office of pleating inftructor; therefore, if he wilfully mifreprefents and confounds the antient cufioms, manners, and drefs, of our forefathers, I apprehend he neglects his duty, and breaks his engagement; for, he certainly leads into error, and deceives them. I am fufficiently aware of the impoffibility of attending to all minutie, and that very great allowance muft neceffarily be made. Perhaps, indeed, it would be no eafy matter to draw the line exactly; but every well-informed perfon will readily allow that, by confulting the bett works of our own and foreign Antiquaries, &c. which the manager of a London

theatre

theatre ought to have at his fingers' ends, numberlefs palpable violations of the coftume might be avoided; and of course, in this inftance at leaft, the credit of our ftage would be refcued from much difgrace.

Your correfpondent's belief, that "in antient times beards were worn univerfally," will be staggered, probably, when he recollects that the Normans in general, at and after the Conqueft, actually fhaved their beards.

Gunpowder was known in feudal times, for fome pieces of artillery are faid to have been used by Edward the third, at the battle of Crecy; though I do not mean to affert that it was then used for blowing up caftles; even the Spanish miners at Alicant might have been puzzled how to blow up this caftle of the lake; but if the proprietor, or manager, happens to have any acquaintance, or friends, amongst the French or Irish miners, perhaps he may fometimes condefcend to con o'er their useful leffons, and be able to handle their tools; or, for aught we know, may keep in his pay, for the purpose of burrowing under his lake, fome of thofe fub-aqueous engineers that are about to undermine the Thames itfelf, from Kent to the Effex fhore. The Antiquary informs us, that "the idea of feudal times naturally conveyed his imagination to a very remote period of our history, either previous to, or about, the time of the Conqueft:" but, Mr. Urban, even though feudal law might not be totally unknown amongst the AngloSaxons, before the Conqueft, yet I apprehend feudal inftitutions and times ftrictly feudal are generally understood to have commenced immediately at the Conqueft, when the milder, but more unfettled, Saxon laws were overwhelmed by the feudal fyftem of the Normans, in all its rigour.

A fyftem juftly to be abhorred by Britons of the eighteenth century; but which, by the bye,

though enforced by the fword, was alfo welcomed by the religion, the learning, the prejudice, and the manners, of feudal times; and, though it is evident that every thing fubject to the power of man is confequently fubject to abute, yet I verily believe their own form of government, as fwayed by fome of the Plantagenets, was better adapted to the fituation, habits, and opinions of our rough forefathers, during feveral centuries after the Conqueft, than the moft fpecious new-fangled fyftem which the wifeft of modern illuminated philofophifts could devife. And, farther, I am inclined to believe that this our favoured ifle was bleffed with its present happy conftitution quite as foon as the reftlefs inhabitants were prepared to enjoy, and I fear full as foon as they have been found to deserve it.

Again, your correfpondent will allow that the Barons' wars in the reigns of King John and Henry III. and the dreadful feuds of the two Rofes (though not "about," but long after the Conqueft) were deeply tinged with feudal blood; yet, I am doubtful if the fafcinating wildnefs of romantic chivalry can be traced much lower down the page of English hiftory. To me, therefore, there feems to be fome fhew of reafon for limiting our feudal times" to thofe middle ages between the decifive battles of Haftings and Bofworth; between the year 1066, when foreign feudal chiefs fubdued and fhared the land, and the year 1485, when the. fword had almoft extirpated the race of Anglo-Norman barons, and ́› when baronial feuds were nearly extinguished by the downfall of the latt Plantagenet, the bloody but valiant Richard; whofe def perate valour, at Bofworth, has often reminded me of Salluft's ani- ; mated defcription of the death of Catiline. Catilina vero, longè a fuis, inter hoftium cadavera repertus eft, paululum etiam fpirans, ferociamque animi quam habuer

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