CHAP, iv.] CHURCH AND PARISH 21 



on the fonts are in mezzo relievo. These consist of figures 

 and foliage ranged alternately, in twelve compartments, 

 under ornamental, semi-circular arches resting on pillars ; 

 the design two arches containing figures alternating with 

 two arches containing foliage being thrice repeated. The 

 details will be better understood from the accompanying 

 plate than from verbal description, but may be stated as 

 representing respectively under each of the two thrice- 

 repeated arches a venerable figure seated on a throne, the 

 first of the two holding a sealed book, the second raising 

 his hand as in the act of benediction, after removal of the 

 seal from a similar book which is grasped in his hand. 

 Each of these figures was . considered to represent the 

 Second Person of the Trinity. 1 On this point I am not 

 qualified to offer an opinion, but whatever may be the case 

 as to ecclesiastical adaptation in the representation in the 

 second of the two figures, the first of the throned figures 

 appears to coincide with the description of the vision of the 

 Deity, given in the " Revelation " of St. John, chap. v. 

 verse i, 2 rather than with any representation of " The 

 Lamb " that " stood," as it had been slain, and " came and 

 took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the 

 throne " (verses 6 and 7 of the chapter quoted). 



The illustration is taken from very careful "rubbings" 

 of the Tidenham Font. The Llancaut font has suffered 

 considerable damage, and likewise the loss of two of the 

 original twelve compartments. These had presumably been 

 removed to make the font more suitable to the exceedingly 

 small size of the little Norman chapel (pi. vin.). This church, 

 which in my time was almost disused, measured only about 

 40 feet in length by 12 in breadth, and possessed nothing 

 of an architectural character, excepting one small round- 

 headed window at the east end, with plain cylindrical side 

 shafts without capitals, and a small cinquefoil piscina. The 

 situation, on one of the crooks of the Wye, and just above 

 the river, is romantic in the extreme. The ground rapidly 

 slopes down to it from above, clothed with woodland from 

 the level of the top of the precipitous cliffs which rise 

 almost immediately beside it to a great height above the 



1 Strigulensia Archaeological Memoirs relating to the District adjacent to 

 the confluence of the Severn and the Wye, by Geo. Ormerod, D.C.L., F.R.S., 

 of Tyldesley and Sedbury Park, MDCCCLXI., pp. 84-88. Re-arranged 

 from a Memoir in Archceologia (by above author), XXIX., p. 17. 



2 " And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne, a 

 book written within, and on the backside sealed with seven seals." 



