The Knight of the Red Cross ; or, The Romance
of Archbishop Abbot's Tomb in the Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Guildford, Surrey. By Philip G. Palmer. (Frank Lasham, Guild- ford, ls. net.)—This curious little pamphlet describes the beautiful Jacobean tomb of Archbishop Abbot in the parish church at Guildford. The tomb is ornamented with some charm- ing marble figures, and the writer of the pamphlet seeks to prove that the imagery and symbolism of the tomb were drawn from the first book of Spenser's " Faerie Queene." To quote the writer's words :—
" By subtle allusions, and light touches here and there, the monument was designed to illustrate both the career of St. George and the strenuous Christian life of the ecclesiastic who bore his name. But it was as the Christian warrior rather than the Church dignitary that George Abbot was intended to be com- memorated."
This theory seems to us by no means impossible, for Archbishop Abbot was a humanist and man of letters. This is proved by the fact that, good Protestant and preacher of the Gospel as he was, he chose for the inscription over the door of the beautiful hospital with which he adorned Guildford not a text of Scripture, but the line from Virgil : "Deus nobis haec otia fecit." As one sees the old men and women passing out of the Tligh Street under the arch into the sun-light of the exquisite little quadrangle, one feels that no inscription could be more appropriate. Quiet, rest, and ease is the note of the whole building. It is pleasant to think that, though Abbot loved his Virgil, he did not neglect the great English singer of the generation which preceded him, and that Spenser was in his mind when the Archbishop ordered his tomb.
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