i. A series of carved and coloured ivory tablets, representing
Chinese life and manners, partly broken; with some grotesque
figures, probably of deities, carved in wood.
Believed to have been bequeathed by Rawlinson.
ii. A series of small Chinese paintings on ivory.
From the Douce collection.
iii. Three sets of wooden roundels[389], or trenchers, of which two
are round (numbering thirty plates), the other square (numbering
twelve); with mottos, in the former case in verse, in the latter
consisting of precepts from the Bible. One of the round sets
belonged, in 1599, to Queen Elizabeth. The verses are sometimes
humorous, sometimes moral, and strongly dehortatory from
marriage; not, however, out of any flattering deference to the
condition or supposed inclination of the 'Virgin Queen,' but
chiefly in accordance with the opposite view taken by some
hard-hearted misogynist. Of the two classes of motto, let these
stand as specimens:--
'If that a bachelor thou bee
Keepe thou so, still be ruled by mee,
Leaste that repentance all to late
Reward thee with a broken pate.'
'Content thyselfe with thyn estate,
And send noo poor wight from thi gate:
For why this councell I thee give
To learne to die and die to lyve.'
iv. A large set of wax impressions of seals. See p. 183.