182 Notes on Churches visited in 1898. 
which it is built is 3ft. 54in. thick : that the arch itself is an insertion — 
is shown by the relieving arch not being carried up from the 
springing—on the north side it starts about 3ft. and on the 
south about 2ft. 3in. above that point, and I am informed by the 
Rector that the arch was raised from the level of the parts of the 
relieving arch seen below, in 1812, to make room for a family pew. 
There is a. piscina of decidedly early type in the south wall of 
the nave, about 4ft. from the east end, and a later one in the corres- 
ponding position in the north wall. In the chancel, near the 
south-east angle, is a detached piscina 3ft. high, consisting of a 
circular shaft let into the paving, and having a “‘ cushion ” cap 
10in. square, and a curious circular base very like the cap at 
Jarrow, which is illustrated in Rickman and other works. Inside 
the new doorway of the extended nave is a stoup, the bowl of 
which is very similar to this base. Rickman calls this Jarrow cap 
Saxon (and it certainly gives one that impression), but Parker, in 
his later work! states that it has been proved that the Church was 
built under Walcher, Bishop of Durham, after 1075. There is a 
fragment of Norman sculpture built into the south wall of the © 
nave showing a head, the cap of a column, and parts of two arches. 
The early walls do not appear to have had any buttress or pilasters 
at the quoins. The Rector states that when the chancel floor was 
laid in 1865 there were found the foundations of the Saxon apse 
and that a low window was at some previous period of restoration 
destroyed in the south walls of the chancel, where the lower jambs 
of a doorway still exist. 
The font, which is illustrated in Paley’s Baptismal Fonts, is a 
circular one of “tub” shape with tapered sides, 2ft. 9in. in diameter 
at the top, and is richly ornamented by ten arched panels filled 
with figures which are as follows—all excepting No. 2 are trampling 
on crouched figures at the foot: the inscriptions (which are here 
literally transcribed) recording the names of the principal figures 
(eight of which represent Virtues) are cut on the arches of the 
openings, and those of the minor figures (eight of which are 
1 Introduction to Gothic Architecture. 
