was that they were regarded as idols." In a case of such good protestants as these, the suspicion never arose and thus the mobs which were incited to tear down the images of the ungodly and the idols in which men of Belial put their trust, did not materialize, and the Lord of the Manor was not going to tolerate people interfering with his well-appointed church. The other point was one of date controversies. In the grounds of Clare Priory is a tomb alleged to be that of Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward I. She died in 1307, and thus her tomb would be in the style of early fourteenthcentury work. A famous archæologist, however, has pronounced that the tomb is undoubtedly late fourteenth-century work. This would seem at first sight to demolish the claim that family tradition has always maintained, namely, that this tomb is hers! An ingenious apologia, however, for the traditional story has been put forward and it seems to me to be a very reasonable pleading. When we say that workmanship of a thing is early fourteenth century, what exactly do we mean? That such work is commonly found to belong to the early fourteenth century. But there must have been a time when any change or alteration in the traditional style was novel. Someone must have set the fashion before it was universally adopted. Now what is most likely that the work on the tomb of a king's daughter, would be executed by the most advanced craftsmen, the very men who would set the pace for the various guilds to copy. In that case work which was novel and advanced in the early fourteenth century might not be general till much later, and thus an isolated example of it would always be pronounced as much later than it really was, unless there was some very definite evidence of its date. I do not think, from a point of view of enjoyment, exact knowledge of the date of a work of art is necessary. I remember admiring an old roof very much, but an acquaintance of mine who was very learned in these matters found out that it was some eight years later in date than he had thought was the case. As it must have been put up many centuries ago, I did not feel that it mattered very much, but my friend was quite depressed about it for the rest of the day and did not seem able to find any beauty in it at all. HEDINGHAM CASTLE. |