EFFIGIES IN BRASS AND STONE. BY NELLIE HESS MORRIS. "THE exact representation or image of person," is an old definition of the word effigy, and an English art critic of deserved good repute (F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A.) tells us that the word can not be correctly applied, as it sometimes is, to portraits, "for it conveys the idea of a more exact imitation." One not thus instructed in advance who should saunter through the old Cathedrals of England, and upon the Continent, and view some of the effigies in stone of old-time worthies and unworthies, could be pardoned for imagining that "a caricature" might have been one of the significations of the term effigy-one who knew better than so to misdefine the term, and yet not blessed with an antiquarian eye-glass for his arteye, would be prone to conclude that a large proportion of the saints and sinners (especially of those of the male persuasion) deemed worthy by our forefathers of "exact representation" must have been marvelously devoid of good looks, not to say downright ill-looking, to have made such fac-similia. The reader must not rashly accept the notions of either of these viewers, e la margam qonda yegg Wham Shegue for we have veritable tradition to Que obpt the menis Angola Zumo domin support the assertion that St. Cuth-no..ums are puiet deus amen bert was a comely bishop despite his homely effigy which graces his old Durham; Bishop Marshall, too, of Exeter, was by no means the long-faced, narrow-faced, half-starved being his "exact representation" in his Cathedral would make us believe, but a "merrie," round-faced, well-fed prelate of the jolliest days of the Roman-English Church, when hearty-feeding was not the least-regarded duty of the good fathers and lay-brethren; and no fair skimmer over English history need be told that the Lion-hearted Richard was in good looks, no less than in gallant deeds, a fit mate for the beautiful and charming Berengaria, notwithstanding ELEANOR BOHUN. MARGARET CHEYNE. her "image" attests her beauty and grace, while his denies him the merest passability of ordinary homeliness. The fact is, Canova and Thorwaldsen and other masters of monumental sculpture, were so tardy in putting in an appearance that the work of cutting these earlier effigies had to be entrusted to ruder hands, and the still ruder hands of ultra-reformers of the "Praise-God Barebones" type have more than aided the hand of time in materially altering many of the old monumental sculptures by flattening or removing many a nose, fracturing many an arm or leg, and otherwise far otherwise than in the way of improvement modifying the "exact representations" of the "saints" of "y oldden tyme." Besides, we must bear in mind that the art judgment of our ancestors of sae lang syne was not formed by the study of the masterpieces of Michael Angelo, Canova, Thorwaldsen and other masters of like eminence. The best effigies of old England, at least as works of art, were the monumental brasses which were deftly inlaid in the floors of all the Cathedrals and many of the Parish Churches. Unfortunately, this class of "idolatrous images," as the extremists of the days of Puritanic extravagance called all the stone and metallic figures of "saints" of the earlier days, was almost utterly destroyed during the brief period wherein those extravagants had the sway in England; the position of the brasses placed them so entirely at the mercy of every individual fanatic that they suffered BISHOP MARSHALL. VOL. VIII.-3 The reader must not understand me as intending to imply that the stone effigies, even of men, are all suggestive of caricature, for many of them are worthy of the most masterly masters of later periods; indeed, there are not a few that could not be excelled. I have not space to cite these, but may take the seen in the picture of the magnificent tomb of "the good Queen Bess;" man and wife frequently, as was meet, lay side by side beneath, and their effigies side by side on top of, the tomb-as in the case of Henry II. and Eleanor. Some of the stone effigies, however, stood in the porch of the Cathedral or Church, as that of St. Cuthbert at Durham, or as a sentinel at the outer door, as that of St. Augustine at the Chapter-House of Rochester; others, like that of Bishop Marshall, in Exeter, and of Bishop Arthelstane, in Ely Cathedral, stood in niches in the walls, usually inside but sometimes outside; still others, like those of Bishops Wykeham, Fox and Waynflete, of Winchester, in that Cathedral, apparently were formed BISHOP ATHELSTANE. ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY. effigy of Henry II., not even one of the best, as an illustration: the face is undoubtedly a fair likeness, as it is the same as that shown upon the coin of his reign; the ease and apparent comfort of his reposing attitude are striking, while the drapery is faultless. I have hinted that the effigies of women are generally pleasing and excellentthat of Berengaria, the Queen of Richard I., I have before noticed, and that of Eleanor, Henry II.'s Queen, does justice to the queenly grace and beauty and even haughty dignity which history attributes to her. The effigies in brass were mostly inlaid in stone, and, as I have said, generally set into the floors of Cathedrals and Churches. Those in stone were cut in every possible form and manner and set in every conceivable place: by far the greater number were in the recumbent posture, each upon the top of the tomb beneath which lay the mortal remains of the subject of the sculptured image, as ST. CUTHBERT. into ornaments, and placed, as trade-marks, upon the portion of the great