DERBYSHIRE FONTS. 



53 



Early English sculptor would use, i.e., a square, for delicacy 

 and lightness are predominant features in that style, and this 

 great clumsy block of stone can lay claim to neither of these 

 necessary attributes. Then, again, the weakly cut design (a 

 feature of Decorated work, as we have seen), and the very 

 nature of the design itself, is redolent of the early days of 

 the Decorated style, which succeeded the days of plate-tracery. 



Fig. 2. — Bakewell (faces 8, I, 2, 3). 



Here is the geometrical tracery with which the early days of 

 Decorated architecture opened, i.e., a quatrefoil. 



What may partly have influenced Paley is the curious likeness 

 to a font in Leicestershire, at Twyford ; here is a somewhat 

 similar design on a square font (now supported on legs), and 

 this font has the dog-tooth ornament on its angles. This dog- 

 tooth lends a suspicion that the font is the work of Early English 

 carvers; this is most probable, but we find the font of the 



