1903 Kilpeck Parish Church 335 



beginnings of parish churches. The priest hermit celebrated 

 the holy communion at the altar within the cell, and communi- 

 cated his little flock at the door or entrance. But the rite of 

 holy baptism was administered at the door of the cell in 

 presence of all ; on such occasions, a small font (such as the 

 small font at Kilpeck) was used. 



Kilpeck parish church is mainly Norman work of the 

 twelfth century, and this is evidenced by the elaborate 

 chevron ornaments. It has been said to be partly Saxon 

 work, on account of the stunted or deformed figures on the 

 piers of the choir arch. I am not sure that this is a 

 characteristic of Saxon work, for frequently on later works 

 when crowding with ornaments and figures a very limited 

 space, the figures are carved with very short legs l rather 

 than cut them off entirely. I do not think the Saxons 

 or Normans made a study of half or three-quarter figures ; 

 in fact, such figures were very rarely used by them. The 

 first foundation of St. David's church is unknown. 



Kilpeck parish church is of small dimensions, but 

 elaborately ornamented both inside and outside at different 

 periods by different hands. The ornamentations are mainly 

 symbolical or allegorical. Let us begin studying the south 

 doorway ! This doorway is plainly late twelfth-century 

 Norman work. The carvings on the edge of the semi- 

 circular doorway-arch are intended to represent animal 

 creation ; the large eyes inserted among the created things 

 mean "God saw"; 2 the harp represents "It was good." 3 

 The tympanum shows a hypothetical representation of the 

 Tree of Life. On each doorpost is carved a tree (or rather 

 two representations of one tree) to represent the Tree of 

 Good and Evil. On the right-hand tree are to be seen 

 doves, i.e. peace or concord, and a serpent climbing up to 

 introduce discord. On the left doorpost the serpent is 

 carved head downwards, i.e. climbing down after having 

 finished his temptation ; also, there are on this doorpost two 

 human figures appearing one above the other — the top one 

 a little on the background holding a cross is the regenerate 



1 The Chinese and the Hindus are still representing human figures with short 

 legs for the same reason. 



- Gen. i. 4, io, 12, iS, 21, 25. ' J Ibid, 



