Westminster, which her beautiful brass effigy still adorns.

The gifts which, in compliance with the usage of the day, Edward bestowed on the convent of Westminster, were right royal. The manors of Birdbrooke in Kent, of Westerham in Essex, and of Hendon in Middlesex, together with Eton-bridge, Arden's Grafton, Langdon, and lands in Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire, were assigned, on condition that the abbot, prior, and convent, each eve of St. Andrew, the anniversary of her death, "should sing the Placebo, and Dirige, and the nine lessons; " that they should provide one hundred wax candles, each of twelve pounds' weight, to burn about her tomb, from the eve until the morrow of St. Andrew: that all the bells should toll, and all the convent should sing the service of the dead; and that a penny each should be given to seven score poor people, who should then attend.* Thirty wax tapers were, throughout the year, to burn about the tomb; and even in the time of Fabian-more than two hundred years after he remarks, that "two waxe tapers are brennynge upon her tumbe, bothe daye and nighte, whiche so hath contynued syne the daye of her burynge to this present daye."

But Edward was not content with securing the prayers of the convent of Westminster; he, therefore, early in January, addressed a touching letter to the abbot of Clugny, in which, after stating that

* Vetusta Monumenta, vol. iii.

"God, the founder and creator of all things-who, in the unfathomed depths of His heavenly counsel, ordains, calls, recalls, and disposes, in His providence, all his subject creatures, hath called hence, as seemed good unto Him, our most illustrious consort Elinor," he therefore entreats the prayers of the abbot and his convent for her, "whom as while living we so dearly loved, we cannot cease to love now dead, that if aught of stain may perchance, in any way, still continue, it may, through the plenitude of Divine mercy, be cleansed away."* Would that the sorrowing monarch had been taught a more consolatory faith.

The attention of the king was next directed to the erection of the beautiful tomb in Westminster, and those noble sepulchral crosses, which ere long arose on each spot where each night the body rested on its long journey to London. From an entry in the Liberate Roll, we find that the beautiful brass effigy of Elinor was cast in the adjoining churchyard, together with that of king Henry; since Hugh de Kendal receives 11s. 4d. " for building a house in the burial-ground of the abbot of Westminster, in which the statues of king Henry and Elinor queen of England, late consort of the king, were being made." We have no record, however of the artist. Both these effigies are of excellent workmanship; that of Elinor is especially worthy of notice; and the beautiful features, which tradition asserted became, in the following century, the model for those of "our ladye" herself, bear so close a resemblance to those of the statues which

still grace her remaining crosses, that we can have little doubt but they were modelled from life. The effigy, richly gilt, was formerly surmounted by an appropriate canopy; this has long since been removed, and the present tasteless covering is the work of a far later day; from the appearance of the edges of the robe, Mr. Blore is inclined to consider that ornamental studs, probably of valuable jewellery, were formerly inserted; these, however, have long since been torn away, together with the sceptre, which originally was held in the right hand.

Of the beautiful crosses, those proud memorials of affection which no other queen, save Elinor of Castile, ever received, and which no other country can boast, our information is less specific. While many chronicles record their erection, not one gives the name of the architect; and while the name and parentage of many a mere worker in gold and silver is duly celebrated, the artist, who so ably seconded the devoted affection of Edward, has passed wholly into oblivion. Thirteen of these beautiful monuments at Herdby, Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stoney Stratford, Dunstable, St. Alban's Waltham, Westcheap, and Charing Cross,* formerly adorned the land; but time, the injuries of civil war, and the fury of the zealot, have levelled the greater number; and only three, those of Geddington, North

* In this enumeration Peck has been followed, since his order places the crosses in the direct line of road, and allows on an average about twenty miles a day for the funeral procession. The authors of Vetusta Monumenta add two other crosses, one at Newark and one at Leicester, but both these places are out of the road.

ampton, and Waltham, now remain. Each of these displays great architectural elegance and great delicacy of execution; and each, although different, presents many similar features. In each, the lower arches display shields of the armorial bearings of the queen of Edward; while above, in deeply recessed niches, surmounted by rich and graceful foliaged canopies, four delicate effigies of Elinor of Castile, robed as a queen, and with crown, orb, and sceptre, smile in meek beauty on the passer-by.

From the day which consigned his beloved queen to the tomb, Edward in the council and in battle sought refuge from his sorrow; and nine years passed away ere the crown was again worn by a queen consort.

With the excellent and long-lamented Elinor of Castile, the history of the thirteenth century closes; and here, ere the fourteenth century, with its chivalric splendours and its host of picturesque incidents, opens to our view, we close the first period of these Historical Memoirs.