190 SUPPOSED INSCRIPTION UPON THE FONT AT WILNE. 
all 15 figures in this belt, five large and ten small. A large boss 
is placed at the intersection of the bars, and their ends are lost 
under a conventional leaf; these details look late. A portion of 
this belt, very roughly represented, is shewn on Plate XIII, fig. 2. 
Next above comes a belt of acanthus leaves, 7 inches wide. Above 
that again a belt 19 inches wide filled with spiral scrolls, alternately 
branching off to left and right. Whether the scrolls carry animals 
in them or only leaves or fruit, cannot now be determined with 
certainty ; many years ago birds could be discovered in the scrolls 
and roses. Then another belt 17 inches wide with animals much 
decayed, and above that another r2 inches wide with scrolls like- 
wise much decayed. At the top is a heavy cap, on the bevelled 
surface of which there are signs of interlacing work. The whole 
column tapers gently upwards, and some 83 feet from the ground 
the girth is about the same as that of the bottom of the Wilne 
pillar, which may of course have been part of a great column of 
this character. The absence of the Christian figures or busts 
which usually stand above the animals and birds and worms on 
English sculptured stones is a feature which calls for remark. It 
points, perhaps, to the erection of this magnificent column either 
at a period when the original meaning of sculptured stones had 
been forgotten, or by people who lightly regarded the Christian 
faith, and copied the non-Christian part of the sculptured pillars 
they saw in the neighbourhood. So far as I could see, the ani- 
mals are not hampered and fettered as in other cases, but the 
quadruped whose front half is cut off at the right of figure 2 has, 
I think, his off fore leg raised in submission. It is necessary to 
say that my observations and measurements and rubbings were 
made in a drizzling rain, and though the Rector had kindly made 
full provision of ladders, and the sacristan gave me every assist- 
ance, the circumstances were not in favour of a solution of the 
intricacies of the patterns, now in a baffling state of decay. Three 
or four hours, too, are a very inadequate time to spend on such a 
monument as this, even in the best of weather. A second visit 
would no doubt enable me to correct some errors, and to solve 
some problems left open in the figure. For example, the animal 
