6o DERBYSHIRE FONTS. 



removed, owing to the fact that he considered their presence 

 caused the church " to look like a bad place," to use his own 

 words. 



Chaddesden. 



Here again we get another font which is something of a 

 freak, not only in general appearance, but in its method of 

 construction and design. 



In shape it is heptagonal, being, I believe, one of the only 

 four si>ecimens known to be constructed on this peculiar plan. 

 As far as shape was concerned, the favourite plan was that of an 

 octagon, while the square, from which sprang the octagon, 

 by chamfering off the corners, and the round planned bowls, 

 were also firm, but earlier, favourites among constructors of 

 mediaeval fonts. 



The general design is as nondescript as it is peculiar, and 

 in addition to the foregoing peculiarities it is constructed of no 

 less than three separate stones. 



From mere appearance it seems as though the bowl of the 

 present font was orginally the upper portion of a larger font, 

 which, so far from being perched on a very crazy-looking pedes- 

 tal, was continued downwards from its present base, having 

 the appearance of a heptagonal tub or vat, and consisting of 

 one block of stone to the base. 



The present broken and rough-looking upper portion of the 

 bowl was no doubt once a highly decorated projecting 

 cornice. 



The bowl, as it now is, is ornamented with trefoil-headed 

 tracery, such as was often used in the earlier examples of 

 Decorated style windows; the lower part of the stem or pedestal 

 is, I fancy — relying on memory — an octagon ; while the little 

 stone between the latter and the bowl is square in plan. 



The pedestal is rather of the shape of the later style of 

 ecclesiastical architecture, the Perpendicular, so that this font 

 is perhaps constructed of three distinctly different fonts, or at 

 any rate of two. 



