thirty-two inches in length, and nearly two in breadth : the handle is covered with fine gold wire, and the point flat. The Swords of Justice are the Spiritual and Temporal; which are borne, the former on the right hand, and the latter on the left, before the King or Queen at their coronation. The point of the Spiritual Sword is somewhat obtuse, but that of the Temporal Sword is sharp their blades are about forty inches long; the handles cased with fine gold wire. The scabbards of all three are alike, covered with a rich brocaded cloth of tissue, with a fine ferule, hook, and chape.

:

Saint Edward's Staff, which is carried before the King at the coronation, is a staff or sceptre of beaten gold, four feet seven inches and a half in length, and about three quarters of an inch in diameter, with a pike or foot of steel, four inches and a quarter long, and a mound and cross at the top.

The King's Sceptre, with the Dove, is of gold, in length three feet seven inches, and about three inches in circumference. It is set with diamonds and other precious stones; and upon the mound at the top, which is encircled with a band or fillet of rose diamonds, is a small cross, whereon is fixed a dove with wings expanded, as the emblem of mercy.

The King's Sceptre, with the Cross, or Sceptre Royal, likewise of gold, is two feet nine inches in length, aud of the same size as that with the dove: the handle is plain, but the upper part is wreathed, and the pommel at the bottom set with rubies, emeralds, and small diamonds: the top rises into a fleur-de-lis, enriched with precious stones: out of which issues a mound, made of amethyst, garnished with table diamonds: and upon the mound is a cross covered with precious stones, having a large table diamond in the centre.

The Queen's Sceptre, with the Cross, is also of gold, adorned with diamonds and other precious stones, and. in most parts, is very like the king's, but not wreathed, nor quite so large.

The Queen's Ivory Rod, which was made for queen Mary, consort of king James the Second, is a sceptre of white ivory, three feet one inch and a half in length, with a pommel, mound, and cross of gold, and a dove on the apex.

Besides these, there is another very rich and elegant Sceptre with the Dove, which was discovered in 1814, behind a part of the old wainscoting of the Jewel-house, where it seems to have lain unobserved for a great number of years. This nearly assimilates to the King's Sceptre with the Dove, and there is every probability that it was made for queen Mary, the consort of William the Third, with whom she was jointly invested with the exercise of the royal authority.

The Armilla or Bracelets, which are ornaments for the King's wrists worn at coronations, are of solid fine gold, an inch and a half in breadth, and edged with rows of pearl. They open by means of a hinge, for the purpose of being put on the arm, and are chased with the rose, thistle, fleur-de-lis, and harp. Than the bracelet, there is not, perhaps, any ornament more universally known, or of higher antiquity, and we generally find it, as a distinguishing mark, worn by kings and chieftains. It is frequently mentioned not only in the history of our Saxon and Danish ancestors, but in the writings of far more ancient nations.*

*"And I took the crown that was upon his head, and the bracelet that was upon his arm, and have brought them hither unto my lord." 2 Sam. ch. i, 10.

The Royal Spurs, are also made of fine gold curiously wrought, and are carried in the procession at coronations by the lords Grey of Ruthven ; a service which they claim by descent from the family of Hastings, earls of Hastings.

The Saltseller of State, which is a model, in gold, of the "White Tower;" a grand silver font, double gilt, generally used at the baptisms of the royal family; and a large silver Fountain presented to king Charles the Second by the town of Plymouth, are likewise worthy of notice. There is also, reposited in the Jewel-house, a magnificent service of Communion plate belonging to the Tower chapel: it is of silver, double gilt, superbly wrought; the principal piece containing a beautiful representation of the Lord's Supper.

CLERKENWELL CLOSE.-JOHN WEEVER.

Clerkenwell Close was the residence of Weever, the industrious, but inaccurate, transcriber of our ancient Sepulchral Inscriptions. He was born in Lancashire in the year 1576, and educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, under Dr. Robert Pearson, Archdeacon of Suffolk. Whilst young he travelled on the Continent, and visited Leige and Rome. He was strongly attached to the study of antiquities, and after his return, being encouraged and patronized. by Sir Robert Cotton, and the learned Selden, he collected materials for his well known work on " Ancient Funerall Monuments," which was first published in 1631, and the Epistle to which is dated from his "House in Clerkenwell Close, this 28th day of May."* He died in the following year, and was in

* There is a " History of Christ,” in verse, which is sup

terred in the old Church of St. James, Clerkenwell.. His Epitaph, as written by himself, has been thus printed :

Lancashire gave me Breath, and Cambridge Education: Middlesex gave me Death, and this Church my Humation: And Christ to me hath given

A Place with him in Heaven.

Another Epitaph, by a friend, was inscribed upon a tablet, and placed against a column near his grave. WEEVER, who labor'd in a learned strain,

To make Men long since dead to live again,
And, with Expence of Oyle and Ink, did watch
From the Worm's mouth the sleeping Corse to snatch,
Hath, by his Industry, begot a way

Death, who insidiates all things, to betray;

Redeeming freely, by his Care and Cost,

Many a sad Herse, which Time, long since, gave lost; And to forgotten Dust such Spirit did give

To make it in our Memories to live.

Where Death destroy'd, when He had power to save,

In that he did not seek to rob the Grave;

For where so e'er a ruin'd Tomb he found,

His Pen hath built it new out of the Ground.

posed to have been written by Weever, (vide “ Censura Literaria," Vol. 11.) and some of his original MSS. are in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries. A 2d edition of the Funeral Monuments appeared in 1661, fol. with a head of Weever; and a 3d, in 4to. was published in 1766, with some improvements by the Rev. William Tooke, F. R. S.-The writer of the present article has been long preparing a new edition, corrected and enlarged from his own notes made in different journeys to almost every part of the kingdom.

'Twixt Earth and Him this interchange we find,
She hath to Him, he bin to Her, like kind.
She was his Mother, he, (a grateful Child,)
Made her his Theme, in a large work, compil'd
Of Funeral Reliques, and brave Structures rear'd
On such as seem'd to her the most indear'd:
Alternately a Grave to Him she lent,

O'er which his Book remains a Monument.

SWORDS WORN BY FOOTMEN.

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Although the custom of Gentlemen, and of others aping them, to wear Swords, still lives in the recollection of our more aged Citizens, and is occasionally a subject of discourse, it is not so commonly known that, in king William's reign, even Footmen had been tolerated to wear side arms. Yet this fact is rendered evident by an official notice published in the London Gazette for New Year's Day, 1701, of which the following is a copy.

66

By the right hon. Charles, Earl of Carlisle, Earl Marshal of England during the minority of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk. Whereas many mischiefs and dangerous accidents, tending not only to the highest breach of the Peace, but also to the destruction of the lives of his Majesty's subjects, have happened and been occasioned by Footmen wearing of Swords:-for prevention of the like accidents and disturbances for the future, I do hereby order that no Footmen attending any of the Nobility or Gentry of his Majesty's realms shall wear any Sword, hanger, bayonet, or such other like offensive weapon, during such time as they or any of them shall reside or be within the Cities of London and Westminster, and the liberties and precincts of the same, as they will an

VOL. III.

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