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columns, are here carved in the forms of saints carrying their various attributes ; 

 clearly one or more of the Apostles are among them, for here is St. Peter bearing 

 a key. In the south wall of the chancel or choir are an Early English window 

 and a Priest's doorway, probably inserted about the middle of the thirteenth 

 century. The apse is vaulted with ribs, ornamented with Norman zig-zag, and 

 having a central boss composed of grotesque heads, very similar to work at 

 Elkstone, in Gloucestershire. The font is one of those large shallow bowls of the 

 twelfth century workmanship, of which several remain in the county of Hereford. 

 One almost similar in size and in shape is at Bredwardine Church, in this diocese. 

 The great size of the font points to the rule in the mediaeval times of immersing 

 infants instead of, what is now the rule, aspersing or sprinkling them. In the 

 apse there is a holy water stoup, having a pair of arms clasped round it, which 

 appears to be of very ancient date, probably as old as any portion of the church. 

 In conclusion be it observed that, although the general design of this church is of 

 an ordinary type, the style of sculpture has a character of its own. For, while the 

 twelfth century sculptors generally in England adopted eagerly that mixture of 

 Byzantine and Romanesque ornament which was introduced from Normandy, 

 developing it in a fashion of their own, the man who did this work of Kilpeck 

 church evidently set himself to adapt the ancient style which was then dying out 

 in these islands of the west. And although we see frequent instances in which 

 that style peeps out in the late Norman work, yet this was the only part of the 

 country in which any determined effort was made to work in that old manner 

 which was doomed to disappear before the great artistic revival then taking place 

 in Western Europe. 



NOTES ON KILPECK CHURCH. 

 By the Rev. Sir George H. Cornewall, Bart. 

 The interest attaching to Kilpeck (church does not lie only in the remarkable 

 sculptures by which it is enriched, but its design recalls the ancient Roman 

 Basilica, and, therefore, the earliest type of Christian church, at least in the west. 

 English churches are usually terminated to the eastward by a flat wall, instead of 

 the apse or "chevet" which is so universal on the Continent, where, as at Kilpeck, 

 the church is terminated by a semi-circular apse, we at once perceive that the 

 design is an uncommon one. Such an arrangement can only be explained by 

 saying that we have here a church modelled on the Roman Basilica or Hall of 

 Justice. The Roman Basilica was placed usually in the Forum, and consisted of 

 a nave longer than broad, supported on columns with a flat roof, and terminated 

 by a large semi-circular apse, wherein against the east wall was the seat of the 

 quaestor, and on the steps on either side were ranged the assessors ; an altar, on 

 which libations were poured before any important business was transacted, 

 occupied a position nearly identical with that in which the Christian altar would 

 be placed, and a space was railed from the nave, wherein the pleadings took 

 place ; the spacious nave itself was also used by merchants as a place of exchange. 

 The Roman Basilicas were grander and more imposing than the heathen temples, 

 and when the Empire was converted to Christianity, there was little difficulty in 