edifice each had built, and a few were absolutely cut into ornate brackets, BERENGARIA. capitals, etc., as at Lincoln Cathedral, where several of the ancient ecclesiastical dignitaries are thus utilized, the effigy of the great Bishop Grosteste being one of those used on a bracket. I should add in reference to monumental brasses, that in some instances the stones into which they were inlaid were built into altar-tombs, but these were few in comparison with those in floors, while a very few were built into or attached to walls. Though the number of these memorials destroyed in England was very great, there are more preserved there than on the Continent; in England, the destruction was on religious grounds, and the "saints" alone were the victims, but on the Continent, especially in France, the destruction has occurred during the repeated revolutions, and the "saints" alone have been spared, and these were a small proportion in the latter and a large proportion in the former, as on the Continent stone was generally preferred for monuments to "saintly" heroes and heroines. Brasses were probably introduced into England from Flanders, and some of the oldest specimens are known to have been the work of Flemish artists. In mediæval documents, the material used for monumental brasses is called cullen plate, doubtless a corruption of Collogne plate. This form of memorial was doubtless adopted primarily with a view to economizing space in the area of churches. THE NATIVE RACES OF THE PACIFIC STATES. WITHIN a few years the native inhabitants of the country lying between the great Rocky Mountain ranges and the Pacific Ocean have been brought conspicuously to the notice of civilized nations by their continual contact, hostile and otherwise, with our expanding population. Those native inhabitants, now so few, were very numerous as occupants of an almost unbroken wilderness, in all the region bordering on the Pacific Ocean from Alaska on the north to the narrower part of the Isthmus of Darien on the south, where they were first discovered by Europeans. They might then have been enumerated by millions; and they exhibited almost every phase of primitive society, from the naked reptileand root-eaters of the interior plains, to the polished and well-clad Aztecs of Central America, whose civilization at a given period was equal if not superior to that of Europeans then. These Aztecs and their kindred were almost decimated by Spanish adventurers in the course of a few years, who trampled out whole tribes and even nations. Everywhere along the western coast of our continent, aboriginal savage races, up to the frozen strait within the Arctic Circle, appear to have melted away like frost in the sunbeams, at the touch of Caucasian civilization. Long ago they might have sorrowfully chanted: "We, the rightful lords of yore, Like the silver mist, we fail Like the red leaves in the gale- Waves the bright flag of the morning." Hitherto the ante-Columbian history of these races on our western shores has been wrapped in almost impenetrable mystery. In the vague and unsatisfactory tradition of the tribes ; in the records of their conquerors and destroyers, and in the speculations of many writers, is involved nearly all the substance of their past history. The facts are few; and to the faithful and skillful labors of modern searchers after truth, who with marvellous patience and heroic industry have studied these nations in the light of personal observations, we are indebted for a greater portion of our absolute knowledge of these ancient people-their origin, domestic habits, tribal relations, government, literature and religion. Whence came these races on our continent? is an unanswered question. Hundreds of philosophers, great and small, have sought in vain for the solution of the problem. Each has put forth his theory with solemn gravity, and maintained it with the pertinacity of a martyr; and each supposition glittered in the sunshine of popular favor, until, at the touch of fact, it exploded like a bubble on the surface of water and was soon almost forgotten. By the syllogisms of analogy, the origin of these nations has been referred to the Eastern hemisphere, some speculators bringing them from one place and some from another. For example, one learned writer (Alexo Vanegas) proved conclusively to his own mind that America was peopled by Catharginians, for both those ancient north Africans and our Indian tribes worshipped fire, practiced picture-writing, pierced their ears for wearing ornaments in them, signalled news by blazes on the great hills, dressed in their best when going to war, poisoned their arrows, and beat drums and shouted on the battle-field. Another (Lord Kingsborough) proves as conclusively that our Indians are the descendants of the Jews, because of similarity of social customs between the ancient Hebrews and the aborigines of Mexico and of our more southern Pacific States; while credulous Cotton Mather declared: "And though we know not when or how the Indians first became inhabitants of this mighty continent yet we may guess that probably the devil (whom he called 'the old usurping landlord of America') decoyed these miserable salvages hither, in hopes that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would never come here to destroy or disturb his absolute empire over them." Mather's idea that the red race is morally devilish, and not fairly human except in shape, seems to have always been a prevailing one with the civilized man in our country, especially of the type of the belligerent settler, the selfish trader and the unscrupulous contractor. Might not mere theorists concerning |