MOORLAND AND BORDER CHURCHES IN DEVON. 409 
that, however beautiful and well wrought your new material, it 
can never possess a tithe of the real interest which attaches to the 
material you replace. Of course, it often happens that walls and 
roofs are hopelessly decayed and gone, and that entirely new work 
becomes an absolute necessity. In such cases we cannot do better 
than adopt as closely as possible the spirit of the old architects. 
Note in Lidford Church, in the south pier under the chancel 
arch, the open doorway to the rood staircase, and a curious hagio- 
scope pierced through the same pier 
and staircase. In the chancel is a 
perfect and beautiful decorated pis- 
cina, four feet from the pavement 
(in the south wall). There is a good 
deal of decorated masonry in this 
part of the building, and also in the 
north side of the nave. Undoubt- 
edly the oldest object in the church 
is the font, which is circular, and 
perfectly plain, without any orna- 
ment whatever. It appears to be 
cut out of Polyphant, or some other green-stone. If it did not 
belong to the first church on the spot, 
which I hardly venture to suggest, it 
is of the Early Norman period. The 
tower is a square Third-pointed struc- 
ture of massive granite masonry, with- 
out buttresses or turret, but with a 
handsome battlemented parapet, having 
a pinnacle at each angle. 
In the churchyard, on a tombstone 
immediately outside the south porch, 
is a quaint and well-known epitaph, 
which cannot well be omitted in any 
description of Lidford. 
"Here lies in horizontal position the outside case of George Koutleigh, 
watchmaker, whose abilities in that line were an honour to his profession. 
Integrity was the mainspring, and prudence the regulator, of all the actions 
of his life. Humane, generous, and liberal, his hand never stopped till he 
had relieved distress. So nicely regulated were all his motions that he never 
went wrong, except when set a-going by people who did not know his key. 
Even then he was easily set right again. He had the art of disposing his 
2 s 
