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Fout in the Church of St. Grarge, Presbute, 
Wilts, 
The Font represented in the annexed plate has been for several 
centuries preserved in the Church of Preshute near Marlborough, 
and is, perhaps, more generally known in connection with an 
ancient and somewhat common tradition, than as an architectural 
relic, affording an interesting example of early art. 
Camden has described it as being in his day one of the principal 
boasts of the Inhabitants of Marlborough. “They brag of nothing 
more than of the Font, probably of touch-stone, (Lapis obsidianus) 
in the neighbouring Church of Preshut, in which, as the tradition 
goes, several Princes were heretofore baptised.’ 
Camden is, however, incorrect in his conjecture as to its material, 
which will be found upon inspection to be black marble, and, unlike 
touch-stone, easily acted upon by the application of an acid. The 
tradition which he alludes to is, that either King John, or some 
members of his family, were baptized in the Font; and that this 
story is not without probability, may, perhaps, appear from the 
following circumstances. 
The Font is of Norman date, and may be referred to the early 
half of the 12th century. Mr. Waylen, in his “ History of Marl- 
borough,” p. 31, expresses an opinion that it originally stood in 
the Chapel of St. Nicholas, within the walls of Marlborough Castle, 
and, that on the dismantling of that fortress in after years, was 
bankfepred to the neighbouring Church of Preshute, in which 
parish the greater portion of the Castle grounds lay. 
From the same work, p. 30, it also appears that Henry II., soon 
after his accession to the throne, granted to his son John, Earl of 
1 Gough, in his ‘‘ Additions to Camden’s Britannia” remarks that ‘the 
_ present Inhabitants seem to have forgot the tradition that prevailed in Camden’s 
time about their Font, which is a plain bason of dark grey marble, two feet and 
a half diameter at top, ending in an inyerted cone,” 
