Page:Illustrations of baptismal fonts (IA illustrationsofb00comb).pdf/21

Norman Fonts very often stand upon a single massive circular stem; and their design sometimes resembles a very depressed pier, the bowl forming the capital, and the plinth the base. Examples in our series are Thornbury and Wester leigh, Gloucestershire, and St. Philip, Bristol. Accordingly with this principle, the square form is the most frequent in this period. Now the octagon arose simultaneously, or nearly so, in Fonts and in capitals; and though in the former case a symbolical meaning, that of Regeneration, has been attached to this shape, yet its origin is apparently constructive, from removing each superfluous and projecting angle of a square. In some cases this is shewn by the upper part of the bowl being octagonal, the lower square, as at Winfurthing, Norfolk, and Whaplode, Lincolnshire. Probably from this cause arises the fact, that pentagonal, hexagonal, or heptagonal Fonts are extremely rare; namely, because these shapes are of less ready geometric formation. But of these we shall speak hereafter. The practice of raising Fouts on several steps is not uncommon even in early instances, as at Tallington, Lincolnshire, and Newenden, Kent. These steps are square, circular, or octagonal, without distinction of date. Perpendicular Fonts are sometimes mounted on a series of five or six steps, as at Walsoken, Norfolk; and the edges or risers of these steps are often richly panelled with sunken quatrefoils or other tracery, as at Walsingham, St. Peter's Man-croft, Norwich, and Worsted, Norfolk. Sometimes the steps are in the form of a cross, as at Stoke-by- 17