151 



I3erljgs1^tte iFonts. 



By G. Le Blanc Smith. 



(Photographs by the Author.) 



TRANSITIONAL-NORMAN AND EARLY ENGLISH 

 PERIODS. 



ERBYSHIRE can only claim, with any certainty, two 

 specimens of fonts of the Transitional-Norman 

 period, these being at Winster and Ffenny Bentley. 

 Of these two the former is by far the more interest- 

 ing, for it combines work of some hundreds of years after the 

 date of its actual construction. 



WINSTER. Figs, i, 2, 3. 

 This font is really made in two parts, the bowl and the 

 pedestal, or shaft, both being of separate stones. The bowl 

 is circular in plan, divided into eight panels by straight lines 

 of moulding ; these lines of moulding are continued on the shaft, 

 which is octagonal, forming the edges of each side. 



It is a most puzzling font as to date, for there are so many 

 ornaments of a varied nature and of a style which might make 

 it range from 1200 to 1500 in date. The basis, however, of 

 the whole thing seems to be the short period of Transition 

 which followed the wealth of the late Norman work. The 

 Norman had now so far advanced his work and improved his 

 powers of sculpture that his masses of oft-repeated, ornate 

 details were fast becoming wearisome from their frequent 

 repetition. At this time the Early English style — English as 

 opposed to the Romanesque influence of the Norman — ^began 

 to make its appearance. The immediate result of this was 



