EARLY CHRISTIAN ART AND INSCRIPTIONS 



South Side. The story of St. Nicholas saving the three daughters of a poor nobleman 

 from leading a life of shame is here represented in one scene. At the right end of the panel 

 is a very elaborate church ornamented with arcades of round-headed arches, and having a door 

 with wrought iron straps and keyhole-plate. St. Nicholas habited as a bishop stands in front 

 of the church, and the poor nobleman who is kneeling at his feet receives a purse of gold 

 from St. Nicholas with the left hand, and conveys it with the right hand to his daughter. 

 The two other daughters are standing close to the first, holding each other's hands sympa- 

 thetically ; and at the extreme left end of the panel is to be seen the bridegroom with a hawk 

 resting on his wrist, ready to marry one of the ladies that St. Nicholas' generosity has provided 

 with a suitable dowry. 



The story as related in The Golden Legend 1 is as follows : 'And it was so that one, his 

 neighbour, had three daughters, virgins, and he was a nobleman ; but for the poverty of them 

 together, they were constrained, and in very purpose to abandon them to the sin of lechery, so 

 that by the gain and winning of their infamy they might be sustained. And when the holy 

 man Nicholas knew hereof he had great horror of this villainy, and threw by night in to the 

 house of the man a mass of gold wrapped in a cloth. And when the man arose in the 

 morning, he found this mass of gold, and rendered to God therefor great thankings, and there- 

 with he married his oldest daughter. And a little while after this holy servant of God threw 

 in another mass of gold, which the man found, and thanked God, and purposed to wake, for 

 to know him who so had aided him in his poverty. And after a few days Nicholas doubled 

 the mass of gold and cast it into the house of this man. He awoke by the sound of the gold, 

 and followed Nicholas, which fled from him, and he said to him : " Sir, flee not away so but 

 that I may see and know thee." Then he ran after him more hastily and knew that it was 

 Nicholas ; and anon he kneeled down, and would have kissed his feet, but the holy man 

 would not, but required him not to tell nor discover this thing as long as he lived.' 



East Side. Three circular medallions containing (i) in the centre a pair of doves pecking 

 at a bunch of grapes ; and (2 and 3) on the right and left a pair of doves with their necks 

 bent back so that their beaks touch their wings. 



North Side. Three circular medallions containing (i) in the centre a beast with its head 

 bent back, biting the end of its tail ; and (2 and 3) on the right and left a dove with its head 

 turned backwards and the feathers of the wings and tail spread out. 



Although the outside of the bowl of the Winchester font is square, 

 the inside is circular and surrounded by an elegant wreath of running 

 foliage. Two of the spandrels at the angles are filled in with foliage, 

 whilst in each of the other two are a pair of doves drinking from a 

 vase surmounted by a small cross. 



The large column on which the bowl is supported in the middle is 

 ornamented with horizontal flutings, and two of the smaller columns 

 at the corners have a moulding twisted spirally round them, so as to 

 make them look like a cable. 



The dimensions of the Winchester font 2 are as follows : 



Next in interest to the Winchester font comes the one at East 

 Meon, which is of similar design but i inch higher and i inch wider. 



1 Dent's Temple Classics edition, ii. no. 



* Illustrated accounts of this font will be found in the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. ii. pi. 39 ; the 

 Reliquary, x. 206 and n.s. iv. 262 ; Journal of the British Archxological Association, 1. 6, 20 ; Milner's 

 History of Winchester, ii. 76 ; and Woodward's History of Hampshire, i. 49. 



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