of the like number of lights, but of Early Perpendicular style. Above the upper set of sculptures are inscriptions in Latin in old characters, that extend round the bottom of the bowl. They have been deeply cut; but so few of the letters are now legible that nothing can be learnt from them, though probably they had reference to the subjects rudely sculptured in raised figures on each of the compartments or faces of the head. On the first of these faces is a representation of the tree of life. The second, upon a triangular shield, displays the emblems of the crucifixion. The third face represents the word proceeding out of the mouth of the Almighty to all parts of the world. The fourth symbolizes the Trinity. The fifth is difficult to decypher, but some appearances like vine leaves may be traced. The sixth, within a triangular shield, has Aaron's rod, and in the corners are smaller shields of the same shape, that on the dexter base of the larger shield being charged with the armorial bearings of the Multons, lords of Egremont and Cockermouth; but the one next the sinister base is not to be deciphered with precision. The seventh face represents the tree of knowledge of good and evil, with the tempter of mankind in the form of a dragon passing through the trunk, the meaning of which rudely executed symbols are by the intelligent sexton of the church quaintly construed to be, "the effects of a good sermon cut through, and rendered of no avail, by the Devil." On the eighth face, within an escutcheon of triangular form, are the royal arms of England as borne by Edward III.; and in the corners are two smaller shields, that next the dexter base of the royal achievement being charged with the armorial coat of Gilbert Umfreville, Earl of Angus; while the other, next the sinister base, shows the arms of the Lucys, successors to the Multons in the lordships above named. From these various architectural and heraldic devices it has been inferred that the font is as old as the reign of the chivalric sovereign above named, and that it was given to the church by the Earl of Angus and his wife Maud, the lineal descendant of Alice de Romeli, and sister and sole heiress of Antony Lucy,

feudal lord of the barony of Egremont
and seignory of Cockermouth.
(To be continued.)

MR. URBAN,

THE political prosecution of Sir William Bagot at the close of the reign of King Richard the Second, mentioned by your correspondent Mr. READER in p. 25, is among the occurrences of that period alluded to in the very curious Alliterative Poem on the Deposition of Richard II. which was one of the earliest productions of the Camden Society. I have often at intervals taken up that book, and have always conned it with considerable interest and amusement. It is not, as you are aware, a book of ready perusal; for the language requires some little study to be understood; but the necessary application is rewarded by the humour of the satirist, and the insight he gives into the manners and sentiments of the age.

Allow me to extract the passage to which I refer, and also allow me to attempt to supply a modern version of the same. Without assuming the credit of such perfect acquaintance with the medieval forms of our language, as alone would be sufficient to interpret every word of the poet with satisfaction and confidence, (and to which I do not pretend,) I may be able to develope some portion of his meaning in the present passage, which it is evident that Mr. Wright, the editor, did not allow himself time enough to apprehend.*

The poet has been describing the oppressions endured by the people, under the figure of "the rasskayle," or common herd of deer; when he turns off to another metaphor derived from the field sports of the age, and introduces Henry of Bolingbroke as an eagle, protecting his own birds, but pursuing, as in falconry, the kites which preyed upon the poor. The names of the persons represented as kites are concealed under allusions to busshes, the grene, the schroff and scroup, and the bagg, meaning Sir John Bussey, Sir Henry Green, the Lord Treasurer

* Mr. Wright gave no modern version; but the sense in which he read the poem is to be gathered from his orthography, his punctuation, his glossary, and his notes.

Scrope, and Sir William Bagot. The first three of these ministers all lost their lives on the revolution, and Sir

William Bagot alone escaped after
some period of imprisonment.
The passage is as follows:-

Thus be the rotus 30ure raskall endurid,
Such were the routs your rascal endured
Tyll the blessid bredd brodid his wingis,

Till the blessed bird spread his wings,
To covere hem ffrom colde, as his kynde wolde.

To shield them from cold, as his nature prompted him,
Rith as the hous hennes uppon londe hacchen,

Just as the domestic hens sit upon the earth

5. And cherichen her chekonys ffro chele of the wynter,
And cherish their chickens from the chill of winter,
Ryth so the hende Egle, the eyere of hem all,

Right so the gentle Eagle, the parent of them all,
Hasteth him in hervest to hovyn his bryddis,

Hasteth in harvest to shelter his birds,

And besieth him besely to breden hem ffeedrin,

And busieth himself busily to breed their feathers,

Tyll her ffre ffedris be ffulliche y-pynned,

Till their free feathers be fully grown,

10. That they have wynge at her wyll to wonne uppon hille,

So that they have wing to range upon the hills at their will,

For venym on the valeye hadde ffoule with hem ffare,

For the worms in the valley had ill agreed with them,
Tyll trouthe the triacle telde somme her [hir?] sothes.
Till Truth the remedy told some her truths.

