APPENDIX B.

The following letter appeared in the Standard of the 15th August, 1877, from which it was copied in the Shrewsbury Journal.

DEAR SIR,-In a paragraph that appeared in your paper of August 15th, giving a short account of the Royal Archæological Institute's Excursion to Goodrich Castle, I find several inaccuracies in connection with the first Earl of Shrewsbury, mentioned in Mr. Stephen Tucker's Paper. The first one is that the great warrior's remains were found at Whitchurch, in Shropshire, in 1864, whereas they were refound in 1874, at the time the church was undergoing some slight alterations or renovations. The next point I would like to call your attention to is-" At Chatillon (he was then 80 years old) he was unhorsed, and lay for some time on the ground, until, we are told, he was 'despatched' by a blow on the head from a battleaxe." When the bones were lying in the vestry of the church at Whitchurch, I had the opportunity of examining them, and on taking up the skull (before I knew that the valiant warrior had been killed by a battle-axe) I remarked that the fracture observable on the left parietal bone had been made with a battle-axe or a sharp weapon having a segmented edge, judging from the shape of the fissure and the marked incision in the bone of the skull at either end of the perforation. I did not measure its length, but should say that it was about 3 inches long, and the piece of bone that had been forced into the brain by the stroke was about two inches in length. The blow had evidently been struck as he was standing unhorsed engaged in a hand to hand fight with an enemy in front, by an enemy coming somewhat behind him and striking him with a battleaxe on the left side of his head, which felled him to the ground, and he, as I imagine, fell on his right shoulder and forehead or face, and the blood that flowed from the wound over the left side of the head and face, which was uppermost, disguised him to such an extent as to make his body difficult of recognition, especially if he fell in a muddy or dusty spot. On viewing the skull (a cast of which was taken for the Archæological Society if I am not mistaken), the clean cut of the gaping fissure and its perpendicular line with the body when in an erect position, shows plainly that it was not received at a time when he was lying unhorsed on the ground, and at the same time, from its position on the skull, there can be no doubt but that he was taken at a disadvantage, and the foeman that dealt it was not facing him at the time fighting hand to hand. Again,

"His body was long sought for, and was at last recognised by his herald, by the absence of the hinder teeth, the features having been so injured as to be undistinguishable. The skull found at Whitchurch wants the hinder teeth, and has the hollow caused by the fatal blow." Now the skull at Whitchurch is wrapped round with a kind of narrow linen cloth, about the width now used in bandaging (and as I imagine in those days taken to the field of battle with them to be used for bandaging up of wounds). After the burial of the body at Rouen, some few years must have elapsed before the skull and bones were wrapped in the cerecloth that now covers them, for every trace of flesh or integument is entirely gone, and it is almost an impossibility to say what teeth he had at the time of his death; from what I could see and judge by the depressions, risings, or markings on the cerecloth covering the bones of the jaw, he had only one tooth remaining, and that was a dens sapientiæ or wisdom tooth on the left side of the lower jaw, and I also thought that five or six lower front teeth had fallen out from want of attachment before the bones were covered with the cloth covering that is now on them. It was my intention to have endeavoured to have obtained permission to have taken a cast of the jaw bone, and without the present covering, so as to have been able to have given a decided opinion as to the age, &c., &c., of the person to whom they had formerly belonged; from what I could see of them I concluded the individual was upwards of 80 years of age, but on my next visit to the town I learnt that the valiant old Earl was being buried for the third time, and that the late noble Earl was attending his funeral. Again, " Among the bones was found the skeleton of a mouse, who had made her nest in the skull of the great Talbot, where the remains of her young were still remaining. It is an ill wind that blows no one any good. The mouse had entered through the breach made by the battleaxe, but having been unable to escape again from the coffin, had suffered a fate more severe than that which is the proverbial lot of the ordinary church mouse." Now all that reads very prettily, but it will not do; the breach in the skull might admit a silver crown-piece, but never a mouse in an interesting condition, who must have gone into the skull to have been confined, for even her progeny never could have squeezed through the fissure; she must have entered through the foramen magnum at the base of the skull before it was covered over with cerecloth, and most likely they were in a mummified condition when that was done, otherwise there is no accounting for the circumstance.

Apologising for trespassing so much on your valuable time, I would not have done so had I not considered it my duty if possible to prevent such errors of traditional or hearsay evidence being taken as matter of fact, as every day I am the more convinced of its unreliability.

Yours faithfully,

FREDERICK DALBY,

Doctor of Dental Surgery.

47, Darlington-street, Wolverhampton,

August 16th, 1877.

To the Editor of the Shrewsbury Journal.

