178 REMINISCENCES OF OLD ALLESTREE. 
kind on the minds of the people; there is evidence enough of 
this in the splendid illuminated MSS. preserved at Chatsworth,* 
and in other great libraries of this country. 
The crypt at Repton is almost entirely classic in treatment, 
nearly every abacus and capital, and most of the ornamentation 
of arches, as in this at Allestree (see the three rough sketches 
taken from fragments at Allestree, which are portions of the 
outer circle of the doorway), remind one of this style. The 
south doorway at Kedleston, and the one in the cloister at South- 
well, where there is a skull almost identical with a Roman 
Metope in its treatment, also owe their 
NK ICICI DS, design to classic influence ; so that though 
ESET ISNG we cannot claim for this doorway a Saxon 
ZEEE FS origin, yet it appears from the rudeness 
of its sculptures to be of an early date in 
Anglo-Norman times. True, this church 
is not mentioned in the Domesday 
Survey; but it was then in existence just 
as much as Mackworth and Kedleston 
‘eal 
LAIIPEIS SI 
were, and is, probably, older than either 
—<y Of them. The beak-heads round the 
| second circle have at first sight the 
appearance of being rude attempts to 
represent skulls of sheep, some of them 
being horned, they are certainly not intended to represent heads of 
birds ; they may be demons, for in early MSS., and some early 
remains of wall paintings, these gezz7 are represented with long noses 
much like beaks ; there is an example on one of the piers at Mel- 
bourne. Whatever they may be, it is certain that in later times they 
became much more decorative and ornamental in their treatment, 
as is the case at Iffley, in Oxfordshire, 1160,+ where they are very 
elaborately ornamented. ‘There are other instances in which this 
ornamental character is gone, and the beaks are little more than 
* Benedictional of Géthelwold, etc. 
+ ‘* Rickman,” pp. 130-2. 
