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NOTES ON THE FONT AND BRASSES IN ADDERLEY CHURCH, SALOP.

BY C. LYNAM, ESQ.

(Read 21 Nov. 1894.)

ADDERLEY is situated in the extreme north-east corner of the county of Salop, just outside the boundary of this county with Cheshire. It has a station on the Great Western Railway, between Wellington and Crewe, and the church is within half a mile of the station. It is placed just outside the borders of Adderley Park, at the fork of two roads, and is one of those churches which has been much controlled by the mind and purse of the local squire; that is to say, it has "progressed with the times", which means that the only evidence in the parish of continuous religious service throughout the ages has been improved from the face of the earth", and in its stead has been substituted, in true Georgian fashion, a fabric square and smooth without, and within, whitewash and glare; but happily two ancient memorial brasses and the font have escaped the hands of the destroyer. The font is the subject of this brief communication.

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When the church was rebuilt it was turned out into the churchyard, but the present Rector, the Rev. A. Corbet, thought better of the primitive taste of seven or eight hundred years ago than the pressed pitcher-basin of to-day which had usurped its place, and he got the old font refixed as it is now to be seen, and as the accompanying sketches indicate.

On one sheet the plan, section, and four elevations are shown to a scale of one-eighth the real size,1 and on another sheet a view (drawn by Mrs. Lynam) from the north-west, and on a third sheet a copy of the inscription. From these it will be seen that the bowl is rectangular in form, and takes something of the shape of a Norman cushion-capital, having on its lower edge a bold bead, and is supported by a shaft cylindrical in form, but not circular, its shape following the form of the bowl,

1 Now reduced still further.

which at the top is 2 ft. 8 in. long by 2 ft. in. wide. The basin is sunk in the same form as the bowl, and suggests the purpose of immersion in the use of the rite of Holy Baptism. The whole font, including bowl and shaft, is of one stone. Whether there was any base originally is not apparent, the present step on which it stands being of recent date. As now fixed, the longer sides of the bowl run east and west; but whether this disposition is original is also open to question.

On the faces of the bowl, beginning on the east side, there is a margin, 33 in. deep, which bears the following inscription,

HIC MALE PRIMUS HOMO FRUITUR CUM CONJUGE POMO,

which our Hon. Secretary, Mr. W. de Gray Birch, puts into English as "Here the first man with his spouse illenjoys the apple"; or, as he says, poetically,—

"This water, by its sacred power,

Turns Eve's sweet fruit and Adam's sour."

The Rev. Canon Browne puts it as "Here the first man evilly eats the apple with his wife". The letters have been tampered with more or less, and the present Rector inclines to the opinion that they are of much more recent date than the font itself; but in my view font and inscription are one both in sentiment and art. They have been subject to injury and wear and tear concurrently. The whole spirit of the work seems to be co-incident.

The present total height is 3 ft. 6 in., and the diameters of the shaft are respectively 22 in. and 20 in. The sunken spiral ornamentation on the east and west sides nearly correspond in form, but on the north side there is a raised cross with delicately carved spandrils filling the upper angles of the circular face. On the south side the face is filled with interlaced work as truly decorative as could be cut. The form and character of the work indicate the twelfth century as the period of its origin; but whether of the early or latter half is not, perhaps, so easy

to determine.

One of the brasses (not sent herewith) is to the memory of Sir Robert Nedeham, who with his wife and seven sons and two daughters are engraved; and the inscrip

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tion gives the date of his death on the 14th day of June 1556, and that of his wife on the 2nd of May 1560.

The other brass (of which a rubbing is sent) is of an ecclesiastic vested for Mass, of beautiful workmanship, and represents either a bishop or a mitred abbot; but unfortunately it is headless, and has no inscription attached. It has peculiarities, in that the pastoral staff in the right hand is veiled, and in the left hand is an open book; and it is not quite clear that the stole is included as a vestment, though there are lines on the brass which may indicate the stole, but in an unusual

manner.

The brasses are fixed in the floor, on the north side, just in front of the altar-rail.

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