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XXIV. Description of the old Font in the Church of East Meon, Hampshire, 1789: with some Observations on Fonts. By Richard Gough, Director

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

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Extract

The two drawings which accompany this paper represent the general view and four sides of a singular and very antient font in the church of East Meon in Hampshire.

The two villages of the name of Meon now distinguished by East and West, were in the Confessor and Conqueror's time, known by the general name of Mene or Menes, and gave their name to this hundred.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1789

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References

page 183 note * See Plates XX. XXI.

page 183 note [a] In Mene hundred Domesday puts only Mene (Meon) and Stoches, ( ) In Menestoche hundred Menes (perhaps West Meon) and Menestoche (Meonstoke). Drocheneforde (Droxsord) is in a hundred of its own name with Benevde.

page 184 note [b] See Mr. Denne's Paper, Archæol. VIII. 218—220, & seq.

page 184 note [c] As also at Menestoche or Meonstoke.

page 184 note [d] So is the upper part of the font at Islip, Oxfordshire.

page 185 note [e] See the preceding Memoir.

page 186 note [h] See Pl. XXIII.

page 186 note [i] Britannia. I. 93.

page 186 note [k] The pillars of Preshute church have Saxon capitals. Ib. p. 119.

page 186 note [l] Ib. III. 73, from Bishop Gibson.

page 186 note [m] See Pl. XXIV.

On this font Sir H. C. Englefield observes, that “it is different in its form from any which he had ever seen; and appears to be of very high antiquity; its whole appearance is very much that of a sarcophagus; and it probably was taken from some vase of that kind. We find that when baptism ceased to be administered by immersion, and of course the baptisteria, built with great magnificence about the time of Constantine and his immediate successors, became useless, cinerary vases were frequently converted into fonts in Italy; and many such now remain applied to this day to the same use. Probably therefore, when the converted Saxons sent (as we know they did) for plans and workmen to Italy, they would often take their ideas of fonts from the vases they had seen applied to that use. The fonts of Winchester and Lincoln seem evidently to bear a sort of resemblance to such models; and the font here drawn has, in my opinion, a very, striking resemblance to vases of that description. This however is merely given as conjecture. This most antient and venerable seat now belongs to the family of Stapylton, to whom the title of Le Despencer devolved on the decease of Lord Francis; but was the chief mansion of the great and opulent family of Knollys, who had vast possessions in the neighbourhood. The church contains several most costly monuments to their memory.”

page 187 note [p] The leaden font is small, and set on a large shaft of stone.

The figures of the Apostles on the stone font at Ashover in Derbyshire are of lead. Topog. II. 60.

page 187 note [q] Hutchins, I. 34.

page 187 note [r] Hist. of Kiddington.

page 187 note [s] Oxfordsh. p. 364, c. x. § 124. Pl.

page 187 note [t] “Quod baptizandus possit in eo mergi.” Gibson's Codex, I. 435. See Blomefield, I. 472. The missal of 1528 directs three immersions. Gent. Mag. LV. 161, 162.

page 187 note [u] Collections for Gloucestershire, p. 130.

page 188 note [x] See Pl. XXV.

page 188 note [y] Camden's Brit. I. 200. Antiquarian Rep. III. 56.

page 188 note [z] Topographer, I. 61.

page 188 note [a] Engraved by Mr. Carter, No. VI.

page 188 note [b] Pref. to Leland's Collect. p. xxxix

page 188 note [c] Hist. of Essex, II. 80, 8vo. where it is engraved. Mr. Morant takes no notice of it, I. 282.

page 188 note [d] See Pl. XXIV.

page 188 note [e] Camden, Brit. III. 71.

page 189 note [f] Ib. II. 8. It is engraved in the Antiquarian Repertory.

page 189 note [g] Antiq. Rep. IV. 162.

page 189 note [h] Thorpe's Antiquities in Kent, p. 94. Pl. XI. The font at Hardres in Kent is square and plain. Ducarel, MS.

page 189 note [i] I. 598.

page 189 note [k] Pl. XXV.

page 189 note [l] Pl. XXIV.

page 189 note [m] Ducarel, MS.

page 189 note [n] Pl. XXVI.

page 190 note [o] Pl. XXV.

page 190 note [p] Gent. Mag. LVI. 193. LVII. 565, in which last it is engraved.

page 190 note [q] IV. 105.

page 190 note [r] See it engraved, Pl. XXVII.

page 191 note [s] Part of the ceremonial of baptism; putting on white garments, had reference to the resurrection, of which that of Christ was an earnest. Durand Rituale, p. cxxvi.

page 191 note [t] See. Gent. Mag. XLVII. 131. 157. 208. See also the Seal found at Glassenbury, Ib. XXII. 410, explained 459, without attending to the legend of St. Nicholas, to whom it doubtless refers.

page 191 note [u] Hutchins II. 116.

page 191 note [x] Hutchinson's Excursion to the Lakes, 366, 367. Camden's Brit. III. 111.

page 192 note [y] Grose.

page 192 note [z] Gent. Mag. LVI. 650, and plate.

page 192 note [a] See Pl. XXVII.

page 192 note [b] See Pl. XXIX.

page 194 note [c] Nichols's Leicestershire Collections, p. 1318.

page 194 note [d] Engraved in the same Collections, p. 261. Pl. V.

