[Illustration: _The Door from Cloister into Sacristy._
represented in the engraving. But the _brasses_ have long since disappeared, and left only the empty grooves to which they had been so elaborately adjusted by the skilful artists of that day. Brasses, or <g>Latten</g>, are considered to be good illustrations of the architecture of their period, owing to the designs of canopies, crosiers, &c. delineated upon them. They are seldom to be met with in any reign prior to that of Edward the Second; nor did they become general till towards the close of the fourteenth century, when the effigies are commonly surmounted by arched canopies, ogee-shaped and crocketed, of the same kind of inlaid work elaborately engraven. These subsequently vary, according to the style of the age, and in general rather preceding than following it. Of the brasses, which--owing to the rank and character of its founder and benefactors, as well as its abbots and others--must have formed no inconsiderable feature in the decorations of Tinterne Abbey, not a fragment remains.
Where <g>Latten</g> marked the abbots’ grave, And sculpture spread her trophies round it; Rank weeds in wild luxuriance wave, And mock the gaudy shrine that crowned it. Here, they who for the <g>Cross</g> had died, And they who led the way to glory-- Here mitred pomp, and martial pride, Have not a stone to tell their story.
VI.--<g>Doorway leading into the Sacristy.</g>--This is a double doorway--a specimen of the Early English--divided by a moulded shaft, with a circular opening, or quatrefoil, over it. The outer arch is deeply ‘recessed,’ consisting of five or six successive shafts, or mouldings, on either side, without capitals, and meeting above at the centre of the arch. The inner arches are foliated, and the cusps richly fluted. Clasping this elegant and massive structure, the ivy has so incorporated itself with the masonry, that--massive as it is--art must gradually yield to that natural process which seems to make every root of ivy, if once insinuated between the jointed stones, act like a fulcrum for their dislodgment--
“Ha, ha!” laughs the Ivy, “let men uprear Their ‘<g>Castles and Abbeys</g>,’ far and near; Pile upon pile, let their fabrics rise, Darkening the earth, and mocking the skies; Lifting their turrets so haughtily-- Boasting their grandeur--but what care I? Buttress and bastion, cloister and hall-- _I conquer them all--I conquer them all!_”