at Tournay "a school of art which taught the Lombard style, and became renowned far and wide."

The new choir of Tournay Cathedral was begun in the bluestone of the district in the year 1110, and was not completed till eighty years later. The transepts were built about the same time, and remain, though the choir has given place to a fine specimen of later architecture. The Cathedral, a noble structure with five Romanesque towers, shows everywhere that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Tournay had a very vigorous school of sculptors in the hard stone of the district. Their work takes mainly the form of bassi relievi, executed in a somewhat naïve and simple style. The decoration of doorways and tympana, etc. (mainly twelfth century work), presents many points of artistic similarity to the carvings on our font.

There is yet another way in which we can with much probability attach our font to Tournay: the point has already been touched on in this paper. This is, the distribution of Tournay work, and the way by which it reached England.

The chief period of vigorous art-life at Tournay may be said to begin from A.D. 1146, when Pope Eugenius III reconstituted the bishopric, disconnecting the city and territory from the diocese of Noyon in France. The place had a full share of those troubles which were inevitable to a city standing on the very frontier-line between France and the Provinces. This precarious position, however, was favourable to the distribution of Tournaisian art.

The Scheldt at Tournay, a considerable river, navigable for small ships, was the roadway by which the bulky products of the marble quarries were transported north and south. There are many proofs of the extension of Tournay art and architecture: wherever works of skill and delicacy were needed, Tournay men were sent for, and the Tournay artisans seem to have liked to travel with their own materials. This is strikingly illustrated at Bruges, where even the streets were paved with the black stone from the quarries; and where, a little later than our period, the Tournay brothers Van Boghem came with their skill and their marble to build the apsidal chapels of the Church of St. Saviour. A cer

tain type of window, not uncommon at Bruges, was styled "la fenêtre tournaisienne".

The stone was brought from the Scheldt to Ghent, and carried thence by road or canal in different directions. Thus the blue marble fonts were distributed, one at Dendermonde eastward, the other at Zedelghem westward, from Ghent; and from Ghent down the Scheldt to the sea went those fonts which were destined for England. One such shipment we can trace to the Lincolnshire coast (probably some point on the Wash), whence it was forwarded inland by water. In this way the font at Thornton Curtis (not far from the coast) and that in Lincoln Cathedral, both of them specimens of this twelfth century art in Tournay stone, arrived on our coasts. Another shipment took a more southerly line, and reached Southampton, along the trade-route followed by the Venetian galleys. This consignment of fonts was probably bought in the lump by one of the Bishops of Winchester, for there are four of the series in Hampshire, all placed in churches closely connected with the Bishop, viz., the cathedral church, and the three twelfth century churches of St. Michael (Southampton), East Meon, and St. Mary Bourne, all in the Bishop's gift.

Commercial relations between Belgium and England had been much quickened by the first Crusade. It had infused new qualities into art; new subjects became popular, new fashions of work arose. Our earlier Norman architecture had been severe, almost devoid of ornament. In the twelfth century much elaborate carving was introduced, as different from the finer art of the Early English (or First Pointed) churches as it was from the rude sculpture of the earlier Norman.

If it be urged against Tournay that these fonts are not now found there and in the Tournaisis, there is an easy reply. There is hardly a church in the district which has not been rebuilt in modern times.

We cannot tell whether these Tournay fonts in Hampshire were wrought to order, or whether they were brought round, after the manner of the commerce of that day, by itinerant merchants. They were very bulky for the average trader. But we may venture to guess at the name of the person who gave these four fonts. It can

only be a guess. I have shown that it apparently was one of the Bishops of Winchester. Now between 1150 and 1200 there were only three Bishops of Winchester: Henry of Blois, A.D. 1129-71; Richard Toclive, 1174-88; and Godfrey Lucy, 1189-1204. Of these, Godfrey Lucy may be omitted, as we know that he was a modern man, devoted to the new "Early English" style then coming in. He would not have cared for these archaic-looking pieces of sculpture. It lies, then, between Henry of Blois and Richard Toclive. Toclive left behind him St. Mary Magdalene Hospital, which (though now unhappily swept away) is known to have been profusely ornamented in the late Norman style of art; and the shape and position of the mitres on our fonts point to a time late in the twelfth century. So that the donor may well have been Richard of Ilchester, 1174-88. On the other hand, Henry of Blois is known to have been a very munificent lover of foreign art. He collected things ancient and modern; he enriched his churches, notably the Cathedral. “Nemo...in rebus ecclesiasticis augendis vel decorandis sollicitior." We must, therefore, conclude that either this splendid Prelate, King Stephen's brother, or his successor, Bishop Richard, has the credit of having recognised the beauty of these black stone fonts, and of having placed them in our midst.

