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from Sir George Cornewall, who is unfortunately unable to be present with us 

 to-day, some very interesting remarks on the subject of the ancient Basilicas, on 

 which style the architecture of Kilpeok is undoubtedly modelled, which I have 

 his permission to read. For the following remarks I am indebted almost wholly to 

 an excellent paper read by one of your members, Mr. Thomas Blashill, before the 

 British ArchtBological Association, at the Hereford Congress in 1870. We enter 

 at the South door. In the arch of this doorway the general design is quite 

 consistent with ordinary English work of the twelfth century. We have the 

 Noiman zig-zag and star-shaped sinkings. The outer ornament of the arch is 

 composed of medallions joined together by grotesque masques, as in the font of 

 Stottesdon, in Shropshire. Some of the medallions contain birds exactly like 

 those on the twelfth century font at Winchester. The tympanum is filled with 

 ordinary carvings representing the vine. The rim of heads and grotesque figures 

 which surrounds it is a remarkable adaptation of the common twelfth century 

 ornament called the beak or cat's head. The figures amongst foliage on the left- 

 hand side of the doorway are said to be in Anglo-Saxon costume -an ordinary 

 graver of the period would have certainly put them in Norman armour, or in 

 some more graceful shape, as in the sculpture of the west doorway of Chartres 

 Cathedral. Many of the quaint little pieces of sculpture in the Corbel Table, 

 which runs round the eaves of the building, represent such subjects as resemble 

 at any rate the signs of the Zodiac, and all sorts of grotesque men and animals. 

 In two places, one over the south doorway, and again at the east end, appears 

 the distinct mark of Christianity, the Lamb of God, and the Cross of Salvation. 

 The west end of the church has for its most remarkable feature the three strange 

 gargoyles, which project from the wall of the church just as in old timber con- 

 structions the ends of the wall-plates were made to project, and were carved into 

 fanciful shapes. Indeed, this feature looks like the reminiscence of some previous 

 timber building. These strange heads of crocodiles or dragons may be compared 

 with the monstrous snake-like figures which twine about the doorway. I cannot 

 but think that they represent, wherever they occur, that old serpent or dragon, 

 the Devil. At the south doorway he is found tempting man to sin, and to eat the 

 forbidden fruit ; while at the west end, he is represented in three forms being 

 driven away from the church. Mr. Blashill points out that the prevalence of 

 such figures and grotesque forms is highly characteristic of the Celtic School of 

 ornament. These were indeed afterwards adopted and largely introduced into 

 all the succeeding periods of Gothic Art. The belief in dragons was quite 

 common down to the 17th century ; the learned classifying them in species as a 

 zoologist would now classify a particular genus of animals. The ornament 

 in the west window is almost purely Celtic, and may be compared with the Irish 

 crosses and carved stones. The columns at the sides are of the same size as the 

 roll above them. This is quite an Irish feature, and betrays a want of knowledge 

 of the relation which a column bears to the arch it carries. A Romanesque 

 architect would have made the column smaller, and ,the arch more square in 

 section, with a small roll moulding or zig-zag ornament on the edge. The chancel 

 arch is of ordinary Norman character. Its jambs, usually ornamented with 