page 194 note [e] Description of Leicestershire, p. 306.

page 194 note [f] Camden, II. p, 86. Staveley, Hist. of Churches, p. 220.

page 194 note [g] Bibl. Top. Brit. N° LII. p. 17.

page 194 note [h] Hutchins's Dorset, I. 68.

page 195 note [i] Pl. LXI. p. 1184.

page 195 note [k] Ducarel's MS. penes me. It was engraved at his expence by J. Bayley 1768, given to Gent. Mag. 1778, XLVIII, and to Hist. of Luton, Bibl. Top. Brit. No. VIII. p. 651.

page 196 note [l] Blomefield's Collect. Cantab. Part II. p. 21. Hist. of Luton, ubi sup. p. 40.

page 197 note [m] Blomefield, V. 1186-7. The font was drawn and engraved by Mr. Carter in his XVIth Number with a description by Sir John Fenn, who thinks the tiles in the account were glazed ones for the pavement.

page 200 note [n] Camden, Ib 87. Account and print of it in Antiquarian Repertory, 181.

page 200 note [o] Camden, II. 242.

page 201 note [p] Hutchins, I. 88. Mr. Hutchins, I. 47. 101. says, the fonts at Bere Regis and Pimpern are very ancient but does not describe them.

page 201 note [q] Bingham, B. VIII. c. vii. Vol. III. 217.

page 201 note [r] Ib. B. XI. c. iv.

page 201 note [s] So Mr. Somner conjectured; at which Mr. Gostling expresses surprize.

page 201 note [t] Walk, p. 185. He seems, however, to give it up in his Appendix, p. 398. Mr. Denne thinks it a Lavatory.

page 201 note [u] Du Fresne in voce. Gent. Mag. XLVI. 58.

page 201 note [x] Gent. Mag. Ib.

page 202 note [y] Gent. Mag. ibid.

page 202 note [z] Ib. XLIV. 508.

page 202 note [a] Voc. Baptisterium. The parishioners of what was afterwards St. Nicholas' church in Rochester resorted to the cathedral before their parish church was built. There was also a parochial altar in Salisbury cathedral. Gent. Mag. XLVI. 59.

The present font in the latter church is octagon, having on four sides quatresoils and shields, and standing on an octagon shaft and base.

page 203 note [b] Reg. Nevil epi Sarum. f. 108.

page 203 note [c] Itin. III. 93.

page 203 note [d] Hutchins's Dorset II. 379. 380.

“The body of the abbay church dedicated to our Lady served ontill a hundrith yeres syns or more for the chiefe paroche church of the town. This was the cause of the abolition of the paroch chirch there. The monkes and the townsmen fell at variance, because the towsmen took privilege, &c. Allhallows chapel or church were one and the same building; a paroch church pulled down a late and the paroch church made in our lady church at the abbey.” Leland, Itin. III. 90.

page 204 note [e] Hist. of Churches, c. xiii. p. 217. 2d Edit.

page 204 note [f] Gregory Turonens. VI. c. ii.

They were probably succeeded there by holy water basons to be seen in every porch, or at the arch of the door within or without. See also Le Bœuf, l. 21.

page 205 note [g] Camden Brit. Cumberland, III. 170. ex Paulini Epist. 12.

page 205 note [h] Le Bœuf, Hist. de la ville & diocese de Paris, I. 20. 437.

page 205 note [i] Wilkins, Concilia, I. 636.

page 205 note [k] Ib. IV. 394.

page 205 note [l] So in the account of East Dereham font there is a charge of 2s. 5d. by William the plumber for ledyng the new font. See before p. 197.

page 206 note [m] Blomefield's Norfolk, I. 472.

page 206 note [n] The consecrated baptismal water used to be kept in the font. Archbishop Edmund 1236, ordained that it should not remain there more than seven days after the baptism of an infant. 2 E. VI. it was to be changed every month at least. Cullum's Hawsted, p. 46.

page 206 note [o] Antiquities of Luton, Bibl. Top. Brit. No. VIII.

page 206 note [p] See the print of the last by Vertue. It is adorned with four rams for sacrifice or Agni Dei, over them the symbols of the Evangelists, and between them angels with coats of arms. That at Ufford is superior, being elaborately executed and diminishing pyramidically to the very roof. Britannia, II. 86.

page 207 note [q] Cullum's Hawsted, p. 46.

page 207 note [r] Blomefield, III. 228.

page 207 note [s] Basnage, Thes. Mon. Eccles. & Hist. Canisii lectiones antiq. digest. I. c. 5. de ritibus de immersione quæ per 13 secula perseveravit dictum.

page 208 note [t] Book of certaine canons, &c. printed by Day, 1571, p. 19.

page 208 note [u] Advertisement for due Order in the Public Administration of Common Prayer, &c. 1584.

page 208 note [x] Ciampini de sacr. edific. Vaticani, c. iv. § 4.

page 208 note [y] Strutt's View of Manners, &c. II. Pl. VIII. 121. from Ross' MS. Lives of the Earls of Warwick.

page 208 note [z] See Lyndwood, lib. iii. tit. 24. de Baptismo. 25. Immersio.

page 208 note [a] P. 130.

page 209 note [b] Gent. Mag. XLIV. p. 500; and XLV. p. 13.