Highways and Byways in LincolnshireRawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
History
Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire
Rawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
Lincolnshire (England) -- Description and travel
Mrs. Glover went in black and yellow as a Spanish lady.
Then we have Henry the Eighth, a shepherdess, “a Witch with blue gown,
red petticoat and high crowned hat,” a friar in a mask, a Sardinian
knight, a Puritan, a sailor, “Lord Vere Bertie a very good Falstaff,” and
many Spaniards, among them “Dr. Willis: a Spaniard with a prodigious good
mask.”
THE NORTON DISNEY BRASS
[Sidenote: NORTON DISNEY]
_Norton Disney_ (= de Isigny, a place near Bayeux) was the home of a
family who lived here from the thirteenth century to nearly the end of
the seventeenth.
[Sidenote: THE BRASS]
The castle was in the field near the church, just across the road to the
west, but has quite disappeared, as has also the seventeenth century
manor-house. The church, which is well worth a visit, belonged to the
Gilbertines of Sempringham (_see_ Chap. IV.). The manor is now the
property of Lord St. Vincent, a title bestowed on Admiral Sir John Jervis
when he so handsomely defeated the Spaniards near the cape of that name
on the coast of Portugal in 1797. On opening the door you find that you
have to descend three steps into the church. Here the arcade consists
of two Norman arches, and one next the chancel smaller and of later
date. There are old carved benches without poppy-heads, and a very plain
old oak screen with rood stairs on the south side. The east window is
filled with stained glass in memory of the Lord St. Vincent who fell at
Tel-el-Kebir. The aisle has an old roof with carved bosses, and there is
a very deeply carved font. Outside, the look of the church is spoilt by
some very inharmonious additions, among these is the north chapel to the
chancel, inside which, on a rough brick floor, are the monuments which
give the church its interest; these are six in number, three to ladies.
One of them is a recumbent effigy in coif and wimple of “Joan d’Iseney,”
1300. One a curious sepulchral slab with the half-effigy of a lady at one
end and her feet showing at the other, with Norman French inscription
to “Joan Disney.” Another is the recumbent effigy of Hantascia Disney,
a name of frequent use in the family. Close to this on the ground is a
slab with the matrix of a fine brass of a knight under a canopy, while
another knight is on an altar tomb in the chancel. These are all of the
fourteenth century. But the most important is a brass of the sixteenth
century. This is a thick brass plate three feet by two, now set in an
oak frame and hinged so that one may see the reverse side on which is
engraved a long inscription in Dutch recording the foundation of a
chantry in Holland in 1518 by Adrian Ardenses and the Lady Josephine
Van de Steine. The face of this brass is divided horizontally into five
compartments, at the top is a pediment with a shield bearing the Disney
arms impaling those of Joiner in the centre, and on either side are
crests of the Disney and Hussey family—a lion passant regardant and a
stag couchant under a tree.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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