Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/48

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. v. JAN. 13, \m.

ever, examples in various other parts of England.

Mr. Combe, in his 'Illustrations of Bap- tismal Fonts ' (usually called erroneously Nettlecombe, Somersetshire, and one at Walsoken, Norfolk ; and I have sketches of two panels of one at Farningham, Kent, made for me by the late Mr. J. Lewis Andre in 1890.
 * Paley's Fonts '), figures two of them : one at

These fonts are generally Perpendicular work ; they are octagonal. Seven of the sides bear illustrations of the sacraments ; the eighth, often a representation of the Crucifixion. That of Nettlecombe, however, has symbols of the blessed Trinity on its eighth panel. The sacraments represented are baptism, confirmation, penance, holy Eucharist, orders, matrimony, and extreme unction.

At Farningham the last subject is illus- trated in a very remarkable manner : the wafer is being administered to a person in violent convulsions. In the sacrament of marriage, as represented on this font, the lady wears the headdress of the time of Edward IV. ; and on the Nettlecombe font the costume of all the figures is of the same date. In all early pictures and carvings it was the custom of the artist to dress his personages in the costume of his own period, so by observing the dresses on monuments, we are enabled to fix the date of them pretty accurately.

The font at Walsoken has this inscription on its stem : *' Reme'ber | ye the Soul of | S. Honyter | & Margaret | his wife | and John' | Beforth Chapli' " ; and on the base is carved the date 1544. EMMA SWANN.

Walton Manor, Oxford.

Where F. K. gets his authority for father- ing the desecration of the sculpture on the Gorleston Church font upon " the notorious Will Dowsing " does not appear in evidence. We know this man whom the Earl of Man- chester appointed "visitor of the Suffolk churches " in 1643 prided himself upon hi iconoclastic performances. But he had his compeers in the general work of destruction Mr. A. C. Fryer, F.S.A., in his paper ' Upon Fonts with Representations of the Seven Sacraments,' to be found in vol. lix. (Seconc Series, vol. ix.) of The Archaeological Journa (1902), remarks :

"Gorleston's font suffered severely abou A.D. 1643 at the hands of one Francis Jessup, win in his 'Journal' remarks of Gorleston, 'We di( deface the font and the cross there-on.' and adds h lamented he ' could not destroy the stained glass i the upper windows, as no one in Gorleston woul lend him a ladder.'"

Ancient fifteenth and sixteenth century ctagonal fonts upon which the sacraments- re carved are by no means rare. Upon the ighth side usually occurs a representation f the Crucifixion, but sometimes of the aptism of Christ by St. John Baptist. In- wo instances the subject is the Last Judg- lent. It is thus at Gorleston. The Blessed

irgin and other figures are introduced inta thers.

As a modern instance of a seven-sacrament culptured font I may add that I placed one i the church of St. Cuthbert's, Kensington,. .W., so recently as 1888. HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

In the Journal of the Royal Archaeological nstitute, 1902, there is given a complete list, nd photographs of the examples, in England, 'he numbers given are in Norfolk sixteen, in uffolk eleven, and in the counties of Kent nd Somerset one example each, twenty-nine nail.

In the volume for 1903 the fonts with epresentation of the holy Eucharist and oly baptism are more fully described (with >hotographs) than in the earlier volume. The uthor of both papers is Mr. Alfred Fryer, i\8JL ANDREW OLIVER.

The church of All Saints, Marsham, con-

ains one of these fonts, in good preserva-

_ion. There is some doubt as to what the

eighth panel represents, but I think it is

either Purgatory or the preaching to the

ouls in Hades. A. T. M.

DOGS IN WAR (10 th S. iv. 488, 537). An article entitled ' War Dogs ' appeared in The Nineteenth Century for March, 1905.

A special article on 'Ambulance Dogs in War ' appeared in The British Medical Journal, 10 Dec., 1904. HENRY ROGERS.

MELTON CLOTH : MELTON JACKET (10 th S. iv. 467, 490) The name was certainly derived from Melton Mowbray. On Easter Monday, 1838, at Drury Lane Theatre, a piece was produced called 'The Meltonians,' described as "a perfectly illegitimate drama and extravaganza in two acts." The action takes place on the outskirts of Melton Mowbray ; several of the characters are "in Melton costume," which is shown on the frontispiece as a coat with rounded tails. The " gentle- men " had been hunting, and then painted the toll-house and toll-gate red. AYEAHR.

FINAL "E" IN CHAUCER (10 th S. iv. 42&, 472). I am much obliged to PROF. SKEAT for his courteous and esteemed reply to my query under this head. Although the ques-