we shall have made a long step towards the solution of our problem. The material is a very dark stone, almost black, with a bluish tinge about it. It is very hard and close-grained. It used to be called "basaltic". This, however, is a mistake. There is no basaltic character about it. It has also been pronounced, by a competent geologist, to be slate-stone from Derbyshire. The dangerous man worked at a fracture with his knife, and before I could interfere with him, succeeded in detaching a small piece about the size of a child's finger-nail. He discovered evidence of lamination in it, and concluded that it was "a hard black slate". Another scientific person applied the test of acid to the Southampton font, and seeing effervescence, declared it to be "a very hard limestonerock". Others call it "a black marble"; and as geologists define marble as "any kind of limestone which will readily take a polish", and our font is susceptible of a high polish, the last two suggestions may be regarded as one and the

same.

I asked Messrs. Farmer and- Brindley on the point, and their kind reply was that "Mr. Brindley" (who is one of our chief authorities on stones) "thinks it probably is one of the picked beds of black marble which are found in Ireland and Belgium." "He does not think it at all likely that the material is slate"; and referring to the point of lamination, he adds that " a great deal of the old paving of London, usually called slate, comes from the thin beds of black marble found in Belgium, which are somewhat laminated."

Finally, I ventured to apply a little acetic acid to one of the unrubbed portions of the surface (where it could do no harm), with the result that a slight effervescence at once took place. The bubbles which came up and burst up may be safely taken as having proved that there is lime in the stone.

We may, therefore, lay it down as certain that it is a black or bluish-black marble. Now beds of this kind of marble are still being won from the quarries at Tournay in Hainault. These quarries lie in the hills along the course of the river Scheldt, which is navigable for craft of a fair size all the way from Tournay to Ghent, and thence to the sea below Antwerp.

(2.) As to the form of the font, which is the general shape of the group, it consists of a nearly square block of stone supported on a massive central column, with four smaller disengaged columns at the angles.

(3.) The subjects carved on it will help us materially towards the approximate date. On the spandrils of the top are carved symbolic subjects; on two sides, leaves and flowers, or grapes; on the other two sides, two doves drinking out of a vase, from which issues a cross,—subjects denoting baptism. These, and the medallions on the east and north faces, tend to give an impression of high antiquity to the font, and are clearly traditional, indicating that at the place where the stone was worked certain well-defined types of symbols were in use. symbolism agrees perfectly well with the development of sculptural art at Tournay, where, we are told by M. L. Cloquet (in his admirable guide-book, Tournai et le Tournaisis, p. 41) the carved work of the twelfth century is remarkable for "des sculptures toutes conventionelles et plus ou moins bizarres dans leur mystérieux symbolisme."

This

The bas-reliefs on the west and south faces of our font are far more helpful. Bishop Milner, over a century ago, pointed out that they depict the miracles of St. Nicolas of Myra; but it did not occur to him to connect this discovery, as he might well have done, with the date of the work. It so happens that the subject of St. Nicolas limits the period somewhat closely, and shows that the old view as to the very high antiquity of the font is untenable.

In 1087 Italian merchants trading with the East brought over to Bari, on the South Adriatic coast of Italy, beside their ordinary merchandise, the bones of St. Nicolas. Bari received the holy visitor with great devotion, and the Cathedral became at once a noted thaumaturgic centre. As it lay in the world's highway, the Saint's fame spread rapidly across Europe, and he at once became the fashion as a popular subject of legend and of art, the kinsman of legend. Churches also in considerable numbers were dedicated to him in the West in the twelfth and following centuries. In England alone there are three hundred and sixty-two churches of St. Nicolas. Presently this enthusiasm for the Saint found place in