I hope that MR. SINGER will take these remarks in good part, as being offered, not from a wish to oppose his opinion, but from a conviction that the interpretation now given is right, and from a desire that to every word in Shakspeare should be assigned its true signification.

J.S.W.

Stockwell.

* * * * *

SWORD OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

(Vol. iii., p. 24.)

There can be little doubt that the sword respecting which P. inquires is in the armoury at Goodrich Court.  It was presented by Lord Viscount Gage to the late Sir Samuel Meyrick, and exhibited by Dr. Meyrick to the Society of Antiquaries, Nov. 23. 1826.  The Doctor’s letter is to be found in the Appendix to the Archaeologia of that date, with an engraving of the sword.  He states that the arms on the pommel are those of Battle Abbey, that its date is about A.D. 1430, and that it was the symbol of the criminal jurisdiction of the abbot.  At the dissolution of the abbey it fell into the hands of Sir John Gage, who was one of the commissioners for taking the surrender of religious houses.

Its entire length is 3 feet 5 inches, and the breadth of the blade at the guard 2 inches.  The Doctor considers it to be “the oldest perfect sword in England.”  The arms are a cross, with a crown in the first and last quarters, and a sword in the second and third.  There are also the letters T.L., the initials of the Abbot, Thomas de Lodelow, who held that office from 1417 to 1437.  This fixes its date in the reign of Henry V., though the fact of the first William having been the founder of Battle Abbey has given colour to the tradition of its having been his property.

W.J.  BERNHARD SMITH.

Temple.

I much doubt the fact of the Conqueror’s sword ever having been in the possession of the monks of Battle.  Nor am I aware of any writer contemporary with the dissolution of that famous abbey who asserts it.  William’s royal robe, adorned with precious gems, and a feretory in the form of an altar, inclosing 300 relics of the saints, were bequeathed by him to the monastery; and Rufus transmitted them to Battle, where they were duly received on the 8th of the calends of November, 1088.  This information is furnished by the Chronicle of Battel Abbey, which I have just translated for the press; but not one word is said of the sword.

Though I have always lived within a few miles of Firle Place, the seat of the Gages, and though I am tolerably well acquainted with the history and traditions of that noble family, I never heard of the sword mentioned by P. Had that relic really been preserved at Battle till the time of Henry VIII., it is not improbable that it might have come into Sir John Gage’s hands with the manor of Aleiston, of which he was grantee, while his son-in-law, Sir Anthony Browne, became possessor of the abbey itself.

Will P. have the goodness to mention the source from which he obtained his statement?