Suzanne Beedell

When I was younger,I enjoyed travelling to various Churches in my area that had a Brass Memorial or two. These I would cover with a roll of plain white paper and carefully rub over with black Heelball,to reproduce a copy of the figures there.I finished up with quite a collection of knights and ladies,merchants and others. All regretfully now lost. I often thought when taking these rubbings,of some of the Malden and James ghost stories which make mention of this harmless pass-time but which always in the stories had somewhat unfortunate results for the main character.I am thinking in particular of the R.H. Malden story in 'Nine Ghosts','The Priest's Brass'. A spine-chiller indeed.
This book is one of the better starter volumes about this subject. It gives a brief history of monumental brasses and then splits the subjects into various categories. it then goes on to details of the actual process involved in taking the rubbings themselves.It ends up with a list of brasses in the various English counties and with a Bibliography. A good selection of illustrations completes the book.… (more)