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leaves, generally in a perfect state, and forming a graceful
termination to the painting on the wall.
To return to the inscription on the scroll held by the
kneeling figure of the Judge. Although even at its first
discovery it was not perfectly clear, and that at the latter
end of both lines some letters were obliterated, it appears
to have been thus:
FERRE : POLI: SERTVM : FAC : REX: EDMVNDE : ROBERTVM :l
DOD : FAVERSHAMIE : QVEM : REGE : THOMA : PIE :2
and may be interpreted thus: "O King Edmund, cause
Robert Dod, of Faversham, to bear the crown of Heaven,
whom, O pious Thomas, do thou guide."
The exact meaning of this inscription, and the cause
of such an invocation in favour of Robert Dod, appears
at present extremely doubtful. Robert Dod himself is
not to be found in the list of those who were judges,
nor was he even a mayor of Faversham, as the records
of .that borough evidence. Whom then does the kneeling
figure represent? The daughter and heiress of
Robert Dod,3 of Faversham, was married to Richard de
Faversham, whose father, Thomas de Faversham, was a
judge, and Lord of Graveney. It is a mere supposition,
but this Robert Dod might, by some act or grant,
have benefited those pilgrims who, on their way to the
great shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury, halted at Faversham,
to pay their devotions at the altar dedicated
to him in the church of Faversham, close to which
this memorial of their benefactor was placed; or that
he had himself performed some more than ordinary pilgrimage
1
The last letter,
supposed to have been M, was not visible.
2 The five last letters, MA : PIE, have been, supplied
to complete the pentameter.
3 The family of Dod, spelt variously, is frequently
mentioned in the
histories of Kent. A monument and its inscription is still
remaining in
Graveney church, to the memory of this Robert Dod, there called
Dodde,
and to his son-in-law Richard de Faversham.
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