kind of covering; but this may be accounted for by supposing it to have had an envelope or coffin of lead, of which it might have been divested by the ingenuity of Silvester Pierson, who despoiled this part of the church about the latter end of the 17th century. The monuments in Lane's chancel are worthy the attention of the artist and the antiquary. They consist of two principal ones, and a third on a smaller scale, but all for the same family. The first in order is an altar tomb, on which repose the statues of a warrior and a lady; the former in plate harness with an apron of chain mail. He has no covering for the head, which rests on a cushion; and round his neck is a well-starched ruff. The gauntlets are clasped together as in friendship, and placed at his feet on the right side, beneath the dagger's point; while on the left, between the sword and the legs of the statue is a lock of hair. The lady is habited in the drapery of the period, with a very small lap-dog reposing at her feet. The figures are in a good state of preservation. In front of the tomb are arranged seven female and three male children, characteristically dressed, besides two others bandaged like Egyptian mummies; to signify, I suppose, that they died before their parents. Two of the males are depicted in long robes, while the other is armed, and bears a shield with these six quarterings: 1. Party pes fess or and az. a cheveron gu. between 3 mullets counterchanged. 3. Two bars. 2. A lion rampant, LANE. BRABANT or PERCY. HARCOURT. EGERTON. HYDE. TRENTHAM. 6. Three griffins' heads erased. 1. Impaling quarterly A lion rampant debruised by a fess counter compone. BURLEY. 2. & 3. On a chevron between three escallops, a LYTTLETON. crescent. 4. Three piles in pile. a canton or. The tinctures of most of these coats have been defaced by time. The west end of the tomb is decorated with three shields, viz. 1.-Trentham. 2.Lane impaling Trentham. 3.-Lane. The following inscription in church text surrounds the tomb on a fillet. Here lieth ths bodies of Thomas Lane of Bentley, in the Countie of Stafford esquier and of Katharyn his wife, which Katharyn deceased in the year of our lord god 1582. On the wall at the foot of this monument is an escutcheon within a circle, containing the bearings of Lane, Percy, Harcourt, Egerton, Hyde, and Trentham; and the garter which circumscribes it bears in Roman capitals IN DV IS P——; and in church text: in god is my trust. The monument adjoining is accounted a masterpiece of the art of sculpture. It is mounted on a basement of four courses upon a mosaic platform; the lower front richly embellished with parts of body armour, matchlocks, pikes, pennons, swords, &c. On the dexter side is a representation of the oak-tree in which Charles II. was preserved at Boscobel; over it is a crown, and beneath is a trooper's horse at full speed. The engraving will show the design more perfectly. Above is an inscription between two Ionic columns: Mortales exuviæ Prævalidi Johannis Lane, Armigeri, Vir supra titulos, vel cujus meritis |