Notes on Sculthorpe Church. COMMUNICATED BY MRS. HERBERT JONES. In a paper read not very long since at one of the meetings of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, the remark occurs that we Archeologists are too apt to isolate our objects of interest, and not sufficiently to view them in their chronological and historical surroundings;" and it appears indeed to be true that the province of the Archeologist is, not only to cherish the abounding relies and monuments of the past,-to rescue, to preserve, and to elucidate,-but also to catch the fading impression of human energy still lingering about these, to clothe them anew with the life which is associated with them, and to gather around the historical events of which they afford evidence. In this view, places and buildings of lesser antiquarian importance, and hitherto overlooked, may arrest attention, and yield objects worthy of notice and memorial. Such an object of interest seems to have presented itself in the church at Sculthorpe, in West Norfolk, where there existed, some years ago, a number of coats of arms, which time and other changes have now swept away, but which were valuable as attesting, in the picturesque language of heraldry, to the connexion, traditionally known, of this church with Sir Robert Knollys,-telling, in quaint shape and lively colour, [VOL. VII.] Z the tale of his companions and adventures in the varied campaigns of the fourteenth century. During the restoration of this church in 1861, whilst care was taken to preserve, without impairing, any relics of bygone skill or story, it was found that these shields, which would have been well worth cherishing, put up by Sir Robert Knollys, had unfortunately disappeared. They were probably of wood, and were fixed "in the roofe of the church." They had no doubt gradually decayed, and were finally destroyed when the old roof, adorned with carved figures of angels, was removed in 1815. They are, however, minutely described by two eye-witnesses, and were still to be seen in the church little more than a hundred years ago, in the time of Blomefield. By a still earlier observer they are also recorded in detail,-Henry Chitting, the writer of the Visitation of Norfolk Churches, from 1600 to 1620.1 Blomefield mentions sixteen shields. Both speak of the coat, Argent, a fesse engrailed between three Catherine wheels sable: this occurs also in many churches in Norfolk, accompanying the coat of Knollys, and is attributed to Casteler, in Glover's Ordinary; neither antiquarian, in enumerating the shields in Sculthorpe church, assigns a name to it. Sir Robert Knollys' arms are described as occurring in three ways—his simple coat, (Gules, on a chevron arg. three roses of the first) then the same within an azure border, then impaling Beverley; this last repeated "around the church." His arms were also found at this period in other churches in Norfolk ;-St. Michael's, Norwich; Harpley, Cromer, North Barsham, Northwold, Mundford. The manuscript of Henry Chitting notices twenty different coats of arms in the roof of the church at Sculthorpe. Eight of these are the same as those which were placed in 1419 by Sir Thomas Erpingham in St. Michael's church at Norwich, 1 This manuscript is now in the possession of Lord Orford. 2 8vo. edition, vii. 177. |