Monumental brass

Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pavement, and thus forming no obstruction in the space required for the services of the church, they speedily came into general use, and continued to be a favourite style of sepulchral memorial for three centuries.

Although the intrinsic value of the metal has unfortunately contributed to the wholesale spoliation of these interesting monuments, they are still found in remarkable profusion in England, and they were at one time equally common in France, Germany and the Low Countries.

In France, however, those that survived the troubles of the 16th century were totally swept away during the Reign of Terror, and almost the only evidence of their existence is now supplied by the collection of drawings bequeathed by Richard Gough to the Bodleian Library.

[3] The life-sized brass of Sir John d'Aubernon II (d. 1277) at St Mary's Church, Stoke d'Abernon in Surrey has the decorations of the shield filled in with a species of enamel.

Other examples of this occur, and the probability is that, in most cases, the lines of the engraving were filled with colouring matter, though brass would scarcely bear the heat requisite to fuse the ordinary enamels.

[1] Like three-dimensional effigies of the same period in stone and wood, several early 14th-century military brasses (including those of Setvans, Trumpington and d'Aubernon mentioned above) depict their subjects with crossed legs, but there is no substance to the long-established myth that this pose identifies the deceased as a crusader.

One of the best specimens of plate armour is that of Sir Robert Stantoun (1458) in Castle Donington church, Leicestershire, and one of the finest existing brasses of ecclesiastics is that of Thomas de la Mare, Abbot of St Albans Abbey[1] from 1349 to 1396.

[7] Thus a brass commemorative of Margaret Bulstrode (1540) at Hedgerley in Buckinghamshire, on being removed from its position, was discovered to have been previously the memorial of Thomas Totyngton, abbot of St Edmundsbury (1312).

The abbey was only surrendered to Henry VIII in 1539, so that before the year was out the work of spoliation had begun, and the abbot's brass had been removed and re-engraved to Margaret Bulstrode.

The inlay itself has been lost, but the ledger stone survives and shows the imprint of a coat of arms and a knight in armour, believed to be Virginia governor George Yeardley (d.

[9][10] Among many other examples, Victorian brasses can be seen at Truro Cathedral (Archbishop Benson), Oscott College, Birmingham (Bishop John Milner), St. Nicolas', Guildford (Rev.