ngs his tourney helm.

[Illustration: THE BEAUFORT TOMB.]

Under the corresponding arch on the opposite side is a similar tomb, but
without any effigy. The fragment of an inscription tells us that it is
the tomb of one who was once the wife of Henry Courtenay, Marquis of
Exeter, and mother of Edward Courtenay. She was Gertrude, daughter of
William Blount, Lord Mountjoy. Her husband was beheaded in 1538,
together with the aged Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, whose chantry
may be seen in the Priory at Christchurch, though she was laid to rest
in what Macaulay describes as the saddest burying-ground in England, the
cemetery of St Peter's, in the Tower. Gertrude, Lady Courtenay, was
herself attainted at the time of her husband's execution, but was
afterwards pardoned and died in 1557. The tomb was opened in the last
century from idle curiosity, and some one attempted to raise the body to
a sitting posture, with the result that the skeleton fell to pieces. The
tomb was also damaged by this foolish opening.

[Illustration: BRASS OF AETHELRED.]

Three small carved figures at the bottom of the hood moulding of the
arches over these monuments deserve attention. The one on the west
side of the southern arch represents Moses with the tables of the law.
Probably there was another such figure at the eastern end of the same
moulding, but this would have been cut away when the sedilia were
inserted. The opposite arch has a figure on each side.

Just at the east end of the Courtenay tomb is a slab of Purbeck marble,
reputed to have once covered the grave of AEthelred. In it is inserted a
fifteenth-century brass, with a rectangular plate of copper bearing an
inscription, represented in the illustration (p. 46). A brass plate with
a similar inscription, though the date on it is given as 872, was found
in the library. Possibly the original brass and inscription were taken
up in the time of the civil wars and hidden for safety, and the
inscription having been lost, the copper plate now on the tomb was made
when the brass was replaced, and the original plate was afterwards found
and was placed for safety in what is now the library. _Copper_ nails
were used to fasten the brass to the floor, which perhaps serves to show
that the engraved _copper_ plate was made at the time when the brass was
replaced on the slab. A little piece of the left-hand bottom corner has
been broken off, and the top of the sceptre is missing. There are no
rails