was destroyed, mention of it survived in legal deeds as a boundary description until the eighteenth century. The Statue in Nettuno A wooden statue of the Madonna and Child displayed in the local church of the Italian seaside town of Nettuno closely matches various descriptions of the Ipswich statue. The statue is known locally as "Our Lady of Grace" or "The English Lady". Radio carbon dating places the era when the tree was felled to provide the wood of which the statue is carved at circa 1280 to 1420 with 94% certainty. There is also evidence in the Nettuno archives that a statue arrived there from Ipswich in 1550. It was classified as being in the English iconic style in 1938 by Martin Gillett, an historian of 13th century iconography. Although the statue had been altered (a throne had been replaced and the posture of the Christ child had changed), details such as the folds in the material and Christ's position on the right rather than the left knee suggest that the statue came from England. At the time of the Battle of Anzio during the Second World War, Nettuno's statue was temporarily moved to Rome for safe keeping. During restoration work on the statue in 1959 an inscription was found on its back with the words IU? ARET GRATIOSUS, a rendition of the Marian phrase, "Thou art gracious". Ipswich was the only Marian shrine in England dedicated to Our Lady of Grace. Even more striking, when Martin Gillett first examined the statue in 1938, it was wearing two half shoes made of English silver, just like those described by Thomas Cromwell's steward 400 years before. There are two theories as to how the statue may have reached Italy. One theory is that it was sold by an English official (perhaps Thomas Cromwell) instead of being burnt. A second version of the story, popular in Nettuno, is that the statue was rescued by English sailors before it could be burnt, and smuggled on board a ship. In the Mediterranean they met a storm and took refuge in Nettuno and they donated the statue. Moreover, a scientific analysis of a sliver of wood from the base of the statue has been found to have a high salt content - suggesting that it had at some point been in contact with seawater or sea spray. As part of the Nettuno celebrations, thousands