1829.] Mr. URBAN, Miscellaneous Antiquities, Seals, &c. HEREWITH I send you drawings It consists of a handle like that of a knife with three blades affixed to it, and surmounted by a broad swivel loop, as seen in the larger drawing; one of which blades appears to be a picker for the teeth; another for the nails, and the third for the ear. The handle which branches out at the bottom into a broad ring, as represented in the same drawing, is ornamented on each side with the bust of a female in bold relief resting upon a pedestal, the foot of which has been connected with the ring before mentioned by a scroll, as seen in the drawing, but of which one only now remains. The loop before alluded to on the top of the handle, and by which I presume it must have been worn suspended from the person of the owner, appears likewise to have been decorated with some ornament, most likely a cross or bead, as there is a small cavity upon the top of the loop, with some slight remains of solder round it, which evidently shows that something has been originally attached to it. The back of the handle, as seen in the lesser drawing, is engraved with what appears to be a coat of arms, viz. Bendy of six Azure and Ermine. This coat is attributed by Edmondson to the families of Tonkes and Vachell. This relic is of silver, about three inches and a half long, and, with the exceptions before stated, is in very fair preservation. A CONSTANT Reader. 401 found in the ruins of Peak Castle in the county of Derby. Upwards of thirty have been found there, but these are the only duplicates as to device amongst them. That with the saltire weighs 20 grains, and that with as it were two impaled coats, weighs seventeen. They are submitted to your readers for explanation. None had been discovered in Dr. Pegge's or Major Rooke's time. Mr. URBAN, .B. Nov. 15. S Mr. Duke of Blakehurst near A Arundel in Sussex, was walking over some ploughed ground on his vered in the neighbourhood of Cork; The Seal (fig. 7) was lately discoand is communicated by Mr. Lindsay of that city. The inscription is merely and flag is perhaps a fanciful device. PRIVE SU-a private seal; the bird The Seal (fig. 8) was recently found on the sea shore at Seathorne near Patrington in Yorkshire. The connection between the squirrel and the quires explanation. Perhaps the z is obscure inscription GRECZCECEL rethe copulative conjunction. Of the Pulpit (fig. 9) we much regret having lost the description; but trust it will meet the eye of the Correspondent who furnished the drawing, with the original, who may furnish us or of some other person acquainted as well with an account of the place where it exists, as also of the armorial shields with which it is adorned. MEMOIRS OF THE ROYAL NAVY. (Continued from p. 207.) B in Y the obliging communication of *These figures were formerly called terms; and, with the Ionic capital above its head, this places the date of the instrument in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.EDIT. GENT. MAG. November, 1829. the Tower of London,† I am enabled + Samuel Lysons, esq. 402 Memoirs of the Royal Navy. [Νον. in the same cedule, to take yerely of owr grante, while that us lust, at owr Eschequer of Westm' atte the termes of Michelmasse and Ester by even porcions. Wherfore we wol and charge you that unto eche of the said maistres ye do make under our grete seel, beyng in youre warde, our l'res patentes sev'ales en due forme after th' effect and pourport of owr said grante.-Yeven under our signet atte our Castel of Tougues the xij day of Aoust.* "Au Rev❜end pere en Dieu l'Eveque de Duresme n're Chancellier d'Angleterre." Wm. Robinson 100 0 3 John Kyngeston. 100 Ric. Walsh 100 Thos. Martyn 100 3 Wm. Cheke. 100 0 8 Some of the ships in Henry's time are said to have had a few guns, but seldom more than two, and those not mounted in a way so as to be altered occasionally in their direction. Henry VI. was not a year old when he mounted the throne, on the demise of his father Henry V. His uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, was appointed Protector, in the absence of the Duke of Bedford, his elder brother, who was Regent of France. Notwithstanding the opposition made by some of the States of France to Henry's title to the Crown of that kingdom, on the decease of Charles VI. who survived Henry V. but a few months, we read of no extraordinary armament until the year 1436, when the Duke of Burgundy having besieged Calais by land, and attempted to block up the mouth of the harbour, the Duke of Gloucester with a great army and a fleet of 500 sail, went to its relief, and soon raised the siege. A naval armament was fitted out in 1439, to assist in the blockade of Harfleur, which surrendered in four months. In 1442 the Commons in Parliament stated the necessity of having an armed force upon the sea, and pointed out the number of ships and men that it The year is omitted. It probably was at the conclusion of the war in 1420. 