26 November, 24 Henry VI. Grant by Maurice Brune, Knight, Robert Darcy, John Doreward, Henry Clovill, Esquire, John Grene, and Henry Stampe, to Richard Hill and others, of lands, &c., in Sprinfield, &c., in Essex. Each seal is round and thick, and has the impression of a small armorial bearing. The 1st, 2nd, and 5th seals have a small plaited coil of hay pressed into the wax, and inclosing the impression.
26 Henry VI. Receipt by Jane Grene for 10l. paid her by the Earl of Ormond. Seal of diminutive size, and the impression nearly defaced. Round the extreme edge is a "diminutive hayband."
2 January, 34 Henry VI. Grant by Thomas Tudenham, Knight, John Leventhorp, Esquire, and Thomas Radclyff, of the reversion of the manor of Newhall to John Neell and others. All the seals, which are large and thick and more than two inches in diameter, have the impression of a signet ring inclosed with a "hayband" _of parchment_ pressed into them. One of these coils being loose shows itself to be a thin strip of the label itself brought through the wax.
10 February, 14 Edward IV. Lease by Sir Thomas Urswyk, Knight, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and Thomas Lovell, to John Morton and others, of the manor of Newhall, Essex, and other lands, &c. The seal of Lovell has his armorial bearings and legend; that of the Lord Chief Baron is the impression of a signet ring, being a classical bust. The seal itself is a thick ball of wax about { 332} two inches across, pressed into the face of which is a "hayband" or twisted coil of _thin parchment_ inclosing the impression.
I am sure that I have seen many examples much earlier and later, but those given are merely in reference to the theory of your Lewes correspondent. Even they are surely inconsistent with the idea of the practice being peculiar to any locality or distinctive of any class. My recollection would lead me to assign the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries as the period of its use. But still the question remains--Has it any, and what signification? I have always considered it to have been a contrivance to strengthen the substance of the seal itself. The earliest instances I have seen were "appliqué" seals, such as the royal privy seals, and with these it would seem to have originated. Their frail nature suggested the use of some substance to protect the thin layer of wax from damage by the crumpling of the parchment on which they were impressed. For some time its use was confined to this kind of seal; and fashion may perhaps have extended the practice to pendent seals, where, however, it was often efficacious in neutralising the bad quality of the wax so general in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The plaiting of the hay or straw sometimes assumed a fanciful shape. Although the impressions of seals of the time of Henry VII. are often very bad, there are generally traces of their existence; these may perhaps be discovered in MR. LOWER'S seals if he looks more to the enclosure than to the substance forming it.