ll
the tombs of that period in the Abbey, John of Eltham's is considered
one of the most remarkable. He must have been the very pattern of a
gallant young knight. His effigy of white alabaster impresses you at
first with a sense of profound repose. Then when you look more closely
you begin to see what a striking figure it is; and you picture to
yourself the young Earl of Cornwall riding with his young brother, the
king, at the head of their troops through the bleak north-country, over
the wild wastes of the Border, up to fair Perth lying on the Tay, where
the fishermen draw in nets full of silvery salmon, and the
moors--covered with pink and brown heather and swarming with plump
grouse--roll up to the mountains of the Highlands. We can see the very
clothes he wore, for his effigy as a specimen of military costume is
most interesting and valuable. He is clad in plate armor, and wears the
_cyclas_, a curious garment cut much shorter in front than behind;
"beneath it, the _gambeson_; then the coat of mail; and lastly the
_haqueton_." The Prince's sword-handle, ornamented with lion's heads, is
beautifully sculptured; and the shield has three splendid lions on
it--the English royal arms--bordered with the French fleur-de-lis. Round
his helmet is a coronet, which is remarkable as the first of the kind
known. It is of the ducal form with greater and lesser trefoil leaves
alternately, instead of the usual circlet.

The tomb is surrounded by small, finely executed alabaster statues
representing mourning kings, queens, and relations of the dead prince.
Terribly broken though they now are--some are destroyed altogether, and
all are headless--enough of them remain to show that they were
sculptured with wonderful grace and spirit.

[Illustration: ANCIENT CANOPY OF THE TOMB OF JOHN OF ELTHAM.]

But the worst loss that the monument has sustained is in the exquisite
Gothic canopy of carved stone which once surmounted it. It was highly
colored and gilded, with an angel on a small spire crowning the centre.

In 1776 Elizabeth Percy, first duchess of Northumberland, whose name
will always be remembered as the patroness of literature to whom we owe
the _Percy Reliques_, was buried in the family vault of the Percys in
the Chapel of St. Nicholas. In spite of her repeated desire that the
funeral should be "as private as her rank would permit" a vast crowd
collected, so

that the officiating clergy and choir could scarcely make
t