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same design. Parts of the figure were sometimes introduced into these compositions; hence, apparently, may- be derived the demi-figures so common in brasses. Prom these curious and interesting slabs, also, crosses were introduced into brasses having open floriated heads and inclosing figures or parts of figures. Crosses were also engraved without any open floriated heads, as in the fine and interesting examples at Higham Ferrers (Chichele Brass, A.D. 1400), and at Beddington, Surrey, to Margaret Oliver, A.D. 1425.

The custom of placing effigies or semi-effigies within or upon crosses, and also above them, led to the adoption of bracket brasses, in which the figure was placed upon a bracket and generally covered with a canopy.

The effigies represented in brasses comprise an almost uninterrupted series of figures of ladies, men in armour of various ranks, and civilians, from the time of Edward II. and Edward III. till the Reformation. The number of these figures is very considerable, and they are widely scattered through different districts, affording abundant facilities for reference, comparison, and illustration. They exhibit and illustrate with admirable exactness the changes in armour and costume which were introduced and discarded during that long and eventful period. They exemplify the feelings, tastes, and usages of our ancestors in almost every department of social and political life in those days, from generation to generation. They furnish a graphic chapter in the rise, development, and decline of art. I need scarcely add that they supply to the historian, the politician, the artist, the herald, and the topographer of our own times, information at once valuable, interesting, and instructive.