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REMINISCENCES OF OLD ALLESTREE. 179 
triangular blocks of stone. The Anglo-Saxons have been credited 
with a large amount of thick-headedness and incapacity, but they 
could not have been so stupid, else how did they paint those 
beautiful MSS.? It would puzzle some of their clever detractors 
to execute any thing at all like them; and some of our esthetic 
artists have borrowed not a little from them directly or indirectly. 
Though we cannot prove that this old doorway is their work, we 
can say it is very early work, even if we put it as of the time of 
Edward the Confessor, 1050; he did, there is no doubt, exercise 
a great influence in his time, though, perhaps, not so much as he 
is credited with. Monkish historians were not immaculate, they 
could write a man up or write him down to suit their purpose. 
Here we will leave the matter, just, however, calling the 
reader’s attention to a curious and interesting articleon “The 
Numerical Principles of Gothic Art,” by Mr. Clapton Rolfe, in 
the “ Antiquary,” Vol. X., pp. 147 and 209. Much has been 
written on apocalyptic symbolism, in which certain numbers play 
an important part. These numbers are traced in the architecture 
of the early Christian builders ;—the numbers 1, 3, 5, and 7. 
Looking at our etching, we see three courses of voussvoirs ; the 
innermost has the chevron ornament, triangles, and dot, for the 
Trinity in Unity; next, the row of beak-heads, five without 
horns, for the five-fold passion of Christ ; then seven with horns, 
for the seven-fold graces of the Holy Spirit; then a repetition of 
the Sacrificial number five. Then the Church at Allestree had but 
one aisle, and in that aisle three arches, but whether this is all 
mere coincidence or accident, we cannot say; but it looks very 
much as though these numerical principles exist in the ex- 
ample before us; and Mr. Rolfe says—‘‘So persistently did 
Churchmen work upon these lines in the ground plans of their 
buildings, that every Basilicon Church erected at Rome during the 
first thousand years of the Christian era, was either a ove, three, or 
five aisled building.” 
We must now return to the vicar’s garden, to look at the pillar. 
When it was erected there was no garden or house, but a field, 
having a gravel path leading to the church. The front of the 
