From the Astley parcel of July 1924, with the accession card opened against ND 47/1924
A small brown-paper parcel, postmarked Astley & Brimstree, the xiv of July, 1924, received at the Hereford Cathedral Chapter Library on the desk of Miss Caroline Annerley, Sub-Librarian, with a covering letter from the Reverend R. M. T. Pevensey, Canon Residentiary, on the morning of the seventeenth.
— covering letter, half sheet, Canon Pevensey's hand —
Cathedral Close, Hereford. — xvi July, 1924.
Dear Miss Annerley —
The enclosed I have from the executors of the late Sir Robert FitzHardy of Astley, who, in the breaking up of the private oratorye there, found in the mensa of the old altar a small wooden coffer fill'd with sand and one parcell wrapped in linen, which on examinacion proved to be of mid Tudor weave & stytch. The executors, being good churchmen but no antiquaries, do not wish to retain it; they wish it given into ecclesiastical custody. I do not know what it is and I should not be the man to determine. You are.
The mensa was last consecrated in 1899 by Bishop Percival for the Pugin chapel which replaced the old one; the Bishop's faculty notes, in his own hand, that the inherited contents of the previous altar were re-set entire and the mensa sealed. The previous chapel was demolished in 1896. The wooden coffer is older; the sand quite dry.
I send it with one of our porters; he will not unwrap it.
Yrs in haste — R. M. T. Pevensey, Canon Residentiary.
— accession card, ruled, in Miss Annerley's hand —
LIBRARY · HEREFORD CATHEDRAL · ACCESSION CARD · NB 47A/1924.
Linen-wrapped object, in coffer of dark wood (oak), 4¾ × 2 × 1¾ in., interior sand-filled. Received by porter ix.30 a.m., xvij July 1924, ex executores of the late Sir Robert FitzHardy, Astley. Letter of transmittal: Canon Pevensey, xvi July 1924, this card recto pinned.
Contents on examinacion:
— one wrapping of brown linen, mid Tudor by weave and stytch, sound, lightly stained, four folds, secured by a length of plain hempen cord, the cord ends dipped in beeswax. The wax bears a single small impression no larger than a thumbnail, the device a crozier within a small lozenge — the seal of the priorie of S. Helene of Wenlock, by the priory book of arms now in the Chapter library (Hereford Cath. MS B·iv·7, fol. 12).
— within the wrapping, one fragment of dark wood, c. iv × i × ¼ in., the grain cross-cut, the surface oiled but unvarnished, no setting nor mark of any setting. Not identifiable by species without instrument; consistent with oak or olive. No certificate of authenticity has accompanied.
— on the inner face of the linen wrapping, in iron-gall ink, in three hands, set in a column at the head of the cloth:
I. H.
C. H.
I. H.
And below them, in a fourth hand and a much paler ink, almost worn off by the folding —
recepi calicis nostri pretium. iiij Sondaye after Pasche.
— A. H.
(the four hands distinct: the upper two in a close fine pen, the third broader and pressed heavier in the down-strokes, the fourth a round english secretary, the same hand as the priorie sacristane's leaf described by the Rev. E. Cattermole in Marches Antiq. Trans. IV (1844) 47–49.)
— accession card, verso, in pencil, in Miss Annerley's hand, undated —
The two upper initials are I. H. and C. H.: Dame Isabel Pickering, prioress of the late priory of S. Helene, and Dame Cecily Hawte, sub-prioress; the same hands as the second slip of pouch W·H 1538 (cf. card ND 47/1924). I have compared them on this desk, the cards laid side by side, and could find no other reading.
The third initial, I. H. — lower set, the pen pressed heavier — is the hand of John Hawte, steward of FitzHardy of Astley, father of the sub-prioress: the same hand as the bursar's book at Astley (Astley muniments, B-7) and the stewardship account-book of Sir John FitzHardy 1535–1541 (Hereford Cath. MS C·ii·11, fol. 47v). He signs Iohannes; the initial is therefore I., not J.
The fourth hand, the sacristane of the priorie, Anne Howell, has written along the bottom of the linen: I have received the price of our chalice. iv Sunday after Easter. The fourth Sondaye after Pasche in 1538 fell on the xij of May — the day before the visitor's arrival. The chalice was wanting from the press by the xiijth.
The wrapping is therefore a private receipt of the relic, signed in turn by the three Hawtes who passed it from hand to hand, with the sacristane's countersignature appended below to acknowledge the substitution of Sir John FitzHardy's parish cup in its place. The relic descended through the family to the FitzHardy private oratory at Astley, where it lay sealed in the altar mensa until 1924.
— Miss Annerley's note at the foot, in red ink, undated —
This card is not to be cross-referenced with ND 47/1924 until the truth of either is determined. The two accessions sit on different shelves and will be left to do so. The pouch is in the reserved press; this parcel is in the muniments cupboard, against the south wall, third shelf. I have, on my own authority, separated them. — C. A.
— Miss Annerley's last note, in pencil, dated February 1925 —
I have re-read this card and ND 47/1924 together, in private, on the third Sondaye in Lent. The first slip is the kitchen door; the second is the closet at midnight; the wrapping is the kitchen table at noon the next day. The cuppe walked, and was followed by witnesses who could write. The presse was found locked because the chalice had been carried out at compline of the Saturday; the count was thrice short by one because there had never been more than the parish cup to count from the iv Sondaye onward. The truth of the second slip is determinable. I will not, in this life, file the cross-reference. — C. A.