The Parish Church. 281 



suppose, the font which belonged to the earliest chareh that was 

 built for Potterne. It is made of stone, circular in form, and of 

 simple, almost rude, workmanship. An engraving- of thi"3 most in- 

 teresting relic is given, from which our readers may be able to form 

 a fair idea of it. Its dimensions are as follows : — ■ 



Round the upper rim of the font is a Latin inscription, cut in 

 antique characters : " sicur CEiivus desiderat ad foktes aquarim 



ITA DESIDERAT A^IMA IXEA AD TE DEUS. AJIEN.""^ [Like as the hart 



desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my Soul after thee, O (iod. 

 Psalm xlii., 1]. Though it helj)s us little in oiu- enquiry as to the 

 precise date of the font, it is a matter of some interest that the quo- 

 tation is not from the Vulgate, but from an alternative reading in a 

 version of St. Jerome. 



The following remarks by Mr. Christian, the architect under 

 whose direction the recent restoration was carried out, will be read 

 with interest. " This font," he writes, " is of very early date, and 

 much older than the existing church. Its general form and outline 

 is quite different to anything I have ever seen of the work of the 

 thirteenth century, but is quite in accordance with that of Saxou 

 times. The inscription, as far as my experience goes, is unique, and 

 is written in characters which so far as I know have not been in use 

 since theConquest. Those most nearly resembling them are to be found 

 in a copy of St. Cuthbert's Gospels in the British Museum, the date 

 of which is given as the beginning of the eighth century. My theory 

 is, that, when the ancient Church in the valley was abandoned and 

 the new one built in the thirteenth century, the ancient font was re- 

 moved, andthat afterwards in the fifteenth century, when, as the tower 

 clearly shews, a good deal of work was done at the Church, a new font 

 was made, and the old one buried beneath the floor. The men of the 



