Another novelty appears in the shape of the four cherubs poised at each corner of the tomb; they have no niches or other architectural background; they are detached pieces of sculpture, self-reliant; their purpose, which they no longer fulfil, was to hold banners, but these have long disappeared. [1] Britton's _Architectural Antiquities_, Vol. II. [2] _Archæological Journal_, 1894, "On the work of Florentine Sculptors in England," by Alfred Higgins, F.S.A. [Illustration: 3.--HENRY VII.'S TOMB. DETAIL.] [Illustration: 4.--TOMB OF JOHN HARRINGTON (D. 1524), EXTON CHURCH, RUTLAND.] [Illustration: 5.--TOMB OF THOMAS CAVE (D. 1558), STANFORD CHURCH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.] [Illustration: 6.--TOMB OF THOMAS CAVE (D. 1558). END PANEL.] [Illustration: 7.--TOMB OF SIR GEORGE VERNON (D. 1567), BAKEWELL CHURCH, DERBYSHIRE.] The change of idea is complete, but it is a change that never took hold of English craftsmen. They adopted the circular wreaths and the arabesqued pilasters, and so far as those features are concerned we see in this tomb the prototype of many that followed after. But the figures in action do not appear again. English tradition was too strong for the Italian influence to overcome it, and the principal way in which it was affected was that the panels became frequently divided by pilasters instead of by moulded members; and that the angels, which had hitherto been solitary and devout, took on the attitude of heraldic supporters, and assumed a more mundane appearance, or endeavoured to imitate the amorini of Italian craftsmen--an effort for which they were, as a rule, too elderly. [Illustration: PLATE II.HENRY VII.'S TOMB IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. SOUTH SIDE (1516).] [Illustration: 8.--TOMB OF SIR THOMAS ANDREW (D. 1563), CHARWELTON CHURCH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]