Visited by the Society in 1890. 



261 



the exception of one holding a roll), have books, and one (doubtless 

 S. Peter) has also a key (not two keys, as is more usual). 



It is curious that this font and that at Avebury, which is of about 

 the same date, should have appeared in a list which was recently 

 sent to me for revision, amongst the instances of leaden fonts, and 

 I was asked to add to this list any more which I knew of. I 

 replied, " I cannot make any addition to your list, but I can strike 

 out two, which I know to be of stone ! " Whether they were ever 

 covered with dark paint which led to this mistake, I do not know ; 

 but that is the only explanation I can give of this error on the part 

 of a clever archaeologist. 



All Saints'. Marden. 

 Here we have two well-preserved features of a Church of the 

 pure Norman work of Bishop Roger's episcopacy — the sooth 

 doorway and the chancel arch are not later than IRQ (some half- 

 century earlier than the work at Cherington), but the foundations 

 of this early work appear to have been so bad that none of the side 

 walls remain. 



The doorway is enriched with the chevron and bold roll mouldings. 

 It has a square lintel — itself an early feature — and the tympanum 

 is plain, though it was probably left for sculpture. The label is 

 carved with the chain pattern, the links unequal, and in the centre 

 there is a gap : at first sight it would seem that the mason got 

 wrong in his setting out, and came to standstill ; but on closer 

 examination it appears that the central stone bears a fifteenth 

 century moulding — a fact which seems to point to the conclusion 

 that the doorway was re-built when the great re-modelling of the 

 Church took place, and that this was put in to make up some 

 deficiency. 



The chancel arch has become disturbed from the settlements, the 

 jambs have spread and the crown of the arch dropped, giving the 

 present curious flattened appearance. 



I have often heard it stated that the jambs of the arches and the 

 line of the side walls in old work were built to slope outwards at 

 the top, like the sides of a ship, to symbolise the ship of the Church, 



