138 



anir Peniliric Mou itt Miinniii^t^r/' 



By the Eev. J. Baeon, D.D., F.S.A.* 



^f^>HIS stoiKJj represented in an autotype plate annexed, was 

 ||f^| found during the restoration of St. Peter's Church, Codford, 

 Wilts, in 1864, under the care of T. H. Wyatt, Esq., F.S.A., built 

 in as old material on the north and nave side of the fifteenth century 

 chancel arch, about 2ft. above the floor, and it is now fixed against 

 the north wall of the chancel for preservation. 



The dimensions are as follows : — front elevation — height, 4ft. lin.; 

 width at base, 1ft. lin. ; width at top, Gin. Side elevation {i.e. pro- 

 jection from the face of the wall against which the stone is now 

 fixed) — at base, 5|in.; at top, S^in. 



The subject has never been satisfactorily explained, and is still 

 open to investigation. Probably, if its date could be approximately 

 fixed, it might by a comparison of contemporary documents be found 

 to be a conventional way of representing some religious incident, 

 e.ff., Noah as the builder of the ark, and as a husbandman, or the 

 return of one of the spies from the promised land. In the front 

 elevation is seen the figure of a man holding in his right hand, over 

 his head, a branch of an apple or other fruit tree, and looking up at 

 it in a very awkward manner; in his left hand he holds a mallet, 

 or it may be a wallet. His short smock and his slipper-shaped shoes 

 agree with Anglosaxon costume. The bamboo-formed moulding or 

 leaning pillars with which the figure is enclosed appear also to belong 

 to the same period, i.e., the tenth or eleventh century, say about 

 A.D. 1000. Compare Strutt's Horda, vol. i., pp. 37, 107, and plate 

 viii., fig. 1; London, 1774; Westwood's Palaeographia Sacra, p. 



• The Committee desires to express its cordial thanks to Dr. Baron for his kind presentation of 

 the two plates of remarkable sculptured stones at Codford and Warminster. They are autotypes 

 from careful drawings by Miss Baron and Miss A. Baron. [Ed.] 



