would be the points of light to enliven and enrich the subject; but still a figure is discernible whose natural force and determination of character seem to have stamped the circumstances and actions of his life, lending zeal to service, constancy to purpose, and causing faith to blossom in those good works which had manifestly less to do with a selfish superstition than with a true and wide charity to the world around him.

But whilst the most remarkable of those associated with the church at Sculthorpe, and its special benefactor, he was not its founder. Some three hundred years before this time there is no doubt that a church existed; it is noticed in Domesday Book; and further evidence was lately afforded, when in preparing the foundations for an addition due west of the nave, traces of an ancient tower were found, showing that the church had originally been built in the more usual form, instead of, as afterwards designed, with the tower placed on the south side of the nave. This second tower bears evidence of a somewhat earlier time than the days of Sir Robert Knollys, and competent judges have given it the date of the latter part of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century. The proportions are beautiful, and it still forms the best feature of the church:-its masonry, unscathed by the rough exigencies of many centuries of Norfolk climate, as sharp, solid, and well-defined as on the day it was completed. The situation, projecting south of the nave, made its arched doorways the principal entrance to the church. It was probably the work of the family of De Norwich, who, at the time indicated, held the manor. The church, as reconstructed by Sir Robert Knollys, appears to have consisted of nave, north aisle, and chancel. The chancel must have been a large one; its foundations only remain, about ten feet beyond the present building. In 1470 its "high altar was still in full use. The north 8 Will of Henry Unton, August, 1470

[VOL. VII.]

998

2 A

aisle, more abiding, is in excellent preservation, and contains some small stone corbels, alternately heads and shields. In three of these is carved a Catherine wheel, a coat of arms which has sometimes been attributed to the family of De Boys. One of this name was rector of Sculthorpe at the very moment of the restorations by Sir Robert Knollys, and they were probably his arms which were thus associated with the new church.

But although the rest of the armorial decorations-links connecting this quiet locality and its village church with historical personages and events-have faded and disappeared, other memorials of a different kind of interest remain. The chief of these is the Font, a fine specimen of the Norman style, in massive square form, elaborately carved. From the resemblance of this font to another in the neighbourhood,-one less ornamented, but of the same date and form, that at Toftrees, and from the fact that other relics of Norman work-fragments of stones and pillars have been found in Sculthorpe church, it would seem not improbable that this font was originally made and intended for the place it has so long occupied, and was carefully preserved, with the reverence attached to its sacred mission, through the several changes and renovations which passed over the building in bygone times.

The block of stone, some three feet square, is enriched on all four sides with sculptures, and one of these is cited as displaying an unusually early instance of the Virgin Mother crowned, and bearing in her arms the infant Christ. The carving of the face, crown, and waving hair of the Madonna is still clear and delicate. The child on her knee receives the adoration of the "three kings," whose figures are depicted, as well as that of S. Joseph, and the Virgin and Child, on one side of the square, forming the ornamentation of that part of the font. The attitude of the

9 Paley's Manual of Gothic Architecture, p. 54.