"]6 ON DERBYSHIRE PLUMBERY, OR WORKINGS IN LEAD. 



and that he should decide upon the use of a material so peculiarly 

 associated with that midland shire ? * 



The way in which these leaden fonts were constructed seems 

 to have been to cast them flat in the first instance, and then to 

 bend them into the required circular shape. The join, where 

 the edges were soldered up, is usually obvious, as at Ashover, 

 and sometimes not a little interferes with the pattern. The figures 

 and ornaments are often mere repetitions, a single one being 

 most likely carved in wood and then impressed on the sand as 

 often as required to complete the design, which would be a great 

 saving in the expense. Thus, at Ashover only two figures were 

 carved, but each were re-used ten times. 



Lead found not only its chief use but its chief capacity for 

 ornamental treatment in English domestic work, in connection 

 with the conveyance of rain from roofs and walls. It was not, 

 we believe, until the sixteenth century that the idea of continuous 

 downcast rain-pipes attached to the wails was conceived ; at all 

 events, it was not until that century that it came into anything 

 like general operation. The object previously was to discharge 

 the water into the air by projecting pipes, usually passing through 

 gurgoyles, at some little distance from the walls. The way in 

 which this was sometimes accomplished by a lead spout from a 

 lead gutter is shown in the accompanying drawing of one of the 

 gutters and spouts above the projecting or oriel windows of Mr. 

 Gadsby's old house at the back of Tenant Street, Derby. 





* There is a good drawing of this font in the Sussex Archaological 

 Collections, vol. xxxii., p. 78. 



