16 SCANDO-GOTHIC ART IN WESSEX. 



round the rim of the font is threefold, and represents the 

 Trinity in Unity ; that on the (heraldic) right, having 

 neither beginning nor end, means Eternity ; whilst the 

 other, an endless band interlacing a circle, teaches that 

 Infinity is controlled by a Unity. And how effectively 

 this Eternal Power coerces and restrains all pernicious 

 beings, whether human or bestial, is made manifest by 

 their tortured and woebegone faces. 



Quatrefoils and other floral details, when not purely 

 decorative, may indicate the Rose of Sharon. 



Fishes, though pagan in origin, often find their place in 

 Baptisteries and on fonts, since they represent the children 

 of Regeneration.* 



Indeed, at Saint-Germain-des-Pres, in the chapel which 

 contains the font, are sculptured two sirens, one female and 

 the other male and bearded. Both of them hold fishes in 

 their arms, and other fishes play in the surrounding waters, j 



* Nos pisciculi secundum ICHTHUN nostrum Jesum Christum, in 

 aqua nescimur, nee aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus. 

 Tertullian, De Baptismo, Cap. 1. 



f Didron's Christian Iconography, edited by Margaret Stokes, Vol. I. 

 p. 346. 



