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ART. XXXV.-St. Mary's Church, Egremont. By the Rev. Canon Knowles, M.A., St. Bees.

Read at Egremont, August 30th, 1872.

T. MARY'S Church, Egremont, is one of the most interesting buildings in Cumberland, in spite of the ill usage of the last century. It was orginally a church of two equal aisles, separated by fine pillars and arches, fragments of which compose the present chancel arch. The date of its erection cannot be later than 1220; its style is very early English, with a few Normanisms. One of the two west doors now leads into the modern vestry; the other has left traces in the west front. The side windows were simple, with jambmouldings. The eaves-course is in parts left to us. The east end, divided equally by the central arches, had two bays of beautiful windows, four of which remain; two of these I have very imperfectly drawn in the accompanying sketch. This fine church is threatened with ruin, or what is worse, with enlargement. Its shell retains fragments from which most of its details might be learnt. The central arches were probably round.

In the churchyard stands an old stone of uncertain age, and set in the top of it is a sepulchral stone of the thirteenth century, upside down, and mutilated.

ART XXXVI.-The Heraldry of Cumberland and Westmorland. By Richard S. Ferguson, M.A.

Read at Penrith, August 15th, 1873.

NOME months ago the Harleian Society furnished a most

valuable addition to the local history of Cumberland, by publishing, as one of their volumes for 1872, "The Visitation "of the County of Cumberland in the year 1615, taken by "Richard St. George, Norroy King of Arms." This Visitation was very ably edited for the Society by Mr. John Fetherston,

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Fetherston, F.S.A., who tell us it was "comprised in a thin "folio book written by Mr. Richard Mundy." This Visitation is not to be found either in the College of Arms, or in the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, but there is in Harleian MS. 1374, what Mr. Fetherston says, can scarcely be said "to be a copy, but is merely an ordinary of arms compiled "from the visitations of the four northern counties taken in "this year," i.e. 1615.

While this work was at press, there took place the dispersal of the fine old library collected by the Irtons of Irton Hall, when were scattered to the winds many valuable books and MSS., relating to Cumberland and Westmorland; among others an interleaved copy of the portion of Cox's Magna Britannia, which relates to Cumberland; this was purchased by Mrs. Dykes of Dovenby, who (with her accustomed readiness to help antiquarian research) entrusted it to me for examination. It proved to contain many genealogical and heraldic notes, written in the handwriting of John Warburton, Somerset herald in the first half of the last century, an eminent antiquarian and topographer, and an intimate friend of many of the Cumberland squires of his day. Among these notes was a synopsis of a Visitation of Cumberland, giving the arms and crests of fifty-eight local families. It is marked as taken from MS. C. 39, in the College of Arms, and generally concides with, though occasionally differing from, the information given by Messrs. Lysons in their history of Cumberland; by this it is easily identified as taken from Dugdale's Visitation of Cumberland, in 1664 and 1665.

But there also turned up at the Irton Hall sale, what proved to be another copy of St. George's Visitation of Cumberland in 1615. Like the copy before mentioned, as made by Mr. Richard Mundy, this copy is contained "in a thin folio "volume." It is in the same handwriting as the synopsis of Dugdale's Visitation, the handwriting of John Warburton. It is marked in another hand, "Visitation of Cumberland in 1577," a date which internal evidences shew to be clearly erroneous. It is almost verbatim the same as the copy used by Mr. Fetherston, but has a few trivial differences, and a few more coats of arms tricked, and has some notes by the Squire Irton, who founded the Irton Hall Library, and whose writ of "de. po." or "dedimus potestatem," as a magistrate is also copied into the book. This valuable MS. was, I am happy to say, retained in the County of Cumberland by the pluck of a gentleman to whom this Society is indebted for one or two

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very valuable papers, and on whose future services it greatly relies, viz., Mr. Jackson, of Fleatham House, St. Bees, to whom I am indebted for its loan.

These two visitations, those of St. George and Dugdale, were conducted with great strictness, and proof required of the pedigrees, and of the right to particular arms: thus Dugdale's entry as to Brougham of Scale is, "no arms entered, being "respited for want of proof." This appears in the synopsis I have mentioned; similar remarks refer to other families. Dugdale had a great idea of his office. After the death of Sir Patricius Curwen, his widow put up in the place where he was buried armorial bearings, which Dugdale considered erroneous: he wrote to her from Carlisle, ordering her to take them down, and threatening himself to come over and pull them down. What was the upshot I know not; my authority is a letter of Lady Curwen to secretary Williamson, complaining of Dugdale's conduct, and preserved in the Record Office among the Williamson correspondence.

Having these materials before me, I had intended to have written a review of Mr. Fetherston's very able edition, but it affords little for review, beyond a due acknowledgment of the editor's care and learning, and I find I have drifted, perhaps wittingly, into the science of heraldry generally, as illustrated by instances drawn from local sources.

Many of the older authorities on heraldry have framed the quaintest and most mystical theories as to the origin and import of the tinctures and charges which distinguish one coat of arms from another. The most far-fetched allegorical meanings and even religious applications are attributed to the various heraldic ordinances, and to the animate or inaminate objects used as charges. Thus, to give an illustration or two, the well-known ordinary the chevron is taken to represent the roof timbers of a house, and therefore its presence in a shield is said to denote "the achieving of some bussinesse of moment, "or the finishing of some chargeable and memorable worke."Guillim. The fess is said to represent the girdle of honour, or of chivalry, and similar significations are invented for all the honourable ordinaries. To the various animals that appear in heraldic combinations, it is easy to attribute, apparently, suitable qualities, such as courage, speed, and strength; but as an example, let us take the lobster, an example of local interest; listen to old Guillim on the lobster:-"The lobster "is subtill in acquiring his food, for hee watched the Escallop, 'Oyster, and other like fishes that are fenced by nature with a

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