Chapter C: H. Cooper

Cambridge.

_Mother Damnable_ (Vol. v., p. 151.).--Your correspondent S. WISWOULD will find some slight information respecting this worthy in Daniel's _Merrie England in the Olden Time_ (Bentley, 1842), vol. i. p. 217.

It appears that Mr. Bindley had an unique engraving of her, and that a well-known alehouse at Holloway (of which a token is extant, with the date 1667) was sacred to her memory as Mother Redcap, as well as that in the Hampstead Road.

JOHN EVANS.

_Monuments of De la Beche Family_ (Vol. v., p. 341.).--The monuments referred to by ÆGROTUS are in the church of Aldworth: the effigies are certainly remarkable, especially one for its size and attitude. Another noticeable circumstance is that most of the figures are of older date than the tombs on which they lie, or than the church which contains them. The building consists of a nave and south aisle; and, at the time of its original construction, three canopied recessed tombs were introduced in each of the side walls to receive the effigies which must have existed in the older church. The style of the architecture belongs to the age of Edward III. There are nine figures altogether, some of them greatly mutilated. They are not entirely unknown to archæologists.

I may take this opportunity of calling attention to another very fine monumental effigy, of which I believe no moderately good representation has been published, at Tilton in Leicestershire. There are two figures in the church of as early dates as those at Aldworth, one an armed male, and the other a female. The former is in "edgering" mail, and is of good character; but the latter is of superior design, and very well executed, though unfortunately in a coarse material. The right arm is bent, and the hand brought up to the breast; the left hangs naturally by the side, and has the fore-arm and (bare) hand exposed from among the folds of the drapery. Slight traces of colour are discoverable.

R. C. H.

The village of Aldworth, in Berkshire, where the effigies of the De la Beche family are to be seen, is about five miles from the Goring Station, on the Great Western Railway, _viâ_ Streatley. Hewett's _Hundred of Compton_ furnishes a very interesting account of the ten monumental effigies which represent various members of the ancient family of De la Beche in that church, and will be read with no small pleasure.

FRANCIS POCOCK.

Stanford.

_Coke and Cowper_ (Vol. iv., pp. 24. 76. 93. 244. 300.).--However affected it may appear, these words have been more generally pronounced _Cook_ and _Cooper_.

J. H. L. (Vol. iv., p. 76.) adduces the instance of _Cowper_ being made to rhime to _Trooper_. And I have just stumbled upon a passage in _Cowley_ where _Coke_ is the answering word to _Took_.

"May he
Be by his father in his study _took_
At Shakspear's plays instead of my Lord _Coke_."

"Sylva; a Poetical Revenge," p. 44.,
_Works_, Part II., London, 1700, fol.

RT.

Warmington.

_Monumental Portraits_ (Vol. v., p. 349.).--Fully agreeing with my friend H. H. in his opinion of the brass of the Abbess of Elstow, considered as a portrait, I should yet be glad if your correspondents would send to "N. & Q." the names of any effigies which may appear to them exceptions to the rule of conventional portraiture, especially if of earlier date than the latter half of the sixteenth century. H. H. has mentioned one, Nicholas Canteys, 1431, at Margate: and I am inclined to add another in the well-executed little brass of Robert de Brentingham at East Horsley, Surrey; this is about the date of 1380. The artists of that time, in brasses as well as in painted glass, wood-carving, &c., may have sometimes desired to produce a portrait, but certainly they seldom succeeded: a religious severity of expression atoned for the deficiency. In English coins it is well known that there is no appearance of a portrait before the reign of Henry VII.

The particular _costume_, however, of the deceased was more attended to in monumental effigies; and it is this fact which renders the study of them so serviceable towards a knowledge of the manners and habits of our ancestors. Care was even taken not to omit any peculiarity which may have distinguished the deceased; of which the long beard of Sir Wm. Tendring, at Stoke, by Layland, is perhaps an instance, and many others might be quoted. If any decided portraits are known in _stone effigies_, it would I think be desirable to communicate such to the pages of "N. & Q."