_Monumental Brasses_.--In reply to S.S.S. (Vol. i., p. 405.), I beg to
inform him that the "small dog with a collar and bells" is a device of
very common occurrence on brasses of the fifteenth and latter part of
the fourteenth centuries. The Rev. C. Boutell's _Monumental Brasses of
England_ contains engravings of no less than twenty-three on which it
is to be found; as well as two examples without the usual appendages
of collar, &c. In addition to these, the same work contains etchings
of the following brasses:--Gunby, Lincoln., two dogs with plain
collars at the bottom of the lady's mantle, 1405. Dartmouth, Devon.,
1403. Each of the ladies here depicted has two dogs with collars and
bells at her feet.
The same peculiarities are exemplified on brasses at Harpham, York.,
1420; and Spilsby, Lincoln., 1391. I will not further multiply
instances, as my own collection of rubbings would enable me to do. I
should, however, observe, that the hypothesis of S.S.S. (as to "these
figures" being "the private mark of the artist") is untenable: since
the twenty-three examples above alluded to are scattered over sixteen
different counties, as distant from each other as Yorkshire and
Sussex. Two examples are well known, in which the dog so represented
was a favourite animal:--Deerhurst, Gloc., 1400, with the name,
"Terri," inscribed; and Ingham, Norfolk, 1438, with the name "Jakke."
This latter brass is now lost, but an impression is preserved in the
British Museum. The customary explanation seems to me sufficient: that
the dog was intended to symbolise the fidelity and attachment of the
lady to her lord and master, as the lion at _his_ feet represented his
courage and noble qualities.