BRAZEN ALMS-DISH, TIDESWELL. I43 



they may have been much more plentiful in a more lenient age, 

 and the prudish i.leas of later days may have seen the destruc- 

 tion of many a fine specimen. 



The connection between the Fall of our forebears and the 

 act of charity, or alms-giving, is far from apparent.^ 



In three of the four specimens which have come to my 

 knowledge the figures of Adam and Eve occupv the same sides 

 of the tree as here ;2 the Serpent is similarly coiled, but lacks 

 scales in the Devonshire example ; and in the cases of the two 

 English examples Eve receives the apple while Adam's hand is 

 outstretched to grasp it, but in the Scotch specimen Adam 

 plucks an apple himself with his left hand. On the Devonshire 

 dish the figures are entirely unclad ; while in that at St. Ninian's 

 they are partly hidden by foliage growing from the ground. 



1 Probably because poverly is one of the results of the Fall.— Editor. 

 <<-ru" ^^'''^ Cliristian Symbolism, by I. RomiHy Allen, the author'says ■ 

 1 hroughout all periods of Christian Art, Eve is generally shown on the 

 right hand side of the tree, and Adam on the left ; but the rule is not always 

 adhered to. ' We thus see an arrangement which has been more or less m 

 orce since a.D. 50, but why? What does it symbolize? The curious round 

 leaves here, and particularly at Dunsford, seem to be a survival of the berries 

 or fruit universally shown in early Celtic Art, when this subject was under 

 treatment. • ^ 