Thus baterid this bred on busshes abouzte,

Thus battered this bird on BUSHES about,

And gaderid gomes on grene ther as they walkyd,

And gathered folks on the GREEN as they walked there,
15. That all the schroff and schroup sondrid ffrom other,

That all the scURF and SCROPE separated from the rest,
He mellid so the matall with the hand molde,

He mixed so the metal with the hand-mould,

That lost lemes the levest that they had.

That they lost limbs the dearest that they had.

Thus ffoulyd this ffaukyn on ffyldis abouzte,
Thus fowled this falcon on fields about,

And cauzte of the kuyttis a cartfull at ones,
And caught of the kites a cartful at once,

20. That rentis and robis with rabeyn evere lauzte.

That had ever seized with rapine (both) rents and robes.

Line 1. rotus Mr. Wright in his Glossary explains "roots," a reading too hastily adopted, without considering the context.

Line 6. the eyere. Mr. Wright with a query suggests "overseer?" deriving the word from eye. Its true meaning, however, may be gathered from its analogy with eyrie, the nest in which eyren or eggs were laid: literally therefore it will mean the nest-bird. The poet repeats the same phrase in p. 17, which also illustrates its meaning:

But the nedy nestlingis, whan they the note herde
Of the [b]ende Egle, the heyer of hem all.

Line 7. hovyn. This word is also mis-explained by Mr. Wright, as "hovered.' In the next page the Eagle is represented as having "hoved above," which would be correctly understood "hovered" (see Prompt. Parv. p. 252); but the present sense is somewhat more primitive. The A.-Sax. hufa means a covering for the head; to hove will therefore originally mean to cover; hence the word hovel, a shed. Again in p. 16, a bird is introduced, which sits and "with hir softe plumes hoveth the eyren." Line 17. lemes. In explanation of this word Mr. Wright suggests" brightness?' a suggestion which could not be said to reflect much light upon it.

Line 20. rentis. Of this line Mr. Wright seems to have had a very dim understanding, for he explains rentis as a verb, " takes," and leaves rabeyn without expla

3it was not the ffawcon ffull ffed at his likynge,
Yet was not the Falcon fed quite to his liking,
For it cam him not of kynde kytes to love.

For it was not his nature to be fond of kites.
Than bated he boldeliche, as a brid wolde,

Then beat (?) he boldly, as a bird will,

To plewme on his pray the poll ffro the nekk;

To pluck the feathers from the head and neck of his prey;
25. But the blernyed boynard that his bagg stall,

But the blear-eyed boynard that stole his BAG,
Where purraile is pulter was pynnyd ffull ofte,

Where the poor's poultry was often plucked,
Made the ffawcon to ffloter and fflusshe ffor anger,

Made the Falcon to flutter and flush with anger
That the boy hadd be bounde that the bagge kepte.

That the boy should have been bound that kept the BAG.
But sone ther after in a schorte tyme,

But soon after that, in a short time,

30. As ffortune ffolwith ech ffode till his ende,

As Fortune followeth each child to his end,

This lorell that hadde this loby awey

This blackguard that had this simpleton away,

Overe ffrithe and fforde, ffor his ffals dedis,

Over water and ford, chanced, in recompence of his false deeds,

Lyghte on the lordschepe that to the brid longid,

To light on the lordship that belonged to the bird,

And was ffelliche y-lauzte and luggid ffull ylle,

And was cruelly caught and lugged full ill,

35. And brouzte to the brydd, and his blames rehersid

And brought to the bird, and his faults rehearsed

Prevyly at the parlement amonge all the peple.

Circumstantially at the parliament among all the people.

Thus hawkyd this Egle, and hoved above,

Thus hawked this Eagle, and hovered above,

That, as God wolde that governeth all thingis,

Until, as pleased God who governeth all things,

Ther nas kyte ne krowe that kareyne hantid,

There was no kite nor crow that haunted carrion

nation. The latter has evidently the meaning above given to it: to rive was to spoil, and we have the adjective ravenous still. At the commencement of Turbervile's Book of Falconry will be found his classification of "birds of prey and ravine." The terms rentis and robis may be understood as the representatives of landed and personal property, like house and land in the old lines,

When house and land are gone and spent

Then learning is most excellent.