1829.] Memoirs of the Royal Navy. would be proper to employ for that purpose, viz. 8 ships with forestages, carrying 150 men each; and that there should be attendant upon each ship a barge carrying 80 men, and a balynger carrying 40 men, and that 4 spynes or pinnaces carrying 25 men each would be necessary; the whole number of inen being 2260, and the estimated expences of victualling this fleet for eight months, and the mariners' wages for that time, amounted to 6090l. 13s. 4d. The Commons likewise pointed out where these ships might be obtained, viz. at Bristowe, the Nicholas of the Towre, aud Katherine of Burtons. At Dartmouth, the Spanish ship that was the Lord Pun's, and Sir Philip Courteney's great ship. In the port of London, two great ships, one called Trinity, and the other Thomas. At Hull, a great ship called Taverners, the name Grace Dieu. At Newcastle, a great ship called the George. They also state where the balyngers, barges, and spynes or pinnaces, might be procured. This authentic proceeding, entered upon the records of Parliament, contains many curious facts with respect to the English Navy at that time; which show that no Royal Navy exist ed at that particular juncture; but, when a fleet was wanted for the public service, ships were hired of the merchants, or wherever they could be the most easily procured. From the foregoing circumstances, it appears that the Royal Navy had been totally neglected and gone to ruin, after the decease of Henry V. A truce was concluded between England and France in 1444, after an almost uninterrupted war of 29 years. The war broke out again in 1449, in which war the arms of England were very unsuccessful; for, before the end of the year 1453, only Calais and Guisnes remained in the possession of the English, of all the towns and provinces of France which they had conquered, or possessed by hereditary right. The civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster, which commenced in 1452, occasioned a division of the Naval force of the kingdom between the different parties; but no naval action of any consequence occurred during this reign. 1461. The King was deposed in March 1461, and the Duke of York 403 was placed on the throne by the title of Edward IV. Edward began his reign with augmenting his feet, which the Earl of Warwick brought home to him. The civil wars which broke out in the last reign, continued throughout the whole of this. 1475. His Majesty embarked at Sandwich in June or July 1475, attended by one of the finest armies that had ever passed from Britain to the Continent. A truce was concluded in August, and the King returned to England in the following month. Notwithstanding the hostile turn of the 15th century, commerce on the whole flourished, and the merchant vessels of England increased. Of this, some idea may be formed from the seizure which Edward IV. made, at one time, of 2470 tons of shipping, from one trader alone, namely, William Canning, of Bristol *. In 1481, the King, having occasion to send a naval force against the King of Scotland, issued his mandate for arresting seamen for manning six ships of his own, and five belonging to other persons. The King's own ships were called the Grace Dieu, Mary, Antony, Great Portingale, Spanyard, and Mary Ashe, which were probably the whole, or nearly the whole, of the King's ships. 1483. The King had assembled a very numerous fleet, to enable him to carry on a war with France; but was suddenly taken ill, and died on the 9th April, 1483. Nothing particular occurred with respect to naval affairs in the short reigns of Edward V. and Richard III. Edward was only in his thirteenth year at the demise of his father, and Richard usurped the throne the same year. Richard was killed in the battle of Bosworth, on the 22d August, 1485, when the crown was placed on the head of the Earl of Richmond, by the title of Henry VII. Richard is supposed to have lost his crown and his life through his neglect of the Navy, as he otherwise might have prevented his rival from landing in England a fortnight before the last fatal battle, which happily put an end to the civil wars which had raged for more than *He was highly indulged with privileges by Henry VI. because he had built a ship as large as a great Carrack. |