150 CANFORD CHURCH. 



the door. Such an arrangement for hindering intrusion it could 

 scarcely have been for anything else is by no means common. 

 Still, other examples of it are found. The larger windows in the 

 aisles and in the Consistory Chapel are late Perpendicular, and we 

 owe the builders of that style some gratitude for letting in a good 

 deal of light upon their predecessors' work. They have the step 

 splay of the earlier windows. From the engraving in the 2nd 

 edition of Hutchins it would appear that the east window was then, 

 when he wrote, of the same character. 



The font is octagonal. Its bowl and supporting columns are of 

 Purbeck marble, much worn. In shape it might be co-eval with 

 the church ; but the carving on its 8 sides suggests Decorated 

 work. There are some holes in its rim, which, perhaps, indicate 

 its once having had a pointed cover. 



The north door has two detached pillars, with a band round the 

 centre of their shafts, but with the capitals carved with the typical 

 Norman ornament of the Church the truncated Acanthus. These 

 are of a fine, white stone, resembling Portland, if not actually 

 from those celebrated quarries. There are similar columns to the 

 north toM'er windows. The tower is in an uncommon position. 

 Norman towers were usually central, at the intersection of nave 

 and chancel, and transepts. Now and then, as at Exeter, they 

 stand at the termination of the transepts. This is constructed 

 between and in the line of the north aisles of chancel and nave. 

 The fraying by the bell ropes of the stone on the tops of the arches 

 on its north and south sides is remarkable. I suppose, at least, 

 that this is the cause of the deep furrows or notches that are cut in 

 those tops. There are 5 bells, but of no great age, dating, indeed, 

 only from the earlier half of last century. Mr. "Williams has 

 kindly furnished me with their inscriptions, which I will read after 

 I have given the description in the 3rd edition of Hutchins of the 

 exterior of the tower. I am obliged to be beholden for this to 

 other eyes and another pen, for I cannot attempt to penetrate, with 

 my extra short-sighted vision, the mass of ivy that clings to the 

 tower. "It consists of 4 stages, each slightly smaller than the 



