The period immediately after the conquest was not a time for people to think of such memorials for themselves, or friends. Few could then tell how long the lands they enjoyed would remain their own; and most indeed were put into the hands of new possessors, who, frequently, as we find in Domesday Book, held thirty or forty manors, or more, at a time. All _then_ above the degree of servants, were soldiers, the sword alone made the gentleman, and accordingly on a strict inquiry, we shall meet with few or no monuments of that age, except for the kings, royal family, or some few of the chief nobility and leaders, among which, those for the Veres, Earls of Oxford, at Earl’s Colne, in Essex, are some of the most ancient. It is probable that this state of things, so far as regards sepulchral monuments, continued through the troublesome reign of Stephen, and during the confusion which prevailed while the barons’ wars subsisted, and until the ninth year of king Henry the third, 1224. In that year Magna Charta being confirmed, and every man’s security better established, property became more dispersed, manors were in more divided hands, and the lords of them began to settle on their possessions in the country. In that age many parish churches were built, and it is not improbable that the care of a resting-place for their bodies, and monuments to preserve their memories, became more general and diffused. In country parish churches, the ancient monuments are usually found either in the chancel, or in small chapels, or side aisles, which have been built by the lords of manors, and patrons of the churches, (which for the most part went together,) and being designed for burying places for their families, were frequently endowed with chantries, in which priests officiated, and offered up prayers for the souls of their founder and his progenitors. The tracing out, therefore, of such founders, will frequently help us to the knowledge of an ancient tomb which is found placed near the altar of such chantries. If there are more than one, they are, probably, for succeeding lords, and where there have been found ancient monuments in the church, also, besides what are in such chapels or aisles, they may be supposed to have been erected in memory of lords, prior to the foundation of the buildings. CROSS-LEGGED MONUMENTS.