Sir Thomas
is dressed in ruff and doublet; white shoes with roses in them; and
has a peaked yellow, or, as Master Slender would say, "a
cane-colored beard." His lady is seated on the opposite side of the
picture, in wide ruff and long stomacher, and the children have a most
venerable stiffness and formality of dress. Hounds and spaniels are
mingled in the family group; a hawk is seated on his perch in the
foreground, and one of the children holds a bow;- all intimating the
knight's skill in hunting, hawking, and archery- so indispensable to
an accomplished gentlemen in those days.*(2)
* This effigy is in white marble, and represents the Knight in
complete armor. Near him lies the effigy of his wife, and on her
tomb is the following inscription; which, if really composed by her
husband, places him quite above the intellectual level of Master
Shallow:
Here lyeth the Lady Joyce Lucy wife of Sr Thomas Lucy of Charlecot
in ye county of Warwick, Knight, Daughter and heir of Thomas Acton
of Sutton in ye county of Worcester Esquire who departed out of this
wretched world to her heavenly kingdom ye 10 day of February in ye
yeare of our Lord God 1595 and of her age 60 and three.
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