INSCRIPTION ON THE FONT AT CHELMOkTON. O 



engraving; so that each inscription is within and surrounded 

 by the side on which it is engraved. 



We are now in a position to consider the inscription. The 

 figures are very rudely cut, but are very plain. The first and 

 third are clearly hilts of swords, and the one differs from the 

 other not only in being reversed, but in shape, and the one 

 has ribs round the part to be held by the hand, whilst the 

 other is plain. Mr. Waller, so high an authority on such 

 matters, informs us that swords with hilts of this form were 

 used very early in the East, and that he should expect to find 

 something typical in the hilts of swords used as these appear 

 to be. As the Baptist was beheaded in Palestine, it may well 

 be inferred that an Eastern sword was used. No such hilts 

 were used in England, if at all, until long after the font was 

 made ; and consequently these hilts are typical. But it may 

 be asked, how could such hilts be known at Chelmorton ? 

 Two answers may be given. There are gravestones of warriors 

 in the churchyard there of very ancient date, with swords 

 engraved upon them. These warriors may have been Crusaders, 

 and may have brought Eastern swords home with them. The 

 hilts on the tombs are, no doubt, like those of their own 

 swords, and they differ entirely from those on the font, as may 

 be seen from their representations,* which supports the opinion 

 that the latter are typical. 



Again, there is a tradition that a Biddulph, of Biddulph, in 

 Staffordshire, which is, perhaps, some fifteen miles from Chel- 

 morton, brought home with him from one of the crusades a 

 number of Saracens, whose descendants still remain, and by 

 their strange manners testify to their foreign origin, and they 

 naturally would bring their swords with them. Either way, 

 therefore, the knowledge of such hilts as are upon the font 

 may be explained. It hardly need be added that no emblem 

 could more appropriately represent a martyrdom than the hilt 

 of a sword by which it was effected. Similar emblems are by 

 no means uncommon. 



• XXVI. Arch. J., 262. 



