shire, in the cathedral and at
Thornton Curtis; and one at S. Peter's, Ipswich. Of four similar fonts
on the Continent, that at Zedelghem, near Bruges, is most like the
Winchester example, and also illustrates the same legend. The material
of which these fonts are made is a bluish-black calcareous marble, such
as is still worked at Tournai in Hainault. The font before us is a
nearly square block of marble supported on a solid central column
ornamented with horizontal mouldings, with four disengaged pillars of
lesser diameter, with "cable" mouldings, at each corner. The spandrels
of the top are decorated with carved symbolic subjects, leaves and
flowers on two sides, and on the other two doves drinking from vases out
of which issue crosses, typifying baptism, it is said. It is rather
curious that the artist has disregarded the usual symmetry, and filled
his spaces without reference to the corresponding ones. On the north and
east faces of the font are three circular medallions with symbolic doves
and salamanders. On the south and west are scenes from the life of S.
Nicholas of Myra, as was fully demonstrated by Milner; the north side
showing the saint dowering the three daughters of a poor nobleman, while
on the west he restores to life a drowned person, probably the king's
son in one of the stories of his life, and rescues from death by the axe
three young men who are about to be slain either by the executioner or
by a wicked innkeeper, for there are two versions. Some authorities
would find four scenes represented on the west side; but on what grounds
it is difficult to see. There only appear to be two figures of the
saint, and the two scenes are divided by what looks like a short
vertical bar indicating a difference of subject (see p. 117). The cult
of S. Nicholas of Myra grew rapidly in the twelfth century, being
popularised by the crusaders. In this century it is known that the
carved work at Tournai, whence it is probable that the black marble
came, was remarkable for its symbolism. The font has been thought to be
older, on account of its archaic figures, but, as the Dean of Winchester
pointed out in a paper read before the Archaeological Association in
1893 (to which we are indebted for much of this account), the mitre
which S. Nicholas is represented as wearing was not recognised as part
of a bishop's official dress until the very end of the eleventh century;
in fact, the particular form of mitre depicted appears t