Line 25. boynard. This word is previously used by the poet as a term of reproach in p. 8, line 5. The construction of this and the three following lines is obscure. The word bagg alludes, as already noticed, to Sir William Bagot, but whether the boynard personifies him, or some other person, seems doubtful.

Line 26. pynnyd. Mr. Wright interprets doubtfully "tormented, pained?". But as pulter unquestionably means poultry, the meaning follows that pynnyd means plucked. It signifies deprived of feathers here, as y-pynned, before, meant furnished with feathers. The allusion is to the oppressive purveyance for the royal household, whereby the poor man was cruelly deprived of his provisions, and his farm-yard left bare. The very same idea, expressed in other words, had occurred before in p. 9.

They plucked the plomayle ffrom the pore skynnes.

Plomayle is from the Latin pluma, as pynned from penna.

Line 28. the boy. This may mean king Richard, who, though no longer a boy in years, was so in defective capacity.

Line 31. This lorell,-Sir William Bagot? this loby-the king?

40. That he ne with his lynage ne lonyd full sone.

That he did not very soon catch with his netting,
For wher so they fferde, be ffryth or be wones,

For wherever they went, abroad or at home,
Was non of hem all that him hide my3th,

There was none of them all that could hide himself,
But cam with him a re-clayme ffro costis abouzte,

But came to him at the reclaim from all sides,
And ffell with her ffetheris fflat upon the erthe,

And fell with their feathers flat on the earth 45. As madde of her mynde, and mercy be-souzte,

As if mad in their mind, and besought mercy,
They my3te not aschonne the sorowe they had served.
They could not escape the trouble they had deserved.
So lymed leves were leyde allabouzte,

So limed leaves were laid all about,

And panteris prevyliche pight uppon the grounde,
And traps secretly pitched upon the ground,
With grennes of good heere that God him self made,

With greyhounds of good ear that God himself made,
50. That where so they walkid they waltrid dounwardis,

That wherever they went they weltered downwards,
And evere hoved the Egle on hie on the skyes,

And all along the Eagle hovered on high in the sky
And kenned clerliche, as his kynde axith,

And marked clearly, as his nature prompts him,

Alle the prevy poyntis that the pies wrou3th.

All the secret artifices that the pyes attempted.

Line 40. lonyd. Mr. Wright printed this word lovyd. It seems to be the same which occurs again in p. 25.

Thus is the lawe lonyd, thoru myghty lordis willys.

Line 41. wones. Mr. Wright printed this woves, but half corrected the error in his glossary by this explanation, "waves? or qu. wones?"

Line 43. re-clayme. This is a technical term in falconry applied to the calling back of the hawk from his prey.

Ibid. costis, printed by Mr. Wright" costi," probably a mere typographical error. Line 46. aschonne. The orthography of this word, though so odd-looking, may be modernized either into eschew or our still familiar shun.

Line 49. grennes of good heere. Mr. Wright states that the later hand in the MS. explains the word grennes by greyhoundes. If this be correct, heere will scarely mean "hair," as might be supposed from the orthography, but it may be a mistake for eere,

i. e. ear.

The event to which the satirist alludes, of Sir William Bagot being brought to the parliament and impeached before that assembly, is on record on the parliament rolls, though not as an original proceeding, at the time of its occurrence, but in a recited form when his pardon was awarded in the 2nd Hen. IV.

At the time when the regency was first apprised of the landing of the Duke of Lancaster, it appears that they assembled some forces to withstand him with which they marched from the metropolis as far as St. Alban's. From thence, on taking alarm at Bolingbroke's success, the Earl of Worcester, Sir Henry Green, and Sir John Bussey fled to Bristol, from whence

they hoped to be able to communicate with king Richard in Ireland. Having shut themselves up in Bristol castle, it was assaulted and taken, and all three were summarily beheaded by their infuriated assailants.

It will be found stated by various writers, that Sir William Bagot escaped on this occasion, and fled to Ireland:* but it is particularly mentioned by Walsingham that he did not accompany his fellows to Bristol, but wentprobably direct from the camp at St. Alban's-to Chester, and thence made his escape to Ireland. The Rev. Mr.

* Dugdale in his Warwickshire, &c. and not corrected by Lord Bagot in his Memorials of the Bagot Family, 4to. 1824,