To sum up this lengthy paper. Our black marble font is of Belgian origin, coming from the Tournay quarries. It was carved at Tournay somewhere between the years 1150 and 1200, probably between 1170-1200. It has its twin-brother at Zedelghem, near Bruges; and we owe it, with the others of the group, either to Henry of Blois or Richard (Toclive) of Ilchester.

Few fonts have done so little work. In monastic days baptisms were naturally a matter of no great interest to the Benedictines in charge of the Cathedral Church. They had no use for it themselves, and would scarcely have allowed the common folk of the city to have their babes christened in it; while, on the other hand, great personages, as we see in the account of the baptism of Prince Arthur in 1486, did not condescend to make use of it. Since the Reformation it has been used by a few

1 Winchester Annals, s. a. 1171.

families living in or connected with the Close; even so, the use of it has been very rare. During the ten years I have been here there have been only fifteen baptisms. It is, therefore, doubtful whether before this present font the Cathedral had one at all. At the west end of the nave, against the last pier on the north side, where the holy water-stoup stood, may still be seen the base-stone of a small font of early date. The displaced earlier font, if there was one at all, may have been put here afterwards, and used as the holy water-basin.

The subject of these blue marble fonts is one of considerable interest, which would well repay further investigation. I had intended to visit Tournay and the other places in Belgium in which these fonts are still to be found; but extreme pressure of work and lack of time made it impossible for me to carry out my wish. We shall, I feel sure, hear from Mr. Romilly Allen much that will throw light on the subject, when he approaches it from the side of the art displayed; and I hope that this visit of the British Archæological Association will have had the effect. of clearing up, if not completely, at least in great part, the puzzles which have so long surrounded that wellknown "crux antiquariorum", the font of Winchester Cathedral.

FONTS OF THE WINCHESTER TYPE.

BY J. ROMILLY ALLEN, ESQ., F.S.A.SCOT.

(Read 2nd August 1893.)

THE font in Winchester Cathedral forms one of a group of specimens of twelfth century ecclesiastical art, possessing certain characteristics in common, by means of which they can be immediately recognised as belonging to a type quite distinct from any other. As the Winchester font is the most important member of the group, I propose that it shall give its name to the type.

Fonts of the Winchester type exist at the following places in England :-Winchester Cathedral, East Meon, St. Mary Bourne, Southampton (St. Michael's), Ipswich (St. Peter's), Lincoln Cathedral, Thornton Curtis.

The geographical distribution of this type of font shows that it is more common in Hampshire than elsewhere, and that the remaining examples are found only in the counties of Suffolk and Lincolnshire, on the eastern side of England.

Fonts of a similar kind are known to exist on the Continent, at Zedelghem1 and Termonde' in Belgium, and at Vermand3 and Montdidier. These have been compared with the English group by M. Paul Saintenoy, the Secretary of the Brussels Archæological Society, in his Prolégomènes à l'étude de l'affiliation des formes des Fonts Baptismaux.

The fonts at Winchester and Zedelghem, near Bruges, are perhaps the most nearly allied, both as regards their form and the subjects of the figure-sculpture.

The object of the present paper is to institute a comparison between the different fonts of the Winchester

1 Bulletin du Comité Archéologique du Diocèse de Bruges, premier Cahier, p. 12. Bruges, 1854. Du Caumont, Abécédaire d'Archéologie. 2 Paul Saintenoy, Fonts Baptismaux, Pl. 9.

3 E. Fleury, Antiquités et Monuments du Département de l'Aisne, p. 276. De Caumont, Cours d'Antiquités Monumentales, Atlas, Pt. 6, Pl. 87, 1841; and Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionnaire Raisonné d'Architecture, vol. v, p. 536.