“On the floor of the chancel are the famous ‘Cobham Brasses,’ the most perfect and most numerous assemblage now existing in the kingdom. The series consists of thirteen, recording the memory of the Cobhams and Brokes, ‘lords and barons of this manor of Cobham, with many of their kindred, who for many descents did flourish in honourable reputation.’ Of the thirteen, eight are in honour of the knights, and five are memorials of the dames. These brasses, one and all, deserve the most careful examination and notice. The earliest is to the memory of _John de Cobham_, the first Knight Banneret, and Constable of Rochester; he is dressed in a shirt of mail: round his waist is a rich girdle, sustaining a long sword. Eight lines of Norman French are inscribed round the verge of the slab. The others are to _Maude, Lady Cobham_ (1370), probably wife of Baron Cobham, who was Warden of the Cinque Ports in the time of Edward III., who is represented with a dog at her feet. Over her head are the words ‘Icy gist dame Maude de Cobham.’ _Maude, Lady Cobham_ (c. 1385) supposed to have been the wife of Thomas de Cobham. She has a flounce of fur at the bottom of her dress. There are the remains of a mutilated canopy over her, and a fragment of inscription says, ‘Icy gist dame Maude de Cobehm qe....’ _Margaret, Lady Cobham_ (1385), wife of John de Cobham, the founder of Cobham College. This is a remarkably beautiful canopied brass; the finial of the canopy bearing a figure of the Virgin and Child. Around the brass is the inscription, ‘Isy gist dame Margarete de Cobeham, iadiis fille a noble en le Comte de Deuenischire; feme le sire de Cobeham, foundour de ... morust le secounde in dimoys D’agust lan de grace, MCCCLXXXV., lalme de qy deux eut mercy. Amen.’ _Joan, Lady Cobham_ (c. 1320), who was daughter of John, Lord Beauchamp of Stoke-under-Hamden, and first wife of Sir John de Cobham. The inscription, in Longobardic capitals, is:— “‘Dame Jone de Kobeham gist isi Deus de sa alme eit merci Kike pur le Alme Priera Quaraunte jours de pardoun avera.’” _Reginald de Cobham_ (c. 1420), an ecclesiastic, under a triple canopy, the shaft and some other portions being lost. _Sir Thomas de Cobham_, a knight in mixed armour, 1367. [Illustration: _The College Porch._]