SIR, The interesting letter quoted in your columns last week from the Standard invites a few remarks. The purport of that letter was to correct supposed inaccuracies in a lecture on the discovery of Talbot's bones at Whitchurch, delivered by Mr. Stephen Tucker (Rouge Croix) before the Archæological Institute at Hereford. The first inaccuracy is an accidental misprint of 1864 for 1874. Setting this aside, the writer begins by objecting to the word found as applied to the discovery of the warrior's bones. He says it should have been refound. No such word exists; but its equivalent in meaning seems to me needless. Talbot's bones were found for the first time in the present church on the 9th of March, 1874. Dr. Dalby's next remarks have reference to the circumstances of Talbot's death. From the vertical character of the cut on the skull, he argues that the body must have been erect when the fatal blow was given. I should have accepted Dr. Dalby's reasoning on this point without hesitation if history had been silent on the subject, but we are confronted by the authority of Hollinshed, who, after having described the siege of the Tower at Chastillon and Talbot's victorious pursuit of the French into their own fortified camp, thus records his death-" Though at firste with manfull courage and sore fighting the Earle wanne the entrie of their camp, yet at length they compassed him about, and shooting him through the thigh with an handgunne, slew his horse, and finally killed him, lying on the ground, whom they never durst look in the face, while he stoode on his feete."-Hollinshed, black letter copy, vol. ii., p. 1285.

The next point in Mr. Tucker's letter, criticised by Dr. Dalby, is that Talbot's body was recognized after the battle "by the absence of the hinder teeth." When the skull was examined there were three incisors and one molar tooth in the lower jaw. There were apparently no teeth in the upper jaw. Certain it

is that the body lay for some time on the field of battle until discovered by the Earl's herald, "who broke out into compassionate and dutiful expressions, disrobed himself of his coat of arms, and flung it over his master's body."

We now come to the incident of the mouse's nest in the skull. Mr. Tucker asserts that the entrance to the nest was "through the breach made by the battle-axe." Dr. Dalby says that this "reads very prettily, but that it will not do." In proof of this he states that the gash in the skull was only wide enough to admit a crown piece, and that therefore the mouse must have entered by the foramen magnum. Now the actual dimensions of the gash are 2 inches in length, and fully § of an inch wide in the centre part. Moreover the sides of the orifice bore evidence of ingress and egress, having that peculiar brown semi-polished look which we know so well in the appearance of a mouse-hole. The entrance to the nest was directly beneath the hole, and the cerecloth for some distance round it had been gnawed away by the mice. If the mouse had made her entrance and exit by the foramen magnum she must have done so before the bones were brought from Rouen, for that orifice was closely bound up by the cerecloth. That a French mouse should have increased her progeny in the cavity of Talbot's skull would indeed have been an indignity; but the fact that fragments of the torn leaves of an English prayer book formed part of the substance of the nest, proves to demonstration that the tenant of the skull was none other than an English church mouse. Dr. Dalby is right in condemning the substitution of traditional or hearsay evidence for matter of fact. I have endeavoured to supply him with some facts which reduce his list of inaccuracies to a minimum, and substantiate in every important particular the correctness of the statements made by Rouge Croix.

I am, &c.,

W. H. EGERTON.

LUDLOW

CORPORATION INSIGNIA.

BY LLEWELYN JONES.

SOME few months ago there appeared in the pages of the Antiquary a description of the Ludlow Corporation Insignia, and perhaps it may not be wholly uninteresting to trace their origin.

The Insignia, at present and for many years past, handed down from the High and Low Bailiffs to their successors, and then from Mayor to Mayor, consist of One great Mace, Two smaller Maces, Four Silver Tankards, Two Silver Salvers and Two Silver Tobacco Boxes.

The first record that we possess of any plate is contained in an entry of the 9th day of November, 1594, in a book called "A newe Booke for the entringe of all such orders and decrees, as are agreed and concluded uppon by the Bailieffs xije and xxv Aldermen and Comen counsellors of this Towne of Ludlowe;" where we read:

PLATE GEAVEN TO THE CORPORACON.

The Townes Plate.

(Imp'mis, one standing Cuppe wth a Cover
gilt, geaven by Mr. John Robt's, then
Maior of Bristoll.

Item, one Sylver Bowle, gilt, geven by
Mr. Richard Swanson, in his lief-tyme,
one of the Councell of this towne.
Item, one standing Cupp, pcell gilt, geaven
by Mr. Lawrence Beck, an ald'man of
this towne.

Item, three Tunnes of Sylver wth a Cover
weighing xxxiiij' ounes and iije quarters.

And this plate, presented to the Corporation in 1594, and from time to time melted down and converted into more modern plate, forms a component part of the present Salvers and Tankards.

VOL. VIII.

CC