GRAFFITI IN ESSEX 3
More rarely are graffiti found on timber, and then usually inside
buildings, very rarely on metal except as initials of ownership on
small objects, and very rarely indeed on ceramics, other than brick.
There is in the Guildhall Museum, London, a celebrated tile of
Roman provenance, perhaps of the third century, which I cannot
pass over, even though it be well known to most of you. The in-
scription reads "austalis dibus xiii vagatur sib cotidim" and
was modelled presumably with a sharp stick by a rough Romanised
Celt, a tile-maker who was critical of his mate's absences, al-
though the exact sense of what may be a jest is a little obscure.
Note that seventeen centuries ago, a rough tile-maker could write
and form his letters well enough, but not until 1870 or so would
you again find one Essex tile-maker in two who could write even
his own name.
In Essex, the earliest extant graffiti of which I have knowledge
are the Norman drawings and mid-fourteenth century inscription
in Colchester Castle, reading, "al yat for roger channbyrleyn
& for hys wyf god gef hem al gode lyf". This inscription, in
Lombardic capitals, can be dated by internal evidence to c. 1340,
since we have a record of Roger Chamberlain, the Gaoler at that
time. It is not possible to do justice to this fine inscription by a
"rubbing" (which is how I have reproduced most of the graffiti
exhibited) and photography with oblique lighting is really needed.
Near to this inscription is a roughly-cut graffito, a drawing of a
man with a purse or key, which I feel may be intended to represent
the Gaoler himself.
At Rayleigh, in the parish church, there are several medieval
graffiti, notably one stated to be a stave of music of the fourteenth
or fifteenth century.
A fourteenth century example of what, perhaps, is the work of
an expert at lettering, is to be found on the chancel arch of Ber-
den Church: it reads, "gefrai limathin" and seems to be a
phonetic rendering in Norman-French of "Geoffrey the Mason".
It is extremely unlikely that you will come across hitherto un-
known specimens of such early periods as these, but nothing is
impossible in antiquarian discovery and if any of you should see
other drawings or lettering resembling these examples, it would be
most worthy of report.
Lettering of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is still com-
paratively rare; dated graffiti of these centuries are even more in-
frequent, but one can sometimes identify and date the writers of
the undated examples by contemporary evidence from other
sources.
Coming to a little later period, we have an indistinct but long
and interesting inscription on a nave pillar of Stanford-le-Hope
Church, cut, I expect without the incumbent's knowledge, in