150 SOME DERBYSHIRE FONTS. 



being " plain an.l circular." When it was subsequently ousted 

 to make room for its more interesting and more ambitious 

 rival, the subject of this article, it was hidden from the public 

 view behind the William IV. Inn in the village. From this 

 vicissitude it was most happily removed by the Incumbent of 

 Warslow, Staffordshire, a son of Mr. Pidcock, the Vicar of 

 Youlgreave, who, similarly, had obtained the present example 

 from Elton, although, in his case, it may be, only for the 

 purpose of ornamenting his garden. 



If we turn to the churchwardens' accounts, which, by the 

 way, are as interesting as any I know, under the year 1752 we 

 find the following entry : — 



f In ale to the people who assisted in unloading 



(the Faunt and setting it up 3 o 



What font can this have been ? From the meagre account 

 given by the visitor of 1827, whom I have already mentioned, 

 it seems as though the font of his time were Norman. The 

 fine example I have endeavoured to describe, certainly did not 

 find shelter in this church until 1838, as we have already seen. 



Either the font of 1752 was of a "churchwarden" type of 

 art, which might also come within the description given by the 

 visitor, or, counting the font originally in the church, there 

 have been four fonts, namely, (1) the font prior to 17523 (2) 

 the font which required 3s. worth of ale for its " setting up " in 

 1752; (3) the "plain and circular" font (perhaps Norman) of 

 the 1827 visitor; (4) the fine specimen which forms the subject 

 of this paper. On the whole, I am inclined to believe in the 

 later date (churchwarden) for the 1827 font. 



Mention has been made of the font at Pitsford, which is 

 furnished with a projection, and, as there are others having these 

 strange protrusions, it will be useful to enumerate them. There 

 may, perhaps, be one or two others, of which I have no know- 

 ledge, for Paley, in his Baptismal Fonts, gives an engraving on- 

 the title-page of a font with a book-rest on one side. He, 

 however, says nothing by which it can be identified. 



