I remember none
of great antiquity, nor any old monument, except that in the chancel,
over the knight and lady of the Ratcliffe family. This consists of a
slab of stone, on four small stone pillars, about two feet high. The
slab is inlaid with a brass plate, on which is sculptured the knight in
armor, and the lady in the costume of Elizabeth's time, exceedingly well
done and well preserved, and each figure about eighteen inches in length.
The sexton showed us a rubbing of them on paper. Under the slab, which,
supported by the low stone pillars, forms a canopy for them, lie two
sculptured figures of stone, of life size, and at full length,
representing the same persons; but I think the sculptor was hardly equal
in his art to the engraver.
The most-curious antique relic in the church is the font. The bowl is
very capacious, sufficiently so to admit of the complete immersion of a
child of two or three months old. On the outside, in several
compartments, there are bas-reliefs of Scriptural and symbolic subjects,
--such as the tree of life, the word proceeding out of God's mouth, the
crown of thorns,--all in the quaintest taste, sculptured by some hand of
a thousand years ago, and preserving the fancies of monkish brains, in
stone. The sexton was very proud of this font and its sculpture, and
took a kindly personal interest, in showing it; and when we had spent as
much time as we could inside, he led us to Southey's grave in the
churchyard.
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