This paper examines the history of one of the most important schemes of eighteenth-century painted glass in England: the east window of Ely Cathedral by the Dublin-born James Pearson. Although it was never completed, remains of this window have been preserved in the cathedral and in the bishop's palace. The Ely work remains Pearson's earliest recorded and most substantial commission, and a reassessment is made of its significance in his long career as a glass-painter. Changes in the proposed iconography are studied in the light of contemporary attitudes to imagery and the place of the painted glass scheme is analysed in the complex and controversial restoration history of Ely Cathedral. The paper demonstrates that eighteenth-century painted glass played an important role in the adaptation of cathedrals to contemporary liturgical requirements: at Ely, it largely determined the placing and layout of the new choir.

Shortly after the Conquest the Honour of Blyth, comprising a large part of South Yorkshire and parts of Derby, Notts., and Lincoln, as well as manors in more distant counties, was granted to Roger de Busli, a Norman named from his manor of Builli-en-Bray near Neufchâtel, in the pasture country of north-east Normandy, a kinsman of the great house of Belesme. By the time of the Domesday Survey de Busli had moved the head of the Honour to Tickhill, where he had selected the site of his great castle, and in 1087–8 he decided to found a monastery at Blyth, not impossibly upon ground cleared by this transfer. His foundation charter endows the monks with the church of Blyth, &c., making it over to ‘the monks serving God in that place’. The priory was made subordinate to the abbey of Holy Trinity (elsewhere described as St. Katherine) at Rouen, on a pension of 405. The church is said to have been completed shortly after the death of the founder, who is known to have been dead in 1098, and just before that of his eldest son, who died in 1102. Another son, Arnaldus, who carried on the line, appears as a witness to the foundation charter, and a daughter, Beatrix, married Robert earl of Eu. The foundation had twenty-nine known priors, who came mainly from the abbeys and priories of Notts, and Yorkshire, and was dissolved in February 1535–6, when the eastern or monastic portion of the church was condemned to destruction, the area being included in the grant of the Blyth Hall estate, and the western or remainder became entirely parochial.

In 1939, having failed after much searching to locate any extant seal of Strongbow, I gave in Historic Heraldry of Britain (Oxford, 1939, pp. 36–7) such particulars as I could of two which have perished, one known by a drawing, the other by a photograph and description. Soon after the book's appearance a letter from Captain R. B. Haselden informed me that what I had been seeking existed in the Huntington Library, namely, a complete and almost perfect seal of Strongbow attached to a charter formerly at Stowe. To the historian, the sigillographer, and the herald alike, this seal is of exceptional interest: to the historian, because it is the only known seal extant of an important historical figure; to the sigillographer, because of the unique design of the counterseal; and to the herald, for its bearing on the early history of one of the two or three oldest heraldic devices.

Adjoining the northern boundary of the parish of Eastbourne and extending to the foot of the downs on the west, there is an area of arable land until recently forming part of the Motcombe Farm, part of the property of the Duke of Devonshire. The district was formerly called Northwick, and later Green Street: it was crossed by an ancient way called ‘Green Street Drove’, running east and west. The land has recently been acquired by the Corporation of Eastbourne for the purpose of their housing scheme and for allotments.

A copper-alloy scabbard chape of Viking-period type and date was found by a metal-detector user at Chatburn, Lancashire, in 1993. It has been acquired, through the good offices of the finder, Mr Steve Owen, and the landowners, the Trustees of The Hon R C Assheton's Settlement, by Blackburn Museum, where its registration number is 1995.14. Assistance is acknowledged from the following bodies with the costs of acquisition and conservation: the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the National Art Collections Fund and the North West Museums Service. Conservation has been carried out by the York Archaeological Trust.